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Is MSG Safe?

blissfully-unaware

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blissfully-unaware Rookie
blissfully-unaware
Posted

Hi

I'm still confused whether MSG contains gluten or not - haven't eaten it since I was diagnosed with celiac. I've been reading conflicting reports everywhere. I know MSG is anyways not good for health and hence, never use it. But I'd still like to know if it's safe for celiacs (so that I can safely eat Chinese food if I don't get anything else to eat when I'm out)!

Thanks!

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psawyer Proficient
psawyer
Posted

MSG is gluten-free. Whether it is "safe" is a subject of much controversy, which I won't get into here. But it is definitely gluten-free.

Be careful with Chinese food. Most soy sauce contains wheat and thus has gluten.

sa1937 Community Regular
sa1937
Posted

MSG does not contain gluten so that's the good news! There are people who are sensitive to MSG though.

The problem with Chinese food is that soy sauce usually contains wheat, especially in restaurants unless they have wheat-free soy sauce available. If you're in the US, the LaChoy or San-J tamari sauce do not contain wheat. My favorite Kikkomen is introducing a wheat-free soy sauce. Yaaay!!!! Open Original Shared Link

cassP Contributor
cassP
Posted

ya, i agree.

and when you typed "Chinese Food".. alarm bells went off in my head- Asian food can be a real disaster unfortunately- its so frustrating- because it's SO YUMMY- and it would be so easy for them to use Wheat Free soy sauce and fish sauce and oyster sauce- and it would still be DELISH- it's not like trying to make a gluten free pizza crust taste good.

Anyways- please be careful! since ive gone gluten free- ive only stuck to Pei Wei's gluten-free menu, or PF Chang's gluten-free menu. ive also tested out certain sushi rolls while bringing my own gluten-free soy sauce.

AmyE Newbie
AmyE
Posted

Msg triggers my migraines in a horrible way! I have been gluten free since nov 11 and the only 4 day long migraine was due to 1tsp of taco bell taco seasoning in my vat of soup :-( never again!!!!!

Darn210 Enthusiast
Darn210
Posted

Msg triggers my migraines in a horrible way! I have been gluten free since nov 11 and the only 4 day long migraine was due to 1tsp of taco bell taco seasoning in my vat of soup :-( never again!!!!!

I'm assuming you are using the store bought package of taco bell seasoning mix? The taco bell seasoning mix for tacos that you can buy at the store contains wheat. I took a look around on the web for a link to post the ingredients, but they all want to talk about the restaurant or a copy cat recipe. You can go to Amazon and take a look at the ingredient list(link not allowed on this board because they spam).

larry mac Enthusiast
larry mac
Posted

Never had a problem with it. At one time, I would use the Adolphs meat tenderizer that, if I'm not mistaken, had MSG as the main ingredient.

I did have a co-worker once that got migrains from it.

I love the Seinfeld episode where they are ordering Chinese delivered. And George says no MSG on his, and Kramer says extra MSG on his!

best regards, lm

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GFinDC Veteran
GFinDC
Posted

Msg triggers my migraines in a horrible way! I have been gluten free since nov 11 and the only 4 day long migraine was due to 1tsp of taco bell taco seasoning in my vat of soup :-( never again!!!!!

One thing I started doing a while back is to add spices to the serving I am eating, rather than a whole pot of food as I am cooking it. That way if I did react to the spice it would only be that serving that was bad, and I wouldn't have to throw out a lot of food.

blissfully-unaware Rookie
blissfully-unaware
Posted
  • Author

Thank you all for your replies!

I remember reading on the list of safe ingredients on celiac.com that MSG made in USA is safe, and MSG made in other countries may not be gluten free.

  • 3 years later...
IMSassafras Newbie
IMSassafras
Posted

Thank you all for your replies!

I remember reading on the list of safe ingredients on celiac.com that MSG made in USA is safe, and MSG made in other countries may not be gluten free.

As a sufferer of MSG and Other Excitotoxins, I don't try to differentiate between MSG made here or there. It is MSG, don't eat it. Another concern is to eliminate Hydrolyzed Protein because it contains at least 20% MSG and Autolyzed Yeast Extract because it contains 12% MSG. There are other ingredients - over 100 actually - MSG intolerant people must avoid or limit depending on the individual's sensitivity and the amount of free-glutamate.

kareng Grand Master
kareng
Posted

As a sufferer of MSG and Other Excitotoxins, I don't try to differentiate between MSG made here or there. It is MSG, don't eat it. Another concern is to eliminate Hydrolyzed Protein because it contains at least 20% MSG and Autolyzed Yeast Extract because it contains 12% MSG. There are other ingredients - over 100 actually - MSG intolerant people must avoid or limit depending on the individual's sensitivity and the amount of free-glutamate.

When they said " safe" they meant gluten free. Also, that was from 3 years ago.

IMSassafras Newbie
IMSassafras
Posted

When they said " safe" they meant gluten free. Also, that was from 3 years ago.

Well, I thought it wouldn't matter that much. If so, I will reply to more recent posts.

kareng Grand Master
kareng
Posted

Well, I thought it wouldn't matter that much. If so, I will reply to more recent posts.

Just Wanted you to know. Many of them haven't been around for a couple of years so they won't be responding back.

mbrookes Community Regular
mbrookes
Posted

Back to Chinese foods:

Have you tried Thai food? It is as good a s Chinese and they generally use fish sauce rather that soy. Try some of the mixes... many od them are labeled Gluten free. I especially love Pad Thai.

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