"Mos def" they should also put a warning on the shaker labels with symptoms for people who are sensitive or allergic to the neurotoxin - MSG.
May cause:
-face flushing, redness or swelling
-heart pounding
-feeling irritated and angry
-sleeplessness
-headache
-sweating
-facial pressure or tightness
-numbness, tingling or burning in face, neck and other areas
-rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations)
-chest pain
-nausea
-weakness

I've read where "they" (whoever "they" are) estimate about 25-30% of the world's population experience at least unpleasant symptoms from ingesting MSG, but it's still in the "generally recognized as safe" category, except not for children and pregnant women.

Personally, you can keep your soy-based hydrolyzed protein and free glutamic acid in any form (especially MSG) and everything else from soy they shove in our food. It's no wonder we eat out so infrequently. Let's pay for a lovely dinner out (with everyone shouting into cell phones and children running wild), and then feel like crap for 12-24-hours because of the "flavor enhancers".....

A pox on the new MSG trend.

-Grainlady

Although the worst I've gotten is a nagging headache, my sister wound up in the hospital in anaphylactic shock from it. I definately think that they should state the use of it on the menus.

I'm one of the 25%. I get a headache and stomach ache from it. That's why they started advertising "no MSG" on things. Some folks love it so more power to them but I'm gonna have to pass on this trend! Avoiding MSG is one of the reasons I make stuff from scratch. It is everywhere in pre-packaged stuff. I see no difference in this trend than the ranch dressing rage of a few decades ago. It's a great flavor enhancer if you can tolerate it and don't mind how salty it is, but I just can't do it.

My son and I are in the group of those who get adverse effects from MSG. DH is bothered to a lesser extent. I went to a school fundraiser at a local restaurant and was so sick for a couple of days that I vowed never to go again. The restaurant closed before the fundraiser for the next year, so I didn't have to make an excuse.

Thanks for letting me not to ever go to Momofuku and to be careful in CA generally. I will be out there 2-3 times between now and my son's graduation.

In the early 1980's I suddenly had the most horrifying headache. It was truly agony. I couldn't think of what could have caused it. It was so dreadful I thought I was dying. As the years went by I wondered if it was caused by MSG. I had been using a product called Accent or something like that. I have never forgotten that sudden weird headache. Soy products make me feel weird. Not sick, just weird. I am not a healthy eater but I sure won't use soy or MSG. Soy (and they probably use MSG) are why I can't do NutriSystem or any of the other weight loss programs.

I had EVERY ONE of those MSG symptoms, expect for nausea, after eating a snack food that I knew was not healthy but I hadn't had them in years and they just sounded good. The next day I felt hung-over and generally yucky.

Add on runny nose and coughing and that was me. Coincidentally, I read a thread on chowhound addressing MSG reactions a day or two later. Looking on the bag, yep. MSG. Some were saying it's not a true allergy scientifically because the protein is naturally occurring. So I figured I had a reaction to some other ingredient.
I've had a phlegm-y cough since I ate deli fried chicken (another likely MSG source) at my mom's last June. It comes and goes and I'm afraid its food related. Going to see an allergist soon to get it sorted out. My luck it's soy, which is in everything. MSG is a little easier to avoid.

I started making my own condiments because of all the soy used in prepared. I just didn't like the idea of using that cheap junk in EVERYTHING. It's in canned tuna! They can in vegetable broth, which contains soy. So, now I buy the expensive Italian canned in olive oil. When tuna steaks are on sale, I'll use that with olive oil in my dishes.

My DH has a asthma like attack from MSG he gets red splotches allover and almost stops breathing. We never eat out unless we are traveling. I always tease he be better be good or I will get a bottle of Accent and be done with him. Years ago we were driving through the desert I was scared to death he would die before I could get him to a hospital but he came out of it before we got home. I avoid soy and NutraSweet make me feel like IâÂÂm coming down with the flu. I read every label but itâÂÂs getting harder and harder to find much that doesnâÂÂt have soy or something bad in it.

MSG?

Check them out.

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: MSG? Who?

Another one that is in many foods is Annato, and many people have an allergy to it. It is a Central American spice that adds a golden yellow color to foods, as well as a specific flavor if enough is used. Producers like it because it is a 'natural' flavoring/dye and can even be 'organic'. It colors: McDonalds ( and most others) French Fries; butter; breads; pastas; and many other unexpected products. Our Grandson is allergic to this spice so we all read labels looking for it. Why restaurants need to have fried potatoes be more golden is beyond me, but In-and-Out is the only fast food place at which he can eat.

I remember reading a fawning article touting the home cooking in Italy. Home cooking is good everywhere, and I'm sure home cooking is fantastic in Italy, but the author was "sharing" the Italian mammas' secret: They use bouillon cubes in just about everything, starting the pan with a cube.

At that point, I cast the publication away from me with a sound akin to a snort, and to the eyebrow raised interogatorily across the room, I uttered, "MSG". With the headline showing, the story behind it was told.

It's not just Asian cuisine that has a tradition of MSG. :)

I can eat a dab of Kewpie mayo with no problem, but I do get the headache if there are layers of MSG.

Lascatx, don't worry! SF cranky signs nonwithstanding, most California eateries will gladly tell you if they use MSG. Most don't.

dcarch - I had to laugh at your link. Brought me back to the 80's when suddenly everyone declared they were allergic to MSG but that only really meant they suddenly had an averion to Chinese food. My sister was one of them. Funny thing about it, she never seemed to have a problem with my mom's cooking, and at the time Mom pretty much added a dash of Accent to most of her meals. Accent being, of course, MSG.

I kinda feel bad for people who truly have adverse reactions to MSG. Because you know behind their backs people are rolling their eyes, just like they do at the gluten free folks.

I have a bad reaction to Chinese take-out. It keeps me up all night. In my case I attribute it to the enourmous portion size (feed me and I'll eat it) which upsets my stomach and the ultra-high sodium levels which have me constantly replenishing my water glass. Is MSG part of the problem? I don't know, but I kind of doubt it. As dcarch's link shows, glutamates are everywhere.

ANYWAY. I couldn't help but have this thought. It's been said that Nathan Myhrvold's "Modernist Cuisine" has revolutionized cooking. Well he's not afraid of MSG, in fact it's prominently listed as an "unusual ingredient" in MC@Home, thus ostensibly making it chic. So let's blame him, shall we?

FOAS, that's why I initially discounted my weirdo experience for an MSG thing. The conventional thinking is that I'm blaming the wrong thing.
It's just one of the many allergy triggers found in that unfortunate, yet tasty, snack I'll never eat again. I've stayed away from items that are likely to have a heavy dose, just in case. I felt horrible.

It's not just in Chinese, it's in Mexican sazon goya and all kinds of boxed rice pilafs, etc. and evidently Italian too, and the "Accent" and it is in salad dressing. It's MSG that first made me have to become a label reader. It's also kept me away from many snack foods, but that may be a good thing for my figure. Now if I could just develop a chocolate allergy! Actually I'm not supposed to have chocolate due to the caffeine, but it is such a little amount it doesn't bother me. I have not missed MSG, but if I had to go all out gluten free I would be SO SAD! It's bad enough I had to give up wine and tea for the amines and tannins.

Yikes, no wine or tea @lpinkmountain!

I have total sympathy for people with sensitivities to certain items. Glutamates are especially tricky since, like gluten, it is a naturally occurring item in tasty things like parmesean cheese, soy sauce and walnuts.

FOAS, I'm not particularly sensitive to MSG (or other glutamates), and I have no issues with the no MSG Chinese food around here. I can eat a dish with a reasonable amount of MSG in it. But just like the "layers" of NaCl that chefs nowadays deem necessary to put in their foods (or salt soup, as I like to say), which makes me puff up with water and get a headache, MSG in every component, then added to the dish itself, or in every dish on the table, will give me a headache. Though maybe the salt problem is really, or sometimes, this resurgence of MSG?

It's not about talking oneself into non-existent sensitivities. It's about the difference between a judicious amount and way too much of even the most necessary chemical, like salt.

Whether it's the phlegm, the headache, or a full on, illness inducing allergy, if that many people are sensitive to MSG, it's certainly something that should be disclosed at the very least.

Today, this interview was on Science Friday on NPR. Here's some up-to-date info on the current research, especially the double-blind studies. There's a clean case for why MSG is not bad for you and indeed, normal and necessary.

Here is a link that might be useful: Is MSG bad for your health?

Interesting. Glad to see people doing the good science.

Also interesting that it said about the largest double blind controlled study "the researchers found that MSG produced short-lasting and minor reactions in a subset of people" but these could not be reproduced consistently upon retesting. " I wish they'd gone further to try to find out why they had inconsistencies in the subgroup's reactions.

Perhaps the headache that I've gotten is from something other than way too much MSG, though it's more like what that quote describes--short lasting and medically minor, and don't happen consistently. So I'm left not knowing if it's something other than the MSG or if there's something going on there that's just hard to measure. Salt is also normal and necessary, and I have weird reactions (though I wouldn't label them as "allergic") to too much salt, too.

The guy who pooh-pooh people's reactions based on theory, however, really annoyed me. There a condition called Aquagenic Urticaria describing people who are allergic to water. They can't touch it without pain, rash, and even blister, and even have reactions to their own sweat. It sounds ridiculous but while it's extremely rare, it's a known thing.

The dismissive guy annoyed me, too.

I read about these studies after I had my weird reaction, which is why I'm going to an allergist once some family things settle. Hopefully find out what did set it off in my case.
The studies had an awfully small sample size and, as plllog pointed out, left the question unanswered as to what was causing the reactions. Too bad they didn't stumble onto a probable.

Maybe it's the sodium load? That could explain inconsistencies in reactions since daily intake of sodium varies.

Today, on the way back from Whole Foods, I noticed a McDonald's. It made me think of this thread. It's not a place I frequent (I don't frequent fast food), but I have eaten there. I remembered that it gave me the same kind of "tight" feeling and headache that Mom & Pop Chinese food with MSG can.

Since the science supposedly says it's not the MSG, I was thinking again that it must be the sodium. I remembered, too, that I got that feeling from KFC, and often from fried chicken in general. So I thought I'd look them up. Both have beaucoup MSG or the building blocks thereof according to the great wisdom of the internet.

I've never had that kind of feeling from parmesan or tomatoes. I have a friend who is truly allergic to glutamates and can't eat any of those things.

I never get that feeling from the "healthy" Chinese restaurant I favor (they also watch their fats and sodium and use no MSG).

I don't know for sure that the headache comes from MSG. But when I thought of McDonald's, I thought that it was proof that it was the salt! Until I looked it up...