The other day, I was walking past the Chinese restaurant in my street with a friend whom I would normally consider fairly enlightened, on most subjects, including food. Until he said: “Do I smell MSG?” with all signs of dissgust.
Since this is by far the only time I have heard people express similar ignorance even in recent years, and I was reminded again while reading a recipe for stir-fried bok choy by pickledplum.com, I decided to do a bit of research.
This is a tale of bigotry, hypocrisy, stupidity, xenophobia – AND cruelty to animals, all in one:
Here is what a google search says:
Despite decades of scientific consensus proving monosodium glutamate (MSG) is safe, many consumers remain wary of the ingredient.
The origin of the myth
The backlash began with a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968. A doctor speculated that the numbness, weakness, and heart palpitations he felt after eating at a Chinese restaurant could be caused by soy sauce, cooking wine, or MSG.
The media heavily sensationalised this single letter. It sparked a wave of unverified anecdotal complaints and led to the creation of the term “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”—a phrase now widely recognised as culturally biased and offensive.
Flawed scientific studies
Early researchers attempted to prove the existence of this “syndrome” through highly flawed experiments:
- Extreme dosing: In 1969, researcher John Olney injected mice with massive doses of MSG—up to 1% of their body weight—directly into their abdomens, later claiming it caused brain damage and sterility.
- Lack of real-world relevance: These early animal trials utilised extreme quantities and non-oral injection methods that bear no relevance to how humans actually consume MSG in food.
Xenophobia and double standards
The panic surrounding MSG heavily targeted Asian cuisine while ignoring the widespread use of the exact same chemical compounds in Western food. MSG is simply sodium bound to glutamate, an amino acid that naturally occurs in abundance in foods such as parmesan cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, and even human breast milk.
While Chinese restaurants felt immense cultural pressure to put up “No MSG” signs to protect their businesses, Western packaged food companies continued to use ingredients rich in free glutamates—such as hydrolysed vegetable protein and yeast extract—without any public backlash.
What the Science Says Today
Major regulatory bodies globally—including the US Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization—classify MSG as “generally recognized as safe”.
- Rigorous testing: Rigorous, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies have failed to consistently reproduce symptoms in people who claim to be sensitive to normal dietary levels of MSG.
- Mild sensitivities: The Harvard Medical School notes that a very small subset of the population (less than 1%) may experience mild, temporary reactions like a headache or skin flushing, but typically only if they consume more than 3 grams of pure MSG on an empty stomach without any actual food.
My own comment: consuming more then three grams of pure MSG on an empty stomach without any actual food. Hmmm. Compare with consuming the same amount of Sichuan pepper in the same way , for example ……. need I say more? Personally, I would feel as if I were dying. Or drink a small glass of soy sauce – neat. You would probably feel OK after that, but still: Who does that?
In a separate post: the recipe for stir-fried bok choy, courtesy of pickledplum.com.