Decades since the medical journal was published by the New England Journal of Medicine, MSG is widely considered to be bad for health.
Popular misconceptions include risks of heart attack, balding, and death.
How Dr Howard Steel became Dr Ho Man Kwok
In 1968, Dr Steel a children’s orthopaedics surgeon at Shriners Hospital was challenged by a fellow surgeon to have a paper published in a medical journal. His fellow surgeon believed Dr Steel would never make it.
Filled with manly pride, Dr Steel took the challenge and went home with some Chinese food and a pack of beer. Perhaps a good meal would inspire the subject of his journal.
And it did.
A tummy full of Chinese food and beer
Dr Steel became a little sick after finishing his succulent Chinese meal. Coupled with a drunk mind, he was inspired to jot down his symptoms. He decided that the Chinese meal would take the blame for his symptoms. It became the subject of his paper.
He then found a scapegoat to point all his symptoms towards. MSG.
He sent his finished paper to the New England Journal of Medicine under the name Dr Ho Man Kwok. A name he chose as a play on words for “a human crock of shit”.
The journal published his paper under the title “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”.
Dr Steel continued living with a new sense of pride and a larger ego. Much to the dismay of his fellow surgeon who challenged him.
Widespread damage to the MSG industry
The New York Times caught wind of the published paper and ran a story on it, titled “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome Puzzles Doctors”.
This led to widespread panic among consumers. Believing that MSG will kill them if consumed. Every food brand involved with MSG, had the innocent ingredient replaced. All in a bid to keep consumers happy and buying.
Only Chinese restaurants continued using MSG.
A year before his death, Dr Steel confessed
In 2013, Jennifer LeMesurier, a professor at Colgate College attempted to investigate the claims made by Dr Ho Man Kwok. She found credible evidence to disprove Dr Kwok’s paper and had her findings published in an academic journal by 2017.
Her findings also point towards a systematic effort to spread a negative stereotype against Chinese people. LeMesurier titled her paper “Uptaking Race: Genre, MSG, and Chinese Dinner”
This caught the attention of Dr Steel, who also attended Colgate Collage. He called LeMesurier and confessed everything.
Dr Steel shared that he had made attempts to rectify the issue with the New England Journal of Medicine, but was ignored multiple times.
A happy ending?
Unfortunately, MSG is still negatively viewed. Even when multiple health organisations deem it safe for human consumption.
MSG is still struggling to find its way back into Western countries.
