MSG Whiz

An abbreviated history of MSG, its safety and use - and is it contributing to the obesity epidemic?

Discovering Supreme Deliciousness

MSG, the sodium salt of the amino acid glutamic acid and a form of glutamate, has no distinct taste of its own, and how it adds flavor to other foods is not fully understood. Peas, mushrooms, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese are all high in free glutamate, the molecule responsible for MSG’s flavor enhancing properties.

According to Ken Hom, popular television chef and author of The Taste of China, “[MSG] seems to bring out the natural salt flavor of foods and can help revive or enliven the taste of bland food and old vegetables.”

Asians had originally used the “kombu” seaweed’s broth as a flavor enhancer, without understanding that glutamic acid was its flavor-enhancing component. In 1908, a multi-million-dollar industry was born when Professor Kikunae Ikeda of the University of Tokyo isolated monosodium glutamate using kombu. He noted that the Glutamate had a distinctive taste, different from sweet, sour, bitter and salty; he gave this taste the name “umami”. Umami, translates roughly to savory or meaty in the English language - or as Vogue food writer Jeffrey Steingarten once described it, “Supreme Deliciousness!”

In 1909 MSG entered the marketplace as Aji-no-moto, a product so successful the company reorganized itself around the substance. Today, the Ajinomoto Group’s 15 factories supply about one third of the 1.5 million-tons of MSG sold annually.

A slow and costly extraction process was used to produce MSG until 1956, when the Japanese succeeded in producing glutamic acid by means of fermentation; large-scale production of MSG began - the American ideal of Chinese Food was changed forever. The substance caught on rapidly in the U.S. By the 1960s, Accent, a leading brand of MSG had become a household name.

Chinese Restaurant Syndrome

MSG was first condemned in 1968, when a physician, Robert Ho Man Kwok, contacted the New England Journal of Medicine with a letter describing Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. “[It] usually begins 15 to 20 minutes after I have eaten the first dish, and lasts for about two hours,” noted Kwok. “The most prominent symptoms are numbness at the back of the neck, gradually radiating to both arms and the back, general weakness, and palpitations.”

The following year, Dr. John W. Olney reported that laboratory animals suffered brain lesions and neuroendocrine disorders after being exposed to monosodium glutamate. Infant laboratory animals given free glutamic acid suffered brain damage immediately, and assorted neuroendocrine disorders later in life.

While injections of glutamate in laboratory animals have resulted in damage to nerve cells in the brain, consumption of glutamate in food will not cause this effect.

In knee-jerk fashion, parents began to worry about their safety and that of their children; at the time, MSG was a common additive in baby formula. By the late 1970s, in response to parent’s outcries, manufacturers had removed all MSG-containing ingredients from baby food.

A more balanced review of the additive reveals a transient risk, but only in certain people. A 1979 glutamate industry sponsored study by G.R. Kerr found that approximately 1.8% of the population is sensitive to MSG. That’s not much higher than the rate of peanut allergies (1.1%) or shellfish (2%). If you regularly experience severe symptoms after eating any food, you might consider visiting an allergist.

The FDA has classified MSG as GRAS or Generally Recognized as Safe since 1959. According to Linda Tollefson, an FDA epidemiologist, “There is sensitivity to MSG that is transient. If given enough, especially on an empty stomach, anyone would react with headache, flushing, and chest pain.” In 1986, FDA’s Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded that MSG poses no threat to the general public but that reactions of brief duration might occur in some people.

And a 1991 report by the European Communities’ (EC) Scientific Committee for Foods classified MSG’s “acceptable daily intake” as “not specified,” the most favorable designation for a food ingredient. The EC Committee stated, “Infants, including prematures, have been shown to metabolize glutamate as efficiently as adults and therefore do not display any special susceptibility to elevated oral intakes of glutamate.”

Perhaps the most compelling evidence is anecdotal. MSG is synonymous in modern cuisine. We are exposed to the substance on a daily basis, with no ill-affect. Use of MSG in food has grown in the last 30 years and is still growing. Free glutamates or MSG are added to McDonald’s French Fries, KFC Fried Chicken, Boar’s Head cold cuts, Hamburger Helper, Doritos, Pringles, Progresso and Lipton Soups.

It’s found in restaurant gravy from food service carts, marmite, sausages, sushi rolls (even at Whole Foods), and in almost every Japanese or Chinese restaurant dish. And for good reason, it makes food taste better. But does it cause us to overindulge?

Will MSG Make Me Fat?

Ever leave a Chinese food restaurant and find yourself hungry only minutes after departing? A team of scientists working at the in the University of Madrid found that when given to rats, MSG produces a 40% increase in appetite. The scientists speculate that MSG affects the arcuate nucleus area of the brain and so prevents proper functioning of the body’s appetite control mechanisms. According to this hypothesis, consuming foods with large quantities of MSG causes one to feel hungrier.

Scientists at the University of Miami School of Medicine report, “that adding monosodium glutamate makes food taste better and makes you want to eat more.” No surprise there. In 1969, Dr. John W. Olney found his lab rats became grotesquely obese when fed MSG.

A Pringles slogan which declares “Once you POP you cant stop” underscores the addictive qualities found in the MSG laden crisps. While there may be a correlation between hunger and MSG, a survey of 4938 Japanese men found that self-reported dietary MSG consumption was not statistically linked with obesity, heart disease or stroke. Like anything else, moderation is critical.

MSG has been with us for less than one-hundred years, but the flavor which it distills, umami, found in foods which contain free glutamate, has been an integral part of cooking for centuries. Evidence points to MSG’s safety, its prominence in the food world points to its value.

Doug Cress is Managing Editor and Founder of BlogSoop. To contact Doug send an email to blogsoop at gmail dot com.