Mind to use MSG??

[shroomgirl]

ummm Afra~ one time would be enough for me, I'd not do the 9 other times.....

[Marzoli]

Thanks to the lists provided earlier, I've solved some of my mysterious problems. Once I knew what to look for and to be really suspicious of canned foods, I found that lots of the things I had in my cabinet had MSG in some form. Worst of all, I've had to use canned chicken broth since I am not yet ready to make my own stock. It was loaded--even the low sodium kind, which makes no sense at ALL! Thanks for the help.

[lynne]

I have to say that it is kind of interesting to keep a food diary for a week or two, logging what you eat and how you felt afterwards, you definitely get an idea of what you should avoid or eat when you feel a certain way.

It also helps if you know you have food sensitivites, how far they really go (high or low intolerances).

For example, chocolate is supposed to be a migraine trigger, and for many people, it is. Luckily, due to ducumentation, I know it doesn't have the adverse affects (can you tell I am of the chocolate-lover persuasion?)

Thanks to MSG, I have had a severe headache for the past two days and nights and I still have it right now!!!GRRR!!! I can feel my face flushing hotly during these times!!!

[Marzoli]

After all this talk about MSG, I checked the prepared spaghetti sauce I was about to drop in my cart. Yep. So I tried making my own from scratch. That was a good thing! I found I can actually make good sauce...and NO MSG.

[Pooh]

May that be our lesson of the day:

READ labels ATTENTIVELY; and

PREPARE the most food we can from scratch!

[shahar]

It's about time someone set right the scientific side of MSG.

The human pallate has taste buds which can recognize different chemical properies of food. These are the FIVE tastes - Salty(the presence of sodium), Sweet(sugers and artificial sweetners), Sour(acids), Bitter and Umami(the presence of glutamate). Hot isn't a taste but a pain reaction.

Flavor is a complex mix of sensory input composed of these tastes(gustation), smell (olfaction) and the tactile sensetion of food as it is being munches).

The tastes are the way of the body to check the properties of food - Sour and Bitter would prevent the body of digesting poisons, sweet, salty and umami would tell the body ther's things it needs in the food.(Suger - energy, Salts - ion balance in the blood, umami - proteins used by the brain for nueron transmitions).

Umami is a taste on it's own. We're not grown to recognize it and name it but that's that allusive "chicken" taste. The name "umami" was dubbed by a Japanese Scientist who in 1908 was the first to discover how to extract Msg crystals from kelp. The name is a derivative of "delicous" in Japanese.

MSG is appearent naturally in many foods and mixtures containing lots of it were used by asians for years. It is a flavoe enhancer in the same way salt or lemon will bring all the other flavors to the front. It's like the tastes create the stage, the canvas, for the more complicated aromas(the body can reconize more the 700 different chemicals through the nose) interplat.

At the begginig MSG was extracted from wheat gluten, but nowdays it's made from either suger veet molasses or glucose solutions fermented with speciel bacteria.

About allergies - working in restarants I notice how many people are allergic to differnt things. Every night i'll get speciel orders non-gralic, non-diary, non-fava beans you name it. If you know you're allergic make sure the staff knows it. Every time.
It is true that western tend to be less or non tolerent to MSG. Just like lactose(as previously noted)is for most of earth's population.

[glutz]

Shahar,
great posting on [yeuggy] MSG.
very debatable topic,
so many alternatives, but Monosodium glutamte rules fast and convenience food industries.
How different is "Di-sodium Glutamate" ??

[isaac]

msg is basically just salt anyway.. matter of fact, you can sub. salt for msg and youll be just fine. msg is not bad for you. its found in mushrooms, sea weed, ect.

[Risa]

My mom used to always have ajinomoto in the house, but when us kids reached our teens, we couldn't stand it in the food anymore. We could tell from the taste alone that it had those awful white crystals and we did develop migraines and dry mouth. Why didn't we react similarly when we were children? I don't know. Maybe it was moving to North America and a change in diet. From all that I've read, aside from side effects in some people, commercially-produced MSG probably will not kill you. However, aren't there better ways to enhance the flavor of your dishes? Work with the naturally occurring MSG. There's already plenty in nature that you shouldn't need to add extra.

After saying that, I have to admit that I do occassionally and knowingly ingest MSG. I get cravings for ramen and other instant Japanese/Asian mixes. I pay the price afterwards with a sometimes debilitating migraine.

[Svadhisthana]

Interesting, I've had a headache for the past two days that won't go away. It just dawned on me, we went out for Chinese food the other day. I didn't even think to check about the MSG.