After salt and pepper is a third spice, the most widely used flavor enhancer in the world, and truly the spice of our times. Today MSG is used in processed foods and fast-foods and Chinese food.
Reactions range from mild to very severe.
Indeed, the symptoms that Dr. Ho Man Kwok reported in the first published study in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968, for example headache and flushing of the skin, were relatively mild. However, later studies have documented more serious and sustained physical problems such as asthma, acute headaches, and life-threatening heart irregularities. Deaths have been reported. Many cases of severe problems induced by MSG have been documented by physicians and more have been reported in the medical literature where they may be studied by professionals. MSG was removed from baby foods in the late 1960s without much comment.