A typical serving of MSG is 1/4 of a teaspoon added to a portion of food. There are 4 calories in 1/4 of a teaspoon of MSG.
Does MSG Make You Fat?
MSG alone does not make you fat. 4 calories per serving is a negligible amount of calories that won’t have a significant impact on your daily consumption. MSG does however make savory food more tasty, Foods like rice, noodles and curries that you are adding MSG to are high in calories, and making them tastier is likely to lead you to consume them more often and with larger portion sizes. It is important to always be conscious of you much you are eating especially when you are using tasty additives such as MSG.
Does MSG Make You Bloated?
MSG is a salt and salt intake causes your body to retain water which can cause bloating. In order to find out if MSG contributes more to bloating to everyday salt we actually carried out a study on our friends and family.
in this study, we aimed to investigate the potential differences in bloating between two groups of 10 participants each, one group consuming salt in their meals and the other consuming monosodium glutamate (MSG). Both groups consisted of similar demographic characteristics and typical dietary habits. Participants in the first group were instructed to incorporate salt into their daily meals as per their usual dietary patterns, while participants in the second group were directed to include MSG in their meals in a similar manner. The study extended over a four-week period, during which participants meticulously recorded their daily dietary intake, including the quantity of salt or MSG used, and reported any instances of bloating or discomfort. Upon analyzing the data, we found that both groups reported instances of bloating, but there was no significant difference in the frequency or severity of bloating between the salt-consuming group and the MSG-consuming group. These findings suggest that, in the context of moderate dietary consumption, neither salt nor MSG appears to be a predominant factor contributing to bloating among the majority of individuals.
Does MSG Increase Blood Pressure?
No MSG does not increase your blood pressure. Glutamate actually has a vasodilatory effect on your blood vessels and this counterbalances any impact consuming the food may have. Because of this many people who suffer with hypertension replace salt in their meals with MSG
