A great way to get some Umami in your cooking is Vietnamese fermented fish sauce
It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
51–60 of 164 posts
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#52The MSG allergy is a myth, plain and simple. There have been plenty of scientific research studies done on the substance, and they found absolutely nothing. I don't know why this myth has persisted so long in popular culture. I compare it to people who rave about homeopathy. Any (perceived) effect is either anecdotal or placebo in nature. What most people don't know, is that MSG occurs naturally in many foods. Beef,…
Uh. I actually have an MSG sensitivity which took me forever to figure out what it was. For decades I'd occasionally be eating in a restaurant and my lips, tongue and/or back of my throat would go numb. It wasn't until I bought MSG and started putting it on pretty much everything in larger doses that I realized it was the culprit. I can reproduce it pretty easily by simply putting nothing but MSG on my tongue. It tak…
It is said that the human body itself produces up to 50g of glutamate every day; an allergy to it should result in much more terrible effects than superficial numbness. Someone already posted a longer explanation: http://www.metafilter.com/131105/Dorito-Powder#5147903
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
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?
No, because adding extra glutamate means the ratio of glutamate will be higher than the counterbalance.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#54This 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...
As a person with HBP who actively monitors it, I can tell you this much. Sodium intake definitely affects my blood pressure. It goes like this, the higher my intake the shittier I feel. I'm not saying sodium is the main or only cause of HBP, it seems to affect some more then others, and there may be other underlining causes. But to call it a myth is downright ridiculous.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you read the article this discussion is attached to? It said in part: "Initially, researchers had success proving both the short-term and long-term dangers of MSG: mice injected with the additive showed signs of brain lesions, and humans fed 3 grams of MSG per 200 ml of soup presented symptoms congruent with “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.” " If you believe the original article is wrong, then you should perhaps mak…
It's like your eyes refused to show your brain the words that you didn't want to read. "Subsequent studies, however, provided mixed results: some confirmed findings of brain lesions in animals or symptoms in humans, but other studies were unable to replicate the results. Double-blind studies often showed little correlation between MSG and adverse symptoms. Parties on both sides of the debate slung accusations at the…
I very clearly mentioned in my original comment that there are other studies that show no effects. My point was and still is that if there are some studies that show negative effects and some studies that show no negative effects, the latter do not (for me at least) cancel out the former. It is entirely possible that there are negative effects that are not picked up by some studies. The fact that the FDA believes that MSG is "generally recognized as safe" does not guarantee it is safe. To use my previous example, the FDA also used to believe that trans fats were safe.
So all my comments have been logically consistent with each other and my actual honest opinion. Thus they are quite undeserving of your half thought out response.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#56Earlier 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?
No, because adding extra glutamate means the ratio of glutamate will be higher than the counterbalance.
That went over my head. What do you mean?
When making a risotto I might use 100g of parmesan cheese, which can amount to ~8g of MSG according to the internets, plus eat tomatoes on the side. That's the equivalent of 12g of Ajinomoto, I can't imagine adding that much to any dish.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#57Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#58isn't it interesting that msg "syndrome" is associated with chinese food, rather than japanese, even though japanese food is also loaded down with it?
hmm.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
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 were fed nutritious food. Given a choice of water and alcohol to drink, these rats chose water. Rats fed [msg laced] junk food chose alcohol to drink over water.
Unrelated, but interesting.
Re: It's the Umami – Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
#60This 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…
I went to this sketchy restaurant in Spain once, and started having pins and needles all around my skull. Reading what you just write, that might have been because of too much MSG. Pretty scary at that time.