[anonymous]

"Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" is real though. Or rather I personally can't eat most things at chinese restaurants and this article was the first time I heard that this is actually a named thing, i.e. this is the first time I hear of CRS. Though I think it's more to do with the fat they use to fry rice in -- there is one place around here which serves chinese-style stir-fried noodles, but eating there reliably does not trigger any symptoms. They are also the priciest noodles around. Maybe CRS should just be named "bad cheap fried food syndrome". It's not a TLA, but you can just smush all the words together and call it bacheff syndrome.

[brianleb]

If you read the original New England Journal of Medicine article on which this is based (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM196804042781419), you will find that is it in fact an anecdote where quite literally a physician ate Chinese food and wrote a letter about it. There is no research, no evidence, no null hypothesis.

[justin66]

Some people are allergic to MSG (or maybe just glutamate). I'm sure it is something an allergist could test you for.

[sk5t]

Maybe you've just eaten at some dirty Chinese restaurants. Can you eat pizza?

http://www.chow.com/food-news/69604/you-re-not-allergic-to-m...