Talk:Monosodium glutamate

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Comment

Someone with fancy wiki widgets categorize this.--Tom Moore^{fiat justitia} 04:31, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Anecdotal evidence of discomfort

There has frequently been debate here and elsewhere over the so-called 'Chinese Restaurant Syndrome' - purely anecdotal evidence of some discomfort or mild short term reactions to foods containing MSG in some form or other. These include headache, dizziness, sweating, sleeplessness, heart palpitations, upset stomach and more. None are considered serious or 'medically significant', and there's no evidence that any of it is true, yet I for one know that I've always suffered from it. But the scientific evidence suggests I'm a woo-meister. So I'm curious - have any other Rationalwikians ever been inclined to deny their rationalism and admit they've had some kind of adverse reaction to MSG-laced food? And that they try to avoid its consumption? Be honest now….. DogP (talk) 04:56, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

Could be that the foods you ate with MSG had some other substances that caused your symptoms. Or it could be a nocebo.--Krej^talk 16:17, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

It's possible some people may have a genuine MSG intolerance, although I don't know how much research there is in this area beyond the anecdotal evidence. The problem is that sufferers tend to generalise from their experiences that MSG is bad for everyone, & there are plenty of hypochondriacs willing to jump on the bandwagon. Wẽãšẽĩõĩď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 18:42, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

Krej - no, I'm been pretty scrupulous over the years about examining the conditions under which it affects me - see my Talk page for the discussion which sparked this comment wherein I explain what my controls have been. And Weaseloid - I don't generalize, I just know I experience it, and I've met one other person who said it affected them similarly, but I have no idea if that's true at all. Yes, there's a passel of people who would love to suffer from something, and I'm always steering clear of them. I'm only claiming that it happens to me. DogP (talk) 06:22, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

There is now evidence for Chinese Restaurant Syndrome in peer reviewed research, I added one reference to the main page. Femilisk _{is watching} 17:08, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Coming very late to the convo, but I have a particularly devious and shameful way of tricking my patients into admitting that they do not in fact have any issues with MSG. Those patients who make a note of this when responding to my questions about allergies always raise their MSG intolerance as if it were tantamount to immediate anaphylaxis or instant fatality, as if one grain of this harmless substance would be more hazardous to them than exposure to ricin or cyanide gas—and it’s always puzzled me why they feel a need to express their degree of alarm about this precaution to me, as if I might inadvertently prescribe it to them. Nevertheless, I dutifully document their dire condition in their chart, and later on in their visit (or maybe even a visit or two later), I ask them what their favorite Frito Lay product is—are they a Cheetos person, or maybe more of a Doritos enthusiast? And I swear that with very few exceptions (the occasional patient who claims to disdain snacks altogether and only eats Whole Foods products ((another story in itself)), they answer affirmatively. “Oh, Cheetos are WAY better!”. Then I timidly ask them if they’re aware that Cheetos are literally chock full of MSG—way more than they’d get from a dish of Lo Mein—and well, I won’t delve into the range of responses I get. Let’s just say my patients are aware that I have a unique sense of humor, but this is just a long-winded way of proclaiming that MSG occurs naturally in many of the foods we eat everyday (tomatoes, mushrooms, soy sauce, red meats, the list of umami foods go on and on), and anyone who claims to have a severe reaction to it is woefully misguided. It’s ok though, it’s really not an issue of global concern if they never touch a Cheeto again, I just find the whole thing bizarrely amusing. Srkbear (talk) 01:36, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Removed 1991 Study

I have removed the 1991 study which had been added by Femilisk earlier this year for the following reasons:

• The study was given a disproportionately large amount of page space
• The study is 23 years old
• It's findings (MSG causes migraines) are counter to those of newer studies which are already cited in this article.
• The study fails to explain why foods which naturally contain MSG (Soy products, cheeses, tomatoes, etc) are not known to cause migraines.
• "Despite a widespread belief that MSG can elicit a headache, among other symptoms, there are no consistent clinical data to support this claim." (2006)-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20470841
• "there are no consistent clinical data to support this claim. In addition, findings from the literature indicate that there is no consistent evidence to suggest that individuals may be uniquely sensitive to glutamate." (2010)-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20470841

PatrickJS (talk) 19:50, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

"The study was given a disproportionately large amount of page space & The study is 23 years old " are not valid reasons to remove data. The third, if true, IS a valid reason but im not seeing sources to back it up--Miekal 20:00, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Immediate admission of ignorance

So this isn't my area of expertise, but there wasn't anything to do with "rabbits" so misleading edit summaries had me spooked. Nonetheless, I've gotta deliberate on the point, at least a little now that I'm involved. The first result on google scholar looking briefly is a small-sample size(but still double-blind) study with staggering results. Look, 2/14 for control group, 8/14 for experimental group. That's not "no clinical data" to support the notion. I'm now afraid that the article might have a conclusion bias. Ikanreed (talk) 20:01, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

And the next source that actually seemed topical: [1] According to a double-blind placebocontrolled study in self-identified subjects sensitive to MSG, there is an apparent threshold dose for the occurrence of symptoms of 2.5 g MSG (Yang et al., 1997). Ikanreed (talk) 20:09, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

I have added multiple studies, all of which are newer than the 1991 one I removed, debunking the claim that MSG causes migraines. See also: [[2]]

PatrickJS (talk) 20:20, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

I think you're conflating articles asserting inconclusive results with asserting negative results. Ikanreed (talk) 20:36, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

The sentence I added uses the phrase "no consistent clinical data," and I think it's pretty clear what I mean by that PatrickJS (talk) 20:39, 15 July 2014 (UTC)