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Research Chef: You’re Not Allergic to MSG and More Culinary Secrets
- jrockway 16y agoI am not sure I agree with this. I routinely get frozen food from the grocery store that's $7.
- icey 16y ago"Cost" (in the grocery world) usually refers to the wholesale cost to the store.
- jrockway 16y agoBut the article says "$2-$3" as what people want to pay, and that's what stuff costs at the store.
- pkulak 16y agoMaybe a lasagna that feeds half a dozen people. That's all I've ever seen in that price range. What single-entre item costs $7?
- jrockway 16y agoAmy's organic stuff.
- mast 16y agoI think that is exactly the point the chef was making. Consumers in general are not willing to pay (or can't pay) for high quality frozen food. Look at how many brands are available in the $2-$3 range vs. higher cost items.
- jrockway 16y agoBut I mean, I can buy it at the normal "cheap" grocery store. Stores like Whole Foods have even more options.
- kscaldef 16y agoMy "normal" grocery store has Amy's and the like in a special section I think of as the "food for hippies who didn't have time to go to Whole Foods today" section. They also keep all the "environmentally friendly" cleaners and such in the same area. (I believe it is technically referred to as the "natural foods" section, but none-the-less the point is that they actually segregate the expensive, organic, natural, enviro-friendly, etc stuff off into a little store within a store.)
- dkarl 16y agoWhere you're buying it might be a big factor. Single-serving Amy's frozen dishes cost $5 or less at my local Whole Foods.
- lotusleaf1987 16y agoAmy's also charges $4 for a can of beans... they're a rip off, so not really a good example.
- kscaldef 16y agoFrozen pizzas with pictures of famous chefs on them.
- gamache 16y agoBig deal, so it's not a real allergy. When I eat food containing a lot of added MSG, my brain feels like it's on fire. Maybe it's not anaphylaxis but it's still annoying.
- Avshalom 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate#Health_concerns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate#Health_con... On one hand most of the linked studies were likely paid for by food companies. On the other hand, considering the wide variety of sources that MSG averse people don't react to, claims that it's psychosomatic seem fairly reasonable.
- sudont 16y agoThis is one double-blind test that would be fairly easy to do with friends. Try it at home, kids?
- tptacek 16y agoWhat are the foods you eat that you perceive as containing a lot of added MSG? Maybe there's something else they have in common. Insulin responses can easily and predictably give you a headache.
- gamache 16y agoTwo foods have reliably caused symptoms that I connect with MSG: the fried rice from one particular place near where I went to school, and Doritos. I can eat equivalent amounts of other fried rice or corn chips without symptoms.
- brunoc 16y agoI think I get a similar thing. A weird overwhelming sensation then a rush of fire in the neck and then brain on fire. Always at a chinese restaurant, with specific dishes.
- pierrefar 16y agoCarrageenan is on a lot of labels, and I'm often asked, 'What is that chemical?' It's not a chemical. It's seaweed! Actually, it is very much a chemical. All food is chemicals. It's just perverted advertising that convinced the masses that chemical = "something bad". For more sad laughter on this topic, the Royal Society of Chemistry's blog has a category for "chemical free" living: http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/rsc/tag/100-chemical-free/ http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/rsc/tag/100-chemical-free/ They even announced a £1 million bounty for anyone who can find a chemical-free cosmetic: http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2010/CTPA100ChemicalFree.asp http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2010/CTPA100Ch...
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- mast 16y agoAbsolutely. All food is made up of component chemicals. Still, I think people need to be more aware of the food they are eating. Have you ever had a look at the ingredients in non-dairy creamer: http://foodconstrued.com/2011/01/cream-in-my-coffee/ http://foodconstrued.com/2011/01/cream-in-my-coffee/
- pierrefar 16y agoI agree completely that we need to be aware of what we eat. My concern is that we're using really bad terminology to scare people. A much better word would be "artificial" or "synthetic" additive IMHO.
- gxti 16y agoWhich would be only marginally more specific. Humans have been eating "artificial", "synthetic" foods for thousands of years, and all of these things are made from "natural" ingredients because matter can't be conjured from thin air. Can you really come up with a test to distinguish between a just-invented stabilizing agent with unknown long-term effects on health and, say, flour?
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- jtchang 16y agoMaybe not allergic to small amounts but if I eat a large amount of MSG I get really thirsty and sometimes it triggers a bad headache.
- rglullis 16y agoHave a large amount of coke (regular or diet). Hell, have a large amount of sea salt. Same effect! You being thirsty is just because your cells are dehydrated when there is a large-ish concentration of salt on your blood. The headache you are feeling? Dehydration.
- larrik 16y agoMy favorite part? The mystery chef actually appears in the comments herself. Overall, though, the article is rather light on actual content.
- tingletech 16y ago[sigh] glutamate != monosodium glutamate. Those have glutamate but not necessarily MSG...
- tptacek 16y agoSo you think maybe that by being paired with sodium in a salt, the glutamic acid that occurs naturally in many of the most popular natural foodstuffs in the world might "set peoples brains on fire" (see above)?
- nkurz 16y agoNo, he probably agrees that they are functional analogs and is just making the point that if you are brought in as expert in an article, you should strive for as much accuracy as possible. While I agree with her general precept that MSG allergies do not exist, and I personally have no more fear of glutamates than of sodium, I'm bothered by the level of inaccuracy in the statement: "Broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes, inosinate, guanylate, and autolyzed yeast extract? Give up? They are all sources of monosodium glutamate." Guanylate and inosinate are comparable to glutamate, and often used in conjunction with it, but I don't think it's even colloquially correct to say that they contain it. Am I wrong? In the same vein, it also seems fair to point out that the naturally occurring form is different than the purified salt. Would you say that corn on the cob 'contains' high-fructose corn syrup? I'd normally just assume she was misquoted, but in the comments she attacks the discussants for "carrying on with this technical mumbo jumbo and further confusing the issue". Maybe she's a good chef, but I sure don't trust her science.
- Skroob 16y agoFor reference, the link to Whole Foods "Unacceptable Ingredients" list is here: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/unacceptable-ingredients.php http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/unacceptable-ingred...
- RoboTeddy 16y agoThe actual troublemaker is free glutamic acid, a molecule with flavor-enhancing properties. It's one of the basic amino acids that make up proteins. No one reacts badly when they eat it if it's linked up to other amino acids, but when it's running around free it causes reactions in some people. A largish dose of free glutamic acid will trigger a migraine for me (and my dad) consistently. It's anecdotal, but I'm confident that this particular anecdote would hold up in a double-blind test. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) disassociates into sodium and free glutamic acid in food; that's why it's often added. But any ingredient that contains broken up protein can be an issue; e.g. hydrolyzed soy protein or autolyzed yeast extract. MSG has a bad rep, so often foodmakers will try to slip free glutamic acid in some other way (often while shouting on the package, "NO MSG"). Food that benefits a lot from the flavor enhancer, such as canned soups, will almost always have a lot of it. Lots of stuff has _some_ amount of free glutamic acid (such as broccoli, like the article mentions) but (speaking personally), it's not enough to trigger a reaction. There aren't many foods our ancestors would've eaten that contained lots of free glutamic acid. We're talking about the same molecule that serves as an excitatory neurotransmitter in your brain. It turns out that if you eat a lot of it, it's possible to get a headache (other people claim other ailments). Not much is known about the specifics of the mechanism, but it's not that implausible.
- tptacek 16y agoSo, you can't eat parm or tomato paste then? Both have high levels of free glutamic acid.
- nkurz 16y agoMore on glutamates in parmesan and tomatoes (agrees with tptacek): http://blog.khymos.org/2007/07/06/glutamic-acid-in-tomatoes-and-parmesan/ http://blog.khymos.org/2007/07/06/glutamic-acid-in-tomatoes-...
- RoboTeddy 16y agoI avoid parmesan cheese, but I didn't know about tomato paste. Thanks for the heads up.
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- varikin 16y agoActually, some people are allergic to MSG. My wife is allergic to corn and corn derived foods such as MSG. MSG might also exist in broccoli but not in the MSG powder many people refer to when talking about MSG.
- Avshalom 16y agoMSG isn't derived from corn, and even if the sugar that fed the yeast that made the glutamate came from corn, by the time it's commercially sold MSG it is so chemically pure that it would be irrelevant.
- varikin 16y agoAccording to Wikipedia, it is made from starch, sugar beets, sugar cane, and molasses. And starch quite often is corn starch. As for the chemically pure aspect, I don't know enough to comment. No one really understands what causes allergies and no one can point out what aspect of corn causes it. For example, she also has a milk allergy (not intolerance), but does not have issues with milk that has been cooked, such as creme anglaise for making ice cream. Something with cooking the milk changes it. As for how this is related to corn, who knows. What part of corn caused the allergy? If you don't know, how do you know it was removed in the process of making MSG?
- xiaomai 16y agoI found it interesting that the chef claimed that frozen food could taste better than restaurant food. I recently bought a few frozen dinners to see what they taste like. The more expensive ones definitely taste better than the $0.88 Banquet dinners. Claim Jumper was the best, IMHO. One area where the dinners consistently fail though, is texture. Things that should be crispy (like a deep-fried steak), are soft and mushy. Can you accomplish the wide-variety of textures in frozen-dinner format without additional preparation?
- trouble 16y agoThe lack of textural variety is the main thing that puts me off frozen foods as well. Choosing a frozen meal over a restaurant meal is like choosing to eat at an old folks home instead of accepting a friend's home-cooked dinner invite. Also, people deep fry steak? Mind blown. I didn't know people did that.
- lsc 16y agoalso called "chicken fried steak" - usually it's 'cube steak" which looks a lot more like ground meat than like actual steak, then it's breaded, deep fried and smothered in gravy. It's a very traditional dish in the south, though it doesn't taste very much at all like what most Americans would call a 'steak'
- trouble 16y agoFascinating, first the concept of deep fried steak and then chicken steak? ... American food never ceases to surprise me (a pescetarian from New Zealand). So different :)
- Avshalom 16y agono, chicken fried steak is beef cube steak breaded and fried. it's "chicken fried" meaning fried in the same manner as chicken. That said, like fried chicken it doesn't have to be made in a deep fryer it can be made with a good solid layer of very hot oil in a pan.
- aaronbrethorst 16y ago> Chef Wendy, who works for a Canadian firm that develops private-label products for companies like Whole Foods, Safeway, General Mills, and McDonald's, would prefer not to reveal her last name, but that was the last thing she was reticent about. So, uh, why did she put her real name on her Chow.com account, then? Once I had that, it only took a Google search to find out where she works.
- hartror 16y agoProbably because nothing discussed in the article is actually something her employers would be worried about. The whole secrecy seems to be there to add sexiness and authority to the article. In fact the way she and her personal work and values are presented I would be pretty happy if I was her employer.
- richcollins 16y agoChef Wendy says it's absolutely possible to make a frozen meal that will knock you out of your chair with greatness. "But that entrée needs to cost $7 to $10. People are willing to spend that much in a restaurant for something mediocre but not for something fabulous from the grocery store." I would pay that in a second. I cook for myself and it ends up costing around $7 a dinner.
- steverb 16y agoOkay, either you are cooking with some seriously high-end ingredients, live in an insanely high cost of living area, or you're doing something wrong. I highly doubt that a prepackaged frozen meal that costs $10 is going anywhere near as tasty as what you can make at home for $7 a meal.
- sigstoat 16y agoplenty of people are simply abysmal at any form of 'cooking' more complicated than a microwave. the list of skills you could learn that would save you a couple bucks here and there is far longer than your arm. we can't expect everyone to have every money-saving skill, or the time to actually put them to use. (yes, everyone eats food so that seems like an 'obvious' one, but everyone also uses indoor plumbing, electricity, has a roof over their head, etc, and i hear far fewer folks suggesting that we all learn roofing.)
- stan_rogers 16y agoFrankly, as an "immigrant" to the big city, I found myself constantly flabbergasted by the things most people couldn't do that we'd just sort of taken as said back in my little Northern Ontario mining community. Hell, I even remember a minor rush on the documents supply trade when someone decided you weren't allowed to wipe your solder joints anymore when plumbing (there wasn't a plumbing code book to be found for miles around for months). Yeah, there was always that guy who couldn't swing a hammer to save his life, but he'd almost always know what to do even if he couldn't do it himself.
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- yarone 16y agoWho made that microwave burrito you're eating..."It's all in code," says Chef Wendy. If the product has meat, poultry, or eggs in it, by law it must have an establishment number or name somewhere on the label I wonder if there is an opportunity for a mobile app where you scan a food barcode/code and see where it was made. You could rate the food and see ratings of other foods made by that company / at that facility. The data is here: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations_&_policies/Meat_Poultry_Egg_Inspection_Directory/index.asp http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations_&_policies/Meat_Pou...
- prawn 16y agoA local jam/sauce maker, Beerenberg, has a Provenance Pathway feature on their site: http://www.beerenberg.com.au/go/our-products/provenance-pathway-andtrade http://www.beerenberg.com.au/go/our-products/provenance-path... Enter the barcode and expiry of the product and it will show you the recipe, when/where it was made, photos of the workers involved in its production, description of the process, the source of each ingredient, packing specs, etc.
- Aloisius 16y agoI am actually sensitive to MSG and I still eat the stuff. In large doses that it causes my lips/tongue/throat to numb. It took me years to figure it out since it would only happen after eating at certain restaurants or foods and I could never find anything in common. It wasn't until I bought a bottle of MSG and started putting it on everything that I managed to reproduce it at home. Of course, I was putting it on things like pizza (I thought it was the greatest substance since salt!). Most restaurants and snack foods don't put nearly as much on food as necessary to trigger my reaction. I still think MSG is awesome.
- jamesrcole 16y agoJeffrey Steingarten's excellent "It Must've Been Something I Ate" has a good chapter on MSG and the myths about it http://www.amazon.com/Mustve-Been-Something-Ate-Everything/dp/0375412808 http://www.amazon.com/Mustve-Been-Something-Ate-Everything/d...
- bugsy 16y agoThe article's author demonstrates poor analytical skills. Regarding poisons themselves, they all depend on how much you ingest. How much salt do you eat? Three pounds a day? Salt is a poison and if you eat too much you can get sick and die. Almonds contain cyanide. People eat almonds without dying. Does that mean cyanide is a beneficial substance in all quantities? Regarding allergens there are similar dynamics. Someone allergic to cat dander will be able to walk down a street where cats have been. But they may not be able to sleep well in a bed that is normally occupied by 100 cats. Or consider peanuts. Someone allergic to peanuts will not do well eating a peanut butter sandwich. But most of them can handle being in the presence of peanuts, despite hysterical media reports of people dying after kissing someone who had recently eaten a peanut, all stories of which were discredited. Glutamate content of some foods (mg per 100g) roquefort cheese 1280 parmesan cheese 1200 soy sauce 1090 walnuts 658 fresh tomato juice 260 grape juice 258 peas 200 mushrooms 180 broccoli 176 tomatoes 140 mushrooms 140 oysters 137 corn 130 potatoes 102 chicken 44 mackerel 36 beef 33 eggs 23 human milk 22 So people are claiming "It is in human breast milk and beef and eggs!" Yes, 22mg to 33mg of glutamates per 100g. Up at the top, parmesan is 1200mg per 100g. How much parmesan do you eat exactly? Is this a cheese that you slice off in giant wedges and gnaw on? Or is it grated and used like a spice in relatively small amounts by weight?