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Comment by fraudsyndrome | Hacker News Reader

Are they for different reasons? What is the reason Koreans think it's bad for health? As I haven't read about that.

Given that in the west it was also dubbed "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" I would think some form of prejudice played a part.

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> What is the reason Koreans think it's bad for health?

Pretty much the same reason why Americans think it's bad for health. It has a scary-sounding name (it's also called "MSG" in Korea), it sounds like a "chemical", and you can find it in ingredient lists of all popular junk foods - most notably instant ramen, which is basically an MSG+salt solution masquerading as noodles.

Give something in food an exotic name, and people will invent reason to fear it, like all those people demanding gluten-free bread.

Besides, if "racism" is the explanation behind it, how are you going to explain the immense popularity of Chinese food everywhere in America?

> Besides, if "racism" is the explanation behind it, how are you going to explain the immense popularity of Chinese food everywhere in America?

Probably in the same way that one could explain how the existence of Taco Bell does not preclude racism towards Mexicans.

“Chinese food” is not analogous to Taco Bell. Panda Express might be your Taco Bell equivalent.. maybe.

Americanized Chinese food would probably make up most of what Americans are eating as Chinese food, so the Taco Bell comparison is apt.

American Chinese food is a lot sweeter, thicker, and more soy sauce based.

It’s still not an appropriate comparison. Taco Bell is junk food. Americanized Chinese food (or Mexican food) is not at the same level unless you’re intentionally using that term as a pejorative.

Your equivalent statement about Mexican food would be that you assume Taco Bell is what most Americans are eating as Mexican food. That doesn’t seem a valid assumption at all - maybe for a certain demographic (e.g. young) that’s true, but I’m very skeptical that such a claim would stand up to scrutiny.

Similarly, you cannot group the corner store (nominally) Chinese restaurant owned by a Chinese (or as likely in much of US, Korean) family as being in the class of highly processed, pre-made food as Taco Bell. Sorry but no.

You might be onto something with the name theory. In JP it’s commonly called “flavor salt”, and there is no sign of anti-MSG anywhere

The silly thing about this is that in Korea (as in Japan) seaweed/kelp based stock is incredibly common, and that's the historical origin of MSG as we know it today.

> In JP it’s commonly called “flavor salt”

In China, 味精, "essence of flavor".

I think that’s because the original brand of MSG anywhere is Ajinomoto 味の素 which means essence of flavor. 味塩 is the same thing but comes mixed with salt.

> instant ramen, which is basically an MSG+salt solution masquerading

Non-instant ramen is also essentially salt + oil + glutamate flavoring + noodles.

If you like you can take instant ramen and add a soft-boiled egg, some vegetables, and some fatty pork, or whatever other set of toppings you prefer.

In fact, if you want to eat ramen at home it’s the most practical (at least for the soup.) Actual ramen broth takes a lot of time to make from scratch.

I've heard that before, that many people like to buy Top Ramen (I think, IIRC it's considered better than Maruchan, but I may have it backwards) and then toss the noodles and keep the powdered soup pack. Much easier than the real thing, and respectably good given where it comes from.

Not sure what noodles to source, tho.

Personally, I much prefer any of the Korean Nongshim brand for instant. (Shin Ramyun, etc.) The noodles have a better texture.

And for slightly more goodness, Asian marts will generally carry ready made broths and alkaline noodles. And one can whip up a broth from box stock if one wants something better.

That term is over 50 years old and not commonly used, if at all, ever. The only time I've seen "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" brought up is either in a article about how that term is racist, or a historic piece referencing the origins from the 1968 New England Journal of Medicine.

However, my local Hippy Organic Community Grocery Store has all sorts of products proudly claiming the absence of MSG.

>However, my local Hippy Organic Community Grocery Store has all sorts of products proudly claiming the absence of MSG.

I wonder if they label tomatoes with that? if so they are falsely advertising as it naturally occurs in tomato.

It usually says “No MSG added”

I’m pretty sure you hit the nail on the head with your last point. We all saw it when avoiding gluten became a fad. Very few people had the need to avoid gluten, but enough for it to be added to some packaging. That steamrolled in to people thinking that gluten was somehow bad for them, regardless of the fact that if they had celiac disease they would have known about it.

My friend and I had a competition to point out the most ridiculous gluten free indicated packaging. I won with sand.

There were certainly other factors in play (and in this case, nobody needs to avoid msg) but once you sees the thought in people’s mind that something should be avoided, they’ll come up with all sorts of reasons on their own.

Maybe in America. Not "the West", certainly not in the part of the West I live in - I have never heard this very racist terminology.

MSG is bad is a myth that came out from the US years ago and spread world wide. I have seen no MSG signs in Thailand, Singapore, Pakistan and Malaysia. And when I asked the cooks why is MSG bad they did not have an answer just that everyone thinks so or that they are tourist hot spot and such signs get foreigners into the restaurant.

> Chinese Restaurant Syndrome

you'd think the name would give it away, but people are so quick to dismiss racism that this blaring red flag is just glossed over

Ah but people didn’t make up that term. It was ‘popularized’ by the likes of the NYT. I’ve never heard a regular person refer to their perceived reaction to msg as Chinese restaurant syndrome. That comes from the press —the same ones now chastising people.

So stop calling MSG sensitivity "chinese restaurant syndrome" and disconnect the phenomenon from the racism. Does hysteria does not exist because it is a sexist word?

Yeah I never heard that term before reading these comments. I remember back in the late eighties the jokes about MSG were like (and about as lame as) the jokes about tryptophan in turkey. I don’t recall it ever being a critique of Chinese people, but of the Americanized Chinese junk food (e.g General Tzo’s chicken), very much so. The same way people criticize(d) chicken McNuggets. Nobody ever spoke down about expertly done Peking duck that I recall.

> Given that in the west it was also dubbed "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" I would think some form of prejudice played a part.

Given that 60 years ago the only place anyone in the US would run into manufactured MAG was in a Chinese restaurant, calling it that doesn’t seem the least bit related to race.

And given that I’ve grown up in Canada and the US, eat Chinese food regularly, and have never heard this term before today, it seems incredibly overblown.

In Switzerland, some of the people most concerned about MSG in their Chinese food grew up in households where pretty much the only seasoning used was Aromat. You would also find it next to the pepper and salt shakers in simpler restaurants for decades. Aromat is mostly MSG, and yet, no cases of "Swiss Restaurant Syndrome" are known in the medical literature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aromat

At least the Swiss own their MSG addiction and are listing Aromat as part of their "culinary heritage": https://www.patrimoineculinaire.ch/Produits#449

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