Chow Down on Chinese Food – it’s okay #restaurant #msg #history #chemistry

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I’ll have you know that my local buffet includes vegetable too. Yes! Something green!

Will you, like many of my east-coast American-Jewish friends, plan your Christmas Day dinner at a Chinese restaurant? Maybe you’ve heard that MSG is commonly used in Chinese food and is bad for you. Maybe you think you’ve felt the effects. Maybe it’s not the MSG.

MSG naturally occurs in many foods, so much so that the average adult diet includes 13 grams of it every day. It’s also a primary neurotransmitter in our brains, playing critical roles in nutrition, metabolism and signaling. It’s so ubiquitous that nobody gets away from it; it’s throughout your body naturally, and it would scarcely be possible to concoct a protein-containing meal free of it. skeptoid.com

Read the entire article to learn how this common, tasty, and useful little molecule ended up with a bad reputation. Then consider:

Nobody goes into a steakhouse or an Italian restaurant and requests “No MSG,” they only do it in Chinese restaurants; which makes no sense. If you, like many people around the world, suffer symptoms reliably when you eat a meal with added MSG, consider talking to a doctor or a registered dietitian. You may indeed have some food sensitivity; however, be ready for the news that it’s not what you thought it was.

Merry Christmas.