Ramblings of a queer girl

clatterbane:

lesshumansmorecats:

fromonesurvivortoanother:

zuky:

This is the story of a racist myth that began with a light-hearted letter to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968 and subsequently exploded in North American culture — in direct opposition to every shred of scientific evidence — becoming so prevalent that credulous eaters buy into it to the point of experiencing its effects on a purely psychosomatic basis. 

It’s often been called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” and its premise is that MSG in Chinese food results in unpleasant allergic reactions. Interestingly enough, higher quantities of MSG in non-Chinese foods are not reported to have the same effects. MSG is a naturally occurring amino acid, and some of the highest levels of MSG a North American consumer is likely to ingest come in vine-ripened tomatoes, aged cheese, and dry-aged steak — yet there is no reported medical phenomenon known as “Italian Food Syndrome” or “American Steakhouse Syndrome”.

Monosodium glutamate was first isolated from the seaweed kombu, commonly used in the Japanese broth dashi, by biochemist Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University in 1908. He named its taste umami because it differed from the five conventional flavours of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and spicy. Ikeda patented his discovery and MSG became commercially available in 1909. It was found to enhance flavours with one third of the amount of sodium as traditional salt, i.e. sodium chloride. In this sense, monosodium glutamate is probably healthier than sodium chloride because it achieves flavour with reduced sodium levels.

MSG was immediately popular in Asia and became common in the North American food industry after World War II, used in baby food, canned soup, vegetable juice, frozen food, as well as seasoning mix brands such as Accent. Yet somehow in the 1960s, this popular food additive became associated with Chinese food and deemed a health hazard. Why? Because Chinese people, culture, and food have been targeted by widespread and effective racist hate campaigns in North America since the 19th century, buttressed by wild claims that the Chinese are “unclean”, carry diseases, are sexually-deviant opium addicts, inscrutable and sneaky, a Yellow Peril. 

The 1968 letter to the New England Journal of Medicine which solidified the myth of MSG was actually written by a Chinese immigrant named Robert Ho Man Kwok, who described “numbness at the back of the neck, gradually radiating to both arms and the back, general weakness and palpitation” after eating in American Chinese restaurants. The letter opened the floodgates to a barage of letters and related articles complaining of headaches, dizziness, paralysis of the throat, tingling in the temples, tightness of the jaw, irregular heartbeat, depression, hyperactivity, and all manner of digestive ailments. 

Given this preponderance of anecdotal evidence, numerous scientific studies have been performed since then attempting to identify this “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”. The funny thing is that no study has ever been able to do so. When people don’t know that they’re consuming MSG, they don’t suffer adverse reactions. All national and international food safety bodies have concluded that MSG is perfectly safe. People in Japan eat MSG every single day and the Japanese have the longest life expectancy in the world.

Fear of MSG is a racist remnant of the Chinese Exclusion era which exists only in North America and has been thoroughly debunked by science. Yet racist socialization is so powerful that people actually experience physical effects such as headaches, depression, and indigestion based solely on their indoctrinated fear of Chinese people and Chinese food. Think it over next time you eat parmesan cheese or a vine-ripened tomato.

guess what also gives people headaches? eating foods with high sodium content without drinking any liquids

“In a study performed by Tarasoff and Kelly (1993) 71 fasting participants were given 5 g of MSG and then administered a standard breakfast. There was only one reaction, and it was to the placebo in a self-identified MSG-sensitive individual.[18] In a different study done by Geha et al. (2000), they tested the reaction of 130 subjects who reported sensitivity to MSG. Multiple DBPC trials were performed and only subjects with at least two symptoms proceeded. Only two people out of the whole study responded in all four challenges. Because of this low prevalence, the researchers concluded that the response to MSG was not reproducible.”
~ http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate

Also, worth a link for the title alone: If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in Asia have a headache?.

The panic has never made any sense to me, but I’m not sure it’s even supposed to make sense. It’s also spread well beyond the US where it started, AFAICT. The whole fear of contamination by “chemicals” thing is going pretty strong here in the UK too, from what I’ve seen, and the unsupported concerns about MSG fit right into that. (Partly reminded by that link coming from The Guardian.) I wouldn’t be surprised if the Asian associations there had also helped with the suspicions that it might be dangerous spreading elsewhere in the West.

I’ve never heard that there wasa specific ‘MSG myth’ but I had absorbed the idea that MSG was artificial and bad for you, and I live in England. I wonder why the original letter was written in 1968 though. It doesn’t seem especially funny…

A man was mowed down by a car and then attacked with knives by two men in what seemed like a totally unprovoked attack.
Later reports suggest the attackers uttered statements claiming their reasons for the attack were political, especially their grievance for Muslims suffering around the world.

As a Muslim Imam, let me start by expressing my sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased. There is no justification whatsoever of this kind of cold blooded murder anywhere in the world.
I too, like many in this country am not happy with the military expeditions that our country has ventured into over the past decade. In fact, I’m quite certain, many military personnel and families are also not happy at them being sent out to Iraq and Afghanistan etc.

However, this is the decision of a democratic government and those who are not happy have a democratic right to protest through democratic means. No one has the right to take the law into their own hands, no matter what the grievance. And then to kill someone in broad daylight, apparently mutilate his body, something which the Prophet (saw) did not allow even in the battlefield, how can one justify this gruesome act?

It is very easy for some to muddle this act with the suffering of Muslims around the world and we really need to separate the two. Two wrongs do not make a right.

We have to condemn this killing unreservedly. As Imams and leaders in the UK, stand up responsibly and be clear in your condemnation and do not let people peddle you towards justifying this act, because of the wrong that is happening elsewhere.

It should also be pointed out to those who will paint the whole Muslim community with the same brush. While two men apparently from the Muslim faith were committing this heinous crime, hundreds and thousands of Muslim Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers were helping people in this country, saving peoples lives, regardless of faith, colour or creed. Many Muslim doctors were in theatre saving people’s lives at that exact time.
While these two men claiming to be Muslims were carrying out their calculated brazen murder on the streets of London, hundreds and thousands of Muslim men and women were educating our children in schools up and down the country. Teaching them to be good citizens, living side by side, treating each other with respect.
Some Muslims were cleaning our streets, cleaning our hospitals to save people from infection, some were feeding the elderly, some were reporting on the incident as journalists.
Don’t tarnish a whole community because of the actions of 2 criminals.
Don’t tarnish a whole faith because of the actions of two murderers.
Muslims condemn this act unreservedly.

—Imam Yunus Dudhwala, East London, UK (via lifeisonebigantic)

(via youknowyourebritishwhen)