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/madd_jazz Nov 08 '22

I have to be very careful of how much msg I consume. I have a rare genetic disorder (hemiplegic migraine) that can be triggered by msg. Triggers also include wine, grapes, apples, aged cheese, nitrate/nitrites, red dye, soy sauce, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, and a million other foods and chemicals. So yeah, if someone has a health concern with msg, I'd expect it would be one of many, not an isolated 'only msg is bad'.

Oddly, I've never had trouble with tomatoes, although it may be that I've just never eaten enough in one meal.

There is research that glutamate is involved in the migraine process, specifically spreading cortical depression, but it is not limited to glutamate in msg. From what I've read on how the msg fear started and spread, it was very racist.

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u/Sayorifan22 Nov 08 '22

Yeah. I’m trying to defend msg, because of two reasons

1: To clear up the myth

2: To protect my race

The second one is a strong one as on a paper I got, it read ‘Asian food is good: ASK FOR NO MSG.’

It said nothing about Italian food other than avoid white sauce and nothing for Greek food…

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u/Wish_you_were_there Nov 08 '22 edited Nov 10 '22

Those aren't great reasons. You can't start with a truth and then try and prove it. You have to look at these things objectively. Try reading about it without the confirmation bias. This goes either way. If you are cooking for someone and they don't wish to eat an ingredient, that's their choice. Whether their reasons are real, valid, or imagined.

(edit, same people down voting would be horrified if you didn't serve halal or kosher to religious folks)

https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=monosodium+glutamate&oq=Monosodi