Monosodium Glutamate (also known as MSG) is bad for you, right? It's banned in foods all over the world because it's bad for your health, isn't it?
Also known as Chinese Restaurant Syndrome as bucket loads can be found in Chinese Restaurant food, can't it? It causes headaches, numbness of the neck and back, heart palpitations and dizziness, doesn't it?
The short answer is: no.
The long answer is: noooooooooooooooooooooo.
Whether it is down to racism or xenophobia is up for debate (we'll come to that later).
So why do we think it's so bad then - it's worse than salt, isn't it? Actually, MSG contains a THIRD LESS sodium than salt does, therefore if you wanted to reduce your sodium intake then you could substitute salt for MSG!
So why does MSG have such a bad rep?
It all dates back to 1968 when a letter from Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok (a Senior Research Investigator) of the National Biomedical Research Foundation wrote a letter that was sent to the New England Journal of Medicine stating that he (and others he knew) suffered with headaches, dizziness and heart palpitations after consuming meals in Chinese Restaurants.
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| Transcript Of The Original Letter Written By Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok |
Once the press got hold of this they ran with it and the rest is history as they say! Except, there is no such Doctor as Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok, he was a fabrication of one Dr. Howard Steel...
It turns out that in 1968, Dr. Steel was bet $10 by a colleague who bet him he couldn't get published in the New England Journal of Medicine. One evening (and several beers later) during a meal in a Chinese Restaurant he came up with the idea of the infamous letter.
Problem solved! Or is it?...
In 2019 researchers at This American Life found that there was in fact a Doctor called Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok and he did indeed work at the National Biomedical Research Foundation but he was a Paediatrician rather than a Senior Research Investigator.
The researchers were unable to confirm any of this with either of the two Doctors as sadly they had both since died. They did however manage to speak to Dr. Kwok's daughter who recalled her father telling her this story growing up and it was in fact true and he did indeed write the published letter. Except, Dr. Kwok was a bit of a wind-up merchant who loved a good hoax!
- Did Dr. Steel pick Dr. Kwok's name at random so he himself wouldn't be directly associated with such lies to win a $10 bet?
- Did Dr. Kwok take credit for a letter written in his name?
- Did Dr. Kwok actually write the letter in jest or did he really have those symptoms?
Who knows?!
So what do we know?
Not a lot is the real answer. Despite there being concerns about the use of MSG in our food since the 1960's (from the publication of the infamous letter in 1968) there have been no conclusive studies that prove things either way.
In a nutshell, there is so little concern about MSG being added to our food that not enough large scale studies have been performed.
What is MSG and why does is make food taste so good?
MSG is a flavour enhancer that was originally patented in 1909 by a Japanese Chemist called Kikunae Ikeda - in other words, for 59 years MSG was enjoyed without anyone complaining about any alleged side affects.
The reason it tastes so good is because it literally tickles your tastebuds on your tongue making any meal it's added to taste great.
If you want to get a bit more technical, Glutamate is a naturally occurring compound found in all sorts of food from Breast Milk to Parmesan Cheese. Glutamate actives certain flavour receptacles on your tongue thus anything it is added to can end up tasting better - a little dab'll do you (as Delboy once said) as too much can not make it taste so good.
Why is the perpetuating story about MSG being bad for you thought of as racist or xenophobic?
MSG is not (and has never been) used exclusively in Asian Cuisine, yet it has unfairly continued to be linked to the fictitious Chinese Restaurant Syndrome (CRS) when in fact it is used by many different countries all over the world.
By continuing to reference CRS when talking about MSG it is only perpetuating racial stereotypes of Asian food being 'dangerous' and/or 'dirty' whereas we all know it is in fact delicious and tasty. The use of MSG in non-Asian cuisine does not attract the same kind of negative response as that of CRS.
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