Now, many families have given up eating monosodium glutamate instead of eating chicken essence, and feel that this is healthier. This practice shows that people have many misunderstandings about MSG and chicken essence.

One of the main raw materials of 　　 chicken essence is sodium glutamate, which is monosodium glutamate. The name of chicken essence is misleading, it seems that it is extracted from chicken or chicken broth. But this is not the case. Most chicken essences do not contain any chicken ingredients, nor are they extracted from chicken broth. It is usually based on sodium glutamate (monosodium glutamate), and then added a small amount of nucleotides, flavors and other substances with umami taste. The composition of chicken essence does not differ from MSG by more than 10%. Therefore, it is unreasonable to think that chicken essence is safer and healthier than MSG. Compared with MSG, the advantages of chicken essence are that the umami is more complex and the taste is richer, which is very suitable for stews and so on. The umami of MSG is very simple, suitable for cooking fish or cold dishes. Of course, people can choose to use chicken essence or MSG, or neither according to their tastes and habits.

　　 In addition, the argument that MSG is harmful is also untenable. The international authoritative food additives agency has long concluded that MSG is harmless. Monosodium glutamate is usually made from corn and other grains as raw materials through fermentation or bioengineering technology. Its main ingredient is sodium glutamate. Sodium is one of the components of table salt, and glutamic acid is an amino acid required by the human body. Various rumors about the harmfulness of monosodium glutamate such as "eating MSG will cause hair loss", "children eating monosodium glutamate is not high", "eating hemiplegia with monosodium glutamate", and "eating monosodium glutamate may cause dementia" are unfounded. Of course, monosodium glutamate is a food additive after all, it should be applied reasonably, and it is wise not to add too much. It is generally believed that the amount of MSG added to a dish is about 0.2% (500 grams of dishes plus 1 gram of MSG) can produce enough umami. Putting too much will make people feel dry mouth.

　　 In fact, no matter how much chicken essence or MSG, you should pay attention to the amount of not too much. This can be compared with table salt (sodium chloride). Table salt is not only harmless, but also necessary, but not too much. Eating too much table salt can easily cause diseases such as hypertension and chronic gastritis. Both MSG and chicken essence contain a certain amount of "sodium". Excessive intake is also detrimental to controlling blood pressure. Of course, compared with the same weight of salt, monosodium glutamate or chicken is still less sodium.