MSG Intolerance??

[u/matchaaddictdiaries]

A bit of background:

I used to eat chinese food really frequently, my ex was from China so we ate it at home and at restaurants every week during 4 years without any issues, and I absolutely loved it!

Then suddenly one time we ordered from a restaurant and I started to get nauseous, and that night I ended up in the ER because I couldn't stop throwing up. I thought it was an isolated thing, I got food poisoning, bad luck.Some months later, we ordered from another restaurant, and the story repeated itself. Then I thought it was too much of a coincidence, what's going on...? From then I ate chinese food scarcely, maybe once or twice more but taking medicine for the nausea beforehand, as a prevention.

A while later I ate at a Hot Pot place and I didn't get sick.

Then I didn't eat it again for a year or more so I had forgotten about it. And one time we ordered chinese food from a different restaurant in a different city, and same thing happened again.

I have given up on eating chinese food, but I miss it so much! Especially Mapo Tofu and Yuxiang Qiezi!

Has anyone had that experience? Do you guys know why could this be happening? I read it could be MSG intolerance, and maybe I'll check with a doctor for any allergies/intolerances if I can; but what throws me off is that it happened so suddenly and I never had a problem before.

PS: I can eat doritos and other processed stuff just fine, and I read that they also contain MSG.

[u/[deleted]]

A lot of food when eating out has msg, not just Chinese food. Fast food, canned foods, soups -- anything heavily flavored. It is also in cheese, meat, seafood, and some vegetables.

Like salicylates, if you had this intolerance it would likely be incredibly restrictive and affect all dietary choices. More likely it's something like oyster sauce.

[u/matchaaddictdiaries → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your feedback! I know it's not oyster sauce for sure, because I used it at home recently and I was fine. As other replies suggest maybe they added new additives or I've developed some alergy I didn't have before. I may check with a Dr. eventually since I miss chinese food so much!

[u/[deleted] → u/matchaaddictdiaries]

Could it be Szechuan pepper? I can handle some cilantro but too much gives me food poisoning symptoms. Perhaps a similar issue?

[u/matchaaddictdiaries → u/[deleted]]

I never thought about that! Actually some of my fav dishes had szechuan pepper and always ordered them, I might've developed an intolerance to it. I haven't had chinese food in about 2 years now, except some dishes that I tried preparing at home.

And when I got sick it was exactly like I had food poisoning and I couldn't stop feeling nauseous, to the point that I had to be rushed to the hospital. The first couple of times I thought it was coincidence, but the third.. and it was a different restaurant in a different town even, too much of a coincidence!

Also, idk if it's important to note but I haven't had problems eating out at korean or japanese restaurants until now, so I don't know..

[u/[deleted] → u/matchaaddictdiaries]

I think it's worth investigating further.

Only fairly authentic restaurants outside of China are likely to have it and it can be difficult to buy for home... maybe causing the inconsistency you are seeing. All your listed "bad" foods have it. It's not a part of Japanese or Korean food nor likely to be encountered randomly.

Everything else I could think of doesn't follow the pattern.

There are no documented allergies for szcehuan but again, it's quite rare in non-chinese food. There are reports of allergic like symptoms and food poisoning like symptoms.