It does not matter whether you select glutamate-rich foods and ingredients like tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, walnuts, MSG or soy sauce, the glutamate in each is the same.

Medical specialists have known for decades that your body does not distinguish between the glutamate found naturally in foods and that in MSG. In fact, even today’s state-of-the-art technology can’t separate them. For example, if you analyzed a plate of spaghetti, you could find out the total amount of glutamate in the dish. However, since glutamate is glutamate, there is no way to determine whether the glutamate came from tomatoes, Parmesan cheese or MSG.