Up to date at 1:45 p.m. ET on Could 17, 2023

In March, the World Well being Group issued a dire warning that was additionally fully apparent: Practically everybody on the planet consumes an excessive amount of salt. And never only a sprinkle an excessive amount of; on common, folks devour greater than double what’s advisable each single day, elevating the chance of widespread ailments comparable to coronary heart assault and stroke. If governments intervene in such profligate salt consumption, the WHO urged, they may save the lives of seven million folks by 2030.

Such warnings about salt are so ubiquitous that they’re straightforward to tune out. In america, salt consumption has been a public-health problem for greater than half a century; since then, the initiatives launched to fight it have been deemed by well being officers as “too quite a few to explain,” however little has modified when it comes to coverage or urge for food. The primary motive salt has remained an issue is that it’s a serious a part of all processed meals—and, nicely, it makes every part scrumptious. Persuading People to cut back their consumption would require a convincing dupe—one thing that may lower down on unhealthy sodium with out making meals any much less tasty.

No good dupe exists. However the subsequent smartest thing may very well be … MSG. Severely. Final month, the FDA proposed lowering sodium in sure meals utilizing salt substitutes. One candidate that has analysis behind it’s monosodium glutamate, the white crystalline powder that has lengthy been maligned within the West as an unhealthy meals additive. A typical seasoning in some Asian cuisines, MSG was linked within the late Nineteen Sixties to illnesses—complications, numbness, dizziness, coronary heart palpitations—that grew to become often called Chinese language Restaurant Syndrome. The well being issues round MSG have since been debunked, and the FDA considers it suitable for eating. Nevertheless it nonetheless has a nasty rap: Many merchandise are nonetheless proudly marketed as MSG free. Now the chemical could quickly get its revenge. Given the possibility to exchange salt in a few of our meals, it may ultimately come to characterize one thing healthful—even perhaps one thing near wholesome.

The issues with MSG originated in 1968, when a Chinese language American doctor, writing in The New England Journal of Medication, described feeling usually in poor health after consuming Chinese language meals, which he steered may very well be due to MSG. Different researchers rapidly produced research that appeared to substantiate this declare, and MSG grew to become a public-health villain. Within the ’70s, the Chicago Tribune ran the headline “Chinese language Meals Make You Loopy? MSG Is No. 1 Suspect.” All the eye “renewed medical legitimacy [for] quite a lot of long-held assumptions in regards to the surprisingly ‘unique’, ‘weird’ and ‘extreme’ practices related to Chinese language tradition,” the historian Ian Mosby wrote in 2009. That’s to not say that every one signs related to MSG are bunk; folks could be delicate to MSG—like every meals—and will expertise broad signs comparable to complications after consuming it, Amanda Li, a dietary nutritionist on the College of Washington, instructed me. However “analysis has proven no clear proof linking MSG consumption to any severe potential opposed reactions,” she mentioned.

On the entire, MSG does appear higher than salt itself, contemplating that extreme salt consumption poses so many continual well being dangers. A comparatively small quantity of MSG may very well be used to rescue taste in reduced-salt merchandise with out endangering well being. That is potential partly due to MSG’s molecular make-up. It satisfies the necessity for salt to a sure extent as a result of it incorporates sodium (it’s proper there within the identify, in spite of everything)—however only a third of the quantity, by weight, that salt does. The remainder of the molecule is fabricated from the amino acid L-glutamate, which registers because the savory, “brothy” taste often called umami.

MSG isn’t a one-to-one alternative for salt, however that’s what makes it such a promising various. It’s a common taste enhancer, that means that it could amplify the notion of salt and different flavors which are already in a dish, in addition to add an umami aspect, Soo-Yeun Lee, a sensory scientist and the director of Washington State College’s Faculty of Meals Science, instructed me. One secret to this impact is that not like salt, which imparts a blast of taste after which rapidly dissipates, MSG stays on the tongue lengthy after meals is swallowed, producing a long-lasting savory sensation, Lee mentioned. It could amplify saltiness by rising salivation, letting sodium molecules wash over the tongue extra freely, Aubrey Dunteman, a meals scientist on the College of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, instructed me.

All of this provides MSG the potential to play right into a salt-reduction technique. A 2019 research within the journal Vitamins discovered that substituting MSG (or different comparable however extra obscure chemical compounds) for a number of the salt in sure meals may have main impacts: Adults who eat cured meats may lower 40 % of their consumption; cheese eaters, 45 %. One other research from researchers in Japan discovered that incorporating MSG and different umami substances into widespread Japanese condiments, comparable to soy sauce, seasoning salt, and miso paste, may lower salt consumption by as much as 22.3 %. Doing the identical in curry-chicken and chili-chicken soups, Malaysian scientists discovered, may very well be used to cut back the recipes’ salt content material by 32.5 %.

Take these findings with a grain of, uh, MSG. Current research have uniformly discovered that MSG is a secure, promising salt alternative, however many, together with each the Vitamins research and the Japanese one, have been funded a minimum of partially by Ajinomoto Co.—the corporate that launched the primary business type of the substance—or the Worldwide Glutamate Technical Committee, a commerce group. Lee and Dunteman have additionally obtained funding from Ajinomoto for a few of their MSG work, together with a research displaying that the substance may enhance the flavour of reduced-sodium bread. Lee mentioned she aimed to indicate that MSG substitution for salt is “possible, so if any meals corporations need to take that up and check out it on their very own techniques,” they’ve a foundation for doing so. Her purpose, she added, “is to not promote bread with MSG.” (The paper, together with the 2 others talked about that obtained business funding, have been independently peer-reviewed.)

Clearly, extra unbiased analysis is required, however meals corporations have loads of incentive to assist discover a higher various to salt. Greater than 70 % of People’ salt consumption comes from processed and manufactured meals, and if the FDA decides to crack down on salt consumption, its insurance policies will largely goal the meals business, Lee mentioned. Already, some producers of canned soup and fish are experimenting with salt substitutes.

Deploying MSG in a sweeping sodium-reduction marketing campaign wouldn’t be simple. MSG is costlier than salt, Dunteman famous. Extra crucially, in lots of meals, salt supplies greater than taste; it could additionally act as a preservative and regulate texture by, say, including juiciness to lean meat or stabilizing leavened dough. Of their research on bread, Lee and Dunteman discovered that eradicating an excessive amount of salt decreased chewiness and firmness, even when MSG made up for style. Amongst widespread processed meals, bread is a major goal for future MSG analysis, as a result of it’s the largest contributor to U.S. sodium consumption—not solely due to its salt content material but in addition due to the sheer quantity of it that People devour. When MSG is used as an alternative of salt to reinforce taste, “meals can style simply as scrumptious however with out affecting hypertension,” Katherine Burt, a professor of well being promotion and vitamin sciences at Lehman Faculty, whose writing on MSG was not business funded, instructed me. It’s “a good way to make meals thrilling and wholesome.”

MSG will also be used to intentionally cut back salt consumption at residence. Including a brand new ingredient to a house pantry could be daunting, however take into account that MSG is already in most kitchens, occurring naturally in umami-rich gadgets comparable to Parmesan cheese and mushrooms and added to processed meals comparable to Campbell’s Soup and Doritos. Today, it’s straightforward sufficient to search out it on-line or in shops, bought in shakers or packets, very like salt. Li recommends that the MSG-curious begin seasoning their meals with a 50–50 combination of MSG and desk salt. When consuming processed meals, select low-sodium variations of merchandise (not “decreased sodium” items, which can not even have low ranges of salt). They’ll seemingly style horrible, so add MSG in increments till they style good, Lee mentioned.

We nonetheless have a lot to study MSG as a salt substitute, however the largest problem to it taking off is cultural, not scientific. To a sure diploma, tastes are altering: Celeb cooks comparable to David Chang champion it, and one extremely acclaimed New York restaurant now serves an MSG martini. However the notion that MSG is unhealthy nonetheless persists, regardless of proof on the contrary. Phrases comparable to “sneaky,” “disguised,” and “nasty” are nonetheless used to explain it, and grocery shops comparable to Entire Meals and Dealer Joe’s make some extent of mentioning that their meals haven’t any MSG. However, so long as outdated misconceptions about MSG persist, they’ll proceed to hamper the potential for a greater salt substitute. America’s aversion towards MSG could also be meant to advertise higher well being, however at this level, it’d simply be doing exactly the other.