Chemistry Week 4: Eat the Rainbow and MSG

https://www.healthyfamiliesbc.ca/home/blog/veggie-and-fruit-rainbow-st-patricks-day

Eat the Rainbow

My diet tends to be very colorful. I try to prioritize eating things that are in season and locally grown. Currently, in my refrigerator, there is a batch of homemade pesto, spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce, cherries that were grown in California, green cabbage, orange carrots. I try to throw in other seasonal fruits as needed. I switched up my potatoes and am now eating red potatoes instead of the brown ones.

Mono-Sodium Glutamate (MSG)

Inspired by our discussion on Monday, I delved into the world of Mono-Sodium Glutamate (MSG). An amino-acid originally isolated in kombu seaweed by Japanese chemist,  Kikunae Ikeda, in 1908--it is one of the most abundant non essential amino acids found. Currently, most MSG is a byproduct on a starchy fermentation process--similar to Vegemite or Nutritional Yeast. 

Much of the controversy surrounding MSG arose during the late 1960's as a xenophobic response to white Americans feeling threatened by an influx of Asian immigrants, coupled with a sense of patriotic zeal during the Vietnam War--news outlets took advantage of a speculative study considering the possible ill effects of MSG use in Chinese restaurants to create widespread hysteria about eating at Chinese restaurants. The effects of this xenophobic fervor can be felt today. No current studies support the hypothesis that MSG causes ill side effects. In many studies, the placebo outweighs real MSG in causing the psychosomatic symptoms. 

Here are two great articles that speak to this phenomenon in more detail:

From Harvard

From Columbia