Is glutamate added to your food? If it is, it’s listed on the ingredient label. I don’t like “fables on the labels” and it’s good to know all the ingredients in your food. No ingredients should be hidden, and thanks to labeling of monosodium glutamate (MSG), if it’s added, you’ll see it there.
So, is MSG in YOUR favorite food?
If it is, then MSG may be a REASON it’s your favorite food. Have you heard of the term “umami”? Virtually every chef has and strives to cook food that has lots of umami, because umami means flavor! But umami isn’t just a descriptive term; it’s real.
Umami is often referred to as “the fifth taste” (after sweet, salty, bitter, and sour). It gives food a flavor intensity, and foods with umami are likely foods with an amino acid, which is the “glutamate.” And yes, that’s the same glutamate that is the “G” in “MSG”.
But a food can also have umami (and glutamate) even if no MSG is added. Lots of foods – foods you already know and probably love, like tomatoes and tomato sauces, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese (Italian food, anybody?) – contain glutamate naturally. They always have! Indeed, the vast majority of our daily intake of glutamate is naturally occurring. This 2022 review found that average intake of added glutamate is about half a gram per day, compared with several grams a day of naturally present glutamate in foods. Glutamate is naturally present even in a baby’s first food: breast milk!
Glutamate: An Amino Acid In Every High-Quality Protein
Nutritionally, amino acids (AA) are building blocks of proteins, and they can be “essential” or “non-essential.” Essential AAs we MUST get from food. That’s why getting enough protein is so important. We can’t build muscle and form the proper enzymes for our body’s functions without essential amino acids.
Other AAs are in food but are “non-essential” because our bodies also make them. Glutamate is one of those: your body makes LOTS of its own glutamate! More than you’d ever get from food, in fact. And 90% of the body’s glutamate hangs out in the gut, where it plays many roles, including supporting immune function.
Cooking With MSG
True story: My mother-in-law swore by a certain “seasoning” that she always noted by its brand name: “I couldn’t cook without it.” She was half Asian but born in a then-British colony in South America that had a very diverse population that included indigenous people, South and East Asians, and Europeans, so the food culture was an amalgam of all of these.
That seasoned salt went into every savory dish she made: all her rice dishes, her curries, chow mein, all of them. It’s how her mother cooked as well. It served as their “house seasoning.” No surprise, either, that its main ingredient was MSG.
When cooking with MSG, you can even REDUCE the amount of added salt in a recipe. MSG has 61% LESS sodium than regular salt and adds more flavor. MSG isn’t a total substitute, but try a combo of 50-50 with regular salt when you cook, and you’ll lower the added salt by 28% – and give the dish more flavor to boot!
Now when I see “No MSG” touted on a label, I think two things:
- The food will probably have more sodium than it has to, and
- The food could probably have more flavor than it does
Hmmm…that tastes like a missed opportunity.
Hamburger photo by Tai’s Captures on Unsplash
