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by kazinator 2976 days ago
Bingo, same here.

When I was little, back in the 70's, my mom used these bouillons: Knorr and whatnot. We had no idea what is MSG, but somehow I clued in to the idea that I was feeling sick from that soup and was dreading the "headache soup".

In the late 80's, I once so ill from a cup of instant noodles that I had to go home.

Not long after that, I finally learned about MSG from a book I stumbled upon in the library (circa 1989, I think). It all clicked.

I understood mom's soup and the instant noodles incident.

I started avoiding everything with MSG and have scarcely had any apparently food-related headaches since: all the ones I've had over have been from eating out.

One particular series fell into a clear pattern. A new Chinese restaurant opened near where I work. I ate there on three separate occasions over the course of six months, around lunch time. Each time, I felt some discomfort in the abdomen toward the evening and headache/nausea the following morning lasting into the afternoon. Each time, exactly the same repetition.

1 comments

The list of ingredients on Knorr bouillon is extensive:

Salt, monosodium glutamate, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, chicken fat, hydrolyzed soy/corn protein, dehydrated mechanically separated cooked chicken, dehydrated chicken meat, dehydrated chicken broth, autolyzed yeast extract, dehydrated onions & parsley, lactose, water, colour, spices & spice extract, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, citric acid, tartaric acid, hydrogenated soybean oil and sulphites.

That's right: "bouillon" isn't "MSG".

Some eight months ago, I reproduced these effects in myself by drinking a hot water solution of something called "Better Than Bouillon". I put about a teaspoon into a mug of hot water. On one mug per day, I was okay, but if I drank three per day, I got the headaches.

The listed ingredients of this paste are: roasted beef with concentrated beef stock, salt, hydrolyzed soy protein, sugar, corn syrup solids, flavour (dried onion and garlic, spice extracts), dried whey (milk), potato flour, caramel, corn oil, xanthan gum.

Must be the dried onion? :)

I've consumed beef, salt, corn syrup, onion, garlic, spices, whey powder, caramel, corn oil in the past in much larger amounts. Xanthan gum is just a thickener; I've used it! No problems. The only thing that stands out there is the "hydrolyzed soy protein".

I get that you say onion is fine for you, but it's amazing how non-obvious and common the actual culprit could be, whatever it is in your case: I have a relative who has, through trial and error, determined that tomatoes, onions, and garlic are among his migraine triggers - but shallots are fine despite being quite similar to onions. Bodies are weird. :)
Have you reproduced it with MSG dissolved in water?

EDIT: Have you thought about lactose? It's in whey (depending on quality, various concentrations)

Haven't tried yet. I do know I tolerate salt.

Response to EDIT: I tolerate milk products well, including cheese. I have used whey powder for supplementation (not in recent years). We're talking big quantities consumed at once. I noticed it's used in some baked goods and I tried it that way; it adds a certain milky "body" to the flavor.