Your daily dose
Found via Dan Washburn, this is from a New York Times article about monosodium glutamate, or MSG:
Even now, after “Chinese restaurant syndrome” has been thoroughly debunked (virtually all studies since then confirm that monosodium glutamate in normal concentrations has no effect on the overwhelming majority of people), the ingredient has a stigma that will not go away.
But then, neither will MSG.
It’s good to see pseudoscience debunked. For more on this subject, see also these two articles:
The Guardian: If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in Asia have a headache?
Harper’s Magazine: Everyone’s gone nuts: The exaggerated threat of food allergies