The answer is no. In 1907, a Japanese scientist discovered that the crystals obtained after steam-drying a kind of kelp soup tasted fresh, and he named them "fresh flavoring". The crystals were actually glutamic acid, a type of amino acid, which is the precursor to flavoring.

Today's large-scale production of monosodium glutamate, almost all of the ingredients are monosodium glutamate, can be said to be in addition to salt, the most "pure" seasoning. Why is white monosodium glutamate instead of glutamic acid? The reason is simple, because glutamic acid does not dissolve well, and we ultimately want to melt MSG into our food, right? And glutamic acid crystallizes poorly and is not easy to produce. And its sodium salt, which is monosodium glutamate, essentially becomes exactly the same thing as glutamate once it enters the body.

Two: Is MSG harmful?

The answer is still no. Glutamate, one of the twenty amino acids that the body needs, is found in extremely large quantities in food. If you want to eliminate glutamate, then I'm afraid you need to eliminate soy, milk, chicken, duck, fish, and even fruit and some grain vegetables first.

So, are these foods big on glutamate? It is. I'm afraid that the amount of glutamate in the protein that a person consumes in their daily diet is far greater than the little bit of MSG that you put in your stir-fry cooking.

As a nutrient that the human body needs and is present in large quantities in food, it is nonsense to say that glutamate is harmful to the human body, and in fact it has many medical uses.

Three, where does the claim that MSG is harmful come from?

The fact that MSG is harmful is not Chinese, on the contrary, it crossed the Atlantic Ocean, first in the United States on the other side of the ocean was questioned.

The story began in the last century, when Chinese food became popular overseas. When Chinese food entered the U.S. market, it quickly became so popular that the local restaurant industry was suppressed. So the owners of Western restaurants joined together to come up with a "dirty trick", which is to create a rumor. They falsely claimed that Chinese food uses a lot of MSG as a seasoning, and that long-term consumption will produce various symptoms. The development of Chinese food in the United States was once frustrated.

Unfortunately, the opposition to this rumor is still not Chinese. The World Health Organization has repeatedly studied and criticized this rumor, and in 1987, at a food additives conference, it officially declared MSG a safe and reliable food additive, and removed all consumption limits for MSG. Since then, the World Health Organization and various food safety agencies have repeatedly come forward to dispel the rumor and "correct the name" of Chinese food. To this day, the misconceptions about MSG in the United States have almost disappeared, and Chinese food has become a very popular delicacy in the United States.

So where in the world is MSG most criticized today? You guessed it, China. Instead of standing up for themselves, the Chinese have become the last "inheritors" of this vicious rumor. Because of the cheapness and popularity of MSG, many expensive, high-margin condiments have to pass the "MSG barrier" if they want to expand their sales. So, the "smart" Chinese inherited exactly what their American counterparts did, and joined forces to find all sorts of reasons to "accuse" MSG. We've seen rumors even overpower the truth, which is a kind of chaos," he said.

In the end, the rumor mill is a wise place, so let's be sensible about it.