Chinese Restaurant Syndrome
Back in 1968, the New England Journal of Medicine published a letter written by a doctor titled "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome." The doctor described feeling sick after eating a meal at a Chinese restaurant, mentioning such symptoms as headache, palpitations, nervousness and dizziness.
This letter was then spread to the mass media, and the witch hunt for people who use monosodium glutamate in cooking was on. By the early 1970s, even the Merriam-Webster dictionary had an entry for the phenomena within its pages:
The Real Story
MSG is NOT bad for you and "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" is not a real thing. It seems that a fake letter destroyed an eastern food industry in the United States for about 50 years.
MSG?
MSG stands for “Monosodium Glutamate” and is made of water, sodium and glutamate. Glutamate is an amino acid that is used to make proteins in food and our body.
MSG doesn’t have a specific flavour of its own. Instead, MSG is used as an ingredient to enhance the natural flavours of foods such as meat, poultry, soups, stews, casseroles, gravies, seafood, snacks and vegetable dishes.
Glutamate itself is also found naturally in foods such as corn, green peas, mushrooms and tomatoes.
The Bet
Back in the 1960s, two doctors had a bet. Dr. Bill Hanson and his friend Dr. Howard Steel (an orthopedic surgeon)[1] had a wager that Steel would never get an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Hanson would joke with Steel, saying orthopedic surgeons were too stupid to get published in a prestigious journal such as the NEJM.
This prompted a ten dollar bet between the friends, and also prompted a satirical letter written to the NEJM.
The Joke
At the time, Steel and Hanson used to go to a Chinese restaurant called Jack Louie once a week, drinking too much beer and overeating — invariably feeling sick afterward. Following one of those episodes, Steel had a fit of inspiration. “I decided, well, I’ll write a little article and send it to the New England Journal of Medicine,” Steel said. “I’ll make it so obvious, they will know immediately [that it’s fake].” After penning the notorious letter, he signed it Robert Ho Man Kwok,[2] which he thought would be an obvious play on words.[3]
Snowball Effect
A few weeks later, when the letter was actually published under the title “Chinese-Restaurant Syndrome,” Steel was pleased with himself and promptly went to Hanson to pay up. Lest anyone think the phenomenon was real, Steel contacted the letters editor to tell him it was “a big fat lie,” he said. When he didn’t hear back, Steel called the journal’s editor, Franz Ingelfinger. “I told him it was a bunch of junk, it was all fake, it was all made up, and he hung up the phone on me,” Steel claimed.
On three occasions experienced a tightening of my masseter and temporalis muscles, lacrimation, periorbital fasciculation, numbness of the neck and hands, palpitation, and syncope within 20 minutes of eating Chinese food. - Another letter from 1968 
Now
Despite the fact that MSG is not harmful, people today still have psychosomatic reactions to it because MSG BAD!!! has been drilled into their heads for over 5 decades. They often report:
- Headache
- Flushing
- Sweating
- Face pressure or tightness
- Lack of feeling (numbness), tingling or burning in the face, neck and other areas
- Quick, fluttering heartbeats
- Chest pain
- Feeling sick (nausea)
- Weakness
But researchers have found no clear proof of a link between MSG and these symptoms.[4][5]
Further Reading
References
- ↑ https://news.colgate.edu/magazine/2019/02/06/the-strange-case-of-dr-ho-man-kwok/#charmed
- ↑ A play on words that meant "human crock (of shit)
- ↑ https://news.colgate.edu/magazine/2019/02/06/the-strange-case-of-dr-ho-man-kwok/
- ↑ This article says that "some" people may have "short term symptoms" and we all should probably not eat MSG. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/monosodium-glutamate/faq-20058196
- ↑ Canada says MSG is okay: https://www.unlockfood.ca/en/Articles/Food-allergies-intolerances/The-Truth-about-MSG.aspx
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