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Mabel Lui

It is a label you have seen on menus, packaged foods, cans of soup, dipping sauces and in restaurant windows all around the world: “No MSG”.
For decades, not using the flavour enhancer MSG, or monosodium glutamate, in a dish or product was considered a positive, as the ingredient was widely deemed unhealthy.
But where did the stigma surrounding MSG come from?
It all began in 1968, when the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published a letter detailing symptoms of what was called “Chinese restaurant syndrome”.

In that letter, a doctor named Robert Ho Man Kwok cited numbness, weakness and palpitations as symptoms he suffered after eating foods containing MSG.
Since then, the ingredient has been vilified and Chinese restaurants and food conglomerates have openly distanced themselves from MSG to appeal to customers.
The messaging persists today; food brand Knorr still proclaims there to be “no added MSG” in its chicken powder.
But in August 2024, Japanese food corporation Ajinomoto partnered with a group of chefs, food content creators and dietitians to write a letter that urged the NEJM to revisit “Chinese restaurant syndrome” and acknowledge the role they played in demonising MSG.
The letter was a part of their ongoing campaign Know MSG, which was launched in 2020.
“Though the published Letter-to-the-Editor made no scientific claims, the title the Journal attached to it sparked lasting racist myths,” the letter says.
“For decades, ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’ spawned baseless fears, not just about Chinese food, but all Asian cuisines.”
Kat Lieu, a cookbook author, food content creator and founder of food platform Subtle Asian Baking, links her first impression of MSG to her childhood.
“For as long as I can remember, whenever we would go out to a Chinese restaurant or somewhere in Chinatown in New York City, my mom would comment on food and say, ‘It tastes like MSG.’ And I always heard the negative connotation,” she says.

It was not until recently that Lieu, who signed the letter to NEJM and has a health and nutrition certificate from Harvard University, began doing her own research and reread the facts.
“There’s just been no conclusive evidence that states that MSG causes these ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’ symptoms,” she says.
As an ingredient, MSG typically comes in white-crystal form and is used as a flavour enhancer, says Mindy Lu, the Seattle-based nutritionist and therapist behind Sunrise Nutrition, which provides nutrition counselling and mental health therapy for eating disorders, body image and intuitive eating.
She describes MSG as adjacent to salt. “We add salt to enhance flavour to our foods and in our dishes, and MSG very much has the same properties. You can see it in that scientific name: monosodium glutamate – sodium is salt,” she says.
MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, an amino acid that occurs naturally in our bodies and in many foods, such as Parmesan, scallops, tomatoes and mushrooms.

“Historically, it’s been found mostly in seaweed. A long time ago, they would harvest it from seaweed broth,” Lu says. “Nowadays, producers of MSG typically will ferment specific starches, like sugar cane or molasses, in order to get MSG.”
While the ingredient is typically associated with East Asian cuisines, it is actually also found in a variety of Western foods, including prepared sauces, dips and chips like Doritos, Lu adds.
So is MSG safe for consumption? According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it is “generally recognised as safe”. That is the same designation given to caffeine, corn starch, pectin and soy sauce.
“Fearmongering around MSG is not warranted. I know there are entire books written about it and articles, but MSG is recognised as safe to consume,” Lu says.
“Sometimes people might report MSG sensitivities, but we find studies around that to be inconclusive, and researchers have not been able to trigger the same reaction in people consistently.”
When you see our culture and our food as inferior or unhealthy, then you see our people as inferior
Kat Lieu, cookbook author, on dispelling MSG myths
In her practice, Lu has never come across anyone being sensitive or allergic to MSG specifically but, of course, she acknowledges that too much MSG – like too much of any flavour enhancer – is not a good thing. That said, it is no worse than salt or sugar.
“If we have too much salt or sugar, our bodies don’t feel very good, or even if we eat too much spicy foods, over time it could damage our [oesophagus],” Lu says.
“There isn’t actually, scientifically or biochemically, anything in MSG that makes it worse than anything else. In fact, sometimes for folks who are really sensitive to sodium, we actually suggest MSG because it has less sodium content.
“I recommend folks treat MSG just like any other flavouring. It’s not bad, it’s not good, it’s just there. And in fact, if it helps to increase joy around food, then go for it.”
For Calvin Eng, the chef-owner of Bonnie’s, a Cantonese-American restaurant in New York, MSG has become a prized condiment in his kitchen – so much so that he has a tattoo paying homage to the flavour enhancer. He is set to release his book, Salt Sugar MSG, in March.


“I always say salt, sugar and MSG is my Chinese trinity of seasonings,” he says. “When you mix all three together and you use it to season food, then it really enhances food and makes dishes have the extra depth and umami punch that you wouldn’t get from just salt or just sugar, or even salt and sugar combined.”
At Bonnie’s, MSG is added not only to savoury dishes, but to desserts and drinks. The flavour enhancer is used in the salt rim mixture for the restaurant’s margaritas, and is even given the spotlight in the MSG Martini.
“When I drink martinis, I like them dirty and salty, so it only made sense to make it also umami at the same time,” Eng says.












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The chef’s love for MSG made signing Ajinomoto’s letter to NEJM easy.
“We are so pro-MSG as a restaurant, as a brand,” Eng says. “A lot of people still associate Chinese food with a lot of those symptoms that were stated in that letter [from] the 1960s, but that’s why I think it’s important for us to flip that.”
Similarly, for Lieu, signing the letter is part of an effort to combat the prevailing racism against Asians. She recalls growing up in Coney Island in New York, and having adults single her out because of her race and yell at her on the street.
“They’d say things like, ‘Go back to China,’ or ‘Go back to China with your Chinese restaurants.’ And I’m like, I don’t understand. Would you say that to [those running] a pizzeria?
“You have a lot of white people trying to make ‘better’ food – they’re trying to make ‘better’ congee, they’re trying to make ‘better’ fried rice,” she adds. “There’s this whole connotation of [Asian] food being inferior and disgusting. I really think it stems from these kinds of myths saying that MSG makes you sick.”
Now, as an adult herself, Lieu has embraced MSG in her cooking and frequently includes it in the recipes that she has developed.
She uses it in her miso matcha cookies to up the umami flavour and balance out the sweetness, and also in her mashed potatoes and stews. As a treat for her son, she also prepares sushi-grade fish by seasoning it with a bit of MSG, salt and soy sauce before flaming it.
“That MSG will just bring out that natural sweetness and just take away that fishiness. It’s amazing,” she says.

Her son is part Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Chinese, and by signing onto the letter, Lieu hopes that he will one day “be able to live in a world where he can go out and enjoy his food without any stigma”.
Though the NEJM has not given any official response to Ajinomoto’s letter as of the publication of this article, Lieu hopes that will soon change.
“It goes hand in hand. When you see our culture and our food as inferior or unhealthy, then you see our people as inferior or bad. So hopefully we can disband these myths, and then MSG can be used freely,” she says.
“Hopefully, by addressing this, there’ll be less hate against Asians too.”


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Dishes at Bonnie’s, a “pro-MSG” Chinese restaurant in New York that is part of a mission to promote the vilified ingredient. Photo: Bonnie’s

Stuffed rainbow trout at Bonnie’s, a New York restaurant that seasons dishes with MSG. Photo: Bonnie’s

Kat Lieu is a cookbook author, food content creator and the founder of the Subtle Asian Baking cooking platform. Photo: Gabriella Niccole Photography

Nutritionist and therapist Mindy Lu says MSG is neither good nor bad; it just is. Photo: courtesy of Mindy Lu

Calvin Eng is the chef-owner of Cantonese-American restaurant Bonnie’s and author of coming cookbook Salt Sugar MSG. Photo: Bonnie’s

This take on a McRib featuring char siu is one of the dishes flavoured with MSG at Bonnie’s. Photo: Bonnie’s

Lieu’s miso matcha chocolate chip cookies contain MSG, which she says enhances the umami. Photo: Kat Lieu

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Kazutaka Hagiwara, chef de cuisine of sushi restaurant Tomozuna on the top floor of the Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk, gets to work on a longtooth grouper in its kitchen. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

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