MSG contains high proportion of Sodium, the main ingredient of edible salt. Too much sodium (aka salt) intake in your food increases your blood pressure (safe intake of salt per day is equal to one tea spoon), and make you thirsty. This is because your body need lots of water to expel the organic sodium in your blood.
MSG is harmless unless you take in large quantity (thus large amount of sodium) and do not drink enough water.
Monosodium glutamate (
MSG, also known as
sodium glutamate) is the
sodium salt of
glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring
non-essential amino acids. Monosodium glutamate is found naturally in
tomatoes,
cheese and other foods.
MSG is used in the food industry as a flavor enhancer with an
umami taste that intensifies the meaty, savory flavor of food, as naturally occurring glutamate does in foods such as stews and meat soups. It was first prepared in 1908 by
Japanese biochemist
Kikunae Ikeda, who was trying to isolate and duplicate the savory taste of
kombu, an edible seaweed used as a base for many
Japanese soups. MSG as a flavor enhancer balances, blends, and rounds the perception of other tastes.
The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration has given MSG its
generally recognized as safe (GRAS) designation. A popular belief is that large doses of MSG can cause
headaches and other feelings of discomfort, known as "
Chinese restaurant syndrome," but double-blind tests fail to find evidence of such a reaction. The
European Union classifies it as a
food additive permitted in certain foods and subject to quantitative limits. MSG has the
HS code 29224220 and the
E number E621.
