Suddenly, people started experiencing ‘symptoms’ after eating at Chinese restaurants, and blaming them on MSG. Chinese food became synonymous with a ‘lower-quality’ cuisine that needed a flavour booster. It was a totally disgusting, untrue belief and thankfully we know better now, but at the time, this added fuel to the MSG fire.

It’s important to mention that 1968 was a time when many things relating to Asian culture were considered to be ‘exotic’ and possibly unclean. This letter created the idea that MSG may be associated with such symptoms, and the ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome’ myth was born. He reportedly experienced heart palpitations, weakness, and numbness and believed that it could have been from a number of ingredients including sodium, alcohol from the cooking wine, or MSG. In 1968, a doctor named Ho Man Kwok wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, describing symptoms he had after eating at a Chinese restaurant. Turns out though, that’s all just a myth. I totally get it, because I used to think that, too. Now, I know you might be thinking that MSG is toxic, or poison, or something that gives people headaches. Monosodium glutamate adds dimension and umami to many foods, but it’s a particularly good addition to plant-based foods that may not inherently contain umami.

I’ve finally found the solution, and it doesn’t involve an entire bag of nutritional yeast! The problem is that the nutritional yeast is just never enough. In the past, when I’ve tried to make it, I usually end up putting a ton of nutritional yeast in there to give it some umami…the ‘fifth flavor’ and that oomph that normal mac and cheese gets from the cheese. I’m sorry, but even if the cheese is smooth, it somehow just doesn’t taste right. I love vegan food, but the one thing that I haven’t found yet is a good vegan mac and cheese recipe.

Best tasting vegan mac and cheese