MSG's in Chinese Food

alan85

Hey,

We order from our local Chinese every Saturday. The family more than me. I had given them up for a good while and recently started eating them again. The thing I've noticed since starting to eat them again is that I'm really thirsty afterwards. Last Sat I drank 4/5 pints of water after and my mouth still felt very dry next morning. My mam said that her heart was pounding over night and was awake 4/5 hrs through the night....

I'm thinking that they possibly are using way too much MSG's in the food. Would I be correct?

I'd also love to know if anyone has any info. on it what kind of ingredients go into your regular meal regards oils/fats in the wok?

Thanks in advance!

EileenG

They very likely are using a lot of MSG. They are almost certainly also using a ton of salt and sugar, a combination which makes food very more-ish, and which will make you very thirsty.

Mellor

I'd say its more down to the sugar and salt. MSGs gets a associated with chinese food too much, obviously they use a lot of it (was discovered in seaweed in chine 100 years ago).
But its also added to laods of processed food. Look out for E 621

rubadub

Mellor wrote: »

MSGs gets a associated with chinese food too much

Yeah, and people have a weird sort of faith in Indian takeaways, I have seen it in many threads in the likes of after hours. It is like the irrational faith people put in butchers over supermarkets, I have heard disgusting stories from an ex-butcher, I know lads who worked in Chinese & Indian takeaways, both used plenty of salt, oil & sugar.

I reckon there will be more additives in sauce based dishes, there are plenty of dry dishes on chinese menus, unfortunately they tend to put down 2-3 word descriptions and nobody has a clue what they are!

Mellor wrote: »

Look out for E 621

It has a host of other names it can be sneaked under too
http://www.msgmyth.com/hidename.htm

me_right_one

Where could you buy some MSG just for home food?

rubadub

me_right_one wrote: »

Where could you buy some MSG just for home food?

Most Asian supermarkets will have the pure stuff. Aromat is MSG & other spices, there are probably other flavour enhancers like aromat with it too.

EileenG

me_right_one wrote: »

Where could you buy some MSG just for home food?

The South African shop in North Great Strand Street has it. It's in a jar labeled Zeal.

SteelyDanJalapeno

Whats MSG?

EileenG

Monosodium glutamate.

SteelyDanJalapeno

cheers