From: rogers@calamari.hi.com (Andrew Rogers)
Subject: Re: Is MSG sensitivity superstition?
Organization: Flames 'R Us
Lines: 13
NNTP-Posting-Host: calamari.hi.com

In article <1993Apr15.153729.13738@walter.bellcore.com> jchen@ctt.bellcore.com writes:
>Chinese, and many other Asians (Japanese, Koreans, etc) have used
>MSG as flavor enhancer for two thousand years. Do you believe that
>they knew how to make MSG from chemical processes? Not. They just
>extracted it from natural food such sea food and meat broth.

And to add further fuel to the flame war, I read about 20 years ago that
the "natural" MSG - extracted from the sources you mention above - does not
cause the reported aftereffects; it's only that nasty "artificial" MSG -
extracted from coal tar or whatever - that causes Chinese Restaurant
Syndrome.  I find this pretty hard to believe; has anyone else heard it?

Andrew
