“No MSG.”
This self-congratulatory proclamation adorns countless food packages around the Anglosphere. We’ve all seen it, on bags of potato chips or Chinese takeout menus, on instant noodles or those “just add meat and sour cream” Mexican meal kits. Oh thank heavens, we think when we spot it. This food is safe. This food is natural. This food is good.
MSG must be one of the most maligned chemical compounds in existence. Imagine a frozen pizza label, with an image of gooey cheese and glistening red pepperoni, enthusiastically marked “Contains MSG!” In terms of point-of-purchase advertising, it may as well say “Contains POISON!” Nobody would buy it, and the company would be laughed out of business.
But why? Why does everybody always gotta hate on the glutamate? The dubious badge of MSG-free honor has become so common and platitudinous – much like “low fat” or “organic” – that nobody seems to question what exactly is so wrong with MSG in the first place. It’s as though people assume that because a food producer would make a point to declare their product void of MSG, then it must be bad for you. Clearly this is silly; if potato chip packets suddenly started announcing that they were “low in vitamin C!” we would be skeptical of the reasoning behind such a claim. But we are so accustomed to the idea that MSG is unhealthy that we accept it unthinkingly.
Perhaps it is time for us all to reconsider MSG. There is so much hearsay surrounding it that it may be best to start with some clear, simple, possibly mind-blowing facts:
- MSG is a naturally occurring compound present in many traditional foods; it is not an artificial flavoring nor a modern invention.
- MSG has never been conclusively demonstrated to cause health problems in clinical studies; reports on its potentially negative effects are largely conjectural or anecdotal.
- MSG can be added indirectly to food via products containing free glutamic acid, frequently rendering the “no MSG” label inaccurate, misleading, and/or pointless.
- MSG is a very pure form of umami, and it can help make food taste fantastic.
First, a bit of chemistry. MSG is the initialism for monosodium glutamate, a common salt of glutamic acid, which is one of twenty amino acids that combine to form proteins in living organisms (other well-known proteinogenic amino acids are tryptophan and lysine). Glutamic acid is a non-essential amino acid, meaning that the body synthesizes it naturally from other proteins and uses it for things like metabolism and neurotransmission. Salts of glutamic acid such as MSG or monopotassium glutamate are used (directly or indirectly, via other foods that are naturally high in these salts) to add umami, or savoriness, to foods. Umami is a Japanese word that literally means “delicious flavor,” and it is now commonly recognized as the fifth basic taste, following bitter, salty, sweet, and sour. Umami’s position as the “fifth element” of gastronomy reminds me of quintessence, especially because it is so fundamental and omnipresent in cooking.
Next, a bit of history. In 1908 the Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda set to work trying to figure out what it was exactly that made his wife’s dashi so damn tasty. He began experimenting on konbu, the dried kelp that is used as the base of all Japanese master stocks. He discovered two things: 1) umami is a separate and distinct basic taste that contributes a savory character to food, and 2) glutamic acid and its salts are responsible for the umami in konbu dashi. He went on to patent monosodium glutamate under the name Ajinomoto (“essence of flavor”), which to this day is a top-selling global brand of MSG. (Years later, two other umami-producing compounds would be discovered, inosinate from katsuobushi and guanylate from shiitake mushrooms.) I was about to write that MSG has been enjoyed in Japan for over 100 years, but I caught myself because in actuality it has been enjoyed there, and here, and everywhere, for much, much longer. For as long as we have made stocks, cheeses and pickles and eaten peas, pork, and tomatoes, we have been relishing glutamic acid in all its myriad manifestations. Common, traditional foods particularly high in glutamate include soy sauce, miso, aged cheese, wine, beer, kimchi, scallops, asparagus, and yeast extracts like Vegemite and Marmite.
I had planned on trawling the internet for an assortment of common claims about the negative health effects of MSG, but as it turns out, I didn’t have to – this guy has done it all for me. His name is Steve and he seems to be quite an interesting fellow. Likes include freshly brewed coffee, spreading Christianity around Africa, and demanding to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate (here you are, sir). Dislikes? Messing with Texas, the antichrist, and most of all, MSG. Steve’s list of grievances with MSG is long, and his tone histrionic. The many, many side effects he attributes to it range from the familiar (migraines, obesity, “Chinese restaurant syndrome”) to the extreme (Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, death) to the bizarre (drunkenness, autism, night terrors). He compares MSG to marijuana and crack, and claims that “Cantonese food would taste like dish water” without it. He is an active geyser of misinformation and hysteria.
Steve’s claim that he has solved his own personal health problems by eliminating glutamates from his diet may well be true. (His claim that a friend becomes “literally drunk” from MSG is probably not quite so true.) If his tachycardia went away by cutting out excess glutamic acid from his diet, good for him – I have no way of disproving that. But almost all his other claims are unfounded, and in fact many are called into question by sources that he himself cites. It would take me ages to wade through them all, so let’s just take a couple at random:
One article linked from the “Truth In Labeling” site that supplies Steve with most of his information cites a 2002 study meant to provide evidence of MSG-induced damage to the nervous system. The study involved feeding rats a diet of MSG for three months, finding that the rats had a buildup of glutamic acid in the vitreous humor and suffered from retinal damage. Scary. But the citation itself says that the rats were fed 10 grams of MSG a day. If that doesn’t sound like much, consider that lab rats weigh 500 grams on average. Even if we’re generous and suppose these particular rats weighed one full kilogram, then the math makes this study practically inapplicable to humans. I weigh 75,000 grams, probably about average for a human male. The rats were getting 1 gram of MSG per 100 grams body weight; this means that for me to eat an equivalent amount I would need to ingest 750 grams daily. This is an impossible amount – imagine three sirloin steaks and you’re in the ballpark. Hell, most of us wouldn’t even want to eat that much steak on a day to day basis.
Another article correlates a rise in MSG consumption with the rise in obesity in the United States. Could MSG cause obesity? Perhaps – it does so in rats, according to some studies. But let’s look at these studies more closely. Here again we see an unrealistically high daily dosage of MSG being administered to the rats, 2.5-5 grams, or on a human scale, about 200-400 grams; and yet they describe this as “concentrations that only slightly surpass those found in everyday human food.” They then conclude that MSG “exhibits significant potential for damaging the hypothalamic regulation of appetite, and thereby determines the propensity of world-wide obesity.” Does it? Let’s look at this handy pie chart: China, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand are among the largest consumers of MSG in the world. And what do these countries have in common? If you answered “they’re in Asia,” you’re correct. But more to the point, they aren’t fat countries; in 2007 the WHO reported that in China only 28.9% of the population was obese, in Indonesia only 16.2%, in Japan 22.6%, and Thailand 31.6%. Out of 194 countries they rank 148th, 175th, 163rd, and 144th for fatness, respectively. None of these countries could be said to have a serious obesity problem, which isn’t definitive evidence that MSG doesn’t contribute to a higher BMI, but it certainly suggests that the contribution is trivial if it exists at all. “Truth In Labeling” ignores more important factors even as it lists them: “overeating, inadequate diet, junk food, lack of exercise, psychological problems, genetics, and bad parenting.”
What I glean from all this research is that MSG is probably slightly neurotoxic, but only in concentrations far beyond what a normal person would consume. I could be wrong, and if I saw conclusive evidence that MSG causes dementia or nightmares or blindness or whatever then I would admit it. But so far I have yet to see that evidence. To people like Steve who claim all manner of personal health problems brought on by MSG, I would simply shrug and say, “sucks to be you.” I think most of us would agree that there’s nothing inherently wrong with with peanuts or lactose, and yet some people have peanut allergies, and some are lactose intolerant. Sucks to be them. And if you think that MSG gives you headaches or diarrhea, then I’m afraid it sucks to be you, too.
Why does it suck to be you? Because MSG is a wonderful, wonderful thing to cook with. It has been pointed out that MSG is only necessary when the food it’s applied to is bland on its own. There is some truth to this; MSG can add a moreish quality to food that would otherwise be fairly flavorless, which is why it’s found in so many industrially manufactured food products. But then just imagine what it can do to food that’s already good. I am reminded of my days in Japan. At some point it dawned on me why the plain grilled pork belly at my usual yakitori bar tasted uncommonly delicious; why Japanese mayonnaise is far superior to the American version; and why Parmesan cheese tastes surprisingly good in ramen. It’s because the pork, the mayo, and the cheese all contain MSG, which makes them exceptionally mouthwatering, savory, and bold.
Just last night I made some BLTs, and after dinner I had some leftover tomatoes and avocados (they were actually BLATs). I decided to sprinkle on some MSG and gobble them up. Somehow it just made them taste more of themselves – fresher, sweeter, brighter. It’s similar to adding salt, but different – it adds a depth and a satisfying aftertaste that can only be described as a big boost of umami. Of course there are other ways to add umami to food: dashi, soy sauce, Parmesan, ketchup, etc. But MSG is the most pure. It allows the original ingredients to shine without any interference from superfluous flavors, and that’s what makes it so lovely.
You can try an experiment at home. Get yourself an ingredient – meat, fish, vegetables, it doesn’t matter. Divide it into four portions. Leave one unseasoned. Season one with salt. Season one with soy sauce. Season the last one with MSG. (You can get it at Asian grocery stores, or even at mainstream supermarkets if you look carefully.) Cook them all the same way, any way you like, then taste them, and you’ll get a good idea of what MSG does and why it can be so useful. (As a twist to the experiment, find a friend who claims to be MSG sensitive, blindfold them, give them the food and see how they react.)
As cooks and eaters we are denying ourselves a tremendously useful ingredient for no good reason. Of course there may be minor health risks from eating too much MSG, as there are from eating too much of just about anything. But in terms of flavor, it takes us where ordinary salt can only dream of going, into the deep, shadowy, sensuous world of umami. If MSG is risky, then it’s a risk I’m willing to take.
On their main page, the authors of “Truth In Labeling” proudly and prominently display a catchphrase that’s as pithy as it is desperately stupid:
If MSG isn’t harmful, why is it hidden?
I retort and close with a quotation that’s equally pithy (and a little glib) but much more incisive:
If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in Asia have a headache?
Further reading:
Dashi and Umami: The Heart of Japanese Cuisine by Yukiko Takahashi
“The Day I Ate as Many E Numbers as Possible” by Stefan Gates, BBC News
Tim, you forgot the canonical Jordan Sand, “A Short History of MSG: Good Science, Bad Science, and Taste Cultures”, Gastronomica 5:4 (Fall 2005). Jordan, I hope you will not be surprised to learn, is a Japanese historian who teaches at Georgetown. He also has researched home decor during the Meiji Period and the Edo-Tokyo Museum. -Morgan
Damn it Morgan. Just when I was starting to get over the idea of going to SOAS and becoming a food folklorist…
Hi Tim,
I see you cite beer as an example of something containing MSG (free glutamic acid)? Can you give one example of a brand that includes this? I haven’t seen msg or any of it’s known aliases on the labels of any beers I drink.
Perhaps you are confusing it with the *process* of fermentation that is used to create beer as well as MSG?
Just like to see as much clarification as possible.
I myself am trying to avoid episodes of urticaria, as can be done with any allergic reactions
, I’m trying to diagnose the cause by process of elimination. So far I’m trying to avoid as many food additives as possible to see if that makes a difference. Hence my interest in your article on MSG =]
Thanks in advance for any additional information you can give me.
Beer: You need to try Dark Star – http://darkstarbrewing.co.uk/beer/
Thank you so much for this informative blog. As a longtime vegan of 25 years I go out of my way to separate fact from fiction. One of my favourite foods, miso, recently came up in a discussion about naturally occurring msg. I began to research after someone pointed out a talk that Dr. Richard L. Blaylock, M.D. gave on Excitoxins. If you aren’t aware, Dr. Blaylock is the medical lackey for Alex Jones, who is one of the biggest conspiracy theorists on earth. Yes, I am passionate about fluoride and it’s toxicity. I refused to believe that msg, especially naturally occurring msg is going to put me into a mental ward. I watched his video and found out hat during his entire talk he doesn’t cite any major research done. He discusses how msg affects the brain and yada yada yada but doesn’t ever provide an actual link between msg and alzheimers. So again, thank you for your well written article on msg. I will continue to make my own miso and share this wonderful staple with others. I’m certainly not going to fear something that hasn’t been proven. If excitotoxins really are doing so much damage to our bodies then wouldn’t half of the AMA have come out to applaud and support Dr. Blaylock? Wait, could we have at least 50 to 100 doctors that support his research? If you haven’t seen it, here’s a direct link to his one hour talk on excitotoxins.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2384105525501310962
Oh, and in doing a bit more research on Blaylock look what I found.
http://www.skepdic.com/blaylock.html
I don’t think MSG is harmful. I think it’s unpleasant in large quantities, just like sugar and salt are unpleasant in large quantities. It has a very distinct taste; a cloying savouriness, like the aftertaste of a tube of Pringles. Not a pleasant taste. MSG needs to be used in extreme moderation lest it swamp and ruin food.
Arsenic and cyanide are naturally occurring..so is plutonium, you wanna go eat some of that?
I have actually worked in a neurophysiology research lab where they were testing various compounds on rat brains,, among them glutamate.
Glutamate is is in fact a neurotoxin causing an isolated neuron to fire repeatedly until it expired. These results were repeated several times.
Think i will go by the evidence of my own eyes.
Can you share some articles or hard data?
I don’t doubt glutamate’s neurotoxicity in extremely high concentrations. But I do doubt that the average human’s consumption of glutamate – even in high-glutamate diets such as that of the Chinese – reaches anywhere close to those concentrations.
If you can show conclusive evidence that MSG or glutamic salts in general – even when consumed in reasonable amounts – cause adverse health effects in humans, neurologial or otherwise, I’ll admit I’m wrong and retract my article. In the meantime, I point to the empirical data I already presented regarding MSG-rich diets in east Asia, and I ask you to compare them with neurological disorders in the same countries; I’d legitimately be interested in seeing this data and any potential correlations, as I haven’t yet researched it myself.
And since you obviously missed this point, I never said or even implied that just because something is natural it’s good for you, as you seem to think I did. (Dropping arsenic and cyanide into the argument is idiotic and irrelevant, and you know it.) My point in noting that MSG is naturally occurring is just that: it isn’t necessarily artificial, so it’s misleading and pointless for food manufacturers to label their food “MSG free” or “all-natural” when, in fact, MSG isn’t always artificially produced, and the given food may contain naturally occurring MSG in the form of other ingredients.
Go by the evidence of your own eyes if you will, but that’s exactly what I’m trying to argue against in this article – conjecture based entirely on anecdote or unrelated personal observation. Feel free to post links to peer-reviewed articles that you feel more conclusively demonstrate your position, and I’ll decide where I stand after reading them.
Look, all this is gobbledygook until you have a reaction to it. I have had many and they are horrific. I don’t have an allergy to excitotoxins, just a reaction as they are not food. My own symptoms usually occur within 12-24 hours of ingesting it and exercise of a strenuous nature triggers it. My thought process short-circuits and I have short-term memory loss. One time I was working out after chinese food and My kids came down the basement, I felt a strange wave pass over me and I could not remember my kids names. I knew they were my kids but could not remember their names, along with other things. It’s scary as hell. I can’t even remember that it is MSG that causes it at the time but I know I have to drinks large amounts of water to clean out my system. The main effects disappear after 24 hours but it takes about 6 weeks for all of my vocabulary to return. I kid you not. I don’t care about presenting research because I know what I have experienced too many times. Now my point is this, why is it in our food? Suddenly MSG is missing from the labels and yeast extract (something we never saw until 5 years ago) is in everything. Why do we need it in our food except that it makes people think food tastes better than it does. As a chef, Tim, I would think you would want people to like your food on the merits of your skill level, technique and preparation, not because they have been neurologically misled. Why is it in everything, WHY? Somebody is making money off of deceiving taste buds and a lot of it not to mention the people who honestly do react from it.
Very well – you have horrific reactions to MSG. I am legitimately not able or willing to dispute that. What I am very much willing to dispute is your insinuation that MSG is problematic in general, and that its inclusion in my cooking somehow detracts from my skill level.
“I don’t care about presenting research,” you say. Then why should I or anybody else care about your opinion? I would be genuinely interested if you presented research, especially if it pertains to an intolerance or allergy to MSG in certain individuals, like those caused by lactose or peanuts. But if you really don’t care to do so, then you will never convince those of us who don’t suffer similar reactions from MSG (and there are literally billions of us) that it’s harmful to the populace at large.
“Why is MSG in everything?” you ask. Please, don’t ask rhetorical questions that have good answers or rebuttals. First of all, MSG isn’t in everything. It isn’t even in most things. But for much of what does contain MSG, it’s in there because MSG is a naturally occurring compound in delicious, umami-rich ingredients, like soy sauce, fish sauce, Parmesan and Cheddar cheeses, kimchi, salted tomatoes and potatoes, Worcestershire sauce, sea vegetables, Vegemite, belacan, anchovies, and sauerkraut. MSG is in “everything” because the entire world enjoys a savory character in food, and this savory character is often derived from the very special reaction between sodium ions and free glutamates.
“I don’t have an allergy to excitotoxins, just a reaction as they are not food,” you claim. Now you are getting closer to a legitimate argument, one that actually explicates the potential dangers of MSG, if there are any. I am totally willing to accept that MSG causes bad reactions in specific individuals, but dismissing my entire post as “gobbledygook” based on personal, anecdotal evidence is not at all compelling.
I am disheartened by your comment, and insulted that you would call my cooking skill into question because I use MSG, in either its pure form or the form of any number of ingredients that contain it naturally. It is on par with NaCl in terms of its harmfulness and should be regarded as such. As for your claim that consumers are being “deceived” about the presence of MSG in their food, I suggest you 1) reread my article, 2) brush up on your E numbers, and 3) come to grips with the fact that MSG can scarcely be avoided in savory food, at least in some small amount.
Where do they get all those obese mice for obesity studies? They create them with MSG. Thats a fact. I’ve personally read many obesity studies that used “MSG-fed mice”. Nobody is going to die from a cigarette either but if you do it over and over……Whats amazing is how much abuse the body can take before health is compromised. But theres no cure for stupidity. Sorry but comparing MSG to Vit C is damn ignorant. Free glutamate is not natural, it is created with acids, enzymes, and/or excessive heat. Free amino acids by-pass digestion and raise blood concentrations to dramatic unnatural levels. Yes the problem is disruption of hypothalamus, and necrosis of neurons. Our liver makes glutamic acid and aspartic acid only when its needed. You can add it to your own food and nobody will give a rats ass, but hiding it in almost all food under many different aliases removes people’s right to choose, which last time I checked is UN-AMERICAN. You couldn’t avoid free glutamates (or fluoride) even if you tried! MSG, Aspartame, and fluoride are very harmful to humans despite what vested interests aggressively push. http://www.msgtruth.org/avoid.htm
Hmm still no proper references cited by the naysayers. I was on the fence about MSG but after this, I’m with Tim on this one. Sorry but if you can’t pony up peer reviewed research that has been properly done, then I’m not willing to defend your position.