MSG Intolerance

Image of a bowl of chicken and noodle soup

Severe headaches, nausea, numbness, irritable bowel, heart palpitations and disturbed sleep are just some of the symptoms reported by people who believe they are intolerant to the flavour enhancer monosodium glutamate. Not only found in Chinese food, MSG (E621) is in many processed foods, especially processed cheese and meats, soups and sauces.

There are still more questions than answers about this type of food intolerance, though one double blind placebo-controlled study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (called Multicenter, double-blind, placebo controlled, multiple challenge evaluation of reported reactions to monosodium glutamate published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in November 2000), supports the theory that sensitive people do experience symptoms ranging from muscle tightness, tingling and headaches because of the MSG.

The study also concludes that the researchers believe none of those sensitive to the MSG had symptoms which ‘support an IgE response mechanism’ although why these people are sensitive and other are not no-one knows yet.