ramen noodles?

soysos

after doing a little research, ramen noodles by themselves average 500mg of sodium per serving. which to me seems quite reasonable.

oh here is another one for you, I used to do this hiking. cook the noodles without the flavor packet, drain the water and use the residual heat to melt some string cheese, throw in some pepperoni and pizza salad anyone.

or back at home wrap them up in foil with some shrimp, or maybe salmon, some chopped up vegetables, vegetable stock a little white wine pop it into a 400 degree oven for about 15 min. dinner for two anyone. if you want more carbs which I often do, the original recipe calls for two packs of noodles.

soysos

Make your own!!!

Recipe:

Soba (wheat), udon (buckwheat) or frozen dumplings
Veggies (peppers, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, onions... whatever you want)
Chicken stock or bouillon (4 cups liquid)
1-3 tsp of soy sauce
white pepper or cayenne to taste
(1-3 tbsp curry powder) or (1 tbsp red wine vinegar for hot and sour soup)
1 tbsp corn starch mixed with 3 tbsp warm water (optional)
1 whisked egg (optional)

saute the vegetables (except for bamboo shoots) and add the chicken stock and spices and bring to boil. Add the noodles or dumplings. Once they're finished add the cornstarch water mixture, reduce heat and allow the soup to thicken. When the soup is thick turn off the heat. Add the egg, allow it to cook and mix the soup.

Once you have a good base of spices on hand, this recipe is so easy. You don't even need the vegetables. I make it at least once a week when I don't have time to cook. It is so easy and very customizable. Just season to taste with what you have, really. My boyfriend loves it and it sooo much healthier then packaged ramen (no MSG!!). You can even use reduced sodium soy sauce. This recipe feeds 2, so if you're cooking for yourself you could cut it in half or save the leftovers.

Cheers!

if your adding mushrooms or bamboo shoots it does contain MSG. its a naturally occurring substances someone just found a way to refine it.

GreenTeaForDays

I too, don't think the noodles themselves are that bad but if you're strapped for calories there are plenty of better things you could eat. How good for you could they be at 20 cents per package?? You might as well be eating cardboard, right? Where you really go wrong though is in the seasoning... yes a lot of sodium but they also contain MSG and little or no vitamins. And yes, 1 serving is half of a package. I'd just stay away.

writtenINthestars

They're relatively bad.

Although, if I'm just craving them, I make them and drain out the liquid...hoping that it helps get rid of some of the sodium. ha.

Sara1978

When I was a totally broke college kid, 20 cents a packet noodles were kind of awesome. I would make only half the packet at a time, cook it without the seasoning packet, and instead boil them in a small amount of water with like a third of a bag of frozen veggies... it made a kind of soup with vegetable broth for less than a dollar per serving. I have no clue what any of the nutritional values were on that, but they were tasty that way, and at least I was getting my veggies.

GreenTeaForDays

Salt is naturally occurring... arsenic is naturally occurring... does that mean we can eat as much of it as we want?
And no, there is not MSG in bamboo shoots or mushrooms. Even canned bamboo shoots. I read my labels.

http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-bamboo-shoots-canned-i11028
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=122

Why would the FDA require foods that contain MSG to be labeled? Wouldn't every food, natural and processed contain it?

LarryPGH

When I was a totally broke college kid, 20 cents a packet noodles were kind of awesome. I would make only half the packet at a time, cook it without the seasoning packet, and instead boil them in a small amount of water with like a third of a bag of frozen veggies... it made a kind of soup with vegetable broth for less than a dollar per serving. I have no clue what any of the nutritional values were on that, but they were tasty that way, and at least I was getting my veggies.

Instead of making a quickie veggie broth, I tend to "cheat", and add some Goya sofrito or recaito to the water -- extra flavor, no calories, ~40mg sodium in a tsp of the stuff...

callipygianchronicle

While I don’t have a package of plain ramen noodles to verify the information I’m seeing online, the chicken flavor I have is showing more sodium than plain, but the noodles themselves (which have five different preservatives that I identify as salts) appear to be lethally high in sodium. As someone with high blood pressure, I wouldn’t touch them, seasoning packet, or not.

I'm holding a packen of "Maruchan Ramen, Chicken Flavor" (and the link you provided claims it's for "Maruchan Plain Ramen Noodles"), and it's showing 830mg of sodium in a serving. The link says that a 1/2 block contains 790mg sodium.

It's just not realistic to presume that plain noodles are 790mg, but a 1/2 packet of (essentially MSG) is only 40mg.

It seems more reasonable to conclude that the packet is the lion's share of the sodium... and therefore, the link is inaccurately reporting the sodium content.

(On the other hand, it seems realistic to say that a full block of Maruchan ramen is 380 calories, 140 of which are from fat.)

I have HBP, too, which is why I rarely use more than a pinch of the seasoning, if any at all...

ETA:

Looking at the ingredients, the noodles say "preserved by TBHQ, contains less than 1% of salt, soy sauce, ..., sodium, sodium carbonate".

Meantime the soup base ingredients *start with*: "salt, monosodium glutamate".

Point taken. Certainly seems more likely that the sodium content, which while not low, is not as high as being reported on that site. But, it still doesn’t alter my answer to the OP’s question. The negative far outweighs the positive when it comes to considering whether or not to eat packaged ramen noodles.

garedds

In Canada, the No name brand ones are 380 cal/package and 14 grams of fat. Not such a good ratio. On the upside they have 4 grams of fibre. However, the sodium is through the roof at 1840mg, now I presume that alot of that is in the "chicken salt" as my kids call it.
When I lived in South Africa you could buy fat-free ones and when we moved back to Canada I was saddened to find out that I couldn't find fat free ones here. Needless to say, I don't eat it any more though my kids still do upon occasion.

soysos

Salt is naturally occurring... arsenic is naturally occurring... does that mean we can eat as much of it as we want?
And no, there is not MSG in bamboo shoots or mushrooms. Even canned bamboo shoots. I read my labels.

http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-bamboo-shoots-canned-i11028
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=122

Why would the FDA require foods that contain MSG to be labeled? Wouldn't every food, natural and processed contain it?

they don't add it to the mushrooms, it naturally form inside them. actually it forms in almost every vegetable, but its a fleeting substance. the quicker it goes from the ground to your mouth the more it contains. that is the big reason homegrown vegetables taste better than what you buy at the grocery. in the case of cretin plant the glutamates tend to linger, things like mushrooms, bananas, bamboo shoots, coco beans, even tea leaves, contain high amounts of MSG without the processors ever adding any.

on a side note you'd be surprised how much arsenic is in your drinking water.

GreenTeaForDays

Yes, areas that get their water from groundwater often have arsenic but we have regulations about how much it can contain... on the order of parts per billion.... parts per billion!

Sure MSG is naturally occurring but how much is in a mushroom compared to a package of ramen seasoning? I tried to find this online but couldn't find anything about MSG in mushrooms, period.

The bottom line is, I don't want to argue about it. Haha. I choose to know where my food comes from and what is in it. No matter, what, I'm not going to worry about a mushroom or a bell pepper. But I am going to be concerned about a package of salt and who-knows-what. I think making ramen tastes better then the packaged stuff anyways and it has less calories, more vitamins, more fiber and more protein... all things I want. I don't think that 1 package of ramen is going to make you drop dead or gain 10 pounds (well, maybe you will in water weight from all the sodium, haha) and during my lifetime I've eaten plenty of it! In fact, I have a package in my pantry on reserve for a night when I'm up late studying but I'll always think twice before eating it.