Not saying it is bad for everyone, but it is a consistent issue for me.
If the experimenter knows which are which and the subject doesn't, it's only single-blind. The disadvantage of this is that the experimenter might inadvertently reveal some clue to the subject as to which is which. That would make the experiment's conclusions more suspect than double-blind.
Agree with your point but the way you got there doesn't add up.
I do check the ingredients first now, but previously it was all reverse engineering from getting a headache to going back and seeing what I ate. I'd happily do a study in a lab, if it meant published research was going to be put out. The sinus headaches are miserable enough that I'll never be doing it just for interest.
Chocolate is a no go because I've cut out sugar and caffeine as well. I mostly eat meat, non-gluten carbs, and broccoli.
For MSG, I don't know about it ahead of time. If I do, I don't eat the food. For example, went to kbbq, ate some plain meat, rice, and egg, got a headache after leaving. Next time I was there I asked about MSG because it was the most likely trigger to be used. Turns out it was in the steamed egg and the salt and pepper mix. Avoided those and felt fine for multiple visits after.
I think this is a blind way of discovery because I didn't have assumptions about the triggers when I started trying to figure what they were.
Anecdotes are not evidence, and the evidence is clear.
It's not like eating something cooked in a pot that previously had shrimp type of thing.
A fairly macroscopically large dose of the stuff does something with the blood flow in veins around the head or sensitivity of nerves or something. It's not a serious medical condition, like an allergic attack; just a nuisance.
1. https://www.aaaai.org/ask-the-expert/coeliac-disease-sinusit...
You're only supposed to use a half teaspoon to flavor six whole servings of soup. It's an incredibly strong flavor enhancer, and is really not recommended for solo consumption.
In the summers, when I sweat a lot due to running and cycling, I dump that much salt into a bowl of soup. I don't have any ill effects. In fact, beefing up the salt intake wards off muscle cramps and lethargy.
Japan's allowance for daily salt intake for men sets an upper bound of 12 grams (salt, not sodium).
You have it backwards, by the way. MSG has a rather large molecular weight compared to NaCL. A given mass of MSG has less sodium than the same mass of salt. This is very easy to get in precise numbers: the molecular weight of MSG 169.111 g/mol is and of salt 58.44 g/mol. A mole of MSG has the same amount of sodium as a mole of salt: one weighs 169g. the other 54g: close to triple. Secondly, MSG is less dense than salt: the same mass of MSG takes 33% more space than a given mass of salt. This magnifies the difference. Basically if we have equal sized heaps of salt and MSG, the MSG has about 1/4 of the sodium compared to the salt.
In a restaurant, they can easily dump a teaspoon of MSG (about 4g) into your mapotofu or noodle soup or whatever. Manufactured products of good brands are going to be reasonable. Someone holding a shaker MSG over a pot isn't going to be that much. Not consistently so, day in, day out. Consider that some of the ingredients already have MSG (e.g. marinated or processed meats), then there is natural glutamate in some of it, and then they add some half teaspoon (about 2g) of MSG crystals. Things add up.
If the problem with the ingredient is that it's being overused, the problem is not the ingredient, it's the cook.
That seems unlikely to me - that is a lot of MSG. I occasionally use MSG when cooking at home, and quickly realised that any more than a small pinch per serving completely ruins a dish.
Also, do you seriously put a tablespoon of salt in a single bowl of soup? I can't understand how that could be palatable!