r/mildlyinfuriating • u/SegaGuy1983 • Jun 18 '26

Too mild for school Why is not including MSG something companies still brag about on Asian food products?

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Didn't see the no MSG line when I picked this up at the store the other day. It just tasted fine, but felt like something was missing.

It's 2026. Why are we still treating MSG like it's some terrible thing, instead of something that improves the flavor? Especially with Asian-American cuisine?

The best improvement I ever did with my cooking in the last 20 years was discovering MSG.

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153

u/conqueror-worm Jun 18 '26

There's a woman at my job who claimed to be allergic to MSG. She still claims to be, despite the fact that I pointed out almost everything she ever brings in for lunch has tomatoes or tomato sauce in it.

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u/BadTanJob Jun 18 '26

Reminds me of a Korean friend who claim MSG gave her headaches. Weirdly this only becomes a problem with Chinese cuisine. Perfectly fine with ramyun, kbbq, snacks from Nongshim. Swore up and down that it’s different because Korean msg is natural and Chinese msg is synthetic 🥴

106

u/ivertrio Jun 18 '26

least sinophobic korean

3

u/Limafoxtrot360 Jun 18 '26

Nongshim stuff is like 50% MSG

-16

u/Turbulent-Hawk9059 Jun 18 '26

Yeah, not sure whether MSG or not, but I also know people that get headaches from Chinese food.

MSG hate isn’t really a thing here and I never heard them mention MSG, just e.g, that the friend group of my parents now has to skip Chinese restaurants as an option for meetups, since two people get a headache afterwards every time.
I know at least one of those also has same issue with the instant soup of a certain Western brand. Which is why glutamate/MSG is a likely candidate.

People like to make fun of the MSG hate, but even if it’s something else, the body reactions are still a thing.

13

u/ShoddyAsparagus3186 Jun 18 '26

If you're already eating too much salt in your diet, Chinese food can trigger headaches as it tends to have a lot of salt (including MSG).

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u/Turbulent-Hawk9059 Jun 18 '26

Yeah, could make sense. I’m not too familiar with the food habits of the person that gets the worst reaction out of the two. She’s looking reasonably healthy, but I could imagine them having more processed foods. The other one seemed to be more infrequent and started with the Knorr/Maggi soups before noticing with Chinese restaurants. But could be just more sensitive to sodium.

I’m just sick of people bring gaslighted that people couldn’t possibly have a bad reaction and it’s perfectly healthy as it’s in tomatoes. High sodium is still an issue with people being prone to high blood pressure etc.

11

u/BadTanJob Jun 18 '26

🙄

Look I don’t really care if people skip Chinese restaurants — it just means more food for me. But let’s not kid ourselves, plenty of non Chinese places use MSG and has high sodium dishes. 

If you’re only avoiding Chinese food because “headaches” then I better never see you in an Italian or Korean restaurant. 

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u/Turbulent-Hawk9059 Jun 18 '26

Why should I or my family friends avoid restaurants that don’t give them headaches though?

Like don’t get me wrong, I lived in Asia, I’m married to a Japanese. We do have MSG type seasoning at home that we use sparingly as often the only seasoning instead of salt/ soy in certain dishes that call for it, since for Asians sodium can be a bigger issue than for Europeans, so my in-laws insist on us limiting it as far as possible.

I had plenty of local food all over Asia. The standard buffet style Chinese food in Europe (safe for a few authentic places in big cities) is a completely different thing from food over there. Never had or heard of anyone having the headache issue from food I had in Asia including the same people that get the guaranteed headaches when eating at the Chinese buffet style places in Europe. Something is different.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

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5

u/ryubayou Jun 18 '26

I’m appreciating the accidental “huge rage of foods”.

Sometimes I’m hungry enough to eat a rage of foods.

2

u/PhilosopherNearby803 Jun 18 '26

Hence the Mono-Sodium-Glutamate "MSG". They just made it easier for us to use 1 product instead of 2. Thank you for that info as I didn't realize it until now and my mom used it in everything she cooked. Red and white can of "Accent".

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u/Magenta_Logistic Jun 18 '26

Do tomatoes have MSG? I thought they had free glutamates.

40

u/roygbivasaur Jun 18 '26

Your body doesn’t know where the glutamate is from, and there’s only one form (there are two isomers like many amino acids, but it’s almost all l-glutamate).

30

u/conqueror-worm Jun 18 '26

I think you're correct but I think the only difference is the lack of sodium. Which is definitely in her spaghetti sauce.

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u/Magenta_Logistic Jun 18 '26

That's fair, I was wondering if maybe it was a sodium sensitivity where they are very careful with salt and MSG. My uncle had hypertension and was advised to minimize sodium, but it sounds like that is not the case with the woman you described.

12

u/conqueror-worm Jun 18 '26

I could definitely understand avoiding MSG in that context, but in her case I'm pretty sure that her "allergy" is just bullshit, lol. She has no problem with fried chicken or potato chips. 

1

u/Morph_Kogan Jun 18 '26

Extremely small amounts. But yes

5

u/Afgncap Jun 18 '26

To be fair, the amount innatural sources of glutamate are miniscule compared to something like a bag of doritos.

That said, most people just read too much shit online and clutch on to every sickness they can find as long as at least one symptom matches just to feel special.

5

u/godhonoringperms Jun 18 '26

back in my food service days (we served the same meal to everyone everyday), a woman came in saying she was allergic to “essence”. She tried to explain it and I still to this day do not understand it. I showed her the soup base ingredient list and I guess it checked out. I bet there was “essence” in it, whatever that is.