To a broke college student, sometimes the cost of the meal trumps the nutrition it should provide. Top Ramen noodles contain a chemical that can weaken your organs, but many students sacrifice their health for the 13-cent meal.
In general, processed foods like ramen noodles have a long shelf life, and in turn, contain high amounts of sugar and salt. Instant ramen noodles contain Tertiary-butyl hydroquinone or TBHQ, which can weaken your organs or increase the likelihood of cancer and tumor growth.
In a Twitter poll I conducted, eight percent of the 115 respondents eat ramen every day and 31 percent eat ramen once a month. However, 50 percent voted they never eat ramen.
How often do you eat ramen?
— Alexa Buechler (@alexa_buechler) October 17, 2016
“I only eat them (ramen noodles) every once in a great while,” Dana Pizarek, medical studies freshman, said. “They’re not very good.”
Daniella Orlando, biomedical engineering junior, eats ramen once a week.
“I like ramen, and I like to put a lot of good stuff in it like vegetables and not just the seasoning packet,” Orlando said.
Paula Cole, a nutritionist for Sun Devil Dining, said, “Honestly, right now anything that’s quick are bad foods, if we want to make it generalized. If it’s super quick, it’s not healthy. But in reality there are some times where a student maybe can’t afford or that’s all the time that they have, it doesn’t make it any better of a choice.”
Part of her job is to help college students find more nutritious foods to add to their daily diets.
“Ramen, we obviously know that’s not great,” Cole said. “When I was younger, I could eat the entire package by myself no problem. It’s almost one hundred percent carbohydrates. It’s addictive. It’s easy to get down. It’s tasty. Now people are realizing it’s probably not a good thing to eat pretty frequently.”
Then I had a question: what would happen if I only ate ramen noodles?
I decided to take it upon myself to become an example for those college students who eat these foods to see what happened. I asked myself that same question again as I looked hesitantly before the first, of potentially nine, bowls.
DAY 1:
I'd say the first bowl of noodles was OK. I don’t usually eat breakfast, and I did not have much motivation to eat it. And honestly, I wasn't excited that it was only the first of many to come.
I tried the Maruchan ramen brand first, so for lunch, I tried the Top Ramen brand. I realized that the two different brands had different consistencies, which is probably unnoticeable unless you eat two packages of ramen in one day.
At 8:30 p.m. I hit the final stretch of day one, needing the emotional support of my friends to shovel down the last bowl. After two bowls of chicken ramen, I decided to try the beef flavor. I only put half of the seasoning packet in the noodles to decrease the sodium.
Side note: My room smelled eerily of ramen, so I sprayed vanilla spritz throughout the room and turned the fan on before I went to bed.
DAY 2:
I woke up this morning with basically no energy, even though I slept for eight hours. For breakfast, I abstained from dumping any of the seasoning packet into the bowl and opted for lemon pepper spices instead. It didn’t taste half bad, and it definitely wasn't as deplorable as the chicken flavor. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't already eaten three bowls the day before.
I used the lemon pepper again for lunch, and I didn't like it nearly as much the second time around.
Day two's dinner was the most extravagant. By this time, most of my friends knew about my ramen noodle diet and wanted to help. They smuggled me butter from the dining hall, saying butter makes everything better. I even bought parmesan cheese from the Taylor Place Market and Italian seasoning from CVS. Despite my efforts, I couldn't replace the thought cycling through my mind: “I’m eating ramen … again.”
DAY 3:
Day three began at 3:00 a.m. I went to the bathroom and sat there, thinking I was going to throw up everything I'd eaten the past two days. I ate Tums, and my stomach eventually settled around noon.
At that point, I tapped out. I decided that I could not eat ramen for three days, and anybody who tried and succeeded had a stomach of steel.
After this experience, I completely understand why Paula Cole would not advocate for prepackaged noodles. She mentioned that ramen noodles aren't very nutritionally dense, and now I can understand why I had the reaction that I did.
Although I can't stop you from grabbing another package of ramen, I hope you consider my experience next time.
Reach the reporter at anbuechl@asu.edu or follow @alexa_buechler on Twitter.
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