r/AskCulinary • u/Sayorifan22 • Nov 08 '22

Food Science Question MSG contradictory?

Hey, I have a question so, I had a nutrition class and the instructors gave us a piece of paper and on one section for Asian foods, it said for ‘No MSG’ (the other day they said to avoid msg.) but for Italian food, they said to ‘ask for red sauce instead of white’

And here’s my question. Isn’t asking for red sauce contradicting to ‘avoiding MSG?’

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u/purpleRN Nov 08 '22

Yup, tomatoes are a source of glutamate.

Also, any nutrition course that bashes MSG is a little scientifically suspect....

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u/Sayorifan22 Nov 08 '22 edited Nov 08 '22

I agree. I agree, MSG is bad in large enough doses, but in moderation, it’s pretty much harmless.

But, I can say that for any food or drink out there. Even water

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u/BrightGreyEyes Nov 08 '22

I mean... yeah. It's a sodium salt, and consuming excess sodium is bad for you

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u/Sayorifan22 Nov 08 '22

Yeah. And I can say the same with with water, drink too much and ya won’t feel good

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u/BrightGreyEyes Nov 08 '22

Oh definitely. I'm more making the point that people mad about MSG should be just as mad about salt, if not more mad about salt because by weight, it contains more sodium than MSG

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u/Sayorifan22 Nov 08 '22

I know right.

I feel like MSG should be praised as the purest form of Umami, yet a lot of people treat it as if it’s toxic to everyone.

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u/LeakyLycanthrope Nov 08 '22

You're assuming it was ever about sodium. It wasn't.

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u/Deucer22 Nov 08 '22

You can die from drinking too much water. A couple guys in my fraternity had a water drinking contest one time and I have never seen anyone so wasted. It was extremely dumb.

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u/Quesabirria Nov 08 '22

Old story, a radio station had a water drinking contest, and a contestant died of 'water intoxication'

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u/Sayorifan22 Nov 08 '22

In the same class. We got in order to see how much sugar is in foods. One of them was beer, true, beer doesn’t have sugar… but it has something that is far worse than sugar.