As I walked down a row of restaurants to find an option for dinner, something caught my eye: many, no, most of the spots exhibited a “No MSG” sign. 

Growing up, I’ve always steered away from foods with MSG populating the aisles of the nearby grocery stores. And for good reason. Foods with MSG tend to be those highly processed, grab-and-go types that are loaded with sodium, fats, and a mix of other refined ingredients that aren't exactly doing us any favors.

Here's something interesting: MSG has about one-third the sodium of regular table salt.

Humans have evolved taste receptors that have the ability to detect protein in the food we eat, and this makes sense because protein is essential to our diet. Protein This ability is actually linked to one of the five basic tastes: umami, the savory taste distinct from sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. 

Umami serves as a signal for the presence of protein, as it’s often triggered by glutamate—a key component found in many proteins. When you add MSG to a dish, even a vegetable-based one, it enhances the umami taste, signaling to your brain that the dish contains more protein than it actually does.

Standing there, looking at all those signs, I couldn’t help but wonder if we’ve been too quick to judge. Perhaps our biases are less about scientific fact and more about perpetuating a misunderstood narrative. For many of us, using MSG in our food could augment the taste we crave while actually reducing the total sodium we ingest. Food, like any tradition, evolves—and sometimes, so should our thinking. As we constantly look for ways to balance flavor and health, MSG might just deserve a second look.