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How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

fivethirtyeight.com

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Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#41

Post by bobthepanda »

TACIXAT wrote: post #7

I've isolated MSG as a cause of sinus headaches for me, along with a handful of other foods. It is in some flavored chips, and the first few times when going back and trying to figure out what caused my headache I was surprised to see it in the ingredient list since it has such a stigma. I also run into it at kbbq places mixed in with the salt. Not saying it is bad for everyone, but it is a consistent issue for me.

MSG naturally occurs in naturally ripened tomatoes and some cheeses. Do you also have issues with those?

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#42

Post by kazinator »

bobthepanda wrote: post #41
TACIXAT wrote: post #7

I've isolated MSG as a cause of sinus headaches for me, along with a handful of other foods. It is in some flavored chips, and the first few times when going back and trying to figure out what caused my headache I was surprised to see it in the ingredient list since it has such a stigma. I also run into it at kbbq places mixed in with the salt. Not saying it is bad for everyone, but it is a consistent issue for me.

MSG naturally occurs in naturally ripened tomatoes and some cheeses. Do you also have issues with those?

Reactions to MSG are not allergic.

It's not like eating something cooked in a pot that previously had shrimp type of thing.

A fairly macroscopically large dose of the stuff does something with the blood flow in veins around the head or sensitivity of nerves or something. It's not a serious medical condition, like an allergic attack; just a nuisance.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#43

Post by Arbalest »

yoz-y wrote: post #31
kazinator wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you drink a can of pop in which 30g of sugar were replaced with 30g of MSG?

That would taste terrible! More on point: ingesting 30g of MSG is probably less harmful than 30g of sugar.

That's an awful lot of sodium to throw out the potassium sodium balance, even after considering the mass of the glutamate ion. I don't think it could actually be better than the same mass of sugar.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#45

Post by Uberphallus »

kazinator wrote: post #36
yoz-y wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would taste terrible! More on point: ingesting 30g of MSG is probably less harmful than 30g of sugar.

That could be true even if the MSG happens to give you an awful headache in the short term.

No[0], it won't [1], that's the point of the article.

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870486

[1] https://academic.oup.com/jn/article-abstract/125/11/2891S/47...

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#46

Post by MertsA »

TACIXAT wrote: post #7

I've isolated MSG as a cause of sinus headaches for me, along with a handful of other foods. It is in some flavored chips, and the first few times when going back and trying to figure out what caused my headache I was surprised to see it in the ingredient list since it has such a stigma. I also run into it at kbbq places mixed in with the salt. Not saying it is bad for everyone, but it is a consistent issue for me.

All you've isolated is the placebo effect unless you react that same way to all glutamate containing foods. Chicken broth has tons of glutamate in it, if chicken broth doesn't cause your headaches then neither does MSG. And if you're thinking that the glutamate in chicken broth or other foods could be reacting differently because it's not monosodium glutamate, that's not possible because the instant MSG is dissolved you no longer have MSG, you have sodium ions and glutamate ions. That's chemically the same as the sodium ions and glutamate ions in chicken broth. Glutamate is present in everything from tomatoes, to mushrooms, to parmesan cheese.

Anecdotes are not evidence, and the evidence is clear.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#47

Post by [deleted] »

kazinator wrote: post #40
pmoriarty wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it truly is a settled question that MSG causes headaches in humans , when the MSG is ingested (not injected ) in amounts humans normally eat, then it should be easy to find studies in reputable journals to this effect. Do you have a link to such studies? The injection/ingestion distinction is important, because when one ingests something, the entire quantity is not instantly dumped in to the bloodstream as it is w…

By the way, injection would be a good way to double-blind an MSG experiment with humans properly: you can't taste an injection. Nobody can tell whether they are being injected saline or MSG. And nobody is claiming that the effects of MSG are not dose-dependent; that there is no consumption threshold below which sufferers feel no ill effects. Those who believe that any amount of MSG, no matter how miniscule, can cause…

[deleted]

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#48

Post by MertsA »

kazinator wrote: post #15
pmoriarty wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems: 1 - not to have been published in any peer-reviewed journals 2 - a study on rats 3 - the rats were injected with MSG intravenously 4 - the amount of MSG injected intravenously was 50mg/kg, which would be equivalent to 2.5 grams of MSG for a 50kg person Because of all of the above, it's not clear whether it's good science, and not clear if any of this research applies to humans, who normally don't inject g…

> 2.5 grams of msg for a 50kg person MSG is slightly more dense than sugar, with a specific gravity of 1.6 and comes in a crystalline form that resembles sugar. 4 grams of sugar is about a teaspoon, and the same can be expected of MSG. They can easily dump half a teaspoon of the stuff into your soup or sauce in a restaurant, treating it like salt or sugar. This amazing paper is valuable not just for its work on rats,…

You'd have to be crazy to add 2.5 grams worth of MSG to a single meal. Accent calls for using like 1/10th that amount in soup. That's no different than using 10x as much salt as a recipe calls for, it's not going to turn out so great.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#49

Post by jayd16 »

TACIXAT wrote: post #7

I've isolated MSG as a cause of sinus headaches for me, along with a handful of other foods. It is in some flavored chips, and the first few times when going back and trying to figure out what caused my headache I was surprised to see it in the ingredient list since it has such a stigma. I also run into it at kbbq places mixed in with the salt. Not saying it is bad for everyone, but it is a consistent issue for me.

I will say I've noticed I get a headache after Korean bbq but I'm pretty sure its the beer and salt.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#50

Post by icelancer »

StudentStuff wrote: post #23
icelancer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> decent vine ripened heirloom tomatoes where you are If this is in America, not grown in your own garden, I'd love to hear where this is, because tomatoes in Seattle are absolutely terrible.

Try a non-Kroger/non-Safeway owned green grocer like Rainer Farmers Market, they generally have tastier veggies and fruit (along with stuff you don't get at chain stores) as that is all they deal in. Limes are way cheaper at green grocers too, I swear its a Seattle thing where the large grocery stores know your only buying limes to go with your liquor, and thus charge obscene prices :c

I live in the valley and have been to a few of the fruit stands; Columbia City Farmer's Market can be OK too. Still, not much luck. I am aware tomatoes are hard as hell to grow consistently well and I should accept some variance, but man, outside of Red Roma Tomatoes (had had good luck with them generally for caprese salad), it's been tough.
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