#msg sensitivity

[fluffy-critter]

so weird how being told that my symptoms are psychosomatic and/or somehow racist doesn’t make my symptoms stop happening

[schadenfood]

On MSG sensitivity

I just saw yet another debate over MSG sensitivity online.

The way I see it, the problem with MSG usage in processed food isn't that it has MSG, just that it has a metric shit-ton of it.

I'm sensitive to MSG but I'm fine with it in the lower quantities that it occurs naturally in many foods - it's just that the amount in, say, a bag of Doritos, or in the flavor packet in instant ramen, is enough to give me a very bad time. (And I was experiencing these bad times long before I ever heard of MSG sensitivity or knew that MSG was a thing, so I don't think it's a placebo effect.)

I have done some experiments to find where my threshold is and it's kind of annoying to do; all I know is that it's higher than nothing and lower than the amount used in a single-serving bag of Chili Cheese Fritos. (Plain Fritos don't cause me a problem.)

Since MSG levels are never outright stated in a food's nutrition label, it's easier to just assume that if something lists MSG in its ingredients it uses too damn much and to have something else.

[systemic-chaos]

I've always had certain foods burn like they are painfully spicy when they aren't (like canned tomato sauce, fried chicken, Doritios, certain sauces, etc.) And the only ingredient these things share that I know of is MSG. So I'm beginning to think I might have either an MSG sensitivity or I'm allergic to something used to make powered MSG.

Foods with naturally occuring glutimates dont hurt me unless MSG is listed as an additive, and even then I can usually eat plain cheese Cheetos alright even though im 80% sure that those have tons of MSG too. Can anyone smarter than me help explain why this might be happening to me??