What is your favorite food? Maybe it’s a juicy burger with fresh lettuce, onions, and tomatoes, a buttery toasted bun, and a side of fries – crispy and salty on the outside but smooth and fluffy on the inside. Perhaps a pizza: with warm, soft crust, gooey, stringy cheese, and perfectly roasted vegetables or meats on top. And for the sweet tooths, what about a rich, moist chocolate cake with hot fudge pooling in the center, topped with an ice cold scoop of sweet vanilla ice cream?
Now, though these foods are delicious and can make us feel satisfied and happy, there is one substance in all of them that can potentially be the cause of obesity, fatty liver disease, and countless other diseases: MSG, or monosodium glutamate. However, while MSG has become best buds with my taste buds, MSG is a dangerous substance that, when consumed in excessive amounts, has many harmful health repercussions.
So, what exactly is MSG? Well, MSG is a seasoning whose origins lie in Asian cuisine. It has become such a staple in Asian kitchens that each country has their own translation of how it tastes. Japanese people call MSG’s taste “umami,” and is crowned one of the five fundamental flavors of our world, a taste paired side-by-side with salty, sweet, bitter, and sour.
According to my parents, who were born and raised in China, foods with MSG, or “weijin” in Chinese, were described as “xian”, which means “deliciousness”. However, this once-Asian seasoning has since, like my own family, immigrated to America, and is in almost every single bag of chips, bowl of instant ramen, or high school lunch that you eat.
Serving a stir of sweet and savory sensations, MSG takes the cake when it comes to flavor.
Now, although a little bit of MSG isn’t harmful, if we were to eat a whole spoonful of it, what would we feel like? In large quantities, Mayoclinic actually states that there is a wide variety of symptoms we could experience from consuming large amounts of MSG, coined the MSG Symptom Complex. Examples of these symptoms include headache, sweating, chest pain, nausea, and weakness.
Of course, the geniuses might argue: “If I ate a spoon of salt, I wouldn’t feel that good either.” However, studies have actually proven that there is a noticeable difference between MSG and other seasonings. In an article titled “The Real Reason to Avoid MSG: Industry Secret Ingredient for Food Addiction,” a study was conducted by the Journal of Headache Pain. In this study, half of the subjects were given salt, while the other half were given MSG. However, both groups were told that they were given MSG. The study showed that “MSG intake caused spontaneous pain, jaw aches, high blood pressure, and other unwanted side effects including nausea and fatigue,” while the group who consumed salt showed none of these symptoms, showing that MSG can have short term effects on a person’s health and is much more harmful than other food seasonings.
Who’s salty now?
But, what makes MSG harmful, and why can’t we just stop eating it if we see it on ingredients lists? The problem is, MSG is also very addictive in the sense that it makes you hungrier the more you eat it. According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, who wrote a book on the subject called Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, he says that “when we eat MSG, our cells excite themselves to death, it is what we call an excitotoxin.” I’ll be honest: eating any food stimulates our brains, as it is necessary to eat a lot to continue to survive. However, this unnaturally suicidal stimulation of our cells makes us unable to stop eating, making us crave fattier, sugary foods as well.
For example, if, after reading (and commenting) on this blog post, you were to go home and, after paying utmost attention to your new favorite blogger, make yourself a big bowl of instant ramen, you’d probably find yourself unconsciously grabbing a box of Oreos and washing it all down with a Coke. And while your body currently may seem chiseled and sculpted by the gods themselves, those foods will eventually take their toll on you. In essence, eating foods with MSG only make us want to eat more, and this is why it can be so addictive and, eventually, harmful if we aren’t careful.
Sadly, there is no magical cure to the symptoms of MSG. But, with it being so common in our foods nowadays, it seems that trying to stop eating it altogether may be biting off a little more than we can chew. However, according to the Mayoclinic article titled “What is MSG? Is it bad for you,” the only way to prevent a reaction is to avoid foods containing MSG. Obvious as it may seem, to minimize your MSG intake, try to be aware of the ingredients in your food. Also, when going into restaurants, you can easily ask them to not use MSG in the dishes they serve you, and, disregarding the massive pouches of Asian seasonings in my own kitchen, try to avoid using it as a seasoning at home.
As we see, eating an excessive amount of MSG can produce many harmful side effects. In the end, however, it is really all about balance. While eating tons of MSG is harmful, it is important to treat yourself and eat foods that you find tasty. Food nowadays is much more meaningful, and can be comforting or be a social event, so I don’t believe that avoiding MSG at all costs is beneficial to anyone, either. Still, it is clear that if you don’t pay attention at all to your diet, serious consequences could occur in the future.
But, in the end, that’s all just some food for thought.
Works Cited
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS).” U S Food and Drug Administration Home Page. Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, 4 Jan. 2018. Web. 15 May 2018.
L.D., Katherine Zeratsky R.D. “How Does Your Body React to MSG?” Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Mar. 2018. Web. 15 May 2018.
Mercola, Joseph. “MSG Is This Silent Killer Lurking in Your Kitchen Cabinets.”Mercola.com. Mercola.com, 21 Apr. 2009. Web. 15 May 2018.
Michaelis, Kristen. “MSG Is Dangerous – The Science Is In.” Food Renegade. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2018.
Nakanishi, Y., K. Tsuneyama, M. Fujimoto, T. L. Salunga, K. Nomoto, J. L. An, Y. Takano, S. Iizuka, M. Nagata, W. Suzuki, T. Shimada, M. Aburada, M. Nakano, C. Selmi, and M. E. Gershwin. “Monosodium Glutama
Isn’t glutamate also found in many non-Asian snack foods? I watched a video on one of those YouTube science channels, maybe SciShow, where they explained that most MSG fears are actually stemmed more in racism than in actual science. People blamed stomachaches and headaches from Chinese food on MSG when it wasn’t the true cause of their digestive issues, and you never hear people complaining that Doritos or Cheetos cause any troubles for them. Glutamate is found in cheese, meat, and other savory foods as well, because it’s a naturally occurring chemical. If you see “glutamic acid” or “yeast extract” in an ingredients list, that’s basically MSG. Not to say that your entire blog post is invalid, but I think you may want to check your sources.
And I get that you mention that MSG is found in many foods nowadays, but there’s not much point in trying to completely avoid it besides if you normally consume too much sodium. It’s not nearly as harmful as people think it is.
Ugh, I hope my mom doesn’t see this blog. She is so health conscious about MSG, especially in Japanese restaurants. Let me explain: there was this restaurant in Colorado that served all-you-can-eat sushi. We were able to check off every dish our heart desired. Every time, I would get a couple bowls of udon noodles just because I loved udon noodles and the soup was absolutely delicious. However, my mom didn’t approve of me ordering that because of the amount of MSG that was in the soup. But I could’t help it, the udon noodles were simply addicting. Just because I want to keep eating whatever I want, I’m going to ignore the fact that I saw your blog.
I think you’re spreading misinformation. There is really no conclusive evidence that MSG is bad for you. But then again, we can argue about just about anything these days. While you abstain from MSG, I’ll continue my own personal dietary quirks.