MSG – Our New Friend

Funny how you stumble across something a bit profound, even when the news of it is sort of interesting, but just something to be filed under ‘trivia.’

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) has been around for centuries. You know, that bad stuff we all are supposed to avoid? It is said to be responsible for migraines, heart attacks, asthmatic attacks, and bad hair days. OK. Maybe not that last one.

It has long been known that there are four basic tastes – sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Scientists have ‘known’ this for three centuries, and they always assumed that there were only four and no more.

But it was just discovered this year that MSG has a lot to do with our taste buds. In fact, MSG doesn’t intensify the other four taste sensations, but the glutamate salts (MSG) fit perfectly into a fifth receptor on the human tongue. (This is the ‘profound’ part – a fifth taste bud! Who knew?)

This fifth taste, called “Umami.” Umami sort of means “Luscious,” and is the savory taste found in such foods as gravies, cheese, pastries, ice cream, tomatoes, seafood, and certain vegetables (NOT broccoli). So there are natural and man-made foods that stimulate this fifth receptor on the tongue besides MSG.

What makes MSG so popular with chefs and cooks today is that it brings that fifth sensation to foods that lack that flavor, (or in foods which that flavor has been cooked out of).

Just as eating chocolate stimulates the “sweet” taste receptors on our tongue, eating food seasoned with MSG stimulates the “umami” or glutamate receptors on our tongue, enhancing the savory flavor of these foods.

The Japanese who first discovered that certain foods tasted better when served with a broth made from seaweed. But it wasn’t until 1908 that Professor Ikeda (University of Tokyo) isolated MSG from the seaweed. Monosodium Glutamate is the salt form of glutamate, which some German scientists first discovered in 1848.

Today, the MSG we find on store shelves is mostly made from fermented sugar beet or sugar cane molasses, in a similar process to soy sauce , which is made by aging and fermentation.

MSG is still used extensively in Japanese cooking, where it is sold under the brand name Aji-no-moto. Ask them, and they will tell you they have a lock on the market, and no one should ever use any other ‘version’ of MSG but theirs.

MSG has also become a staple in the kitchens of many Oriental restaurants today, because it restores the glutamates in their foods which the flavoring has been cooked out of (AKA ‘cooked to death’).

Besides Chinese food, MSG is added to a great many seasonings, snack foods, soups, and other items found in your grocery store. All fast food restaurants use MSG too, for exactly the same reason it is used in Chinese food.

The FDA and other safety watchdogs still allow MSG to be used in food. They generally acknowledge that certain individuals might generally experience severe reactions, but that generally it is generally safe for the general population – generally. (Source: Department of Redundancy Department). Besides, without it, where would we go to find fast foods that can fill that very essential fifth taste sensation?

Actually, if you have a ‘U-Mammi’ in the family – a grandmother, wife or someone in your family who is a really good cook, you can thank them for preparing their meals in such a way that keeps their glutamates.

You know, the glutamates that naturally come with the basic meats, vegetables, grains and dairy products they use to cook with, and which are still present in their finished and very tasty, luscious, and memorable dishes?

This is the other profound thing, but you already know it. You don’t need to add MSG to good home cooking – and you should really stay away from fast food.

Film at 11.