ISN'T MSG BAD?

It goes back to a letter that fueled the term "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" a label that stuck in the media in a way that feels eerily similar to how COVID got labeled the "China virus." The doctor's letter actually listed several possible causes for feeling unwell, not just MSG, but the press ran with the one that fit a salacious narrative, at the time when the Immigration Act had just opened the door to a wave of Chinese immigrants to the US.

The "MSG is bad for you" narrative is rooted in cultural bias, not science.

If we look at the facts, MSG was created in Japan, not China, and it's used across many cultures. Umami flavor comes from MSG and glutamic acid occurs naturally in tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms and is even in our own bodies.

Looking at some of the research:

• FDA, 21 CFR 182.1 - FDA's own regulation places MSG in the same safety category as salt, pepper, vinegar, and baking powder.
• EFSA, 2017 (Re-evaluation of glutamic acid/glutamates, EFSA Journal 15(7):e4910) - EFSA found no adverse effects in short-term, subchronic, chronic, reproductive, or developmental studies at doses up to ~5,000 mg/kg body weight/day, far beyond anything from normal food. It found no genotoxicity or carcinogenicity concern. EFSA explicitly states that the neurological/behavioral changes seen in neonatal animal studies (the kind several papers on your list rely on) are not relevant to evaluating glutamate as a food additive in normal diets. The 30 mg/kg/day ADI it set is a conservative 100x safety margin below the no-effect level, standard practice for any approved additive, not evidence of danger at typical intake.
• Obayashi & Nagamura, 2016 (J Headache Pain 17:54) - This found that MSG given with food (how people actually consume it) showed essentially no increase in headache incidence. The studies that did show an effect used high-concentration MSG solutions without food, at levels participants could taste and identify, meaning those trials weren't properly blinded. The authors' own conclusion is that a causal link remains unproven.
• He et al., 2008 (Obesity, INTERMAP study) - This is a cross-sectional observational study of home MSG use in rural China. It found a statistical association with BMI, but the authors themselves frame it as MSG "may be associated" with overweight risk, not causation, and it can't rule out confounding from overall diet.
• Wang et al., 2011 (Nature 472:57–63) - This is about gut bacteria metabolizing dietary phosphatidylcholine (from eggs and meat) into TMAO and its link to cardiovascular disease. Glutamate and MSG aren't mentioned.danger at typical intake.
• Nakamura et al., 2013 (J Nutr Sci Vitaminol 59(2):129-35) - This isn’t on your list, but is a two-generation mouse study specifically designed to replicate earlier MSG-obesity claims, using realistic long-term dietary/water administration over 32 weeks across two generations. It found no effect on obesity, insulin resistance, or dyslipidemia.

Did you know MSG is made through fermentation? 🌱

MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is built around glutamate, an amino acid that occurs naturally in many of the foods we already eat and love. It is made by fermenting natural starches like sugarcane, cassava, or corn, a process not unlike how we make yogurt, beer, or vinegar.

Here is how it works: bacteria are introduced to the starch and fed sugar. As the bacteria ferment the sugar, they naturally produce glutamic acid as a byproduct. That glutamic acid is then filtered, purified, and combined with sodium to form the white crystalline powder we know as MSG.

It all started in 1908 when a Japanese chemist named Kikunae Ikeda discovered that kombu seaweed had a distinct savory taste he could not explain. He isolated the compound responsible, named it glutamic acid, and identified it as the source of what we now call umami, the fifth taste. He then combined it with sodium salt to create monosodium glutamate, and MSG was born.

Here is the part that surprises most people: glutamate is naturally present in foods we eat every day! Tomatoes, parmesan cheese, mushrooms, soy sauce, and even breast milk all contain it.

Treat it like salt. Start with a light sprinkle, about 1/4 teaspoon per dish, and add more to taste. One bag gets you 50 servings, so there's plenty of room to experiment.

Anything savory. Stir fries, grilled meats, popcorn, scrambled eggs, fries, avocado toast, soups, roasted veggies, rice, salad dressing. If it needs more flavor, DIME works.