Instant noodles: Excitotoxic Meal

I was guilty when I was much younger during my earlier adulthood and my years in college. Just like most people, I tend to shop for cheap, convenient, 'tasty' foods. I used to eat whatever garbage I love, and all of these foods were ruining my health, and I have no clue about it at all. 

Today, I will discuss briefly about one of the commonly eaten foods by consumers, the instant noodle in a cup. Some call it 'instant noodles', but I call it 'excitotoxic junk'. Although it may not be a daily 'meals' which majority of people are consuming on regular basis, but me myself know quite a lot of friends and people who would eat this instant food product more then couple of times a week. Tons of college or high school kids treat this as a delicious fast cheap meal, and it can save them money by not spending more on perhaps other slightly pricier foods. 

Of course, by eating one serving of this instant noodle in a cup will not kill you. Just like fructose, it is a chronic poison, and for most people, it will be years of ingestion before the symptoms manifest itself in the body. As for today's post, I only attach one instant noodle product, as a sample of some of the ingredients found and used in making this so called food addictive and cheap to produce. 

One look, as a consumer, we usually don't observe the ingredients or fine prints of food products, not to mention if we think twice how and where does the source of the foods and ingredients come from, or how they were processed. For most people, as long as food products are cheap, easy to eat, tasty, low fat low cholesterol, there goes the money. Bluntly speaking, I think that less then even 1% of consumers have awareness of food politics, scams and the actual ingredients found in food products. In this case, I mean the inclusion of most registered dietitians and nutritionists. 

Now, if you look at the main feature of the product, it is strategically printed " Seaweed", "Mushroom" and "Vegetarian". Ask yourself, what does these 3 words mean to you or consumers in general? For a normal food buyer, he or she would instantly think positive of the food product. These 3 printed words refer to vegetables, and it promote a healthy image right? Besides, almost every food product will have a nice healthy illustration photo of a 'healthy nature based' printed on it. Pretty standard marketing strategy by food manufacturers. Remember the TV commercials which make you want to buy those food products or supplements? 

If you flip behind the cup, you will see the ingredients printed (in English). By the way, I would NEVER buy any food products printed in anything I couldn't read. It doesn't matter if it's made in Japan, Korean or any industrialized country. As most people mostly look at the calories count of a food product, very few people can properly read the ingredients label and know what is hidden inside. I wonder why barely any of our ancestors were overweight and diseased and they don't even know what a calorie is, nor need to be told what or how to eat by a dietitian or nutritionist. 

As you can see, first ingredient is wheat flour. One of the worst ever ingredient can be ingested by humans, this highly processed grain based ingredient will cause inflammation in the gut, rob you off nutrition and along with long list of negative impact on health. Next ingredient, vegetable oil. For your information, if a food product list vegetable oil in the package, most of the time is either soybean or canola. Either way, both are one of the worst oils and not safe nor beneficial for us. The 3rd and 4th ingredients are commonly used in almost all food products, sugar and salt. As most people know about the half-truth about these 2 white devils, but ignorant path way for them to continue eating what they like and crave for. Sad but true. If you read properly, you are not even eating real fresh organic seaweed. It's processed dehydrated seaweed! And the final highlight of the ingredient would be MSG. Although I would have to agree that more people start to realize the harmful effect of this excitotoxin, but the food industry have now changed new ingredient names which still contain about 97% of glutamate acid of what the actual MSG. To find out the list of other MSG containing ingredients, read my previous post about this excitotoxin. 

Final words, do I think that this so called 'food' is fit for human consumption? The answer is NO. Is it a cheap source of emergency meal? Answer is NO too. I call instant noodles products as inflammatory excitotoxic junk. 

Seaweed mushroom flavor? Sounds like a healthy cheap quick meal right? Nice illustration of noodles photo on the front of the product.

First ingredient, wheat flour. Next, the inflammatory vegetable oil, which is usually loaded with soy and canola. MSG in a noodle-bowl? Wonder why some people are so addicted to eating these toxic noodles? This addictive substance will make any food or garbage taste so good.

A local favorite, made instant as a 'meal'

Overwhelming ingredients with bunch of excitotoxins, MSG, soy sauce powder, yeast extract and MSG again? It's also laden with wheat, soy, table salt, sugar and artificial chemicals.