Sometimes I feel like giving up

Ok seriously, that is scary...

thank you for posting this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamic_acid_(flavor)#Health_concerns
Health concerns

In April 1968, Ho Man Kwok wrote an article for the New England Journal of Medicine where he said, "I have experienced a strange syndrome whenever I have eaten out in a Chinese restaurant, especially one that served northern Chinese food. The syndrome, which usually begins 15 to 20 minutes after I have eaten the first dish, lasts for about two hours, without hangover effect. The most prominent symptoms are numbness at the back of the neck, gradually radiating to both arms and the back, general weakness and palpitations...". This comment began a global health scare about monosodium glutamate and "Chinese restaurant syndrome" was born. Research has failed to prove that monosodium glutamate affects a large percentage of the population, and Chinese restaurant syndrome is largely resigned to urban legend status. However, monosodium glutamate is still thought of as suspect by a large proportion of the general public, and many foods continue to be labeled "MSG free".[4]
In 1959, the FDA classified monosodium glutamate as a "generally recognized as safe", or GRAS, substance.[5] This action stemmed from the 1958 Food Additives Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which required premarket approval for new food additives and led the FDA to promulgate regulations listing substances, such as monosodium glutamate, which have a history of safe use or are otherwise GRAS. Since 1970, FDA has sponsored extensive reviews on the safety of monosodium glutamate, other glutamates and hydrolyzed proteins, as part of an ongoing review of safety data on GRAS substances used in processed foods. One such review was by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Select Committee on GRAS Substances. In 1980, the committee concluded that monosodium glutamate was safe at current levels of use but recommended additional evaluation to determine monosodium glutamate's safety at significantly higher levels of consumption. Additional reports attempted to look at this. In 1986, FDA's Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded that monosodium glutamate poses no threat to the general public but that reactions of brief duration might occur in some people. Other reports have given the following findings:

• The 1987 Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization placed monosodium glutamate in the safest category of food ingredients.
• A 1991 report by the European Community's (EC) Scientific Committee for Foods reaffirmed monosodium glutamate's safety and classified its "acceptable daily intake" as "not specified", the most favourable designation for a food ingredient. In addition, the EC Committee said, "Infants, including prematures, have been shown to metabolize glutamate as efficiently as adults and therefore do not display any special susceptibility to elevated oral intakes of glutamate."
• A 1992 report from the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association stated that glutamate in any form has not been shown to be a "significant health hazard".
• A 1995 FDA-commissioned report by the FASEB confirmed the safety assessments of the aforementioned Committees, but stated that an unknown percentage of the population may react to monosodium glutamate and develop a monosodium glutamate symptom complex when consuming more than 3 grams of monosodium glutamate alone. The report compiled several, mostly very non-specific and common, symptoms from anecdotal reports, including burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest, numbness in the back of the neck, radiating to the arms and back, tingling, warmth and weakness in the face, temples, upper back, neck and arms, facial pressure or tightness, chest pain, headache, nausea, rapid heartbeat, bronchospasm, drowsiness, weakness, and sweating.[6]
• A 2002 report found that rats fed on diets supplemented with 10% and 20% pure monosodium glutamate suffered retina degeneration, possibly through glutamate accumulation in the vitreous humour. However, such extreme amounts are more than one order of magnitude higher than those used for flavoring or found in foods.[7]

Multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multiple-challenge evaluation of reported reactions to monosodium glutamate

Conclusion: The results suggest that large doses of MSG given without food may elicit more symptoms than a placebo in individuals who believe that they react adversely to MSG. However, neither persistent nor serious effects from MSG ingestion are observed, and the responses were not consistent on retesting

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...hop-suey-.html
Monosodium glutamate is innocent. Australian scientists say it is not responsible for the peculiar sensations some people experience after eating Chinese food. A flushed face, palpitations, weakness and numbness are all symptoms of Chinese restaurant syndrome. But they are probably caused by a 'cocktail' of other components in the food or by too many glasses of wine.
Chemist Leonid Tarasoff and statistician Michael Kelly of the University of Western Sydney recently completed a double-blind study on 71 volunteers of the effects of high doses of MSG before a standard breakfast. Some reaction to MSG was experienced by 15 per cent of the volunteers. However, 14 per cent also reported aftereffects when given a placebo of gelatin powder. 'Most had no reaction at all to MSG or the placebo,' says Tarasoff.

Participants fasted overnight. Then, for three mornings before a light breakfast, they were given either capsules containing a placebo, 1.5 grams of MSG, or 3 grams of MSG. On two other days, breakfast was followed by drinks which contained no MSG or 3 grams of MSG. The drinks had sweet, bitter or sour tastes and a strong odour of grapefruit, so the MSG was masked. Volunteers received the capsules and drinks at random and researchers who monitored the sessions did not know which ones contained MSG.

...

According to Tarasoff, the results show that MSG is a 'scapegoat'. He suspects that the real villains of Chinese restaurant syndrome are compounds called histamines. These form during the fermentation of ingredients common to Chinese cooking such as soy sauce, black beans and shrimp paste. Researchers at the US National Institutes of Health have shown that cramp, headaches, palpitations and flushing can be produced by between 25 and 50 milligrams of histamine.
Tarasoff and Kelly speculate in a paper published last month in Food and Chemical Toxicology that the symptoms of Chinese restaurant syndrome could also be produced by allergenic proteins, preservatives, food dyes, or high salt levels in the food.