Description
If you’re from Europe or North America, you were probably taught there are four major flavors we can detect: sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. You were also probably taught about the just as false tongue taste map, which in the Bonus Facts later, we’ll get to how that whole ridiculous idea started and made its way into school textbooks despite that any human with a working tongue should have known it was crap.
But going back to the base flavors, if you’re from Asia or watch way too much Food Network, you probably know of a fifth: umami. Usually described as the rich savouriness of meat, seafood, and broth, umami is more technically the taste of a specific molecule found in these foods: glutamate, more familiar to most of us in the form of monosodium glutamate or MSG.
If you just cringed at the mention of that acronym, you aren’t alone, for over the years MSG has gotten a bad rap. Claims that this substance can cause all manner of health problems from headaches to heart palpitations have led millions of health-conscious diners to avoid Chinese food and scrutinize food labels at the grocery store for those three dreaded letters. But is MSG actually unhealthy? After all, billions of people in dozens of countries regularly use it as a seasoning just as Westerners do salt and pepper. Why aren’t these regions racked by massive MSG health crises? And just what’s the deal with MSG?
Well, let’s find out as we take a walk on the savoury side and bite into the fascinating history and science of this ubiquitous, but mysterious fifth flavour.
Authors: Gilles Messier and Daven Hiskey
Host/Editor: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Samuel Avila
0:00 Intro
1:44 The Truth About the Basic Flavors and Discovering MSG
8:30 Going Deeper Into Savory and Is It Really Its Own Flavor?
11:45 MSG Comes to America
13:34 The Bizarre Way the Idea MSG is Bad for You Started
16:17 But Is MSG Actually Bad for You?
20:32 How the Idea of the Tongue Taste Map Came To Be
27:35 Why Do Peppers Taste Hot and Mint Things Taste Cold?