Chinese Restaurant Syndrome - What Is It?

2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29

"Chinese restaurant syndrome" is a set of symptoms that are sometimes confused with heart attacks or allergic reactions. Some people think they are allergic or sensitive to monosodium glutamate. He has been repeatedly accused of causing these physical symptoms, such as migraines, nausea, indigestion, palpitations, asthma and countless other complaints, including anaphylactic shock.

About 1,200 years ago, chefs in the Orient discovered that some seaweed dishes tasted much better than others. This was done by adding a spice from them, giving an unknown, new taste to the dish. The new taste was called umami, which means delicious, with a spicy taste, with the taste of meat broth.

Umami is actually the fifth flavor, along with sweet, salty, sour and bitter. It was discovered at the beginning of the last century by the Japanese Kikunae Ikeda from the Tokyo Imperial University. It is this taste that is considered the main in Japanese and Chinese cuisine, and is extremely rare in Western.

In 1908 it also becomes clear which ingredient gives this taste. Ikeda was able to crystallize algae broth from which it isolated the amino acid monosodium glutamate. It is glutamate that gives a rich and finished taste to any dish.

Glutamic acid is one of the twenty essential amino acids that make up human proteins. Critical to the proper functioning of cells, it is not considered an essential nutrient because the body can produce it from simpler compounds. Glutamic acid is one of the building blocks in protein synthesis and is important for the functioning of the brain as a stimulating neurotransmitter.

Monosodium glutamate is found naturally in seaweed and fermented soy products, and especially in yeast extracts. Its minimal contents are also found in tomatoes, mushrooms and Parmesan cheese. Today, it is used in large concentrations to flavor chips, corn sticks and other similar foods, as well as frozen semi-finished foods and fast foods. Modern commercial monosodium glutamate is produced by fermentation of starch, sugar beet or molasses.

Despite its widespread use, the use of monosodium glutamate can be disturbing. In the 1980s, public unrest reached hysteria, but interest in the problem has almost completely subsided since then.

Recently, however, a team from the University of Hirosaki, Japan, found the destructive effects of glutamate, for example, on the retina of the eye. In animals fed a diet to which glutamate was added daily, the retina became significantly thinner and they subsequently lost their sight. According to the scientists who came to this conclusion, any intake of glutamate is fatal, as it has the ability to be superimposed, as it begins in the womb for children whose mothers consume glutamate.

Another worrying point is the increasing reports of specific disease symptoms in some people after eating in Chinese restaurants. Hours after eating there is redness of the face, stomach pain, dizziness, stabbing in the heart area, vomiting, disorder. After another 1-2 hours, general malaise, loss of appetite and even seizures appear, which are the result of a drop in blood pressure. Studies have shown that this is again due to monosodium glutamate.

Such manifestations of the Syndrome disappear after about 2 hours and do not require treatment. The fact is, however, that the substance accumulates in the body. It is forbidden in Switzerland.