This morning I (purposefully) ate some MSG for the first time in a long time, to see if it still affects me how it used to.

I'm definitely feeling a bit Off but I'm not sure if it's MSG or just psychosomatic. But it's like my brain is being squeezed. And I'm having some mild tactile hallucinations (which used to be my first sign that I'd eaten MSG), but again, that could be psychosomatic.

Back when I had very definite MSG problems (i.e., in college), I was chronically dehydrated, stressed, and sleep-deprived, and also ate a LOT of junk food that had a crapton of MSG in it. After I finally figured out what was going on I cut MSG out of my diet entirely, at least as much as possible. Around 10 years ago I did do an experiment with having some purposefully-MSG-laden soup which was inconclusive, but what I'd always found even in college was that while a specific set of symptoms were always linked to MSG, having MSG didn't always cause those symptoms, and it was hard to tell if it was a threshold thing or a buildup thing or a co-occurent thing (like MSG along with something else).

Anyway the other thing is back when I was very MSG-sensitive, I could distinctly taste MSG as its own thing, and the rare times I'd stumble into MSG in something I'd very distinctly pick it up. The sausage I ate this morning didn't trigger anything like that in me.

So maybe my brain is no longer so attuned to it that it causes me problems.

I'm not going to go out and start eating all the Doritos or anything, but maybe I don't have to be quite so vigilant about ingredients listings anymore.