Chinese restaurant syndrome

[ShaolinDan]

MSG is good stuff. Naturally occurring in a lot of food we eat, including tomatoes, mushrooms, aged meat, and fermented foods...shows up when protein chains break down. It can really help when trying to make a dish vegetarian—For example I use it (and more salt) in place of fish sauce when I’m making Thai style curry.

[GeneChing]

Chef Eddie Huang and TV host Jeannie Mai are calling out the dictionary's outdated definition for "Chinese restaurant syndrome."
By Bettina Makalintal
Jan 16 2020, 5:00amShareTweetSnap


PHOTO BY PANIDA WIJITPANYA VIA ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS

Earlier this week, chef, author, and entrepreneur Eddie Huang began tweeting a new campaign, followed soon after by similar promotion from TV host Jeannie Mai: #redefineCRS, they wrote, calling out Merriam-Webster.

The CRS in this case is "Chinese restaurant syndrome," a relic of the late 1960s that's responsible for the backlash and negative discourse over monosodium glutamate, the umami food additive colloquially known as MSG. Huang and Mai's campaign to redefine the term is a collaboration with MSG producer Ajinomoto, which was started after Japanese chemist Ikeda Kikunae discovered a process to isolate MSG from sea kelp to create the savory flavoring in 1908.

Despite its promotional aspect, the redefine campaign has a point: The current definition of "Chinese restaurant syndrome" doesn't quite take into account the shoddy science supporting the existence of the "condition," or the term's xenophobic undertones.

Currently, Merriam-Webster's definition for "Chinese restaurant syndrome" describes the phrase in straightforward terms: "A group of symptoms (such as numbness of the neck, arms, and back with headache, dizziness, and palpitations) that is held to affect susceptible persons eating food and especially Chinese food heavily seasoned with monosodium glutamate." That isn't the whole story, though, and plenty of dishes beyond Chinese food contain MSG, from Doritos to Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

The anti-MSG controversy started in 1968 when Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok published a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine in which he, a researcher at the National Biomedical Research Foundation, described a condition that he dubbed as "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome." Kwok wrote that after eating at Chinese restaurants, he experienced numbness, weakness, and palpitations, which he attributed first to Chinese cooking wine, and then to MSG.

Kwok called on the medical community for more research, and what he set off was a decades-long discussion about the safety of MSG. People wrote in to the publication agreeing with Kwok's experience, and CRS gained coverage in places like the New York Times. In the 50 years since that starting point, MSG has continued to be demonized and avoided, with some Chinese restaurants still touting its exclusion.

But contrary to what Americans might have thought a few decades ago, today's perspective is more skeptical of the condition's existence, after scientific studies calling MSG into question were found to have large flaws. According to FiveThirtyEight, those issues included research that allowed participants to know whether or not they were eating MSG, scientifically frowned upon due to the placebo effect.

Today, the racist and xenophobic ties of the anti-MSG movement also seem more clear. As MSG's champions—including food science writer Harold McGee and chef Dave Chang—have pointed out, MSG occurs naturally in foods like Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, and steak—foods people eat without claiming feelings of "Chinese restaurant syndrome." Clearly, something about the cuisine MSG was most often associated with impacted public view of the ingredient and contributed to its backlash.

What the #redefineCRS campaign is asking for is a definition that reflects that increased knowledge, not one that simply validates the term. Emily Brewster, a senior editor at Merriam-Webster, told VICE via email that while Merriam-Webster had no record of anyone contacting it about the term until the morning the #redefineCRS campaign began, its staff will be reviewing the entry and "will revise it according to the evidence of the term in use." The Merriam-Webster Twitter account responded to Huang similarly.

Reviews like this are part of the process at Merriam-Webster as words change meaning and connotation over time.

"The ongoing evolution of language means that we are in a constant state of revision. Keeping up with it is a challenge, so we are always grateful to readers for pointing us to vocabulary that is in need of review," Brewster wrote. "As usages change, our entries change to reflect those shifts. Our aim is always to provide accurate information about what words mean, which includes providing information about whether a use is offensive or dated."

The dictionary's current definition might have seemed true at a time, but language changes alongside our understanding of science and culture, and the dictionary only really reflects the perspective of a given moment. Sometimes, we need to give it all a fresh look.

Naturally occurring in a lot of food we eat, including tomatoes, mushrooms, aged meat, and fermented foods...shows up when protein chains break down.

Very true but a lot of toxins are naturally occuring too. I'm just playing devil's advocate here.

[ShaolinDan]

Very true but a lot of toxins are naturally occuring too. I'm just playing devil's advocate here.

That’s also true. And MSG can be toxic...but the lethal dose for rats is five times the lethal dose of salt. Not that it’s necessarily the same for us... But we’ll die from lack of salt too. Gotta have balance. I only use MSG in my cooking rarely, but sometimes a dish just needs that extra savor.

It is hard to change people’s minds about things though. Those first “anti-gluten” studies were retracted years ago too, and gluten free is still the rage. Frankly, as a cook, all these special diets and sensitivities can be pretty irritating. It gets worse every year. Give your kids peanuts! Please!

[GeneChing]

MSG in Chinese food isn't unhealthy -- you're just racist, activists say
Analysis by Jessie Yeung, CNN
Updated 7:13 PM ET, Sat January 18, 2020


A jar of Ajinomoto MSG (monosodium glutamate) seasoning.

(CNN)If you've heard of the term "MSG," you might have also heard of its common -- but inaccurate -- connotations.
For years, monosodium glutamate, a food additive known as MSG, has been branded as an unhealthy processed ingredient mainly found in Chinese food, despite a lack of supporting scientific evidence.
This perception, which activists argue is outdated and racist, is so widespread that the Merriam-Webster dictionary has an entry for the term "Chinese restaurant syndrome" -- a type of condition that allegedly affects people eating "Chinese food heavily seasoned with monosodium glutamate," with symptoms like dizziness and palpitations.
Now, activists have launched a campaign called "Redefine CRS." Headed by Japanese food and seasoning company Ajinomoto, the online campaign urges Merriam-Webster to change its entry to reflect the scientific consensus on MSG -- and the impact of misinformation on the American public's perception of Asian cuisine.


Japanese company Ajinomoto produces MSG seasoning and spice mixes.

"To this day, the myth around MSG is ingrained in America's consciousness, with Asian food and culture still receiving unfair blame," said the company in its campaign website. "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome isn't just scientifically false — it's xenophobic."
In a video released by Ajinomoto, several Asian American figures, restaurateurs, and medical professionals spoke out against the misconceptions surrounding MSG and Chinese food.
"Calling it Chinese restaurant syndrome is really ignorant," said restaurateur Eddie Huang, whose memoir was adapted into the hit sitcom "Fresh Off the Boat." In the video, he pointed out that MSG is not only delicious -- but found in practically all processed foods, from ranch dressing to Doritos.

Why Use MSG
@why_use_msg
This is long overdue. @mreddiehuang @jeanniemai and @askdrbilly want to make things right. RT to tell @merriamwebster to #RedefineCRS. Find out more about ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome:’ http://redefineCRS.com

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The campaign proposed a new definition for "Chinese restaurant syndrome" in the Merriam-Webster -- "an outdated term that falsely blamed Chinese food containing MSG, or monosodium glutamate, for a group of symptoms."
In response, Merriam-Webster tweeted on Wednesday that it would be "reviewing the term and revising accordingly."
"We're constantly in the process of updating as usage and attitudes evolve, so we're grateful when readers can point us toward a definition that needs attention," said the company.

What MSG is -- and isn't

First off: what is MSG?
Chances are, you've eaten it. It's a common amino acid naturally found in foods like tomatoes and cheese, which people then figured out how to extract and ferment -- a process similar to how we make yogurt and wine.
This fermented MSG is now used to flavor lots of different foods like stews or chicken stock. It's so widely used because it taps into our fifth basic taste: umami (pronounced oo-maa-mee). Umami is less well known than the other tastes like saltiness or sweetness, but it's everywhere -- it's the complex, savory taste you find in mushrooms or Parmesan cheese.


MSG is used as a food additive in dishes like stews, canned soups, and stocks.

People have consumed MSG throughout history, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -- but the debate over its health effects began in 1968, when a man wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, complaining of numbness after eating at Chinese restaurants.
The idea that Chinese food was dangerous spread quickly, and was lent legitimacy by some medical professionals at the time. A 1969 scientific paper identified MSG as "the cause of the Chinese restaurant syndrome," and warned that it caused "burning sensations, facial pressure, and chest pain."
That's not to say it was scientifically proven. A 1986 paper in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology argued that a decade of research had "failed to reveal any objective sign" that MSG was dangerous, and that the very idea of "Chinese restaurant syndrome" was "questionable."
The FDA even set up an independent inquiry into MSG in the 1990s -- which ultimately concluded that MSG is safe.
Still, it was too late to contain public fear and anxiety. MSG had effectively been vilified in the American imagination, and was shunned for decades afterward. Even now, a quick Google search for MSG turns up countless pages that ask: is MSG harmful?
Many regulatory bodies and scientific groups have answered this definitively: No. The addition of MSG in foods is "generally recognized as safe," says the FDA site.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

MSG is found in Chinese cuisine -- but also in tomatoes, cheese, canned soup, and a range of foods.

A joint study by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization "failed to confirm an involvement of MSG in 'Chinese Restaurant Syndrome'," and noted that the syndrome itself was based on "anecdotal" evidence rather than any scientific fact.
Besides, many said, if MSG was so dangerous, masses of people would have fallen sick in countries that cook with the additive, like China and Japan -- something that simply hasn't happened.

The fight for Asian food in America

As the Ajinomoto campaign points out, the public scare over MSG unfairly placed the blame on Chinese food -- and is partly why many in the United States still think of Chinese food as processed, unclean, or unhealthy.
This perception -- and the growing movement to break down this stereotype -- made national headlines in the spring of 2019, when a white woman opened a Chinese restaurant called Lucky Lee's in New York. The restaurant would serve "clean" Chinese food, she wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post -- food that wasn't "too oily," and that wouldn't make people feel "bloated and icky" afterward.


The Lucky Lee's restaurant in New York, on April 11, 2019.

Almost immediately, the internet was in uproar. Members of the Asian and Asian American community accused the owner of not just appropriating another culture's cuisine, but doing it with an offensive rather than appreciative approach.
The owner responded shortly after the backlash, acknowledging in an Instagram post that Chinese food had "health benefits" and promising to "always listen and reflect accordingly." The restaurant closed in December 2019 -- just eight months after opening.
She apologized more explicitly in an interview with The New York Times -- but still, critics argued that her original post had reinforced negative and false stereotypes around Chinese food instead of exploring what it actually is.
The controversy sparked a broader discussion on the racially-driven lines drawn around which foods are "clean" and "sophisticated." Why, for instance, is Italian or French cuisine -- both foreign to the US -- seen as high-class fine dining, while Chinese or Thai food is still often regarded as quick, cheap, and low quality?
Some also pointed out that "ethnic" foods -- a controversy in itself, because what is "ethnic" anyway? -- hold stories that have been erased or unacknowledged completely. For many, "Americanized" Chinese food was born from desperation and adapted for American tastes -- a way for immigrant families to survive in a society that demanded assimilation. To have that food, and its history of immigrant struggle, dismissed as "icky" or "oily" felt like a slap in the face for many in the Asian American community.


A Chinese restaurant menu stating "No MSG" in Danville, California, December 25, 2019.

For years, Chinese restaurants in the US often had signs inside that announced "No MSG used," in an attempt to distance themselves from the stigma. Now, some are reclaiming and openly embracing the additive; Chinese restaurant chain Mission Chinese Food has salt shakers filled with MSG, and MSG margaritas with MSG crystals in the ice cubes.
Then there's Ajinomoto, one of the biggest voices in the MSG market and the leader of the Redefine CRS campaign. You can find Ajinomoto's MSG seasoning packets and spice mixes in many American supermarkets, and it has been working for years to raise awareness about both the safety of consuming MSG and the ways it can be used to add flavor to dishes.

Mission Chinese Food
@Missionstfood
Authenticity option now available at MCF SF. @davidchang #hospitality


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Amid all the hullabaloo, restaurateurs like celebrity chef David Chang, who produced and starred in the Netflix series "Ugly Delicious," and Anthony Bourdain, the late host of CNN's award-winning series "Parts Unknown," have worked to change public perception.
The fears surrounding MSG were just a "psychosomatic myth," Chang said in a tweet. In another post, he shared how he uses MSG in his daily life, adding it as seasoning to snacks like popcorn.
Bourdain, who traveled the world and showcased an extraordinary diversity of cultures and cuisines, was more explicit. "I think (MSG) is good stuff," he said in a 2016 episode of "Parts Unknown" filmed in China. "I don't react to it -- nobody does. It's a lie."
"You know what causes Chinese restaurant syndrome?" he added as he walked through the streets of Sichuan. "Racism."

That’s also true. And MSG can be toxic...but the lethal dose for rats is five times the lethal dose of salt.

Well, sure. Anything in excess will kill ya, right? Even water...in excess.

Those first “anti-gluten” studies were retracted years ago too, and gluten free is still the rage. Frankly, as a cook, all these special diets and sensitivities can be pretty irritating. It gets worse every year.

My wife suffers from gluten issues. Hers are related to an inherited malady. Beleive me - listening to her puke her guts out all night long from ingesting gluten from some undisclosed ingredient at some restaurant is much more irritating than adjusting cooking.

[ShaolinDan]

Well, sure. Anything in excess will kill ya, right? Even water...in excess.

My wife suffers from gluten issues. Hers are related to an inherited malady. Beleive me - listening to her puke her guts out all night long from ingesting gluten from some undisclosed ingredient at some restaurant is much more irritating than adjusting cooking.

I hear ya. Celiac and it's like are no joke. Actually my college has purportedly the first gluten free college dining hall in the nation because a couple of students were getting sick just from flour particles in the air getting into food.

There's more than one thing going on here and I'm being unclear by conflating them. My bad.

1. There are food allergies and sensitivities. Always have been, always will be. Some are life threatening, or super severe and some aren't. (I'm lactose intolerant like my father--not so bad.)
2. There is a rise in food allergies. Probably from multiple causes, but one cause we know for certain is avoidance--see the relationship in peanut allergies with breast feeding. Not eating peanuts while breastfeeding increases the chance of a child developing a peanut allergy by something like 17 times. Whoops!
3. Finally there are allergy and sensitivity trends. When whole swaths of the population suddenly decide they can't eat something without diagnosis or real cause other than confirmation bias. This is what happened with MSG. It also happened with gluten, regardless of the fact that a small percent of the population is allergic to these things.

I'm worried by point 2 and exasperated by point 3, but I take no issue with point one.

[GeneChing]

Asians decry ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’ listing in dictionary
A social media campaign backed by a Japanese seasonings company is targeting the persistent idea that Chinese food is packed with MSG and can make you sick.
By Associated Press Jan 20, 2020, 8:00am CST
TERRY TANG, AP


A customer helps himself to a soup dumpling at a Chinese dim sum restaurant in New York City. AP

A social media campaign backed by a Japanese seasonings company is targeting the persistent idea that Chinese food is packed with MSG and can make you sick.

So entrenched is the notion in American culture, it shows up in the dictionary: Merriam-Webster.com lists “ Chinese restaurant syndrome ” as a real illness that has been around since 1968. But much of the mythology around the idea has been debunked: monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG, shows up in many foods from tomatoes to breast milk, and there’s no evidence to link it to illness.

“For me, it’s another thing to point to other people and say ‘Look, if you think racism toward Asians doesn’t exist in this country, like here it is,’” said restaurateur Eddie Huang. “I know how white people see us. ‘They’re cool, they’re acceptable, they’re non-threatening. But they’re weird, their food.’”

Huang, a New York City-based chef and author (his memoir inspired the ABC sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat”), and TV’s “The Real” co-host Jeannie Mai are launching a social media effort Tuesday with Ajinomoto, the longtime Japanese producer of MSG seasonings. They plan to use the hashtag #RedefineCRS to challenge Merriam-Webster to rewrite the definition.


Jeannie Mai, co-host of TV’s “The Real,” is seen in New York filming a video for a campaign challenging Merriam-Webster’s dictionary entry of “Chinese restaurant syndrome.” AP

When reached for comment last week, Merriam-Webster said it had not received complaints before about “Chinese restaurant syndrome” but would reconsider the term.

“Our aim is always to provide accurate information about what words mean, which includes providing information about whether a use is offensive or dated,” senior editor Emily Brewster said in a statement. “We’ll be reviewing this particular entry and will revise it according to the evidence of the term in use.

Shifts in culture and attitudes put the dictionary in a constant state of revision, she added.

Before joining the effort, neither Huang nor Mai had any idea the phrase was in the dictionary.

“The dictionary I thought was a reputable kind of Bible that was fact-checked all the way through in order to get us information,” said Mai, who is Vietnamese and Chinese. “‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’ is truly an outdated, super racist term.”

The symptoms are listed as numbness of the neck, arms, and back as well as headaches, dizziness, and palpitations. It affects people eating food but “especially Chinese food heavily seasoned with monosodium glutamate.”

The campaign isn’t looking to wipe the phrase out, but update it.


A plate of fried tofu is served at a Chinese restaurant in New York City. MSG — monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG — shows up in many foods from tomatoes to breast milk, and there’s no evidence to link it to illness. AP

“I actually think it’d be interesting if they just kept it and just noted this is an outdated, antiquated thing,” Huang said. “I do think these things are important to remember and point to.”

Huang and Mai say the campaign is not about trying to help boost sales at Ajinomoto, which was founded in 1908 after a Japanese professor figured out how to isolate glutamate from a seaweed broth.

“They’re already selling tons of their products. They don’t really need my help to be honest,” Huang said.

So, how did the myth endure for more than five decades?

It started with a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968, according to Robert Ku, author of “Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA.” Dr. Ho Man Kwok, who was Chinese American, wrote a letter speculating that some Chinese restaurants left him feeling numbness and other symptoms. Other readers, doctors themselves, then wrote in saying they experienced something similar. Some researchers claimed that MSG was the source, Ku said. The journal’s editors decided to call it “Chinese restaurant syndrome.”


A plate of sweet and sour pork is served at a Chinese restaurant in New York City. AP

“For a long time, Chinese restaurant syndrome was considered a legitimate ailment that the medical community seemed to back,” Ku said.

The New York Times picked up on the debate. Chinese restaurants everywhere were putting up signs and menus that said “No MSG” because of the backlash.

It wasn’t until the 1990s that specialists doing more research began disproving the syndrome, Ku said. They found MSG was in just about every processed food.

“It made no sense that only Chinese food that has MSG causes these ill effects but you can’t get it from Campbell’s Soup,” Ku said.

MSG comes from glutamate, a common amino acid or protein building block found in food, according to Julie Stefanski, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics. Glutamate is present in foods like ham and some cheeses.

The Food and Drug Administration says MSG is generally recognized as a safe addition to food. In previous studies with people identifying as sensitive to MSG, researchers found that neither MSG nor a placebo caused consistent reactions, the agency said.

At a Chinese restaurant in Phoenix, some patrons had never even heard of the term.

Linda Saldana is bothered by one culture’s food getting singled out.

“I’m obviously not Asian,” said Saldana, who was having lunch with her husband, son and two nieces. “But if that was to be said about Mexican food, I’d feel a little offended because how could food cause all that?”

I'm lactose intolerant too, Jimbo, as well as pre-diabetic now so I have to watch my sugar and starch. I'm also pescatarian largely due to my Buddhism. So many religions have dietary restrictions. The Bible is chock full of them if anyone bothered to actually read it.

Diet is such a tricky thing now. I hear people moan about all the food allergies today and how we didn't have that back in the day, stuff like 'Why is gluten an issue now? We've been eating bread for centuries.' But we didn't have factory farming and GMOs back in the day either. The food has changed. Interestingly enough, my wife could eat small amounts of bread in Europe where they take more care with their breadmaking - older cultures, non-GMO. Personally I blame the U.S. diet, which led the charge in fast food production. There should be a 'U.S. Fast Food Syndrome' in the dictionary.