Instant Noodles and claims of it not being good for our health didn't just start today. There have been claims of it causing a myriad of illnesses but then people are advised by possibly PR guys to eat it with other nutritious accompanies like carrot, cabbage, and so on. I love noodles but I do not eat it on a daily basis even when I just bought a pack of Instant Noodle today. So is Instant noodle really not good for our health.
There was a case of a boy in Taiwan who loved to stay awake all night so as to read his books. He loved this but so as to keep him awake, he loved to snack on things and his choice was Instant noodles. He ate this for 4 years, since when he was in middle school and his grades cannot say any less. This was an attitude he continued in the university just that this time around he had a high taste for instant noodles and would take the food at every meal.
It wasn't long that he began to experience bloating, Nausea, and Stomach pain. When he was rushed to the hospital, it was seen that he had developed stage 4 stomach cancer with slim chances of survival and as suspected he passed away after lots of effort to save his life. This got his parent to ask if the instant noodles was the cause of the cancer or something else.
First we cannot overlook a fact that when it comes to processed food, there are a mix of claims, and myths about them causing a long list of illnesses and conditions that may not even be related to them. For the story above, there have been a lot of publications debunking the event but since the case are just on blogs, we cannot say there are references to the case directly.
It's been long I saw those plastic instant noodles here, majority of what I see are in nylon packing, but back in the 2000 it was said that the wax coating in the styrofoam that housed the noodles could coat the inside of the stomach. This claims went with numerous stories at the time with different people talking about the wax coating people's stomach and leading to their death. Some even claimed that the noodles contained wax coating and which is what gives it the sticking ability to one another when not cooked. It even went on to give prescriptions on how to eat noodles saying that one should eat only once every three days because it took three days for the wax in the noodles to be completely removed completely from the body because the wax could cause cancer.
People decided to fact check this and they found that it was false as wax on styrofoam will mean it will not be able to withstand heat and since it is built to withstand an amount of heat, Wax isn't available on it but if there was to be wax in the styrofoam, it wouldn't cause cancer since wax is found in a lot of things we consume including candies and sweets also, healthy people do not have issues with food wax, as it would just pass through the gut and out. While it is not good for us, it will not cause cancer and this means that the claim is just a myth and I do not know where it originated from.
I was also told one time as a child that the flavor enhancer in Noodles was responsible for the causing brain damage. Monosodium glutamate which is the flavor enhancer used has be regarded as the obesity drug, and has been said to have negative impact on brain health but we have MSG in so many restaurant and fast food dishes including the food from KFC, Doritos and Pringles. It was linked with Headaches at the time but in recent time, the literature that mentioned this have been replaced by new studies which shows that it is not directly associated with weight gain, rather it is confounded by environmental factors.
At a time, my dad would not use the noodle seasoning rather he would use the regular salt and he claimed that the seasoning was the cause. The flavor in the seasoning is high in sodium and this can lead to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and risk of cancer. According to a study in 2012, diet high in sodium have a high risk of causing cancer as there was a relationship between food high in salt and Gastric Intestinal Metaplasia (Cancer in the Gut and stomach). The study looked at high salt's concentration in the stomach can lead to the erosion of the mucosal lining barrier of the stomach leading to inflammation and damage of the stomach lining causing cellular replication in the area to increase which could lead to wrong replication of some cells leading to cancer cells thereby causing cancer.
Till date, there have been studies on noodles and its relationship or connection with causing cancer. While some have been able to give good arguments, some people including funded writers would spread fake news. Whatever is associated with noodles is also associated with so many other processed food in the same ingredient category. We just need to be careful of what we consume and do them in moderation. Also, high salt concentration food can lead to cancer, and this doesn't apply to instant noodles alone but to other foods in the category.
Post Reference
https://www.nst.com.my/world/2018/10/422584/boy-who-ate-instant-noodles
https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2019/12/fake-news-teenager-does-not-die
https://www.edgeprop.my/content/1436019/taiwan-teenager-who-ate-instant-noodles
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870486/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3485508/
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/instant-noodles-wax/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods-with-msg#8.-Instant-noodle-products
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/salt-and-sodium/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9609108/
Image Reference
Image 1 || Wikimwdia Commons || Nissin Cup Noodles shrimp flavor cooked
Image 2 || Wikimedia Commons || Stomach-Cancer