this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
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Nothing wrong with MSG. It’s the building block of the savory taste the same way sodium chloride is the building block of the salty taste.
The whole thing about MSG sensitivity and it being bad for you was largely xenophobic in origin, and a fascinating example of the nocebo effect.
In college I remember hearing about a study where they gave people who claimed to have MSG sensitivity a Chinese meal and an Italian meal. They claimed to have symptoms after the Chinese meal. But that particular Chinese meal had no MSG in it. Meanwhile, people didn’t report symptoms from the Italian meal, which was chock-full of MSG.
Do yourself a favor: get a shaker of MSG from your local grocery store and put that shit on eggs (along with salt). It’s amazing what a pinch of “the flavor enhancer” does.
Edit: also nothing wrong with fluoride in the water at the doses we get it. It’s good for developing stronger teeth.
I live in the Netherlands, where we don't have water fluoridation because of legal principles. Our laws don't allow medication without knowledge and consent, and fluoride is considered part of that. So if one person disagrees, you can't do it, so we don't do it.
As a result, we have markedly worse dental quality than in places that have naturally high fluoride content
The issue I have with MSG is that if you put it in everything, it becomes your new norm. I would ideally like to minimize how much MSG I eat, and keep it feeling special.
Replace the word MSG with salt and see how dumb that sounds. Adding MSG isn't a flavor, it just brings out the flavor in the foods it's a part of. It's not actually "special", it is perfectly normal and just makes all your food taste better in general.
You can absolutely ruin your palette with oversalting, or over-MSG-ing your food though.
Adding too much and adding to everything are not the same.
It does kinda work with salt, and with sugar. Just because I'm used to salt doesn't mean people don't have a tendency to use too much salt.
MSG is naturally occurring in a lot of things, including tomatoes, and so are sugars - and in the same vein, I don't want to be dependent on adding more of it to enjoy the taste of food. Of course, it's a bit late for me, the best time to be getting used to simpler flavors is as a kid, but I thankfully wasn't getting that much extra MSG, so I can at least appreciate food without that additive.
Eh, it’s never too late. Our palates can adjust.
Dating someone with a dietary need for low sodium intake meant I started cooking with less salt. After a few months of that, foods I used to like (such as plain potato chips) seemed too salty to me. I buy the lightly-salted versions of snacks now, when possible.
A bonus side effect - by cooking with less salt, I’ve been exploring other options for seasoning. I use a much wider range of spices/herbs now than I did before, leading to more interesting and complex dishes. I’d call that a win-win!
Indeed, same with salt or any other spice!
White people are never beating the allegations
I reckon not quite "any other" spice, especially since that raises the question of what is and isn't a spice, but I suppose the principle is mostly true. One caveat would be that spices can be good for you, whereas AFAIK MSG is generally just neutral.
Yeah if it was bad you wouldn’t see three East-Asian countries in the top 3 of life expectancy.
The msg "scare" was such bullshit. MSG is the fuckin bomb for making those quick meals taste great when you're in a rush. And good meals even better when you got time.
Yeah i sprinkle they shit in everything i cook
I make a "savory salt" that I just use in place of salt. It's not a miracle or anything, but it's definitely good.
By weight:
90% salt
7.5% MSG
2.5% I + G https://www.amazon.com/Sodium-Inosinate-Guanylate-350-gram/dp/B07ZQS2DL2
Big ass bottle of MSG in the drawer with the rest of the bulk spices. It is mandatory that my food is properly seasoned.
thanks I was gonna type all that out 👌