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Nattily dressed anarchists on bicycles wrote:

As far as I'm aware, studies consistently fail to find a link between MSG and purported ill effects of consuming it. And if the info on Wiki is correct, the LD50 (lethal dose, 50% of population) is triple that of plain old table salt in rats.

I also understand that glutamic acid is a natural component of basically all proteins, and is present in a free and tastable form in a wide variety of "natural" foods. So between soy and mozzarella, the lasagna in my fridge is, supposedly, a toxic waste dump.

At any rate, if the works cited on the Wikipedia page are accurate, then reports as to the harmfulness of MSG in Chinese takeout is largely due to a joke in poor taste getting somewhat out of hand.

Good summary here:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20151106-is-msg-as-bad-as-its-made-out-to-be

Worth noting that KFC uses MSG and MSG-like ingredients in most of its menu, in particular in the fried chicken "secret recipe" coating. And KFC does taste really, really good.

As a Chinese person, I'd note that the common Chinese stereotype of MSG is that its that ingredient that gets added to food a lot in America, thought admittedly to Chinese food there. A proper Chinese chef in China wouldn't dream of using it, is the idea.

From a personal point of view, I don't cook with it, but we've often bought processed foods where it is an ingredient. Subjectively, I find it makes me very thirsty, though no more so than ordinary salt.