re is msg sensitivity superstition in article myers peach cs scarolina edu myers cs scarolina edu daniel myers writes i am under the impression that msg enhances flavor by causing the taste buds to swell no that s not how it works if this is correct i do not find it unreasonable to assume that high doses of msg can cause other mouth tissues to swell this may be through a different mechanism also as the many of the occurances including two of the above involved beef and as beef is frequently tenderized with msg this is what i suspect as being the cause tenderizing beef involves sprinking or marinading it in papain an enzyme meat tenderizer packets might contain papain and msg and seasonings but msg doesn t act as a tenderizer steve dyer dyer ursa major spdcc com aka ima harvard rayssd linus m c spdcc dyer
