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Show Eat Yourself Slim i Mao Tse-tung's revenge Bv SHIRLEY BRIGHT BOODY negislered Dietitian Copley News Service I ,.ne Chinese ResUurant me." as it has now , tagged, is an after-jjU, after-jjU, of symptoms expertly expert-ly by some people after rating Chinese food. . II dually is characterized tv episodes of burning tight-L tight-L or numbness in the ,r arms, neck, face or 5 lasting from one to lour hours. Others have re-norted re-norted dizziness, headache, I Cart palpitations, weak- 6 nausea and vomiting jot,' after beginning a Chi- , i itsemeal. The unpleasant conse-. conse-. i was are frightening to 1 people experiencing them, iKcause they also may be suggestive of more serious iaiions. Severe heart and j itiilalory problems some-uiaes some-uiaes produce similar , symptoms, and Die average t person is not always able to I saiiguish the differences. 1 ,ui questionable episodes ' 2 irmly should be treated medically, without delay. 4 .Uttagh the characteris- 5 k group of symptoms, now pressed as the Chinese i teaurant syndrome, had J wi Bought to be caused I tun a reaction to the large sallies of MSG mono- scum glutamate used in ! Jaese food preparation, i! Jt actual pathological y. -jzhmism has not been sasiished. Why do some " n react, and others do I Itat percentage of the :.St suffers adverse ef-of ef-of such foods? Until n tie reactions of, the ; e Restaurant syn- j to were considered to i medical curiousity. A I s study has since report-' report-' i Sat some 25 percent of ; l copulation experienced i Ssinptoms. It then posed question of whether it i EJlly was a food-associ-I public health problem. ' tat recently, new surveys ; developed by the Mar-' Mar-' e .Beseareh Corporation of ' -3a. A two-part ques- i' are was sent to its Na-j Na-j ail Consumers Panel, at consists of about 7,500 i'-seholds generally repre-saiiveof repre-saiiveof the U.S. popula- l first questionnaire '3 ffiformation collected symptoms of discomfort the people (respon-tf (respon-tf dissociated with food. JL '"enu'ied the un-Lvsui un-Lvsui symptoms, the i 'miens were then ; fi whether the symp-,kJ,ere symp-,kJ,ere associated with a f4 class of food, and f' Wowing options were J Beverage, cereal -Wis. chocolates or sweets, dairy prod-desserts, prod-desserts, eggs or egg fruits or fruit vegetables, meats, aellfish and seafood,' I -? and spices. M were also Queried J Places where such consumed and not any of the "S ethnic styles of ,;; wparauon were asso-Mi asso-Mi their symptoms. Wuded American, Chinese, French, , ''ek, Hungarian, r ":JaPanese, Jewish, Polyne- .11(1 ' Mmavian, Soul , ,Mry, specific eth-. eth-. 5, ere listed: chow G gefilte fish, ,W dogs, pi2za, is; sups, salads, tCS Mri sPaghetti, Lna Prk. y-T and others. (s jspondents associ-!:; associ-!:; fam symptom P" flowed by , , Percent associ- i No. 2, KZ ed again . Mant symptoms foods 1 h ! 8es' w"ere they ir' syndrome. They ;-iivFfciale1 with y ;i 'v such as food :J nl lavorings, artifi cial sweeteners, BHA, BHT, iodized salt, MSG, sodium nitrate and spices. Eight percent identified MSG, and 1 or 3 percent identified the other additives as symptom-producing symptom-producing foodstuffs. It must be remembered that MSG is currently listed as a GRAS (Generally Recognized Rec-ognized As Safe) food additive. addi-tive. Statistics are often confusing and misleading at best, and can be manipulated manipulat-ed to serve varying purposes. pur-poses. In the questionnaire survey sur-vey attempting to equate the characteristic symptoms known as the Chinese Restaurant Res-taurant syndrome in the general adult population, 43 percent of 3,222 respondents associated unpleasant symptoms with specific foods and eating environments. environ-ments. However, only 1 to 2 percent reported the characteristic charac-teristic symptoms, and only 0.19 percent associated them with actual consumption of Chinese food. Meanwhile, if you like Chinese food, enjoy it unless, of course you develop devel-op the Chinese Restaurant syndrome. |
