In fact, these rumors are groundless, and they are all rumors.
First of all, monosodium glutamate is not a chemical.
The chemical name of monosodium glutamate is sodium glutamate, which is formed by combining starch with sodium through microbial fermentation and a series of extraction processes. Many natural foods contain sodium glutamate. History of monosodium glutamate: In the early 20th century, Japanese chemist Ikeda Miaoju found this soup surprisingly delicious when drinking kelp and cucumber soup. Then he took the soup sample back to the laboratory and extracted a magical substance from kelp through chemical analysis? Sodium glutamate, and named it flavor element. 1920, China chemist Wu successfully extracted and made monosodium glutamate from grain, named monosodium glutamate. The preparation of monosodium glutamate in China is mostly made from corn starch, rice and other grains through fermentation, extraction and refining. The production principle of monosodium glutamate is similar to that of soy sauce and vinegar. As long as the raw materials of these natural foods and cereals are nontoxic, sodium glutamate that meets international standards is naturally nontoxic.
MSG does not cause cancer.
Sodium glutamate is the main component of monosodium glutamate. When heated to above 120℃, sodium pyroglutamate may be generated. This is also the chief culprit of the legendary monosodium glutamate carcinogenesis. In fact, sodium pyroglutamate does not cause cancer, but it has no umami taste.
International authorities, such as FDA, American Medical Association, FAO and WHO, have evaluated and reviewed the safety of monosodium glutamate. The joint expert group of food additives of the World Health Organization has proved that monosodium glutamate is safe through various tests such as acute toxicity, subacute toxicity, chronic acute toxicity, teratogenicity and mutation.
The same is true of chicken essence. The main components of chicken essence are sodium glutamate, salt, sugar, starch, chicken powder (some even have none) and pigment, so it can also be understood that chicken essence is a compound condiment made on the basis of monosodium glutamate. It can be seen that monosodium glutamate and chicken essence are extracted from food, not chemicals. In fact, soy sauce also contains sodium glutamate. The main component of monosodium glutamate, monosodium glutamate, will be decomposed into glutamic acid under the action of gastric acid after it enters the human body. Glutamate is an important substance for human body to synthesize protein, which can participate in human metabolism after entering the blood circulation.
Although monosodium glutamate is non-toxic and harmless, you should also pay attention to it when using it. After all, it is not good to eat too much of anything. Sodium glutamate is a sodium salt, just like sodium chloride in salt. The Dietary Guidelines for China Residents stipulates that the salt intake should not exceed 6g per day. If monosodium glutamate is added too much, the sodium salt will inevitably exceed the standard. Too much sodium will do harm to human health, especially to patients with hypertension, nephropathy and metabolic syndrome. Therefore, when cooking, we should control the dosage of monosodium glutamate.
When monosodium glutamate is heated at high temperature, it will lose its flavor, so try to add it before cooking. In addition, lactating women and children had better not eat or eat less monosodium glutamate. Because sodium glutamate will produce glutamic acid after entering the human body, glutamic acid can combine with zinc in the blood, reduce the concentration of zinc in the blood, lead to zinc deficiency in infants, and thus affect growth and development.