How come Chinese restaurants advertise no MSG, but MSG is in a lot of the packaged products Americans Eat. How come we don't do the same?
2007-07-11 08:51:10 · 7 answers · asked by Eric 1 in Food & Drink ➔ Other - Food & Drink
Many people (including my aunt) are allergic to MSG. All it is is a type of preservative. Doesn't add any flavor and we can definetly do without it.
I'm not allergic to it but whne I shop I look for products that say "Contains No MSG".
2007-07-11 08:59:00 · answer #1 · answered by LJ 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Marketing... People claim to be allergic to MSG, but have no problems eating canned soups or packaged foods. It's sort of a placebo effect.
Chinese restaurants got the bad rap based upon newspaper articles and the fact that some restaurants over did the MSG they added to their dishes.
A more accurate sign should be, "We don't add extra MSG"
The truth is the food does contain MSG from the sauces they use in the dishes - oyster sauce, bean sauce... etc.
2007-07-11 09:03:29 · answer #2 · answered by Dave C 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They say no MSG because it gives many people headaches. My mom gets headaches from it and I get mild ones. It is an additive that is supposed to "enhance" what you are serving. It is actually sodium salt of glutamic acid.
It also has HIGH amounts of GLUTEN. This is not good for diabetics or people on gluten free diets, like my brother.
So, in a way, it has something to do with being healthy because it is helping those that have problems with MSG. Therefore, more patrons will eat at their restaurant if they don't have to worry about MSG. These types of patrons include me and my family.
2007-07-11 09:04:42 · answer #3 · answered by Elfgirl1968 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It's because many people have an allergy to MSG, and MSG used to be commonly used as a spice in Chinese food. So places that stopped using it in order to capture more business. Everybody started going to just those places because it was somehow seen as "more healthy" even though there was no health problem as long as you didn't have the allergy. Soon it became a bad business decision to keep using MSG, so everybody stopped using it and put up signs to that effect so as not to lose business.
2007-07-11 09:01:25 · answer #4 · answered by Waynez 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Paranoia
Somewhere, somehow a widespread belief that there was a fatal dose of MSG in every bite of chinese food came about. As a result the chinese restaurants took a hit and so those that changed their recipes advertised it to regain the paranoids biz.
2007-07-11 08:59:59 · answer #5 · answered by Tom S 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Cuz they want us to think they eat all health foods all the time and that, that is why they stay so skinny.
2007-07-11 08:56:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good question, but it's simple, so they can make a quick sale.
2007-07-11 10:10:12 · answer #7 · answered by Angelheart♥ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋