“NO MSG” But Why?

8 out of 10 times I walk past a Chinese restaurant, I see “NO MSG” posted in the window.
Who is MSG, and why do we hate him?

MSG, short for monosodium glutamate, is a seasoning that gives food that rich, savory flavor we call umami, the fifth basic taste alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. We’re all familiar with the first four, but umami often gets treated like the forgotten sibling.

Here’s the thing: this isn't some futuristic flavor made in a lab. You've been eating umami your whole life. It's in foods naturally high in glutamates like meat, seafood, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, and even cheese. And guess what? That “NO MSG” sign on the window doesn’t mean the food is free of glutamates. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to cook without them unless you’re serving plain water and air.

If we’re okay with processed sugar and salt, why is processed MSG still feared?

The Irony? Chefs Use It All the Time.

Almost every professionally trained Western chef I’ve spoken to uses MSG in their kitchen. They might not shout it from the rooftops, but it’s in their pantries, right alongside the Maldon salt and black truffle oil.

So if chefs use it, and we consume it naturally, what exactly are we afraid of?

A Letter, a Myth, and a Lot of Xenophobia

The fear of MSG can be traced back to 1968, when a doctor named Robert Ho Man Kwok wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. He mentioned feeling strange after eating at Chinese restaurants, maybe due to the cooking wine, the salt, or possibly MSG. He never singled anything out, but readers (and the media) latched onto that last suggestion.

At the height of Cold War xenophobia and anti-Asian sentiment, MSG became a convenient scapegoat, foreign-sounding, mysterious, and easy to vilify. Soon, people began writing in with every possible symptom imaginable, blaming MSG. Headaches, sweating, numbness, palpitations, you name it. But there was no consistency, no solid science behind the panic. Just fear.

And once fear is embedded in our collective psyche, it’s incredibly hard to unlearn.

But It’s Time to Rethink MSG

We now have decades of scientific studies showing that MSG is safe for the vast majority of people. And yet, this myth continues to be passed down without question.

So next time you walk past a restaurant proudly declaring “NO MSG,” take a second to challenge that idea. Not only is it likely untrue (glutamates are everywhere), but it also doesn’t matter. MSG is just another tool to make food delicious and there’s no reason we should be afraid of that.

Let’s stop treating flavor like a villain.