actually, if it's not made of MSG
then it'll probably be made of strong tasting things like anchovy to try and make the flavours more meaty.

Shouldn't really be necessary
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 30 Aug 2011, 15:26, 1 reply, 15 years ago)

*copy'n'paste from a facebook group I'm in from someone who I think knows what they're talkign about*
Yesn I have tried it. Here comes my nutrition spiel: it is basically glutamic acid, of which monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a derivative. It is widely used in the far east, in fact it is often on the table next to the salt or soy sauce. The name 'Umami' actually means 'deliciousness' in Japanese, as they consider it to be the '5th flavour', after salt, sweet, sour and bitter. MSG is banned in Chinese restaurants in the UK as they used to use it liberally and this caused some people to have some nasty symptoms (I experienced it once myself, at a very crap Chinese restaurant in Chile- my friend and I ate there and almost immediately the back of my neck and face started burning. I felt light-headed and trippy, and everything was a bit surreal. The burning got worse and spread all over my throat and head but after a while these symptoms slowly disappeared- phew!!). Anyway because of these symptoms but also its widespread use in Asia, MSG/Glutamic Acid polarise opinions in the Nutrition/food worlds. I bought it recently and have used it in some sauces- it does give them extra tang and flavour but also sensitises the taste buds so I have ended up with that sensitive feeling in my mouth, like when you eat too many artificially flavoured crisps etc. Glutamic acid is a naturally occuring substance and the foods that have it most are things like tomatoes, asparagus and cheese- the highest concentration of glutamic acid per gram is found in Parmesan cheese. Tomatoes and cheese- this probably explains why Italian food is so popular the world over! And, why EVERYTHING tastes better with melted cheese on top! It is up to you if you want to try it- I have eaten heaps of Chinese take-aways and, as mentioned earlier, have only ever had a bad reaction once but there must have been shitloads of MSG in the food, for that to happen. MSG is widely believed to be bad for you- there has been a lot of research done about this and many studies have concluded that it can cause both short-term and long-term health problems yet many other studies have found absolutely not detrimental effects of MSG. Whilst glutamic acid is a natural product, I believe MSG is a synthetic variant of it therefore I would not be surprised if it did cause some problems when eaten in high doses (usually our bodies do not take to synthetic versions of naturally occuring foods, e.g. eating trans fats when we should be eating cis fats. The only difference between the two fats is the shape of the molecule yet that is enough to cause cancer). Food is a very powerful ally or enemy of health. Do some research yourselves and then decide whether to buy it or not :o)
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 30 Aug 2011, 15:39, Reply)

There is absolutely no evidence that MSG at the levels found in normal foods
has any detrimental health effect.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 30 Aug 2011, 15:42, Reply)

from personal experience
if I ate a big bag of MSG laden crisps at work, it makes me twitchy.

But eating an orange or smoking a cigarette makes that go away
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 30 Aug 2011, 15:47, Reply)

my friend gets that if she eats peanuts etc in a thai restaurant
personally i think she is a massive pink dramaqueen, but i have to look concerned. until she forgets.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 30 Aug 2011, 15:53, Reply)

it makes my mouth feel weird as well
it's pretty much only on crisps that it does it though.

Giving up smoking fags was much easier once I'd figured it out.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 30 Aug 2011, 15:57, Reply)