The really strange story of how a widespread fear of glutamate arose from misunderstood medical humor. CONTENT 0:00 Intro 0:16 What is glutamate? 5:38 The strange story of glutamate fear 11:54 The potential of umami 13:34 Cookie recommendation maiLab is produced by Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim for funk (ARD & ZDF) ►funk web app: https://go.funk.net ►https://go.funk.net/impressum SOURCES & MORE INFORMATION There are different glutamates, i.e. different salts of glutamic acid, which differ in their counter ion. Here is an overview with the corresponding E numbers: E 620 Glutamic acid E 621 Monosodium glutamate (the most common, also MSG) E 622 Monopotassium glutamate E 623 Calcium diglutamate E 624 Monoammonium glutamate E 625 Magnesium diglutamate About Kikunae Ikeda, how he discovered umami & glutamate & about Julius Maggi: https://bit.ly/3vdd9JJ Addition to 2:28 - Glutamate and aspartate (right in the picture) are amino acids, inosinate and guanylate (left in the picture) are nucleotides. The combination of both substance classes intensifies the umami experience, this is referred to as “umami synergy”: A glutamate-inosinate combination ensures a particularly intense umami taste: https://bit.ly/2Oa49ER Interesting: Umami synergies as an explanation for popular food combinations such as oysters & champagne: https://go.nature.com/3l3XfwX Discussion about whether or not umami should be classified as a basic taste: https://bit.ly/3lb9mIA The described study with umami drink (glutamate + inosinate, so “umami synergy”) plus vegetable flavoring: https://bit.ly/2ObbaW0 (McCabe, C., & Rolls, ET 2007) Elbert T., Rockstroh B. (1990) The blood-brain barrier. In: Psychopharmacology. Springer textbook. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://bit.ly/2OAhPZv Paul Ehrlich's and Edwin Goldman's staining experiments (trypan blue on dead animals): https://bit.ly/2OB7nku By the way: Maggi contains not only glutamate, but the tried and tested glutamate-inosinate combination, according to Letter to the editor from “Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok” in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) 1968: https://bit.ly/38saMcr Examples of answers: https://bit.ly/2PKYYvf New York Times report on “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”: https://nyti.ms/2OhkfMI Rhetorical analysis of the whole debacle: https://bit.ly/2ObVEJu Safety of glutamate: Safety Evaluation 2000: https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/1... Double-blind challenge study (in which people with self-reported glutamate intolerance/sensitivity were deliberately given glutamate) came to inconsistent and non-reproducible results: https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/1... The existence of a real glutamate intolerance or sensitivity has not yet been proven, but cannot be ruled out in principle. The symptoms reported by those affected are generally mild, such as temporary nausea or stomach pain after consumption. Review of alleged health hazards: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/p... Side effects observed primarily in animal experiments with extremely high doses: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/1... Consensus meeting: monosodium glutamate - an update, 2007: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16957... Report from Colgate University about alumnus Howard Steel, who claims to be Dr. Ho Man Crock à la Human Crock came up with: https://bit.ly/3l1ivDv Protein book with “National Biomedical Research Foundation, Silver Spring, Maryland”: https://bit.ly/30ubwcF There is, however, this institute: https://bit.ly/3t9katA near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC - DC borders Silver Spring, Maryland, and it is about 7 miles from Dupont Cir. So could this be a mix-up or a change of address?? According to the Wiki entry, the Foundation was incorporated into the Georgetown University Medical Center in 1970; that could explain why nothing more can be found about it afterwards. IMAGE SOURCES - Tomatoes: Image by Ernesto Rodriguez on Pixabay - Parmesan: Image by Anna Lebed on Pixabay - Chanterelles: Image by RitaE on Pixabay - Salmon: Image by Shutterbug75 on Pixabay - Steak: Image by Divily on Pixabay - The 20 canonical amino acids: from the book “Funny, everything chemical” (Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim), drawn by Claire Lenkova - Kikunae Ikeda: By author unknown - Google Arts and Culture [1], Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... - Miso soup: https://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/... - Dried tomatoes: Image by congerdesign on Pixabay - Paul Ehrlich: By Harris & Ewing https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... - Julius Maggi: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... - Maggi advertising: By author unknown - Trowitzsch People's calendar 1904., Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...