The dangers of ramen noodles are self-evident to most,
however there will always be those who will deny the dangers of consuming them.
After all, it’s a staple food for college kids so how bad could it be? It can’t
kill you right? New research from Baylor University and Harvard says it can.
The noodles increase people’s risk of metabolic changes linked to heart disease
and stroke, researchers found.
Ramen noodles contain Tertiary-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ),
which is a byproduct of the petroleum industry and food additive frequently to
preserve cheap processed foods. A gastrointestinal specialist conducted an
experiment with a time lapse video inside the stomach to what would happen
after two hours of digesting ramen noodles and the results were staggering.
In the most recent study in the Journal of Nutrition, women
in South Korea who consumed more of the precooked blocks of dried noodles were
more likely to have “metabolic syndrome” regardless of what else they ate, or
how much they exercised, the researchers found. People with metabolic syndrome
may have high blood pressure or high blood sugar levels, and face an increased
risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
The dried noodle block was originally created by flash
frying cooked noodles, and this is still the main method used in Asian
countries, though air-dried noodle blocks are favoured in Western countries.
The main ingredients of the dried noodle are wheat flour, palm oil, and salt.
Common ingredients of the flavouring powder are salt, monosodium glutamate,
seasoning, and sugar. A typical cup-type instant noodles contain 2700 mg of
sodium.
“Although instant noodle is a convenient and delicious food,
there could be an increased risk for metabolic syndrome given [the food’s] high
sodium, unhealthy saturated fat and glycemic loads,” said study co-author Hyun
Shin, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
Shin and his colleagues at Baylor University and Harvard
analyzed the health and diet of nearly 11,000 adults in South Korea between
ages 19 to 64. The participants reported what they ate, and the researchers
categorized each participant’s diet as centered on either traditional healthy
food or fast food, as well as how many times weekly they ate instant noodles.
The study focused on individuals in South Korea, Shin said,
as the country has the highest per-capita number of instant noodle consumers in
the world, and because, in recent years, health problems there, including heart
disease and obesity, have been on the rise. But the findings appear to be quite
relevant to consumers stateside too, as the United States ranked sixth globally
in instant noodle sales, according to the World Instant Noodles Association,
which found that the United States accounted for 4,300 billion units sold in
2013 (coming in just behind China, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, and India — and
one spot above South Korea, in fact).
Women who ate instant noodles twice a week or more had a
higher risk of metabolic syndrome than those who ate ramen less, or not at all,
regardless of whether their diet style fell into the traditional or fast-food
category. The researchers found the association even among young women who were
leaner and reported doing more physical activity.
As for men, Shin and his colleagues guessed that biological
differences between the genders, like the effect of sex hormones and
metabolism, might account for the lack of an apparent association among males
between eating instant noodles and developing metabolic syndrome.
The study was conducted in South Korea, an area known to
have the largest ramen consumption group in the world, where people consumed
3.4 billion packages of instant noodles in 2010.
But the findings could apply to people in North American
too, said Lisa Young, a nutritionist and professor at New York University who
was not involved in the study. “We [in the States] don’t eat it as much, but
the ramen noodles are being sold, so this could apply to anywhere they’re sold,
and they’re sold almost everywhere.”
So what’s so bad about instant noodles?
“Instant noodles are high in fat, high in salt, high in
calories and they’re processed — all those factors could contribute to some of
the health problems [the researchers] addressed,” Young said. “That doesn’t
mean that every single person is going to respond the same way, but the piece
to keep in mind is that it’s not a healthy product, and it is a processed
food.”
In June 2012, the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA)
found Benzopyrene (a cancer causing substance) in six brands of noodles made by
Nong Shim Company Ltd. Although the KFDA said the amounts were minuscule and
not harmful, Nong Shim did identify particular batches of noodles with a
problem, prompting a recall by October 2012.
They also contain TBHQ (Tertiary-butyl hydroquinone) which
can have a long term effect on your health such as weakening of organs and
contributing to the onset of cancers and tumors.
Processed foods generally contain high amounts of sugar and
salt, primarily because they are designed to have long shelf lives.
Above all, however, Young said a little bit of preparation
could help people avoid processed instant noodles altogether. “You can easily
make noodles, homemade pasta, ground-rice pasta and veggies” at home, with a
little bit of planning, she said.
Natasha Longo has a master’s degree in nutrition and is a
certified fitness and nutritional counselor. She has consulted on public health
policy and procurement in Canada, Australia, Spain, Ireland, England and
Germany. H/T realfarmacy