The Debate is Over: MSG Revealed

A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline

Photo by Debbie Tea on Unsplash

Whenever I hear the letters MSG, I immediately think about big group dinners at the Chinese food restaurant as a kid, and the adults ordering everything with no MSG. Recently though, a friend of mine texted me to settle a debate she was having with her mom: she said MSG is bad for you, her mom disagreed, arguing it was healthy. So, who’s right?

Maybe you’re less familiar with MSG? MSG is an acronym that stands for monosodium glutamate. It’s a food additive used as a flavor enhancer. It’s white, odorless, kind of like a crystal that can be ground into a powder, and enhances the flavors of foods, especially flavors that are salty, savory, meaty, etc. In the food industry, it’s known as e621; in case you ever see that anywhere, you’ll know what it is. It’s made by fermenting carbohydrates, like sugar beet, sugar cane, and molasses, and turning it into a white powder that dissolves in water. Then, it separates into sodium and free glutamate. The FDA classifies MSG as a food ingredient generally recognized as safe (GRAS), yet there’s debate.

The debate really lies in the research. One side concluded that MSG has no clear effect on the body since it can’t tell the difference between naturally occurring glutamate or glutamic acid and the glutamate from the glutamate sodium concoction in MSG…