Glutamate flavoring the neck, gradually radiating to both arms and the back, general weakness and palpitations... The syndrome is often abbreviated as CRS and also became known under the names Chinese food syndrome and monosodium glutamate symptom complex. Symptoms attributed to the Chinese restaurant syndrome have been determined to be false. Although many people believe that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the cause of these symptoms, an association has never been demonstrated under rigorously controlled conditions, even in studies with people who were convinced that they were sensitive to the compound. Techniques used to adequately control for experimental bias include a placebo-controlled double-blinded
Chinese food therapy the Chinese Kitchen" (). A number of ancient Chinese cookbooks and treatises on food (now lost) display an early Chinese interest in food, but no known focus on its medical value. The literature on "nourishing life" () integrated advice on food within broader advice on how to attain immortality. Such books, however, are only precursors of "dietary therapy", because they did not systematically describe the effect of individual food items. In the volume on "Fermentations and Food Science" of Joseph Needham's "Science and Civilization in China", H. T. Huang considers the "Recipes for Fifty-Two Ailments" (ca. 200 BCE) and the