Clearing MSG's Name

[Webster]

(Yahoo Health) A single letter in 1968 ruined MSG’s reputation. Science is finally clearing its name. -- “So how did a completely natural flavor enhancer become one of the most misunderstood ingredients in modern history? It’s a recipe that calls for a bit of bad science, a dash of cultural bias, and a single letter written to a medical journal. In 1968, a doctor wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine about several symptoms he was experiencing. He reported numbness and even heart palpitations after eating at local Chinese restaurants. This physician’s observation led him to a hypothesis: could MSG be the cause? This single query did not immediately prompt the medical community to conduct a peer-reviewed study. Instead, the media ran wild with the story. Local papers and news broadcasts associated MSG with the dubious term ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.’ And just like that, a safe food additive used around the globe became a culinary villain. And the stigma has stuck around ever since. . . . When FDA scientists finally put MSG to the test in the ’90s, the “syndrome” myth quickly crumbled. Research shows that consuming MSG in normal amounts causes no adverse symptoms.”
-Read more: A single letter in 1968 ruined MSG’s reputation. Science is finally clearing its name.

 

[Frankj]

Some people would say that encouraging overeating and the resulting obesity could be considered an adverse symptom, at least on a population wide scale if not on any particular individual member of it.

Studies have been done in nursing homes showing the elderly tend to eat more if MSG is used in their food than if it isn't. While this is good for the elderly in terms of nutrition think about this in terms of, for instance, addition of MSG to fast food consider addition of them to such things as fast food and other less than desirable diet items to encourage higher consumption of them at the expense of better dietary choices that are more nutritional and less fattening.