Few foods have been vilified as much as the controversial seasoning, monosodium glutamate (MSG). With stigma surrounding this ingredient spanning back decades, MSG is often missing from household kitchens or shoved in the back of the spice cupboard, its bottle unopened and unused. And for many Asian Americans, MSG’s distinct umami flavor is nostalgic — yet at the same — a cause of discomfort because of its well-contested health controversies.
Moreover, racist stereotypes surrounding this ingredient have led to distrust of many Asian foods, particularly that of cuisine served in Chinese restaurants. Branded as the cause of “Chinese restaurant syndrome” with supposed symptoms including nausea and headaches, MSG has become a seasoning that when used, is rarely advertised — let alone celebrated.
Initially discovered when Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda isolated glutamic acid from kelp in 1908, the ingredient has long held highly contested, unfounded, and controversial beliefs about its negative side effects and lack of health benefits. In the U.S., widespread fear of this seasoning has led to many avoiding this ingredient altogether. However, this contentious condiment has seen a resurgence lately in the media.
MSG: Its Chemical Makeup
MSG is made up of sodium and glutamate, an amino acid. According to Soo-Yeun Lee, professor and director of Washington State University’s School of Food Science, MSG has the ability to add a unique savory quality to foods without meat because of this unique chemical makeup.
She explains, “If you were to be just cooking vegetables, if you put a pinch of MSG, it will actually give a sense of brothiness and meatiness, although there’s no meat in it. And the reason for that, scientifically or chemically, if I were to explain it, may come from the fact that in MSG, glutamate is an amino acid – glutamic acid; glutamate is a building block of a protein. So that may be the unique thing that is providing that brothiness,…
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