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tmahfan117 t1_iuj61n9 wrote

MSG have a very savory (umami) flavor and enhances other savory and salty flavors in the food.

So adding it to chicken broth made it taste extra chicken brothy.

People got against it because some articles came out about how it had sodium in it (which it does) and could have negative health impacts.

After research, it was found that eating MSG in normal small quantities has little to no impact on health.

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wilbur111 t1_iujhcq7 wrote

Articles came out about how mono sodium glutamate contains sodium??

Well I hope they were paid well for their research.

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Competitive_Ad_5515 t1_iujmih4 wrote

Also the research was more along the lines of "the sodium contained in msg does not contribute to raised blood/system sodium levels" similar to the cholesterol in eggs being found not to significantly raise blood levels

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yuoioa t1_iuk6pri wrote

> Also the research was more along the lines of "the sodium contained in msg does not contribute to raised blood/system sodium levels"

That doesn't sound very plausible. When MSG dissolves, it dissociates into sodium ions and glutamate ions. The sodium ions are exactly the same as the ions from, e.g., sodium chloride - they don't "remember" that they used to be attached to glutamate ions. And surely any MSG that you eat will dissolve pretty quickly as it goes through your digestive system?

The controversial health claims about MSG are that it has some other mysterious effect that makes people feel ill after eating it, in a way that doesn't happen with sodium chloride. Sometimes it is claimed that everyone experiences these effects, but sometimes it is claimed that only certain people are sensitive to it (which, of course, would be harder to rule out).

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Competitive_Ad_5515 t1_iuk7b67 wrote

MSG is actually recommend in low-sodium diets, because it contains less sodium than the salt it is often replacing; often by up to 40%.

But yes, you are right that it in and of itself does actually act as a source of sodium for the body.

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boring_pants t1_iujlkre wrote

> After research, it was found that eating MSG in normal small quantities has little to no impact on health.

That's understating the findings somewhat. It's not "little health impact at small quantities", it's "the studies that claimed it was harmful were flawed and have been thoroughly debunked, and the only reason people bought into them in the first place was because MSG was associated with Asian cooking and Americans were really super racist at the time"

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AdarTan t1_iujq0tl wrote

Didn't the whole panic start off from what was later determined to be a joke article submitted pseudonymously to a medical journal?

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EricKei t1_iujroqa wrote

Not sure. I was under the impression that it was written by somebody who was holding a grudge (he ate at a Chinese place and fell ill later that day) and just decided to be a jerk about it. He found an easy scapegoat.

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E_Snap t1_iujy27k wrote

You’re right. He used the name “Dr. Ho Man Kwok”

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AdarTan t1_iujzswk wrote

I just looked it up and turns out the claim that it was a joke might have been a hoax itself, so I've got no clue anymore.

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Any-Growth8158 t1_iujqqpe wrote

That may be the modern argument against MSG which is no where near as bad as its press.

The original MSG "scare" was due to its association with Chinese food and anti-asian sentiment. Many people claimed to come down with symptoms described as "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome". These symptoms were found to be baseless through double blind tests, but people still claim these symptoms which are a form of the placebo/nocebo effect.

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Grummbles28 t1_iujt1hz wrote

I could be wrong but some studies included injecting it directly to the blood stream of mice and the results showed some negative effects on their heart...duh.

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