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Foodies can't stop talking about umami — the savory taste that's taking over the culinary scene
说起食物就不得不说到鲜味—一种掌控厨房的鲜美味道
and which, along with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty, is one of the five basic tastes that our tongues perceive.
鲜味和甜、酸、苦和咸一样是舌头可以感知的五种基本味道之一。
But if you're a fan of Chinese takeout, you've been team umami from the get-go.
但是如果你喜欢中餐外卖，你就能从一开始就尝到鲜味。
That's because MSG— that flavoring often associated with American Chinese food— is umami in its purest form.
这是因为味精—这种味道经常和美式中餐相关—是鲜味最纯粹形式。
And while you might have been told it's bad for you or causes the so-called "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome," science disagrees.
可能有人告诉过你吃味精不好或者是会引起所谓的“中国餐馆综合症”，科学有话要说。
As much as we associate MSG with Chinese food, there isn't anything inherently Chinese, or even Asian, about the compound.
我们总将味精和中餐联系在一起，但其中并没有中式或亚洲化合物。
MSG stands for monosodium glutamate—the sodium salt of glutamate.
味精指的是谷氨酸一钠，谷氨酸盐的氯化钠。
It's an amino acid that the human body can synthesize, but that we also get from our food.
这是一种氨基酸，人体可以合成这种氨基酸，但也能从食物中获取。
Like other amino acids, glutamate is an important building block for proteins,
和其他氨基酸一样，谷氨酸盐是蛋白质的基本构成要素，
and it also helps nerve cells send signals to other cells in the body—
并且还能帮助神经细胞向身体的其他细胞发送信号—
it's the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in vertebrates.
这是脊椎动物体内最为丰富的兴奋性神经递质。
Since it's so important for our bodies, it's not surprising we've evolved a taste for it.
由于它对我们的身体很重要，所以我们进化出了鲜味的味觉也就不奇怪了。
We have umami-specific receptors on our tongues and in our stomachs,
我们的舌头和胃部有专门的鲜味接收器，
and these drive our love for foods that contain glutamate like tomatoes, mushrooms, and aged cheeses.
并且这些接收器让我们爱上了含有谷氨酸盐的食物，比如西红柿、蘑菇和成熟的干酪。
And umami-rich foods have been staples in human diets for, forever.
鲜味丰富的食物一直都是人类饮食的主要原料。
For example, historians call the concoction known as Garum—
例如，历史学家称为鱼酱油的调制品—
an umami-filled sauce made from fermented fish guts—the ketchup of ancient Rome.
一种由发酵鱼内脏（古罗马的番茄酱）制成的含有鲜味的酱油。
And we've been concentrating available, naturally-occurring glutamate
早在我们知晓什么事氨基酸几世纪之前，
by sun-drying tomatoes and curing meats for centuries, long before we knew what amino acids were.
我们一直通过晒干西红柿和腌制肉类的方式浓缩充足天然的谷氨酸盐。
Even babies seem to like MSG, which makes sense, because human milk is naturally rich in glutamate.
即使小婴儿似乎也喜欢味精，这也说得通，因为母乳中含有丰富的谷氨酸盐。
But purified MSG wasn't a thing until 1908,
但精制味精直到1908年才有，
when a Japanese chemist realized that the base made from kombu seaweed in his soup imparted a delicious flavor
当时一名日本化学家发现汤中由海带制成的主要配料有一种美味
that wasn't one of the four previously-established tastes.
而这种味道并非已知的四种味道之一。
He soon isolated the crystalline salt of glutamate from the kelp, striking culinary gold.
很快他将海带中谷氨酸盐的结晶盐分离了出来，厨房美味由此而来。
He called the crystals Ajinomoto, which means essence of taste. And it wasn't long before MSG became commercialized.
他将这些晶体称为味之素，意思是味道的本质。很快味精就开始售卖。
In Asia, it was branded a staple for any modern cook, and quickly became ubiquitous in kitchens across Japan and China.
在亚洲，它是现在菜肴中的主要成分，很快遍及日本和中国厨房之中。
By the early 1930s it had gone global, with companies like Heinz and Campbell's adding MSG to their products.
到20世纪30年代早期，亨氏食品公司和宝汤公司将味精添加到了自己的产品中。
And even the US military hopped on the MSG train.
即便是美国军队也加入了味精的列车。
During World War II, the army used the best available food science to develop nutritionally dense rations with long shelf lives,
二战期间，军队利用现有最佳的食品科学开发保质期长且有营养的军粮—
called K-rations, but soldiers hated them because they were super bland.
K种口粮，但是士兵们不喜欢这种口粮，因为它们超级寡淡。
So, in the late 1940s, they started adding MSG to them, and suddenly, they weren't so reviled.
所以20世纪40年代晚期，他们开始往里边添加味精，突然士兵们不在咒骂这种口粮了。
Our universal love for MSG isn't just from its savory goodness.
我们对味精的爱不仅仅来自它的美味口感。
Studies have shown that umami functions as a flavor enhancer,
研究表明鲜味是一种增味剂，
creating a harmony between various flavors and aromas and adding a sort of dimension to both— a phenomenon known as umami synergy.
在各种味道和芳香中创造出了一种调和，在两者中添加了一种次元—这种现象被称为鲜味协同作用。
That sounds kind of nebulous, but consider a 2007 study published in the European Journal of Neuroscience,
听起来云里雾里的，但是有《欧洲神经科学杂志》上的一篇2007年的研究可参考。
researchers at Oxford University had twelve volunteers sip an umami drink made of water,
牛津大学的研究人员让12名自愿者缀一口饮料，这种饮料由水
MSG, and the nucleotide ii while sniffing a vegetable aroma.
味精和黄苷酸制成，同时嗅一种蔬菜的芳香。
On their own, both the umami drink and the vegetable aroma were considered unpleasant and bland.
就它们本身而言，鲜味饮料和蔬菜芳香都被认为是难吃无味的。
But when combined, they were rated higher, and they just seemed to go together better than a salty drink paired with the same smell.
但当它们相结合时，评价就很高了，和含盐饮料搭配同种味道相比，它们似乎相处更融洽。
What was really telling, though, was that brain activity maps showed that way more neurons associated with flavor and pleasure were lit up from the combo
真正暴露真相的是大脑活动图显示由调味组合能激活更多和美味相关的神经
than would have been estimated by adding up the isolated effects of each.
而添加单个食材所激活的神经更少。
Given all this, you might be wondering why companies now proudly proclaim their food doesn't contain MSG, or people say it makes them sick.
鉴于此，大家或许会想，为什么现在的公司都很自豪的宣称自己的食品中不含味精，还有人说味精让他们生病呢？
Well, while our love of MSG comes from biology, a lot of people's aversion to it seems to have roots in something else entirely—racism.
虽然我们对味精的爱来自生物学，但很多人对它的厌恶似乎根植于种族歧视。
It all started with a 1968 letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine
这一切都要从一封1968年写给《新英格兰医学期刊》编辑的信说起
describing the author's and his friends' so-called Chinese Restaurant Syndrome following the consumption of Chinese food,
这封信中描述了作者和他朋友吃完中餐后所谓的中国餐馆综合症
including symptoms like heart palpitations, generalized weakness, and radiating numbness.
症状包括心、全身酸痛乏力以及辐射性麻木。
The idea took hold, spurring years of biased science based on the flawed assumption that Chinese Restaurant Syndrome was a real thing, and that MSG caused it.
这种想法由此生根，激化了多年来对中国餐馆综合症真实性假设的偏见科学，并认为是味精导致了这种综合征。
Subsequent animal studies seemingly confirmed the idea,
随后的动物研究似乎证实了这一想法，
but these often consisted of injecting super concentrated doses of MSG directly into creatures' abdomens,
但是这些研究经常直接向生物的腹部注射超浓度计量的味精，
which is not exactly a scientific approach to determining the effects of MSG sprinkled into saucepans.
这并不是测定往酱油中撒入味精的影响的科学方法。
More recent research on MSG aversion has taken into account the xenophobia and racism that fueled it.
近期对味精厌恶的研究将仇外和种族歧视考虑在内。
And over the last 3 decades, a number of double-blinded, placebo-controlled studies,
在过去的30多年中，很多双盲、安慰剂效应的研究
including studies of subjects with reported sensitivity to MSG, have failed to find a reproducible response to ingesting foods with MSG.
包括对那些称自己对味精过敏的被试者的研究，没能发现对食用含味精食物的可再生反应。
A much more likely explanation for feeling crummy after Chinese takeout is the nocebo effect,
针对吃中餐外卖而感到不适的一个更可能的解释是反安慰剂效应，
where you feel sick simply because of the belief that something will make you ill.
你感到不适可能仅仅是因为你认为这个东西会让你生病。
Fortunately, scientists are one step ahead of the haters.
还好，科学家们比那些仇恨者快了一步。
Investigation into potential health benefits of MSG is ongoing,
对味精潜在健康益处的研究正在进行中，
with research suggesting it can help increase salivation and appetite in the elderly,
有研究表明味精可以帮助增加老年人的唾液和食欲，
increase satiety and therefore reduce caloric intake in those trying to lose weight, and help impart flavor while reducing overall dietary sodium.
增加饱腹感，因而减少卡路里摄入帮助减肥，还能帮助增加风味，减少整体膳食钠。
So yeah, MSG doesn't deserve its toxic reputation. But you don't need to avoid your favorite restaurant just because they use a little.
所以味精不应被污蔑。但是你并不需要因少量的味精而拒绝你最爱的餐厅。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow! And an extra thank you to our patrons on Patreon.
感谢收看本期《科学秀》！还要感谢我们Patreon上的赞助人们。
We wouldn't be able to make educational science videos like this one without our patrons,
没有你们，我们无法制作出像这样的教育性科学视频，
so we really can't thank all of you enough for all your support.
所以对于你们的支持，怎么感谢都不为过。
If you want to learn more about our patron community and help support out team, you can go to Patreon.com/SciShow
如果你想了解更多关于我们社区的信息以及帮助我们团队，请登录Patreon.com/SciShow。
