“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.

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.

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.

Annoyingly I did try and stay up to watch the super bowl and then fell asleep 3 minutes into the 4th quarter only to be re-awoken by the celebratory speeches….. It wasn’t quite as exciting to watch it on playback as you can probably imagine.

My fiancée and I have had the same attitude towards over priced restaurants the last couple of years, I was being indecisive about what to rustle up but your blog has persuaded me that this years valentines meal will be Malaysian inspired.

P.S Your chilli comment is worth being heeded ;-)