In Praise of MSG

When I go to a Chinese restaurant, I am always disappointed when the menu says "No MSG." I used to be on the "MSG is bad" bandwagon too until I learned some neuroscience. Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain and now I'm always hoping to get extra glutamate into my system and brain. I don't really know if MSG is going to supercharge my brain but hey the placebo effect is real. Research has never found any bad effects of MSG. See this article for details. This is also an interesting case where other people's beliefs do directly affect me. Because, the public is hugely biased against MSG, I will be deprived of it at my local Chinese take out place. I don't know why you have a headache after you eat at a Chinese restaurant. It might be from drinking too much tea or the salt but it's probably not because of the MSG.