Monosodium Glutamate affecting sleep?

[Mr Bill]

Two weeks ago Friday, I went out for a late dinner with a friend. We choose eating Tai food over getting coffee or a drink because I wanted to make sure I could sleep that night. So, no alcohol all day and coffee not a factor because I have that every morning. So I had this Pad Prik Curry, hot. I turned in early when I got home about 10pm. I woke the next morning and noticed my hands were swollen and stiff. My Encore Viewer software flagged me as spending 23% of the night in periodic breathing. I've never seen that flag before and it has not happened since.

I suspected MSG in the Tai food because of the swollen hands. I read on line that MSG can exacerbate asthma. Have any of you ever had a reaction like that to MSG, where it caused periodic breathing?

[Julie]

Hi, it's possible I suppose, but couldn't it also be possible that something else in the food, some spices, could have caused a problem - anyone can be allergic to anything at any time in their lives, or at least intolerant of it. You'd have to check all the ingredients one by one to know what it was .

[SleepyT]

MSG usually gives me the weirdest dreams! I love eating out...but hate that aspect of it. Too much sodium....and bizarre sleep!

[Country4ever]

It could be a number of things that you ate, but my guess is that it was the lateness of the meal. If I eat in the evening, my numbers are always bad. For me, its especially bad if its carbs. My AHI is really high the next morning.

[Slartybartfast]

I've noticed problems sleeping, and consequent higher AHI if I eat Chinese food for din-din. I think it's the sodium, and possibly the oil. But I haven't noticed that with Thai food. Chinese cooking uses soy sauce. Thai uses fish sauce. Both are high in sodium, but fish sauce is used in much reduced quantities, relative to soy in Chinese. To my knowledge, MSG isn't used in Thai food, but depending on the restaurant and the amount of Chinese influence in the menu, YMMV. Curry pastes and coconut milk form the base for most Thai dishes.

Like Indian food, Thai food has a lot of spices that are foreign to the Western gut, but it's generally cooked in a water base, rather than oil, as is Chinese. Lemon grass is one spice many Westerners have problems with.

Source: 10 years' marriage to Thai expat., and cooking lessons from Mom-in-law.

[jules]

MSG is used, either directly or indirectly in about all processed foods, and in most restaurants. If you can get a restaurant to cook to order exactly using ingredients you can control (and you know what you can looking for) you can probably avoid MSG but it is EVERYWHERE.