by Sonia Desai
What do Doritos, Parmesan cheese, and tomatoes have in common? They all contain monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG. In fact, MSG is a chemical compound found naturally in many foods. Since the early 1900s, when Japanese scientists discovered a way to distill the chemical, MSG has been used as a popular flavor enhancer throughout the food industry.
Despite its frequent use in some America’s favorite comfort foods (pepperoni pizza, anyone?), MSG has gotten a bad rap. In the 1960s, just as Keiko Green’s play Exotic Deadly describes, The New England Journal of Medicine published a letter that suggested MSG was potentially harmful—without providing any corroborating evidence. In 1968 The New York Times took things a step further by publishing an article titled “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome Puzzles Doctors.” MSG became a scary thing that mothers had to protect their children from by not letting them eat Asian food.
The insidious connection between the terrifying specter of MSG and Asian restaurants was cemented. And while society has progressed past the science of the 1960s to embrace ideas like not smoking during pregnancy, there is something about MSG and the “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” that refuses to die.
For a long time after the publication of the New York Times article, Asian restaurants and food producers combated the discourse about MSG by prominently displaying window signs and menu labels that said “NO MSG.” As late as 2013, the popular sitcom “New Girl” aired an episode featuring an MSG storyline where the main character blackmails a local Chinese restaurant owner who claims not to put MSG in his food, but (spoiler!) actually does include the seasoning.
Of course, a key part of why this MSG myth gained so much momentum was the way in which it allowed society at large to reject a minority culture on the basis of alleged science. In cafeterias across the country, children have experienced the rejection of their peers for bringing a traditional lunch from home that is “weird” or “smelly.” While adults may not use the same words, the sentiment remains the same: from using the term “smells like Indian food in a diaper” to describe any off-putting smell, to questioning if an East Asian dish is made from dog meat, there is a constant stream of ways in which Asian food is labeled as “other” and unappealing. MSG became a shorthand way to dismiss Asian food wholesale.
To this day, the Asian community is combating the fake news about MSG. In June 2022, comedian and actress Jenny Yang started a campaign called #DinnerWithGoop after Gwyneth Paltrow listed MSG as a harmful chemical to be avoided on her lifestyle platform Goop. Yang encouraged Paltrow to reexamine her thoughts about this chemical compound, and she invited the people of Goop to join her in a dinner of healthy dishes made with MSG.
And celebrity chef David Chang, of Momofuku Noodle Bar fame, has an ongoing campaign to raise awareness of the truth about MSG, and the racist myths that continue to perpetuate. In a viral video campaign called The MSG Challenge, Chang listens as people list the various ways they have experienced adverse reactions after eating food they believe contained MSG. Immediately following this, they are offered bags of their favorite snacks: Doritos, Pringles, Smart Food Popcorn. While they are happily munching away on these comfort food items, they learn that all these foods contain MSG.
So the next time you are eating your favorite comfort food, check the label and see if you can spot MSG. Oh, and MSG actually has three times less sodium than table salt and is often recommended as a replacement for salt to reduce sodium intake. It might be time to rethink what you have in your spice rack.
