MSG?
I'm curious about people's opinion of MSG.
Back in the 80s and 90s there was a huge movement to ban it because it did something evil to people's health... now I didn't pay close attention at the time, but I'm thinking this was the artificial MSG manufactured from soy.
These days, however, I've seen more and more people seek out MSG to use in healthy recipes, or at least they claim the recipes to be healthy. Either buying it or seeking foods that naturally contain MSG. I wonder, is MSG now a health food? Are they really seeking MSG or just G (however you spell that, glutimate?) that occur naturally in things like kelp?
I understand a bit about the umami 'flavour' how it helps other flavours to 'pop'... but why seek out powdered MSG when there are other foods that can help produce the same effect?
Is there really a difference in health consequences between naturally occurring MSG and commercially prepared MSG? Or is it simply a matter of volume and concentration of the substance?
What's your stance on MSG? Do you buy it in the powdered shaker? Do you seek out foods that contain it? Avoid it at all costs and never buy a food with it in, ever?
11 Comments
This is a topic for which a lot of poorly controlled studies and pseudoscience are available to read, so be careful. For example, the Gangemi web page may have some helpful information, such as what foods have high glutamate content, but the very scary sounding links to all kinds of terrible medical conditions have no legitimate scientific basis.
So perhaps it's an issue of quantity. A bit like water. We need water to survive, but consuming too much is deadly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication
From what I've been reading, articles seem to take a very strong stance for or against MSG, but middle ground articles are not easy to find. It's difficult to sort through the rhetoric to get at the actual information. Think I might start looking at some of the actual studies, anyone got any good links for me?
It is sourced.
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Seems strange to me that if the ingredient not sold in the stores so we can add it to our food and control the quantity, why is it allowed to be added to manufactured foodstuff where we have no data telling us what the quantity or source is? If people use to have MSG symptoms from eating at a chinese restaurant, how come we don't hear about MSG symptoms from eating pre-fab foods? Or maybe there was an interaction between the MSG and other ingredients in Chineses food that caused the symptoms? Or maybe the molecular structure of the MSG in pre-fab foodstuff is different than the sprinkle powder they use to use in the restaurants, and different again from naturally occurring sources? So much more to learn.
http://www.foodinsight.org/Resources/Detail.aspx?topic=Everything_You_Need_To_Know_About_Glutamate_And_Monosodium_Glutamate
MSG that is manufactured to be easily dispensable in powder form, often made from soy.
vs.
MSG that naturally occurs in plants (and possibly animals?).
Same thing? Almost same thing? Very different thing?
Once popular was a supermarket item that you sprinkled on food called Accent. It had MSG and is gone from the shelves.
I think the general feeling, now, is that using MSG would be cheating. A la Lance Armstrong cheating. But if chefs start using it again the tide may turn.
PS, do you think it's better to be trampled by geese, or just bugbitten?
I wonder about the MSG that use to be in the spice aisle, is that the same as the MSG that is on the label of so many pre-fab foodstuff these days? Off to read the link posted further down. Bet that knows the answer.