As college students living in dorms, we usually live off of fast food, food from the commons, frozen food that you pop in the microwave, or simple food that takes three minutes to prepare, such as easy mac or Ramen Noodles. I for one love Ramen Noodles and I think they are the the food that every college student needs. All Ramen Noodles are is noodles with flavored salt packages. I was starting to wonder how bad it was for us to eat ramen noodles because it is easy to assume that they aren’t the healthiest thing for us. Turns out, eating excessive amounts of ramen noodles can cause long term health risks.

Ramen Noodles affect the heart and blood pressure. The problem is not only in the sodium found in Ramen Noodles but that they are made with processed wheat flour. The flavoring powder added in the noodles has high amounts of salt and sugar which in turn can lead to diabetes.

There have been multiple studies providing evidence of the health risks accompanied by ramen noodles. This study stated that women in South Korea who ate more of the precooked dried noodles were more likely to have metabolic syndrome, which is an illness that causes people to have increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat, and high cholesterol which in turn increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The study also showed that no matter how much these women exercised or regardless of what other healthy alternatives they ate, these women still suffered from metabolic syndrome, all because of the ramen they ate.

This website talks about the same study but provides further information. The Journal of Nutrition, studied the diets of 10,711 adults using data from a two-year survey. The results of eating two or more servings a week could potentially lead to an increase risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke. Another problem found with ramen noodles is the lack of vegetables and protein with each serving. This same website provides healthy alternatives with eating Ramen Noodles, that way you don’t have to be heartbroken or think you have to avoid them. You can either eat the organic noodles that do not have all the processed foods to it, or take the noodles that come with the package and add vegetables and various meats and omit the rice.

If you are someone that eats Ramen Noodles more than two times a week, try to lessen the amount or get creative when preparing the food by adding more healthy options.