Who's Afraid of Little Old MSG?

I have no dog in this fight, just found this interesting, given recent discussion here.

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Seems pretty silly to me to be afraid of MSG.

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I bought a big olā€™ jar of MSG at Price Club (tells you how long ago I bought it!). Turns out a little goes a long way: I didnā€™t know it at the time, but it looks like itā€™s a lifetime supply!

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Didnā€™t know about the fake scientist side, but yeah, once the idea is out there, thereā€™s always people who swear by it. Iā€™d like to think that most cooks and population in general arenā€™t averse to eating foods with MSG - especially given the amount we spent on snacks and pre-prepared foods, but there is always going to be a resistant group that has their own ideas.

There are all sorts of obscure or uncommon allergies that are real, so might there be a few people who could have something so rare? Maybe. I know at least 2 people who have the allergy to most vegetables, and really have to avoid it, but strange how no one goes on an anti-vegetable push.

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Same with the bag I got at our local Japanese products store, several cupsful, will last forever.

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I, too, procured a lifetime supply.

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Use it to dry age steaks.

MSG is salt on crack.

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That would certainly make a big dent in my lifetime supply!

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I have a small bag, I use it in various recipes.

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I bought a bag of that!

Put it in a spice shaker. Is this going to last a lifetime? I donā€™t use it often, but it seemed like a good buy. I think they call that ā€œspavingā€ now.

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Same. I add a sprinkle here or there, most often to vegetables or something needing perking up.

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I so agree.

Long ago I bought a small bag of aji-no-moto. I put it in a fancy jar with that name on the label. I still have some of it, as I donā€™t add it to most things, but as my food guru Fred Landeen said, it allows the flavors to marry. Sometimes it needs it. DH doesnā€™t know what it is in English but I donā€™t use it in front of him, which isnā€™t hard. Iā€™m going to send him the article from above. He needs to know.

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Just tell him that every meal he eats that includes tomatoes, mushrooms, parmesan, scallops, chicken, shrimp, cheddar, walnuts, soy sauce, fish sauce or even potatoes (to name a few ingredients) also contains the same MSG without adding anything from your jar

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I have. More than once.

Them tell him from now on you will exclude all ingredients with natural occurring MSG from your cooking. After two days he will beg you to add a few spoons from your jar :wink:

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Donā€™t ever let facts, actual facts, get in the way of a good marriage.

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I had a friend years ago who was certain of ā€œMSG intoleranceā€. I looked at a few controlled trials that recruited like-minded folk, and tested the notion.

For example, give a first group (call it 200 people) meals w added MSG for a week, and a second similar group had no added MSG meals for a week.

Then they did crossover, switching the diets for the groups for a second week. Everyone recorded symptoms throughout, and once all the info was collected, it was just random noise.

So maybe some are sensitive to MSG, but back when I was looking, I failed to find a well-controlled trial to support it. The stuff I found in support was observational and anecdotal in nature (by definition, not well-controlled).


ETA - I didnā€™t realize fear of MSG was so prevalent in the ā€œhealth and wellness worldsā€, as the author puts it. Iā€™ve only know 3 or 4 people who thought it was a problem.

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I saw a similar ā€˜studyā€™ where a large group of people was served a meal with no added MSG but were told it was in there. Something like 70% of them claimed symptoms. This was in the '80s, and I hope thereā€™s been some enlightenment since then.

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Thatā€™s a variation of a placebo effect a common occurrence also in clinical studies for drugs

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