We agree that a psychosomatic response is always possible.

However, how do you explain, to a child, who has never heard of MSG, whose parents never heard of MSG, that they are having as psychosomatic response to MSG?

Telling someone that they are having a psychosomatic response is a delicate subject that can be a bit insulting.

On the topic of posting biased resources: Our text included information from two sources on opposing sides of the argument; the FDA and Truth.org. The FDA approves the use of MSG and finds it “generally safe”. Truth .org would probably disagree with that statement. Who is right? Who is biased and who isn’t? The FDA is a government agency and it has an objective.

MSGTruth.org also has an objective as well as a long list of independent studies on MSG. http://www.msgtruth.org/related.htm

We looked at two sides of a coin in our discussion. We are a food blog that discusses a myriad of topics. Our opinion is reflected in our text, in our blog. We are not a scientific journal.

“Or, if a person is consuming both types of MSG can it be overload?”

If a person knows that they’re consuming MSG (and this also seems to happen for vegans with meats), and in their mind they have this aversion to it, they’ll develop response in the body. A psychosomatic response. Some people will become physically ill.

I would also be very weary of posting biased resources in any kind of argument. Research hasn’t been very conclusive on relating health problems to MSG.

EVEN Miso paste has Amino San…no need I think because it’s already fermented. MOIIII “wink”. I think it’s unnecessary too, but surprisingly, every packaged product has that stamp “amino san” if it’s a savory product.

Camille and I both get headaches from the chemical MSG, but the natural form doesn’t seem to bother us too much.

What do you think Nami san?

My mum used to put MSG in all our foods and when I was younger I used to ask what it was, she said “it’s a special salt that brings out the flavour in food”. I believe that, and I’ve never gotten sick eating it, but I don’t use it in my cooking preferring natural MSG (parmasean, tomato concentrate, soy sauce) for flavouring instead.