Territory’s Senior Manager of Nutrition, Danielle McAvoy explains how a harmless, natural, and absolutely delicious ingredient became one of the most misunderstood and maligned ingredients.

For decades food products and restaurants have slapped NO MSG labels on their packaging and menus. No one wanted to be associated with the food additive that was blamed as the source of headaches, dizziness, numbness, and heart palpitations, symptoms grouped together under the unfortunate name, “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.” 

The problem, aside from the blatant racism, is that none of it is true. MSG is as natural and harmless as salt, a fact that has been affirmed by a 2019 research review and verified as safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). 

Recently, a movement has taken hold to restore MSG’s reputation. In January of this year, Whole30 joined in and declared that they’re taking MSG off their list of Off-Limits Additives. And businesses like Omsom, which sells pre-packaged blends of Southeast Asian spices and sauces, are fighting back by proudly embracing the MSG content of their products. 

MSG’s problems began back in the 1960s when The New England Journal of Medicine published a letter under the heading Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. The writer complained of feeling ill after eating Chinese food. He suggested that maybe it was the salt or the cooking wine that made him feel ill, or perhaps the monosodium glutamate used in the food, and urged the medical community to conduct more research. The letter was signed by Robert Ho Man Kwok, MD, Senior Research Investigator, National Biomedical Research Foundation. Despite the fact that the name was fake and the National Biomedical Research Foundation never existed, the idea that MSG could make you sick took hold without a single research study to back it up. 

The letter turned out to be a hoax, a bet between two friends that was never meant to be taken seriously. Still, it spawned a decades-long misunderstanding of a harmless flavor enhancer. As Whole30 Co-Founder and CEO, Melissa Urban says, “...negative associations around MSG are rooted in racism and questionable research that dates back to the 1960s. And in fact, decades of research have not found a strong connection between MSG and the symptoms that people associate with consuming it.”

Often called “umami powder,” monosodium glutamate (MSG) is derived from the amino acid glutamate. It’s a lot like table salt (sodium + chloride), MSG is sodium + glutamate, but adds more of a savory flavor to foods. It may actually be better for you than salt. (MSG has a third as much sodium and can be a good alternative for those looking to cut back on sodium.)

The truth is that glutamate is pretty hard to avoid. It’s an amino acid that the body can produce, and it occurs naturally in many fresh foods. Most of us eat around 13 grams of it daily, a lot of it naturally occurring and some from the MSG added to foods. No matter the source, our bodies metabolize glutamate the same way. It’s found in almost all foods, and particularly in high-protein ones, like meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. Many vegetables, like tomatoes, mushrooms, peas, and corn contain glutamate, as do fermented foods like miso, kimchi, soy sauce. It’s in green tea, and even human breast milk. 

As stated in a post on the Omsom website titled, The Roots of Anti-MSG Xenophobia, “MSG is everywhere. It’s not some sinister Chinese plot to make Americans feel ill. MSG is plant-derived, made with fermentation, and 100% safe.” 

In the decades since the first studies on MSG, researchers have never been able to reproduce the results. Extensive research has shown that MSG doesn’t cause any adverse effects, even in people who claimed to have an MSG sensitivity. Studies have never found a correlation between eating foods high in MSG and headaches, and ingested glutamate doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier, so it can’t affect the nervous system.

As with all foods, sensitivity is always possible, but the rate of MSG sensitivity is less than 1% of the population. There’s no reason for the other 99% of us to avoid it.