I see a lot of articles that defend MSG by saying that it occurs naturally in umami foods and that things like hydrolyzed proteins and yeast extract are just MSG.
Is it possible that while MSG is safe, the overzealous arguments aren’t completely true?
I thought what occurs naturally and what hydrolyzed protein and yeast extract actually is is glutamic acid, while MSG is monosodium glutamate which is the sodium salt of the acid so they technically aren’t the same.
In: Chemistry
MSG is monosodium glutamate, your body is full of glutamate as it is an amino acid essential for your life, and whenever there is sodium in solution it can and does form MSG. That is why you can’t label food as “no MSG” or “MSG free”, it’s always “no MSG added” because if it has protein at all then it’s going to have MSG. MSG, like sodium, is really one of those things that is associated with living things, and it is healthy to have it in your diet. Like sodium, there is such thing as too much.
With all that said, there are studies that have shown negative effects of extreme amounts of glutamate (but nobody eats that much), and lots have shown negative effects of MSG, but the MSG negative effects can mostly be explained as too much sodium. As it relates to Chinese food, they traditionally use a lot of soy sauce, which is really soy protein and salt in liquid form, it forms a LOT of MSG, to the point that soy sauce can be considered liquid MSG. Using a lot of soy sauce will add a lot of sodium to your diet, and yes, Chinese food tends to be high in sodium. Those negative effects of Chinese food are really too much sodium, I have gotten headaches from Chinese food, it absolutely was too much sodium.
For whatever reason, people seem to think a headache after eating Chinese food, and other negative effects are somehow from the MSG, it’s not, it’s from the sodium, which technically is “from MSG”, but you would have had the same effect if your replaced the MSG with table salt.
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