MSG & Food Sensitivity

The recent heated topic I came across recently is about the myth of MSG allergy and chinese restaurant syndrome. It appears that these days if you mention you dislike MSG or are not into MSG you are either racist or uncultured for not seasoning your food properly. Some of these people mentioned that those things are there because of racism. I can understand where it's coming from as the name itself is suggesting from that these comes from a certain culture.

~~~ embed:1612632574899392513 twitter metadata:S2ltQ2hpX0NoaWN8fGh0dHBzOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vS2ltQ2hpX0NoaWMvc3RhdHVzLzE2MTI2MzI1NzQ4OTkzOTI1MTMgfA== ~~~_{the MSG tweet}

Growing up in a household that used to use these enhancers and everywhere I go for eating most likely has MSG. It has been a bit of a discovery and a journey for me.As ridiculous as it sounds, I actually have sensitivity to MSG. As a child, I already had a few allergies going on, so what I ate was slightly controlled. I rarely had chips, fast food, and soda was forbidden in our house.

I grew up with cooks and she certainly made sure that the food was on the healthier side. My mom also tried her best but her lunch boxes in the past were giving me some headache and brain fog. The only food I ever like is from my paternal grandmother, she did not add any too much MSG and she has a few food restrictions too. However, I noticed the intensity of my msg and food sensitivity even more when I was at uni and stopped having less control over what I eat. After eating food I bought from outside, I would often fall asleep randomly. Then later on, I would find this when I ate chips and anything that is rich in sodium and has MSG. When I eat too much of them, I would lose a day of not being productive. The intensity I experienced was even more, especially after my brain injury. Although I still eat food rich in MSG, I guarantee that I would lose a day and have something like a food coma going on. But there are many times when I don’t have that much control over it. It took a bit of a journey for my mom to understand how MSG is impacting me. In the end though, she understood and now, my mom has removed MSG completely in our cooking. Whenever she buys food outside, I also make sure to not eat it because I did in the past and it ended up making me sick and unproductive.

Sometimes I wonder if I can only eat water 😀 because everything I have cooked so far, behind the scenes, has made me sick. In my day to day life, I just make sure that it’s worth the pain I am feeling especially after cooking and eating food. Everything from Coffee, rice, chocolate, eggs, cheese, flour, beer, pasta, even milk have all actually made me feel sick and in pain. The only time I ever feel great is when I eat a rich protein meal or fish, no carbs, no packet seasoning, and sustain myself with lots of water and vitamins pills. Coffee is fine as long as it doesn’t have milk and sugar in any form. If it contains both, I mostly experience pain in my joints a few hours after. But again, if it’s worth the pain I am experiencing, I certainly will still cook and make them. That’s probably the irony of my life where I am a foodie and love to cook but I have so many things I can’t eat and experience some sort of pain after cooking them. It’s like a drug, you know it has side effects but you’re a fiend and you’d always crave for more.

_{illustration via unsplash}

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