monosodium glutamate is MSG. It gives me a really bad reaction.
Although it has no distinct taste itself, monosodium glutamate (MSG) stimulates our taste buds and makes a variety of foods taste better. The flavor enhancer is commonly added to Asian cuisine, canned vegetables, soups, and processed meats. Made by a fermentation process using starch, beet sugar, cane sugar, or molasses, MSG is sold as a white crystal substance that resembles salt and sugar.
Many consumers often equate all "free glutamate" products with MSG, but it is only one of several forms of glutamate--a major building block of proteins. Free glutamate, which results when glutamate is released during the breakdown of a protein molecule, occurs naturally in many foods, such as meat, milk, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, and tomatoes.
In 1959, the Food and Drug Administration classified MSG as a "generally recognized as safe" food ingredient under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. But the use of MSG in food has remained controversial. In the 1980s, research showed that glutamate plays an important role in the normal functioning of the nervous system, raising questions about whether glutamate in food could affect the nervous system.
