“No MSG added.” It’s a comforting thing to see on the menu at your local Asian eatery. However, according to celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern, host of the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, MSG isn’t as villainous as we’ve been led to believe. In fact, it may even be good for us.
Zimmern said so September 20th, 2018 during the World Umami Forum, hosted by Japanese global food company Ajinomoto. Ajinomoto preaches the gospel of umami, the “fifth taste” that is all about savory goodness. And it’s Ajinomoto that is responsible for the creation of MSG, which came about over 100 years ago.
MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is a combination of salt and glutamate, “the most abundant amino acid in nature and one of 20 that make up protein in the human body,” as Ajinomoto’s website states. Glutamate can also be found in tomatoes, aged cheeses, and even breast milk. MSG is digested the exact same way naturally-occurring glutamate is.
“People outside the United States, use [MSG] all the time and they’re just fine,” Zimmern told Food & Wine’s Cooking Light. “I’ve spent a lot of time in Asia, cooking with Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Chinese chefs since the late ’70s, early ’80s, and they were all using it. I [soon] figured out that MSG is harmless.”
So how did MSG get such a bad rap in the first place?
Want to reduce salt in your diet? MSG is only 12% salt!
— Andrew Zimmern (@andrewzimmern) September 20, 2018
Take a bowl and make a 2:1 ratio of salt to msg and use that to season your food. Instant salt reduction in your diet @ajinomototaste #worldumamiforum https://t.co/C4ssyRGmYs pic.twitter.com/f8oIj9DW8c
“You can call it culinary bias, or culinary racism,” Zimmern said. “In the 1960s there was a letter that was sent to the New England Journal of Medicine. This person had eaten in a Chinese restaurant [and] claimed to experience numbness after eating Chinese food.”
The author of the letter claimed that his numbness must have been caused by Chinese cooking ingredients like rice wine and MSG. The mention of MSG in relation to numbness and heart palpitations spawned what the Journal called Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. “The result was an explosion of bias against the use of MSG,” Zimmern continued.
However, multiple rounds of testing could not confirm any link between MSG and serious side effects, unless of course, a person is allergic to MSG.
Dr Jordan Sand presenting on the history of MSG and it’s journey around the world. From Japanese seaweed in Hokkaido traded with the Okinawan empire before it was part of Japan, and they traded it and offered as tribute to their Chinese business partners… https://t.co/VDHl8DKDqu pic.twitter.com/sx3JlD0Lv9
— Andrew Zimmern (@andrewzimmern) September 20, 2018
Even so, since the 1960s, MSG has blamed for various health concerns without any scientific evidence. And unfortunately, the bad press forced many Chinese and other Asian restaurants to take MSG out of their foods.
But, as Zimmern says, MSG is a valuable flavor enhancer to use in any savory dish. In fact, using a two-to-one ratio mixture of salt and MSG in one’s cooking can help cut back on one’s salt intake while drastically improving the flavor of your food.
You can pick up a bag of MSG for $5.68 on Amazon.
Check out Ajinomoto’s site for more information about MSG and MSG safety. Unfortunately, decades-old racial bias could be the only thing responsible for us missing out on some seriously good umami. Perhaps it’s time to change our attitude and treat our tastebuds.
