I'm not familiar with chemistry but I am pretty sure that MSG (glutamic acid bonded with sodium) can have different properties (or be handled differently by the body) than glutamate...the amino acid.
It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
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Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#92This article is both accurate and highly misleading. The author is correct that there is very little reliable evidence that links glutamic acid and/or glutamate to health problems. The backlash against MSG as a result of the "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" craze, was not rooted in scientific inquiry. However, MSG is not just a source for glutamate like seaweed and tomatoes are. MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid a…
It's not the sodium, it's the glutamate (the "G" in MSG). Glutamate is an excitotoxin, and it's an additive in almost all processed foods, in various forms with many different names ( http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html ). Excitotoxicity is the "pathological process by which nerve cells are damaged and killed by excessive stimulation by neurotransmitters such as glutamate and similar substances" ( https…
This claim sounds non-falsifiable; it amounts to saying that glutamates (in any form) as an additive must be doing something different than glutamates in tomatoes, where it's "bound in fibers", just because. Where, for instance, is the fiber in Parmigiano cheese?
Glutamate is very common in "natural" foodstuffs and plays key roles in our bodies. The notion that small quantities of glutamate (such as would be used to season food) render it toxic is an extraordinary claim, and requires extraordinary evidence.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
But nobody eats MSG by itself like fruit juice, won't mixing it to food that contains fiber and 'other chemicals' have the same effect?
Take the sauce in a chinese stir fry. Its ingredients: water, corn starch, and msg. Maybe some other things (flavorings). That's not too much different than putting msg in fruit juice. In the sense that the msg is in a sugar solution with no natural chemistry mitigants or fiber. Because its ~suspended in solution, its not clear its uptake would be regulated by adjacet fiber. In research, the rats used as controls wer…
> Rats fed [msg laced] junk food chose alcohol to drink over water.
Beer goes great with salty food. We know this already, but why?
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#94This article is both accurate and highly misleading. The author is correct that there is very little reliable evidence that links glutamic acid and/or glutamate to health problems. The backlash against MSG as a result of the "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" craze, was not rooted in scientific inquiry. However, MSG is not just a source for glutamate like seaweed and tomatoes are. MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid a…
The link between sodium and high blood pressure is not conclusive: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/02/why-does-sal...
The link between sodium and edema, water retention, and kidney stress is not inconclusive. Large doses of sodium clearly have some impact. The question is, is that impact sufficient to explain the symptoms of Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, not whether the average person needs to moderate sodium consumption to avoid hypertension.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
MSG has something like a third of the sodium content of an equivalent volume of salt.
Is volume the right way to measure this? To provide equivalent flavor you use equal volume of salt or MSG?
You use less MSG, I think. Haven't cooked much with MSG myself, though.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Take the sauce in a chinese stir fry. Its ingredients: water, corn starch, and msg. Maybe some other things (flavorings). That's not too much different than putting msg in fruit juice. In the sense that the msg is in a sugar solution with no natural chemistry mitigants or fiber. Because its ~suspended in solution, its not clear its uptake would be regulated by adjacet fiber. In research, the rats used as controls wer…
> Rats fed [msg laced] junk food chose alcohol to drink over water. Beer goes great with salty food. We know this already, but why?
Stimulant (msg) and depressant (achohol) would be my guess.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Off-topic, but in case you're not using British English, please be aware that "oriental" is largely considered pejorative and offensive.
It's funny you flag that, because that was the part I spent the most time pondering how to word. 'Japanese'? No, because it's more Chinese restaurants I think of as being the problem. 'Chinese'? Except, well, the food served there isn't a whole lot like actual Chinese food, I am given to understand, and this problem applies to anyone who uses a lot of rice, so Korean or Thai food seem like they might have problems. '…
Chinese-style food?
In Japan it is common to refer to Thai, Vietnamese etc. as "Asian".
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#98This article is both accurate and highly misleading. The author is correct that there is very little reliable evidence that links glutamic acid and/or glutamate to health problems. The backlash against MSG as a result of the "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" craze, was not rooted in scientific inquiry. However, MSG is not just a source for glutamate like seaweed and tomatoes are. MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid a…
The link between sodium and high blood pressure is not conclusive: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/02/why-does-sal...
In short: your blood is mostly water. Your blood is surrounded by a selectively permeable membrane (your vascular tissue). Solutes increase osmotic pressure (see: biology 101). Sodium chloride (table salt) is highly soluble in water (see: chemistry). Therefore, sodium and chloride increase the osmolarity of your blood. Water passes through the semi-permeable membrane back into your blood to decrease osmotic pressure caused by the excess of sodium/chloride in your blood versus in the surrounding cells. Your blood pressure increases because the water increases the volume of your blood while the vascular tissue tries to contain and mediate this reaction (see: physics).
Blog posts are not a substitute for an education in biology, medicine, and science.
If anyone is going to nitpick about things in this post, please understand that I am striving to be understood. While I could put an asterisk after every sentence ("*except for...,") it would not be productive to do so. If anyone wishes for clarification, I would be glad to provide.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
MSG has something like a third of the sodium content of an equivalent volume of salt.
Is volume the right way to measure this? To provide equivalent flavor you use equal volume of salt or MSG?
In my experience, you use a lot less MSG. I'll use a relatively large quantity of kosher salt where a little pinch of MSG is sufficient.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#100If you think MSG is fine, try eating a tablespoon of it with nothing else. Then another time try eating a bunch of mushrooms or similar by themselves with a similar quantity. Likely not the same feeling. Digestion and absorption of food changes with how you consume it. Eating a sweet potato or a bunch of sugar doesn't hit the bloodstream the same way. In my teens and twenties I found I got migraine headaches after ea…
Where are you eating that they put a tablespoon of MSG in something? Even Chinese restaurants I'm familiar with that use MSG only use (and only need) a very small amount.