How to Use MSG Without the Guilt Trip
2025-01-15 · 5 min read
Monosodium glutamate is one of the most unfairly maligned ingredients in the history of food. The fear around MSG originated from a 1968 letter to the New England Journal of Medicine in which a doctor described numbness after eating at Chinese restaurants. That anecdotal letter, not a study, launched decades of pseudoscientific panic that has been thoroughly debunked by every major food safety organization on the planet.
The FDA classifies MSG as generally recognized as safe. The European Food Safety Authority, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization all agree. Controlled double-blind studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that MSG causes headaches, flushing, or any of the other symptoms attributed to it. The myth persists because it is tangled up in anti-Asian racism, not science.
MSG is a sodium salt of glutamic acid, an amino acid that occurs naturally in tomatoes, parmesan cheese, soy sauce, mushrooms, and breast milk. When you rave about the umami depth of a slow-cooked tomato sauce or a hunk of aged Parm, you are raving about glutamate. MSG is simply a purified, concentrated version of the same molecule. Ajinomoto, the company that first commercialized MSG in Japan in 1909, sells it in red-and-white shakers that should be in every kitchen.
Using it is simple. Add a half teaspoon to soups, stir-fries, roasted vegetables, marinades, or anywhere you want a savory depth boost. It contains about a third of the sodium of table salt, so it actually lets you reduce overall sodium while increasing flavor. Think of it as a seasoning amplifier. It does not taste like anything specific on its own. It makes everything else taste more like itself.
The guilt trip around MSG is a cultural artifact that has no basis in evidence. Use it freely, use it often, and stop apologizing for it. Your food will be better, your sodium intake will be lower, and the only thing you are losing is an outdated prejudice that never should have existed in the first place.
