Alright, welcome back to Your Kitchen, where we dive into food myths, sprinkle in a little science, and maybe—just maybe—help you level up your everyday cooking. I’m Rajiv, your resident nutrition nerd and global kitchen explorer. Now, if you caught our last episode about protein, you’ll remember we looked at how something so basic gets both misunderstood and overcomplicated at the same time. Today, we’re doing something kind of similar but with a flavor everyone’s experienced—even if only Japanese have a word for it: Umami.So, let’s talk glutamates. You’ve probably heard of glutamates being demonized in the form of MSG, but glutamates themselves? They’re superstars of taste. They show up all over the place: meats, cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, peas, even walnuts. What you’re tasting there, that deep, rounding flavor, is Umami. And in case you’re not familiar, that’s officially recognized as our fifth taste. Yeah, right up there with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.I always think back to my trip to Japan earlier this year. I was sitting in a tiny ramen noodle shop in Tokyo—nothing fancy, you know, just counter seats. The chef handed me a bowl of clear dashi broth. Simple, right? But with the first sip, it was like this cozy umami wave—almost meaty, but not in an obvious way—just this, ah, roundness that fills up your mouth. That’s actually glutamate at work, extracted from things like seaweed and bonito flakes. It’s so central to Japanese food, but honestly, it’s everywhere once you know what to look for. And the interesting thing is, umami makes food feel more…satisfying, I guess? Almost like it brings the other flavors into focus, instead of just overpowering them.So, tracing back that bowl of dashi, the story of MSG actually begins in Japan. In 1908, there was this chemist, Kikunae Ikeda—hope I’m pronouncing that right—who wondered what made his wife’s seaweed soup taste so good. He managed to isolate glutamate crystals from kelp and realized, hey, this is the flavor! He came up with a way to stabilize it—add a bit of sodium for shelf life—and just like that, monosodium glutamate, or MSG, was born. Pretty neat, right?And for a while, MSG was honestly celebrated. It got commercialized, added to all sorts of foods, and cooks could finally boost flavor without extra salt or fat. But, ah, then came the turning point. Around the late 1960s, there was this letter in a medical journal describing so-called “Chinese restaurant syndrome”—you might’ve heard that phrase. People blamed MSG for headaches or tingling, but the data? Well, let’s just say, it wasn’t exactly rock solid. But the panic caught on—suddenly MSG was public enemy number one. Labels popped up everywhere: “No MSG,” “MSG-free,” you know the drill.Looking back, I sometimes wonder why MSG, in particular, took all the heat. Maybe it was fear of the unfamiliar? Maybe some underlying bias, since a lot of these concerns centered around Chinese restaurants in the US? Food trends pick scapegoats sometimes, and all of a sudden MSG, which had never been a problem in Japanese or Chinese communities, got singled out in Western media. It’s a bit like the egg cholesterol scare—but that's a subject for another episode! In MSG's case, science just never…matched up with the hysteria.Let’s try to clear the mist here. For decades now, researchers have looked for some solid, traceable link between MSG and health issues like those claims from decades ago. And honestly? Study after study—still nothing conclusive. No established link. Large reviews—no long-term harm. If anything, most people can consume a fair bit of MSG with no side effects.Here’s a stat that puts it in perspective: An average person in Asia eats about 1700 milligrams of MSG daily. That’s just part of the way food is cooked there—and as far as we all know, there isn’t some epidemic of MSG-related illness sweeping through these populations. If MSG really was a villain, we’d see something by now. But we don’t.So yeah, full disclosure—I keep MSG on my spice rack at home, right next to my finishing salts. Sometimes, if I’m making a soup or a stir fry and it feels like it’s missing that…I dunno…oomph? That’s when MSG can be magic. I use it in moderation; it’s really no different than using salt or soy sauce. Someone once asked me, “Rajiv, how much is too much?” I cracked up, honestly, ‘cause it’s the same answer as with salt. Too much makes the food gross—harmful if you seriously overdo it, but we’re not talking about eating spoonfuls of the stuff.You know I come from a software background where A-B testing is very common. I apply that method sometimes on my friends at dinner. I would make two versions of, say, tomato soup—one regular, one with just a pinch of MSG and don’t tell them which was which. Results are very much expected, MSG version finishes up fast. Myths stick around, but knowledge takes longer to travel, I guess. If you take away one thing, it’s this: Science doesn’t support the MSG scare. Used wisely, it’s just another way to make our food delicious. Maybe next week, we’ll unpack another misunderstood kitchen ingredient—if you have one in mind, send it my way! Till then, keep tasting, keep questioning, and I’ll see you in Your Kitchen.

Episodes

Unpacking MSG's Bad Rap