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
It is possible, that MSG is perfectly safe, in fact we’ve known about it for years. The original “idea” that MSG was bad for you came from a prank letter written, written under a racist pseudonym to a medical journal about how “[Chinese food makes your tire](https://news.colgate.edu/magazine/2019/02/06/the-strange-case-of-dr-ho-man-kwok/)d”, it was all kind of a good-natured-yet-still-kinda-racist prank in the 1970s. But immediately after tons of letters flooded in responding and then, poof , 50 years later we all “know” that MSG is bad for you.
It’s not, it’s delicious and normal. It’s all just a prank that got out of control.
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