Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is a controversial flavor enhancer used in some packaged foods, and sometimes used in restaurant dishes. Chinese takeout restaurants get a lot of attention on this subject, and many such restaurants post signs saying “No MSG” to reassure customers. However, if you purchase deli meats, canned soups, canned vegetables, snack foods, and other processed or prepared foods, you are consuming MSG in your diet. In fact, when you see “natural flavor” on the label, it is likely glutamic acid. So, what is MSG and is it harmful? Should you use it?
There is a move away from such flavor enhancers in food. Some professional chefs shun the use of MSG. Although some of the early recipes that Jing learned in cooking school used MSG (we list it as optional in our recipes, and I do not use it), she also talks about the changes in professional cooking to focus on chef craft and healthier eating:
If a restaurant only uses additives, such as MSG, to make dishes delicious, the restaurant will become obsolete sooner or later. So some restaurants will have such a slogan: We promise not to use MSG. Then, this restaurant must have a healthy way to make dishes without MSG, that relies on the chef’s skill to make a more delicious taste than simply adding MSG.
“Mysterious” Milk-White Soup Base
This view is not a new one. In her masterpiece 1977 book, The Key to Chinese Cooking, chef Irene Kuo had this to say about “taste-essence” and MSG:
What we knew as “taste-essence” in China was a seasoning agent made at home primarily from dried fermented wheat gluten and/or soybean protein, often further enriched with powdered dry shrimp or seaweeds. It was used to enhance weak flavors, such as watered-down broths, poorly seasoned foods from unskilled hands, or meager meat dishes…While “taste-essence” is of Chinese heritage, it was never accepted by the elite society of gastronomy where cooking skill and lavish use of natural ingredients are the essence. Today’s version is a chemical compound known as monosodium glutamate…to me it does nothing to enhance flavor. Rather it gives food a peculiar sweetened taste that I find absolutely distasteful…
Kuo, Irene (1989, 8th printing). The Key to Chinese Cooking, Alfred A Knopf, Inc. (Original work published 1977.)
What is monosodium glutamate?
Glutamic acid is a naturally occurring amino acid in many foods, including wheat gluten, tomatoes, cheese, seaweed, soy extracts, yeast extracts, and others. Glutamate is produced in the human gut during hydrolysis (the process of using water to break down other substances).
One of the terms used to describe savory Chinese and Japanese dishes is “umami,” which means “pleasant, savory taste.” Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamic acid. The developer of monosodium glutamate was searching for this same taste. Modern manufacturing methods use bacterial fermentation (also used to make yogurts and cheeses) with sugar beets, tapioca, sugar cane, or molasses. The result is combined with a sodium ion to stabilize it, and forms a white crystalline substance.
“Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” and MSG safety
Is monosodium glutamate safe? I’m not a food scientist or a doctor. There are many anecdotal claims that MSG causes headaches, nausea, flushing, numbness, fluttering heartbeats, etc. According to the Mayo Clinic and other sources, numerous blind studies by the FDA and other researchers have not shown any connection between monosodium glutamate and these symptoms.
If you think about it, you eat glutamic acid or monosodium glutamate every day in the foods you consume. Wikipedia cites several sources that traces concerns about MSG in Chinese restaurant food to xenophobia:
Researchers, doctors, and activists have tied the controversy about MSG to xenophobia…saying that East Asian cuisine is being targeted while the widespread use of MSG in other processed food hasn’t been stigmatized. These activists have claimed that the perpetuation of the negative image of MSG through the Chinese restaurant syndrome was caused by “xenophobic” or “racist” biases.
Food historian Ian Mosby wrote that fear of MSG in Chinese food is part of the US’s long history of viewing the “exotic” cuisine of Asia as dangerous and dirty. In 2016, Anthony Bourdain stated in Parts Unknown that “I think MSG is good stuff … You know what causes Chinese restaurant syndrome? Racism.”
Wikipedia
These days, the “racist” label is too freely used, and I get a little sick of that. Personally, I think Chinese restaurant syndrome has more to do with the power of suggestion. If you believe the food you are eating has something that will make you sick, you will experience psychosomatic symptoms. We all hold beliefs, based on urban legend or tribal knowledge, that do not survive in the light of factual scrutiny. Further, it is a basic human survival instinct to fear the unknown. This does not make one a racist, so much as it makes one ill-informed. As Socrates stated: “The beginning of wisdom is the recognition of one’s own ignorance.” We are all born ignorant, tabula rasa. So, we must all show one another some grace and understanding, to promote learning and overcome that common human failing.
However, it is also a sad fact that the Chinese diaspora in the West has suffered a great deal of racist discrimination.
Conclusion
I like Irene Kuo’s attitude on the subject: a skilled chef with natural ingredients can make a delicious dish without such additives. She would know. She was the proprietor of two very successful Chinese restaurants in New York City for decades, and a frequent guest of talk show hosts such as Johnny Carson and Joan Rivers. Her book, though out of print, is still considered an essential for the library of anyone seeking to master Chinese cuisine, and can be found at Amazon, E-Bay, and many booksellers. If we continually seek to learn, improve, and challenge our preconceptions with greater understanding, we will build a brighter, hopeful world.
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