If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn't everyone in Asia have a headache?

This article from The UK's popular daily newspaper, The Guardian, was posted by my Korean tutor on facebook. I think it's an excellent read, especially if you are interested in any of the following: 1) Asian food culture 2) Japanese food history 3) Processed foods and their effects on health 4) fighting MSG 5) ramen

I'll add my own short anecdote:

As many of you know, I've been cooking a lot these days. Usually Korean food, but often American favorites too (Velveeta Mac&Cheese, anyone?), and I've brought some of it to work. Anyhow, my coteacher Mrs. Oh ate some of it and she said it was really delicious, and we started talking about cooking (she has no idea how to cook, she thought it'd be a good idea to boil some beef and quail eggs in 4 cups of soy sauce... just soy sauce. gross) and recipes and she told me that she has a secret too make good food. She said to me, "I cannot cook so I always use 다시다 (dashida) and it makes everything better." I didn't know what dashida was at first, but then I realized that it's soup stock, which is basically MSG + salt (as if msg needs more salt). I said, "isn't that bad for you?" and my teacher replied, "maybe, but it tastes good so who cares."

I kind of want to go back to her and say, "look! It's not unhealthy!" but that wouldn't prove anything because she doesn't care one way or another.

But this also explains why in most Korean recipes that require some kind of broth you are told to soak 다시마(thick dried kelp) in water, because it produces the non-stabilized version of MSG (called glutamic acid, or after fermentation glutamate) which occurs naturally in high levels in kelp and, among other things, human milk, parmesan cheese, soy sauce, tomatos and walnuts. So, this is what adds that deep savory flavor to my jangjorim and ddeokbokki... You mean to tell me that instead of soaking kelp for 30 minutes to an hour, I can just sprinkle in some "not un-healthy" MSG and it's all the same? SIGN ME UP.

This is what contains some of the highest concentrations of glutemic acid in the world, and was the inspiration for MSG: kombu/昆布 (jap.) or dashima/다시마 (Kor.) or haidai/海带 (Chin.)