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An MSG Convert Visits the High Church of Umami

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Re: An MSG Convert Visits the High Church of Umami

#101

Post by 205guy »

indemnity wrote: post #93
205guy wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with bvinc in this debate: those claiming to be scientific and saying MSG can't cause any reaction are rudely dismissing the real experiences of strangers. There are many reasons for the perceived MSG reactions: other additives in the MSG (like melamine milk in China), other foods at Chinese restaurants (and possible additives in those), all the way to psychosomatic and culture-bound syndromes [1]. There are…

Agree all you want, your opinion is still wrong. If many double blind experiments are not enough to convince you, I suspect nothing will. How do you feel about vaccines?

So because I called out people who misuse science to sneer at weak people, I must be an anti-vaxer.

I don't doubt there are lots of studies showing no MSG effects (not that anyone bothered to link to them). I even believe them, just that there may be other factors at play. Plus they only studied MSG, I doubt they studied the people who claim to be affected by it.

Did you miss the part where I brought up psychosomatic effects, culture-bound syndrome, mental illness, and questionable diseases? Do you want to contribute any hypotheses or just make fun of people?

Re: An MSG Convert Visits the High Church of Umami

#102

Post by pc2g4d »

gilrain wrote: post #30
pc2g4d wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would think so, but somehow the artificial stuff is different or in greater concentration. Here's how I discovered my MSG intolerance: I made a bunch of onion soup (from onion soup mix), and ate a ton of it. I then spent the next 24 hours feeling terrible, downing pepto, etc. A few weeks later I made a recipe that included onion soup mix as an ingredient. Again I felt terrible. I though, Aha, I must have an onion…

Yes, and we've repeatedly researched MSG on the basis of experiences like yours. It turns out there is no evidence that people who self-report as sensitive actually are. Yes, even if they're really, really sure. Maybe you are some sort of undiscovered outlier? That may be compelling to you, but it seems unlikely to me... the research indicates you're far more likely to be among those who have misidentified a cause fo…

My recollection from looking into the research myself was that though a large proportion of those who claimed MSG intolerance ended up having none, some proportion _did_ have the intolerance. The conclusion that MSG intolerance isn't real on that basis was overstated. Similarly, though many people who claim gluten intolerance have no such thing, some in fact do.

Given the nigh-infinite space of possibilities that is the human genome and the various environments and experiences of seven billion human beings, in my mind it's almost guaranteed that every human being will experience at least one medical condition that is insufficiently frequent in the population that it is "unknown to science". When your personal experience deviates from the common interpretation of scientific findings, what do you do?

I could be wrong. Maybe it's all in my head somehow? But that's a sort of real effect, too.

What I do know is that by avoiding MSG the quality of my diet has improved immeasurably, and my intestines aren't in agony. It's just an anecdote. An anecdote that happens to be my own life.

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