"Healthy through eating" series | Is instant noodles "junk food"? Four misunderstandings to know

Since its invention, instant noodles have been loved by young consumers. They are easy to process and can be eaten with hot water, which greatly facilitates the lives of consumers. Many people love to eat them and have developed many new ways to eat them. However, many people hate instant noodles and think they are junk food. The most classic saying is "it takes 32 days for the liver to detoxify after eating a bowl of instant noodles." Is this statement correct? Is instant noodles really junk food? Let's explore it together.

1. The difference between instant noodles and junk food

Instant noodles are also known as fast food noodles, instant noodles, and instant noodles. In a broad sense, they refer to a type of noodle food that can be cooked in hot water in a short time. In a narrow sense, instant noodles usually refer to finished products consisting of noodles, seasoning packets, and oil packets. They are mostly packaged in bags, cups, and bowls on the market. Instant noodles contain nutrients such as fat, carbohydrates, protein, and sodium, but they are relatively simple.

All foods are nutritious, but the content is different. The concept of "junk food" is relative, usually referring to burnt, high-fat, high-salt, and high-sugar foods, which provide more calories than the human body needs and become redundant. Eating too much of this kind of food will make people malnourished and easily lead to obesity.

2. Misunderstandings about instant noodles

Myth 1: Instant noodles are fried in gutter oil

Some people claim that the oil used in instant noodles is unclean and is gutter oil. In fact, palm oil is used to fry noodles. It is a safe and nutritious edible oil that meets the relevant food safety standards and has good frying stability and oxidation stability. Experiments have shown that there is no difference between palm oil and olive oil in the effects on human blood lipids, and the regulating effects on blood lipids are almost the same. Frying is just a way of processing food. As long as you don't eat it all the time, it will not affect your health.

Myth 2: Instant noodles have no nutritional value

The main ingredients of instant noodles are wheat, flour, palm oil, seasoning sauce and dehydrated vegetable leaves. The nutritional content is relatively simple. In fact, not only instant noodles, but also breast milk, no other food can provide comprehensive nutrition, and no one can fully meet the nutritional needs of body growth and development by eating only one food. Instant noodles, steamed bread, rice and other staple foods contain incomplete nutrients, but they cannot be called without nutrition.

Myth 3: Instant noodles contain a lot of preservatives

Some people claim that a lot of preservatives are added to instant noodles, so they can be preserved for a long time. In fact, for the purpose of long-term storage, the noodles and material packages of instant noodles are dehydrated to a certain extent, and coupled with the industrial-scale heating sterilization process and packaging, it is difficult for microorganisms to grow and reproduce in this state. Moreover, the amount of preservatives and additives added to instant noodles is also strictly implemented in accordance with national standards, so there is no situation where they contain a lot of preservatives.

Myth 4: Instant noodles are difficult to digest and can cause cancer

The main ingredient of instant noodles is flour, and the production process is mostly the same as that of handmade noodles. The difference is that in industrial-scale production, manual production has been replaced by machine mixing and rolling. Therefore, whether it is hand-made hot air drying or machine frying and drying, instant noodles are unlikely to be more difficult to digest and absorb than handmade noodles.

Although instant noodles do not contain many nutrients needed by the body, they cannot be equated with "junk food". When we use instant noodles as a staple food, we can eat some fruit after the meal to supplement the nutrients needed by the body and ensure the diversification of daily diet intake.

Author: Cai Wenjin, Henan University of Science and Technology

**Audit expert: ** Wang Yao, Associate Professor of the School of Food and Bioengineering, Henan University of Science and Technology