One might even liken it the difference between gnawing on a stick of sugar cane and eating ice cream, or licking a rock and eating a salty potato chip :) I still haven't seen the thing that makes MSG especially sinister.
I've got some foggy memories about this from talking to a nutritionist a few years ago. A quick google search brought up an abstract to a study from some time ago.
Indeed, the most important finding concerning MSG showed that motivation to eat recovered more rapidly following a lunchtime meal in which MSG-supplemented soup was served as the first course (compared both with the effect of unsupplemented soup and no preload)
Regardless, MSG is exactly the sort of "industrial edible food-like product" that I'm avoiding for aesthetic reasons, if nothing else.
