How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016) • Hacker News Board

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#101

Post by SiempreViernes » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 1:18 PM UTC

loceng wrote: post #92

userbinator wrote: post #85

IMHO the fact that Asians have been consuming it in huge amounts for over a century, and yet there hasn't been any common health problems linked to it, should be enough of a clue that it's not really harmful... I've found that restaurants in China in general tend to use a lot more MSG and other glutamate products than North America, enough to give me a little bit of a "high". It would not surprise me that someone not…

Presuming all backgrounds of people who have had different evolutionary paths are the same or would react the same biologically to different chemicals doesn't make sense to me. For example, many Asians from my current understanding - and correct me if I'm wrong, can't process Alcohol the same way the rest of us can - which leads a higher percentage of them getting a red face. I too would get a bit of a "high" - wheth…

By numbers (and likely volume and mass) it is non-asians are more properly labelled "the rest".

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#102

Post by ninju » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 1:24 PM UTC

serf wrote: post #54

hueving wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about secretly adding salt or pepper? How about olive oil? If you're cooking food for people it's not common to get pre-approval of the ingredients beyond asking for any dietary restrictions.

>If you're cooking food for people it's not common to get pre-approval of the ingredients beyond asking for any dietary restrictions. you're a lucky chef. You'll get a real reality check when cooking for an elderly bunch of diabetics who automatically presume the world is low-sodium. I've found it's just easier to automatically presume that everyone has dietary restrictions, just some much more mild than most (some h…

>just some much more mild than most (some hate brocolli, and some will die if they are near peanuts, but it's the same scale.)

Did you just equate a preference/dislike of a food as being the same as a uncontrollable biological response to an allergen?

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#103

Post by jerf » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 1:30 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #82

LaGrange wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...that's a much more common case than you seem to imply, and your insistence that your marriage choice is some sort of an argument here only increases the likelihood.

The only reason the argument is somehow suspect, is because people can't say anything about a group of people that's not considered racist by some "professionally offended on behalf of others". Anything negative I mean. They might be OK with 100% praise (though even that has been accused of "idealizing" and other BS by the "professionally offended on behalf of others"). So people saying e.g. "I'm not racist against X…

We really need to put a cultural moratorium/ban on being offended on behalf of others.

I'm sure someone will pop up about how maybe the "others" are just too afraid to speak, but in practice I'm just not seeing that very often, but I am seeing a lot of people trying to basically culturally appropriate someone else's victimhood. And of course the people doing that are the most tedious and annoying spokespeople possible for whatever is being said.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#104

Post by dekhn » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 1:32 PM UTC

icelancer wrote: post #11

p1necone wrote: post #6

Sliced tomatoes sprinkled with salt, pepper and msg on toast are very good. Although I imagine if you can get decent vine ripened heirloom tomatoes where you are the msg would probably be unnecessary.

> 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.

in the Bay Area Monterey Market (berkeley) and Berkeley Bowl both have amazing tomatoes most of the year.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#105

Post by djmips » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 1:53 PM UTC

bjl wrote: post #83

waynecochran wrote: post #79

MSG will give me a headache every frickin' time. Guaranteed.

Unless tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and aged beef also give you headaches every time, then its guaranteed not to be the MSG.

Tyramine is supposed to trigger migraines and they are in parm and aged beef.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#106

Post by djmips » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 1:55 PM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #37

gotocake wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’d need to administer it in such a way that you can’t detect it by taste, and as pmoriarty says, to be double blind is a further challenge. You can however modify your protocol. Instead of chocolate buy some unfilled pill capsules (very cheap) and have a friend fill half with a pinch of salt, and half with a pinch of MSG. This friend makes a note of which caps are MSG, and without informing you or your SO which is…

I intended to write that s/he should just swallow the chocolate to not taste what's inside but I forgot. I mean if we are gonna give this dude headaches at the least let's make it chocolate?

Bad science. Chocolate has a lot of confounding components such as Tyramine which is said to trigger migraines in the sensitive.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#107

Post by beat » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 1:55 PM UTC

Don't eat the science words or you'll get the autism cancer.

Sigh.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#108

Post by jnty » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 1:57 PM UTC

Veen wrote: post #78

jnty wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, a significant part of it (in the UK) has definitely been stereotypes around Chinese food being somehow 'dodgy'. Clearly racism doesn't 'explain everything' and the forces you mention played a part, but you're the only one who brought up that strawman. (You should think carefully about why you're so desperate to disingenuously downplay the effects of racism on modern attitudes.)

> You should think carefully about why you're so desperate to disingenuously downplay the effects of racism on modern attitudes Yes, because if you think something isn't caused by racism, then you must be racist. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kafkatrap I don't see any sign of desperation or disingenuousness in the reply, but that's probably because I'm an unconscious racist too.

He misrepresented the article. It does not claim that racism 'explains everything', merely that it was one of a number of factors which have led to the demonisation of MSG. That was a disingenous attempt to erase the effects of racism through ridicule.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#109

Post by throwaway5t21 » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 2:05 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #81

LaGrange wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Disclaimer: I'm married to a Chinese person, I speak (some) Chinese, I've been to China. I love Chinese food. "I'm not racist some of my best friends are $race" in third comment on the page, congratulations!

Having friends or even being married to X is a good sign to prove one is not racist towards X. The inverse idea, that this is somehow a bad argument, I can't even fathom how it started (and how messed the minds of those that think you must somehow be a racist if you make this argument are). (Sure, one can claim it hypocritically, just like everything else -- that doesn't mean the claim itself signals racism).

Except it just means you aren’t “racist” against a specific gender or that specific person.

I’ve known plenty of expats in Asia that are married to a local, has mix-raced kids, and yet still says racist things about them.

But their friends and family are “the good ones.”

The Clippers former owner had a black girlfriend and paid his black players millions of dollars. He is still a racist.

Re: How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016)

#110

Post by throwaway5t21 » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 2:09 PM UTC

thraway-burnout wrote: post #71

jnty wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, a significant part of it (in the UK) has definitely been stereotypes around Chinese food being somehow 'dodgy'. Clearly racism doesn't 'explain everything' and the forces you mention played a part, but you're the only one who brought up that strawman. (You should think carefully about why you're so desperate to disingenuously downplay the effects of racism on modern attitudes.)

Disclaimer: I'm married to a Chinese person, I speak (some) Chinese, I've been to China. I love Chinese food. There's no racism in claiming that quite a lot of the "Chinese" food one finds available in Europe is indeed quite dodgy.

I wonder if this comment would be acceptable for other groups?

Disclaimer: I'm married to a Jewish person, I speak (some) Hebrew, I've been to Israel. I love Jewish food. There's no racism in claiming that quite a lot of the "Jewish" banks one finds available in Europe is indeed quite dodgy.