MSG - Should it be banned?

[Prometheus]

You both are being silly here. There is a very big difference in the chemical behavior of a complex protein and individual amino acids. And if the mere presence of protein in water is all one needs to make MSG, one may as well put sugar water in a blender and call it vodka -- after all, it's just H, C, and O, what more could there be to it?



Makes sense to me, as well. As I have cited above, there is evidence it can even be beneficial.

It's not just the mere presence of of protein in water that creates MSG. You have to add salt and heat also.

 

[leonAzul]

You both are being silly here. There is a very big difference in the chemical behavior of a complex protein and individual amino acids. And if the mere presence of protein in water is all one needs to make MSG, one may as well put sugar water in a blender and call it vodka -- after all, it's just H, C, and O, what more could there be to it?



Makes sense to me, as well. As I have cited above, there is evidence it can even be beneficial.

It's not just the mere presence of of protein in water that creates MSG. You have to add salt and heat also.

oops I did leave out an ingredient. My bad. It's still a bit more complicated than throwing it in a pot and cooking it. (IIRC, much "artificial" MSG is autolyzed yeast.)

But if it's table salt, doesn't stealing the Na leave the Cl to form Muriatic acid and ozone? O noes!

 

[John Jones]

You both are being silly here. There is a very big difference in the chemical behavior of a complex protein and individual amino acids. And if the mere presence of protein in water is all one needs to make MSG, one may as well put sugar water in a blender and call it vodka -- after all, it's just H, C, and O, what more could there be to it?

As far as I know, healthy people do not metabolize sugar into ethanol. People do metabolize protein into the constituent amino acids.

I'm not saying that MSG sensitivity is baseless, but I've got some problems with the idea

Glutamic acid is one of the major amino acids present in almost every source of protein I have studied. Collagen is one exception that comes to mind.

If people like the OP cannot eat monosodium glutamate, how can they eat any protein?

I'm just asking.

 

[John Jones]

oops I did leave out an ingredient. My bad. It's still a bit more complicated than throwing it in a pot and cooking it. (IIRC, much "artificial" MSG is autolyzed yeast.)

But if it's table salt, doesn't stealing the Na leave the Cl to form Muriatic acid and ozone? O noes!

No.

 

[BenBurch]

When MSG is outlawed, only outlaws will eat well.

 

[Beerina]

So if multiple, repeated, double-blind studies show no difference between placebo and the onset of migraine, that pretty much settles it for everybody except the rare true allergies.


Having said that, you might want to avoid it for migraine reasons, but remember that's a psychologically-induced cause, or eating in general, not MSG-specific.

 

[leonAzul]

As far as I know, healthy people do not metabolize sugar into ethanol. People do metabolize protein into the constituent amino acids.

I'm not saying that MSG sensitivity is baseless, but I've got some problems with the idea

Glutamic acid is one of the major amino acids present in almost every source of protein I have studied. Collagen is one exception that comes to mind.

If people like the OP cannot eat monosodium glutamate, how can they eat any protein?

I'm just asking.

No doubt for the same reason they have no problem with acetic acid, but really don't like acetate on their salad.

 

[EdipisReks]

I, personally, cannot eat any foods containing MSG as I am almost certain it is a trigger for my migraine attacks.

you likely constantly eat food that contain MSG without even realizing it.

 

[drzeus99]

China are currently the biggest exponents of MSG who, coincidentally or not, have the highest rate of suicide in the world.

Sorry, that would be incorrect.

According to data from the WHO (World Health Organization), LITHUANIA
would be the nation with the highest suicide rate (2009)

The wiki link is below:

tiny.cc/e1p2u

.

 

[Beelzebuddy]

MSG serves a very important role in public health. Namely, if you ban it I will cut you.

 

[John Jones]

No doubt for the same reason they have no problem with acetic acid, but really don't like acetate on their salad.

That's a non-sequitur as far as I can tell.

Can you be more specific?

Are you talking about pH, or something else?

 

[Tatsu]

Isn't the null hypothesis here that the ill effects ascribed to MSG are not a reason for concern until positively demonstrated? Have there been reproducible, peer reviewed studies that demonstrate that MSG has any negative physiological effect at all? If not why abandon the null hypothesis? Why does this generate more concern from the OP than, for instance, cardiopulmonary disease?

Slight derail.

This reminds me of the (tongue in cheek) movement to ban dihydrogen oxide, a chemical which has better documentation of it's potentially lethal effects. A brief search on Google turns up an average of between three and four thousand deaths occurring each year in the U.S. due to accidental aspiration.

 

[John Jones]

Isn't the null hypothesis here that the ill effects ascribed to MSG are not a reason for concern until positively demonstrated? Have there been reproducible, peer reviewed studies that demonstrate that MSG has any negative physiological effect at all? If not why abandon the null hypothesis? Why does this generate more concern from the OP than, for instance, cardiopulmonary disease?

The evidence is equivocal, from what I read. How can you ban glutamates without banning most food?

 

[ehcks]

It's called non-essential because our bodies make enough of it already, right?

And it's supposed to be so bad for us that we should ban its use entirely?

 

[Checkmite]

Can you imagine what soy sauce would taste like without MSG? My god.

 

[John Jones]

It's called non-essential because our bodies make enough of it already, right?

And it's supposed to be so bad for us that we should ban its use entirely?

The best explanation I can imagine is that free glutamates hitting the digestive track in high doses effects people sensitive to those conditions.

 

[Ladewig]

Sorry, that would be incorrect.

According to data from the WHO (World Health Organization), LITHUANIA
would be the nation with the highest suicide rate (2009)

The wiki link is below:

tiny.cc/e1p2u

.

And even if it were true, or if China were in the top six, aren't the other factors leading to suicide in China so noticeable that claiming that a flavoring is causing suicides a bit of a stretch?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Just to clarify, the rare allergy to this vaccine component I referred to was not the mythical allergy associated with MSG.

MSG allergy/headache myth

Despite concerns raised by early reports, decades of research have failed to demonstrate a clear and consistent relationship between MSG ingestion and the development of these conditions.

Why MSG allergy is fake science

In May this year, the medical journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy published a review of more than a decade of scientific research into "the possible role of MSG in the so-called 'Chinese restaurant syndrome'".

Chinese restaurant syndrome is the popular slang for allergies or adverse reactions that some people claim they get after eating food containing the flavour-enhancer monsodium glutamate, or MSG, that is widely used in many processed foods and also added to many Asian dishes.

What is amazing about the publication of this research is not that it concludes MSG allergy is a myth, but that a scientific journal still needs to bother debunking such pseudoscience at all.

 

[leonAzul]

That's a non-sequitur as far as I can tell.

Can you be more specific?

Are you talking about pH, or something else?

Glutaminic acid is to monosodium glutamate, as Acetic acid is to acetate. Each tuple has a common radical that can be transformed from one to the other, but they are not identical.

ETA
I see the confusion: the OP asserted that MSG is an amino acid. It isn't. It can be metabolized to glutamine, but it is not the same thing.

 

[John Jones]

Glutaminic acid is to monosodium glutamate, as Acetic acid is to acetate. Each tuple has a common radical that can be transformed from one to the other, but they are not identical.

Oh really? I think you're full of male bovine excrement.

I bid you a good day.