

Ramen May Lead to Chronic Illness Study Says - Scott_MacGregor
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/lifestyle/food-drink/ramen-noodles-may-lead-chronic-illness?puc=outbrain&cm_ven=outbrain&obref=obnetwork

======
noonespecial
My boss, on my first job, whenever presented with any "study" of this nature
would mumble:

 _"If you feed a rat a boxcar of anything, it'll get cancer"_.

Too damn right.

~~~
Das_Bruce
I think the cancer bit was just in there for shock value, the main point is
that there is zero nutritional value to these foods.

------
delackner
Junk food may be "the cheapest option," but if you insist on eating a meal
that actually provide the nutrients that the body needs, you'd have to spend a
lot more money eating junk food than just cooking yourself.

Saying you just don't have enough time to cook for yourself is almost never
true.

Just one meal example: Pressure cook for 6 minutes (plus ~5 getting up to
pressure) a large volume of potatoes, carrots, onions, some ginger and chili
pepper for flavor. Drop in some canned tomato and canned fish, and you can
easily end up paying less than $1 for a totally balanced delicious meal, and
you have produced in one swoop enough food to feed an adult for two full days.

~~~
aw3c2
And because food is what makes your body work, you better decide it is worth
its money.

------
brunt
Ramen Noodles (when eaten all the time instead of a variety of fruits and
vegetables) may lead to chronic illness.

The title is slightly misleading in that regard. It should be common knowledge
now that too much of any one thing will kill you.

~~~
btilly
_It should be common knowledge now that too much of any one thing will kill
you_

Not potatoes. You can live on nothing but potatoes and water and you'll be
healthy. You'll likely get very bored of the diet, but you won't be missing
anything essential.

This is true of very few foods.

(This is something that I learned when my wife was studying for general
physiology.)

~~~
gxs
Your comment seemed interesting and made me look it up.

According to the straight dope, not quite, but almost:

[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2828/could-i-
surviv...](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2828/could-i-survive-on-
nothing-but-potatoes-and-milk)

------
briandoll
That anyone would be shocked that packaged crap like Ramen has health risks is
sad. This is not food. Of course it's going to kill you.

I always hope that when startups say "eating ramen" that they mean it
symbolically, in that they are being frugal. Eating crap like this is just
dumb.

~~~
araneae
Some of us put vegetables and eggs in our ramen.

Ramen in its true form is not just the noodles.

~~~
silentbicycle
Right, but frying the noodles into a brick with palm kernel oil doesn't help.

On the other hand, udon noodles are quite good. You need to refrigerate them,
though - there's actually something left to spoil. Try them with egg, miso,
green onion, and shredded carrots.

~~~
araneae
Spoilage has nothing to do with what's "left to spoil." Cooked ramen noodles
will spoil just as readily as udon.

Bacteria need moisture to grow. Udon is sometimes sold fresh (wet), and that
will spoil. Dry udon does not spoil.

As for palm oil... udon is also made with it.

------
tpryme
"Ramen profitable" should be "oatmeal profitable." Whole grains ftw.

~~~
aidenn0
pg actually mentioned that "Ramen profitable" is not to be mentioned
literally. I don't have the link of the top of my head, but he even included a
beans & rice recipe.

~~~
pg
<http://paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html#f1n>

------
barrydahlberg
We should not call these rubbish instant noodles ramen.

What the Japanese call ramen is something very different. Fresh noodles, rich
soup filled with vegetables, pork, bamboo shoots, ginger... Still, you
wouldn't want to live on just one thing, that would be dumb.

------
ChRoss
Is this ramen that is usually served in Japanese restaurant, or instant
noodle? I think they are very different.

~~~
hugh3
I assume they mean packaged ramen, which is extra-confusing because the
described study was done in Australia, where nobody calls those "ramen" at
all. They're called "two-minute noodles".

------
daimyoyo
I've never posted any comments here before but I feel compelled to do so for
this link. It is lamenting the fact that people who eat ramen frequently
aren't buying fruits and vegetables instead. I've basically lived on ramen for
the better part of a year and the truth is that if I could eat healthier I
would without a moments hesitation. But a ramen packet costs 15¢ each. So I
can be reasonably full for around 30¢ a day. What kind of fruit can I buy for
30¢? A single apple? One banana? The author of this article needs to get off
his high horse and try to live off the diet he's saying is such a bad choice.

~~~
briandoll
The true cost of eating nothing but packaged "ramen", at 30¢ a day, is
seriously the value of your own life. This crap will kill you. It is not food.

Garbage in, garbage out. You may not feel it yet, but it is costing you your
life.

While I can't know what your financial situation is, you are posting to an
internet forum, so it appears as though you're not working two double-shifts
to survive until tomorrow. Quality food is an investment into your life. To
put your budget in perspective, your suggesting to spend $110 per YEAR feeding
yourself. Is that all your health is worth?

~~~
techiferous
Agreed. The best health insurance policy is a good diet.

------
stjohn
The article's title is misleading. The study doesn't actually pinpoint ramen
noodles as a cause of chronic illness, but rather nutritional deficits, which
of course could result from eating nothing but ramen.

 _"Those who relied on instant noodles and other cheap food with little
nutritional content were at greater risk of chronic diseases including cancer,
diabetes and heart disease, the researchers found."_

The article title could just as easily have been Spaghetti May Lead... or
McDonalds May Lead... Of course, it should be Poor Nutrition May Lead..., but
then no one would care.

------
noodle
[Eating practically nothing but] Ramen May Lead to Chronic Illness Study Says

------
EvanK
Correlation != causation. Despite the title submitted here, what the article
actually says is that people are trying to subsist almost entirely on ramen,
foregoing other nutrition that they need like fruits and veggies.

I eat ramen every once in a while, when I'm too busy or too tired to fix any
better kind of meal for myself, but that doesn't put me at any kind of risk
because I don't do it every day for every meal. If you live entirely on ANY
one kind of food (ramen, hot pockets, tuna sandwiches, etc), you're going to
have health problems because you're simply not getting the different kinds of
nutrition your body needs.

------
terra_t
white flour, poor quality fat, sodium, and a massive wallop of MSG.
practically no protein.

my partner was busy last night, so I fed the family. I cooked whole-wheat
cous-cous, mixed it with fried peppers and onions, and steamed a package of
frozen "Italian Vegetables" (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and more.) I put
this into bowls, half of each of the kind of stuff, and flavored with a dash
of salt, pepper and earth balance natural margarine.

i didn't want a lot of protein in that meal because we cooked a chicken last
night and i've been eating mass quantities of whey protein powder.

~~~
csytan
Why choose protein powder instead of natural protein?

~~~
daniel-cussen
Probably because he wants more than the natural amount of muscle.

~~~
terra_t
I think of myself as Rocky Bilboa making a comeback.

I've got to go up against you punks and win, so I train hard and watch my
diet.

And who's to say what's natural? The withering muscles of a pencil-necked geek
who sits in front of a computer all day and into the night? Or the massive
frame of my brother-in-law who works on a road crew?

~~~
daniel-cussen
That's great. Just for context, I'm taking the same stuff: whey protein (with
dextrose and creatine), vanilla flavor.

------
techiferous
"healthy but less-filling fruits and vegetables"

This is not true. Fruits and vegetables have more fiber which makes you feel
full. Ramen noodles and other fast food products can be hunger-promoting.

------
patrickgzill
Completely anecdotal (not data) point: guy I know from one forum, young guy in
his 20s, lived on ramen noodles for 18 months to 2 years. Got colon cancer,
which usually hits people who are older.

(I am trying to learn enough good recipes to eat well at home instead of
eating out, have bought a few decent cookbooks and surprisingly, have found it
enjoyable though time consuming to cook from scratch.)

~~~
bialecki
One more data point: My brother eats Ramen pretty much every day and has for
the last 2-3 years (he's in college now). He hasn't been to the doctor in at
least 5 years even for a physical. However, he eats the Ramen without cooking
it and just putting the spices or flavoring on it and then crunching through
it. To be honest, it makes me sick watching it, so maybe that counts?

~~~
zzleeper
That's really disgusting. Does he at least eat some veggies?

~~~
zbanks
Does the teaspoon of dried ones in the cup count?

~~~
zzleeper
But really, there are many ways a diet like his may be harmful. Too much
sodium (still high even w/out the spice package), lack of vitamins, protein,
fiber, and the list goes on.

You won't feel the pain when you are young, but when you DO feel it (or your
brother), the damage will be already done

=/

~~~
zbanks
People don't realize how much fat are in the noodles, either. They're in that
awesome shape because they're deep fried!

------
petrilli
<prepackaged food> may lead to chronic illness. Seems sane. The problem is
that ramen isn't JUST crappy salty over-processed 100% artificially flavored
desiccated food. In Japan, ramen is a real food.

------
dinkumthinkum
Yeah, but it's cheap. It's also not bad with some crackers. :)

~~~
Chris_Morrell
I have a friend who uses the noodles and chucks the flavoring packet. He then
adds veggies, some protein and a soy sauce based stock. It's pretty delicious
and I imagine still decently cheap.

~~~
endlessvoid94
When you say he adds protein, do you mean he adds meat of some kind? Or
something dairy?

