All I can say is wow. It's really hard to avoid MSG when eating out. Nearly any fast food place uses some form of MSG in their food to make you want it more. The problem is if one uses it and another doesn't then peoples taste buds tell them that the one that does tastes better so they are losing business if they don't use it too. It's safer to eat at a sit down restaurant where you can at least ask about the ingredients and they are a bit more willing to tell you what is in their food but they are still learning and maybe not all that eager to share it all with us.
Usually if it's spicy and really tasty you can figure it has MSG in it sadly. I try to avoid the sauces since they have gluten in them most of the time and I can't have that but they also have MSG in them. Also a lot of the seasonings contain MSG. Seems a little boring to avoid all that but if it makes you sick or you simply don't want to put that in your body that's what you have to do. You find out what you can and can't have and then those are your choices. I've even gotten used to no salad dressing on salads since most of the dressings either have gluten and or MSG in them. Now I actually enjoy the flavors of the fresh vegetables in the salad instead of covering it all up with salad dressing.
Our food co-op is good about putting on their labeling in the deli what exactly is in it and that way you can know if you need to avoid it or not. I wish restaurants were that accommodating.
You can't just ask a restaurant if they use MSG because they will probably tell you no since it's more likely they use the ingredients with flavorings, autolyzed yeast etc. and wouldn't even know that they use MSG. OF course MSG in full force as Monosodium Glutinate is still used as well.
Well that's my thoughts for this week on MSG. Hope that helps.
Happy Shopping and eating
Pame
