MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is probably one of the singlemost blamed ingredients of all time. Alongside yeast, dairy and gluten it is often the reason we give for our feelings of illness and lethargy after eating a meal (*cough* takeaway) and many of us now actively seek to avoid it at all costs.
Technically speaking, MSG is the sodium salt of the amino acid L-glutamic. In practice it is used as a potent flavour enhancer which was first used in Japan over a thousand years ago. While it is generally seen as an additive (and therefore unnatural), glutamate is also found in the proteins of meat, vegetables, poultry and milk.
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