The evidence that MSG is directly harmful to health isn’t particularly compelling. People commonly attribute uncomfortable post-meal symptoms to MSG, but double-blind trials have generally failed to support this idea. Much of the hoopla over MSG relates to its ability to cause damage to a brain region called the hypothalamus, and therefore cause obesity, when injected into newborn animals (via a phenomenon called excitotoxicity). However, this appears to be irrelevant to typical levels of MSG in the diet, which don’t elevate blood levels, much less brain levels, of glutamate significantly.
