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Comment by vastvedt | Hacker News Reader

For those of us who are reactive to msg, the results can be absolutely debilitating. For those who are tolerant of msg, it offers zero nutritional benefit. Banning it would help millions of migraine sufferers and harm no consumer. In fact, it could benefit the obesity epidemic by removing that overeating urge msg creates. You know, that feeling you get when you try to eat just a handful of Doritos but then can’t stops. What’s worse is that modern food labels are misleading so it’s hard for people to choose to avoid it. The FDA allows msg to be labeled under the umbrella term “natural flavors”. We have embraced warning labels like “contains nuts” for those who are allergic to nuts but then hide the msg. It’s just not right. Then made worse by articles like this that try to say it xenophobic. And the absolute ridiculous suggestion that no one in China gets headaches.

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> For those of us who are reactive to msg, the results can be absolutely debilitating. [...] Banning it would help millions of migraine sufferers and harm no consumer

Reaearch has consistently failed to verify the existence of MSG sensitivity; while it may exist in some small number of cases, its mostly a misattributed cause.

Also, its not true that it would have no consumer harm; its a lower-sodium palatability enhancer than table salt, and removing it from the set of options would have consumer harms.

> In fact, it could benefit the obesity epidemic by removing that overeating urge msg creates.

That's an effect of sugar, salt, and fat (separately, but even more in the right combination); MSG is mostly irrelevant to it (except that banning MSG probably means more salt.)

I don't think banning MSG makes sense or is feasible, but my understanding is that it's possible that adding MSG screws with the body's responses for seeking protein. The tongue tells the brain that food item X is probably full of protein, but when the body doesn't end up absorbing any, it fires off more pangs looking for protein. In that sense, MSG can enhance the effects that sugar, salt and fat create.

  For those who are tolerant of msg, it offers zero nutritional benefit. Banning it would help millions of migraine sufferers and harm no consumer.

You cannot ban a natural, ubiquitous amino acid, any more than you can ban salt. You can try to ban adding MSG to foods, but sooner or later, you would also have to ban yeast extract, soy sauce, tomatoes, hard cheeses, and so on, at which point we would definitely run into trouble.

"that feeling you get when you try to eat just a handful of Doritos but then can’t stops"

that surely contributes to obesity then, if we are ignoring our fullness signals and regularly overeating because msg is nearly ever-present and suppressing our key mechanism

Uncle Roger would have you thrown in jail. Haiyaaaaaa

I lived in Hong Kong for a decade, and I am disturbed by how many people think "Aiya" was somehow invented by a dang comedian and is automatically a reference to them.

Ever heard of the placebo effect?

Not a placebo... I can feel the effects of msg. It is there.

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