You’ve probably heard that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is bad for you and that you should avoid it.

Moreover, you should keep it away from children because it turns them into hyperactive monsters.

These are common “truths” that we’ve accepted because someone smart declared this a long time ago, and it became part of how we think about food and health.

Confession time – I love the stuff, and if you love it too, I have some great news for you, via Bustle.

This thinking, which has long been proven to be based in faulty science, is even the origin of the term “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” or a supposed (and debunked) reaction to eating food flavored with MSG.

Activists are now pushing to redefine “Chinese restaurant syndrome” and change the way the West thinks about MSG — because no, MSG isn’t actually bad for you.

The term ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’ was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1968, and no, it’s not that silly idea that if you eat some chow mein you’ll be hungry again within the hour.

Rather, it’s a series of symptoms that affect “susceptible persons eating food and especially Chinese food heavily seasoned with monosodium glutamate”.

These symptoms supposedly include numbness of the neck, arms, and back with headache, dizziness, and palpitations.

Here’s the tea:

There are many problems with this definition, according to campaigners including the MSG producer Ajinomoto, chef Eddie Huang, and actor Jeannie Ma, including the fact that MSG isn’t just found in Chinese food — and that there’s very little evidence that it causes any damage to human health at all.

Extensive research has proven that MSG isn’t really harmful at all, unless you do something ridiculous like drink a whole cup of soy sauce or eat an entire wheel of parmesan in one sitting.

Yep, there’s MSG in parmesan.

“Despite being a food element that’s consistently at the end of xenophobic fear, there’s nothing harmful about MSG,” chef and registered dietitian Tessa Nguyen tells Bustle. “MSG is naturally occurring in many foods, such as cheese, mushrooms, and tomatoes. It’s the thing that gives food its umami, savory flavor.” MSG isn’t a mysterious additive; it’s just sodium and the amino acid glutamate, which is found widely in nature. Studies do show that a very small subset of the population do react negatively to glutamate, but that’s rare.

So that cheese and tomato sarmie that you thought was MSG-free is actually full of the stuff.

Daily News has the proposed new definition for ‘Chinese Restaurant syndrome’:

…“an outdated term that falsely blamed Chinese food containing MSG, or monosodium glutamate, for a group of symptoms (such as headaches, dizziness, and heart palpitations).”

And a summary of the problem by Anthony Bourdain, while filming a 2016 episode of Parts Unknown in China, who called MSG “good stuff.”

“I don’t react to it — nobody does. It’s a lie,” he said. “You know what causes Chinese restaurant syndrome? Racism.”

The takeaway here is that now you can enjoy all those MSG-filled meals you’ve been avoiding because of faulty science and xenophobia.

Welcome to the world of tasty food.

[source:bustle&dailynews]