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Beware ‘Umami’; cook at home: Experts
MSG, commonly found in fast food, creates a fifth taste called Umami which makes people crave fast food more. Doctors advise against eating food with MSG.
Passing street food stalls, you feel that urge for fast food, but you don’t have the same urge passing fruit carts or shops selling fruit juices. That’s because of ‘Umami’, your fifth basic taste, besides sour, sweet, bitter, and salty.
“An ingredient in fast food called MSG (Monosodium glutamate), commonly called aginomoto, which contains an excitatory neurotransmitter, makes you eat fast food often. It actually develops a different/fifth taste called Umami for you, which actually is not beneficial for your body,” said Prof NS Verma, HoD, physiology, KGMU, and organising chairman of the national conference of physiology at a press conference on Thursday. The three-day conference begins on Friday.
“The habit of eating food under the influence of an excitatory neurotransmitter can make people ill,” said Prof Manish Bajpai, the organising secretary of the conference.
“Food with MSG should be a big no for all but unfortunately this is not happening,” said Prof Verma.
Doctors said that if people want to eat different dishes they should try and cook them at home and avoid going to eat street food.
Sharing details about the conference, Prof Verma said that 300 experts will participate in the event that will have 150 speaker sessions and six symposia on various topics.
“The conference will focus upon various topics including sleep, blood pressure monitoring, pulmonary function testing, brainstem auditory evoked response, yoga and autonomic nervous system,” said Prof Vani Gupta, senior faculty member, department of physiology, KGMU.
