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I have been known to attribute migraine-like headaches to MSG...But for what it's worth, in the last year, I've phased out most (let's say 95%) of all processed foods, including condiments.

My headaches have declined in great numbers--so it could have been any number of food-related things, from MSG to HFCS or even saccharin. But for someone who used to have three headaches a week and now has maybe one every other month... I'm going to go ahead an attribute them to processed foods. Whether or not it was MSG (or all in my head) remains to be known!

My husband loves MSG, Bob's season salt being his favorite. I find the taste nauseating. If he puts it on his food and I take a bite I can immediately tell and I don't like it. Blech!

~Mrs. Foss

A good friend of ours is from Laos and she calls MSG "Salt." It goes in almost everything.

I love MSG. So tasty.

My mom has always cooked with MSG. No one in my family has ever experienced any adverse reactions to it. We're all as healthy as horses.

I bet some people do have a sensitivity to MSG, but I am skeptical of all the people who eat crappy Chinese takeout, feel nasty afterward, and blame MSG. You kinda see this playing out these days with all these people who are suddenly 'realizing' that they are lactose or gluten intolerant. Some of these things are red herrings.

I can handle MSG in the quantities found in most processed foods (condiments and chips), but when my former Vietnamese roommate added it to her food, I had the hardest time digesting it. It makes me feel ill and bloated and bleh. I guess it's all about proportions.

And slowdown -- I know nothing of gluten intolerance, but lactose intolerance can develop over time.

MSG sits in the spice drawer ( actually the salt and pepper drawer next to the spice drawer ) and is great for making simple vegetables taste amazing.

chopped up freshly washed broccoli in a wok with a pinch of MSG a shake of soy sauce, some chili flakes and a small pat of butter, cook for about 2 minutes till the broccoli is bright green but still crisp, perfect.

never once have i had any digestive issues, use it in moderation like anything else.

I didn't realize how much I loved it until one day I realized that all that crazy delicious party food that I can't help but scoop up again and again... all contained MSG. Ranch dip, onion dip, Doritos, etc. I don't have any in my kitchen only because I've never had a recipe that called for it... but if I knew how to use it, you bet I'd throw it in!

I use this stuff called Tiger Seasoning on almost EVERYTHING. MSG is listed as the second ingredient. I eat a lot of whole grains and vegetables and even if they are sort of bland the Tiger Seasoning makes it taste delicious. Until now I always kind of felt like it was a guilty pleasure, thinking that MSG was bad. It is hard to find, so when I see it (usually in the cajun foods section) I I stock up.

As someone who is gluten and lactose intolerant and only found out as an adult, I kipper your red herring! (I don't even know what that means!) I feel amazingly healthier avoiding all gluten and dairy. I actually enjoy eating, whereas before I did not because I felt sick after every meal. Also, the Mayo clinic has come out with a study recently that more people have celiac/gluten intolerance than 50 years ago. From what I understand, celiac is one of the first things the Mayo Clinic tests for when you have an undiagnosed illness.

Getting off that soapbox; MSG also makes me feel gross. I avoid it when I can. No chinese food, Doritos, etc. and use only organic condiments. Some of us are just.........sensitive. :-)

MSG gives me tummy aches every time, so I stay away if I can!

nope, no MSG for us. we don't eat processed foods, and don't eat out too often. I'm somewhat concerned about a handful of studies that suggest that MSG consumption may affect neurotransmitter levels in the brain. Besides, if a food is properly cooked and seasoned, MSG is not necessary!

MSG and artificial sweeteners shall remain on our no-no list.....

I get violent headaches everytime MSG sneaks into my diet. Sodium Inosolate and Sodium Guanylate also give me nasty headaches. I refuse to buy anything with MSG or it's chemical cousins. They are neuroactive peptides and give me horrible problems. Therefore, I avoid all processed foods and stay with the fresh, unaltered meats and veggies.

I did the same thing as amber77 above, eliminated almost all processed foods, making almost everything from scratch at home using natural ingredients and my migraines have decreased probably 90%. I rarely need my migraine pills (Imitrex) anymore. Whether it was MSG, excess sodium, or the numerous preservatives in processed foods, it doesn't matter to me anymore. It's all in the same camp.

I don't much like it or use it as a single element, but I'm not phobic of it either. I will use Maggi seasoning in some things, but generally I think it's kind of a cheap cop-out and prefer the ingredients that have natural glutemates instead. Give me fish sauce, shitakes and seaweed any day over MSG.

The power of suggestion is very strong.

There's a good chance that people who think MSG gives them a headache will get a headache from it. They'll probably get the headache just if they believe what they ate had MSG in it, even if it didn't. That easily could account for some of the problem.

There's almost always a "a handful of studies that suggest" one way or another. If you actually read the paper and analyze the study design, you can usually find some errors with it. Unfortunately, these studies get published still because any data is at least theoretically useful. Even huge well designed studies like say the groundbreaking Framingham Heart Study have problems. It's hard to apply the results regarding heart risk factors to everybody because not everybody resembles the population of Framingham, MA.

BTW, lots and lots and lots of things effect the levels of neurotransmitters in your brain.

I get rather ill from foods with MSG. Generally I get very tired, can't keep my eyes open and have a hard time focusing.

Glutamate is naturally occurring. Your body even makes it. It plays a role in metabolism, and in the brain, it functions as a neurotransmitter. The problem is, too much has an excitotoxic effect on neural cells; epileptic seizures can be induced in susceptible people by injecting them with glutamic acid. While it hasn't been scientifically demonstrated that eating foods containing MSG can cause problems, it has been demonstrated that excess levels of glutamic acid do cause problems.

So, yes, some people are in fact sensitive to the effect of MSG. Small amounts such that are found in chicken or mushrooms are generally fine. But large amounts, such as the amount added to foods (General Tso's Chicken) are problematic for some people.

I wonder if the neurotransmitter thing is what affected me in the past when foods with MSG would trigger panic attacks and dysphoric sensations. Of course, other things triggered them, too, but I found it best to avoid all known triggers. So, no MSG for me!

Kassie, I love your comment, "A good friend of ours is from Laos and she calls MSG "Salt." It goes in almost everything." I experienced the same thing in SE Asia!

If it bothers you or you don't like it, I completely understand why you'd cut it out. Otherwise, I don't understand the issue either. Lots of things I love, including store-bought furikake and my late grandfather's popcorn were immensely enhanced by MSG. Furthermore, for many poor people in Asia, it's the only way to make something as simple as a plain egg or some boiled green papaya taste a little bit more special. If you don't have the negative side effects, it's no worse for you than salt, and so you use it like you would salt, fat, or anything else--in moderation, but to make things delicious!

"We tend to share the perspective of food writer Jeffrey Steingarten who wondered if MSG is really so terrible, "Why Doesn't Everyone in China Have a Headache?""

Um...that's not true, all my family are asian and I know several asians that get MSG headaches. Obviously MSG headaches don't affect EVERYONE in China, but they affect asian and non-asians alike.

As a kid I used to lick my fingers then stick them into the little clear plastic bag of MSG. I'd take a quick peek at the little rectangles and then lick my fingers clean... mmm.

This post alone is making my mouth water.

urgh... When I eat some thing that has MSG (crackers, sauces, cheap takeaway) I get bloated my digestive system virtually slows to a halt and my heart rate goes up. I feel tired and mentally slowed.

It makes me feel dodgy just reading how much people love it.

My mom put Ajinomoto in nearly everything she cooked when I was growing up. I had migraines since early childhood. I stopped eating processed foods, thus avoiding MSG, as an adult, and my migraines have gone from weekly to maybe twice-yearly if that. But still, I don't think it's an MSG issue - I eat in plenty of Asian restaurants that probably use MSG and I don't have any problems.

Instead, I blame sodium, which my mom also used very liberally (as do restaurants and processed foods manufacturers). I think in excess, it constricts the blood vessels in the brain, triggering migraines. The studies were originally done in the 1960s, the heyday of processed foods - my guess is that "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" was more the result of poor quality processed crap than MSG.

People cook with MSG at home? On purpose? Really? From a website that tends to focus on fresh, unprocessed, local food, this content is confusing to say the least.

MSG, heavily salted foods, and strangely, soaking in bath salts, give me an allergic reaction that causes me to feel nauseated and shiver constantly for about 40 minutes. And then it passes and I just feel sleepy. So I try to steer clear.

yup, i cook with msg and I have no problems with it. My family has been eating it for generations. I think it is racist to associate msg with chinese food/asian food when it's also in lay's chips, doritos, cambell soup, hamburger helper and the list list goes on and on. Do people get side effects from those too? I'd chose "cheap chinese" anyday over Mcdonald's!

What wunami said.

When I mentioned 'red herrings', I was basically stating (opaquely) that correlation doesn't equal causation, that a controversial ingredient or substance (that's been discussed often by the media) could cause some people to assume they have food sensitivities when it might be something else. It could be that you're sensitive to gluten, lactose or MSG, but it could very well be something else in what you're eating, or some environmental factor, or combination of causes. Sometimes these food studies are just not very well-conducted.

And Kristina, I think The Kitchn has done plenty of posts about non-fresh, processed and non-local foods. It talks about eating local, fresh foods quite a bit, but not exclusively. And I like it that way--more accessible.

I absolutely don't go out of my way to avoid it, but I don't have any to toss into my cooking.

I'm a Steingarten fan, and I agree with him on this one.

Emily

I love me some MSG! A while back I clued in that the principle ingredient in my mother's favourite seasoning (and stocked in my cabinets as well), a boullion base known as Vegeta, is really just MSG in disguise. I can't eat soup or schnitzel without it.

MSG isn't a deal-breaker for eating at a restaurant, but I certainly wouldn't buy a bag of it and use it at home.

oh, I am allergic to MSG...my mouth starts to itch starting at the palate, then it goes to my nose and then my mouth goes numb. I have the problem with MSG in prepared foods (like my hubby's Ex's favorite fast meal, Hamburger Helper--seems MY Ex likes it too, blech!)...chips, dips, salad dressings, etc.

In addition to MSG, I'm also allergic to Sulfites (yes, that means NO wine!), and the sugar free substitute, Splenda (sucralose)...so it's a fun time in the grocery store.

I don't cook with MSG, but I don't avoid it, either. It's just a chemical that's found normally in food - like salt. In excess, it's not good, and I am sure some people are sensitive to it. It does make Goya Sazon very tasty, though.

However, I am extremely skeptical of the whole "glutamate is a neurotransmitter so it gives you headaches" claim. I have looked in scientific journals to see if there is any research that has been done on this topic, and there has. It seems that glutamate levels in your brain are tightly controlled at the blood-brain barrier. Glutamate levels in the brain don't fluctuate when serum (blood) levels of glutamate change.

It seems to me that the cause of the MSG headache is something else. Maybe an allergy, and certainly, in some cases, the power of suggestion.

Also, I don't think something that some people don't like should be a verboten topic on a food blog. Hooray for open discussions!

I think the jury is still out on whether MSG is bad for you or not.

Personally, I do avoid it if I can, but that's because I tend to overeat foods that contain MSG. I don't need help in that department! If you've ever had Taco Works chips, you'll understand...

Well, there are a lot of things out there that are bad for you.... like foie gras, but that doesn't mean it doesn't taste good or that you should never eat it. Anything is ok in moderation.

I've tried making fried rice without it...once. Just once.

Maybe because MSG is not something my family ever cooked with. Or not a kind of food you can find in traditional European cuisine (which heavily influences my cooking), but it never occurred to me to buy it or add it into the food I make.

I can tell if MSG is in a food almost immediately - it tastes metallic to me in a weird way. Not only does it give me a whopper of a headache, but it also alters my mood, which I do NOT like. (Think PMS type mood instability.) I have a similar reaction to liquid smoke and sodium nitrite/nitrate. It's been this way since I was a little kid, where I just "didn't like" most of the chinese food since it "tasted funny." Some things are moderately worth it to me (One of my favourite dishes at a mexican place has it in, and once every few months I'll give in) but usually the payoff is not worth the reward.

I'm ready to believe that MSG is not as bad as it's reputed to be... but I have had the experience of eating (almost always at Thai restaurants) and saying "Wow, this is so incredibly delicious!" and gobbling up the food... then about fifteen to thirty minutes later getting a very particular kind of headache that is just in my temples. It's possible that it depends on just how much MSG is being used.

Sorry, but this whole "allergy" to MSG is mostly bull. It's yet another self-induced mental reaction that the media has scared into us. Ever wondered why hardly anyone had peanut allergies 50 years ago and now every other kid has it? Because parents read news articles about how "peanuts are closing your child's esophagus as we speak!!" and everyone panicks and scares their children and themselves into thinking they have an adversion to something. The mind makes the body believe what it wants.

My point is, if you didn't know something you ate had MSG in it, you'd have no reaction.