How to Get MSG Out of Your Diet

Humans can detect four primary tastes: bitter, sweet, salty, and sour. There is also a fifth primary taste called umami. In 1908, a Japanese scientist named Ikeda discovered that the common amino acid L-glutamate was responsible for the savory taste of soup stock. He named this taste “umami,” from the Japanese word for savory.

Glutamate is a non-essential amino acid that makes up about 20 percent of dietary protein. In food, it occurs naturally in two forms: protein-bound and non-protein-bound. Most of the glutamate in food is protein-bound. Some foods, such as tomatoes (0.34 percent MSG), soy sauce (1.3 percent MSG), and Parmesan cheese (1.5 percent MSG), contain free glutamate.

This free glutamate is identical to the flavoring monosodium glutamate, better known as MSG. Most of the MSG in the North American diet comes is natural MSG found in tomatoes and cheese, but North Americans also consume about a half a gram of MSG added as a flavor to crackers, potato chips, canned and dry soups, salad dressings, and Chinese and other Asian foods. Food labels only declare added MSG. They do not declare natural MSG.

If you do need to eliminate MSG from your diet, the most important step in stopping the symptoms of MSG syndrome is avoiding MSG. In the United States, MSG appears in canned and packaged broth, calcium caseinate, casein, gelatin, hydrolyzed and textured vegetable protein, liquid smoke, meat tenderizers, soy sauce, malt extracts, autolyzed yeast, yeast extracts, “natural flavoring,” and whey.

Additionally, it is important to know that restaurant foods are prepared without MSG. Some foods, including fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, and Parmesan cheese, naturally contain free glutamates, and may also trigger MSG syndrome.

In addition to avoidance, taking vitamin B6 may be helpful. In a clinical study conducted in the early 1980’s, 8 out of 9 people stopped reacting to MSG after taking 50 mg of vitamin B6 per day for at 12 weeks. Later study confirmed that a deficiency of the vitamin explained the reactions to MSG. To make sure you are getting enough of this vitamin, also eat asparagus, Chinese cabbage, raw cauliflower, escarole Bibb, Boston, or butterleaf lettuce, liver, New Zealand spinach, okra, radish sprouts, sauerkraut, summer (yellow crookneck) squash and zucchini, tomatoes, tuna, turnip greens, or any kind of pepper several times a week.