Your ramen replacement for weight loss

March 30, 2017 Ashley 0 Comments

So, we all know processed food is bad.

And, collegiate staple though it is, we all know Ramen and its cousin in a cup are up there on that list:

(I think this was a legit inquiry on my Quora feed last week…)

But, until today, I didn’t realize just how bad this stuff is. See, when I clicked on an article regarding the healthlessness of these salty squiggles, I assumed the badness factor would include the usual suspects. It causes heart problems because it’s high in salt. It causes obesity because it’s too much of the wrong kind’ve carbs. It spikes your blood sugar, makes you store fat, makes you too tired to work off your calories, and makes you hungry for more bad food later. And that’s all true. Research does show that a having a block of the processed pasta on the regular does indeed correlate with high blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

But, while that’s all awful for your attempt at weight loss, it gets even worse.

Because, apparently, there’s a preservative in this stuff (that’s in a lot’ve processed foods actually), called TBHQ. And, though it’s meant to extend the shelf life of foods like insta-noodles, this stuff’s pretty bad on your gastro tract. Your tummy has a terrible time trying to digest it. In fact, per a study done on digestion following a shelf-noodle meal, there was a significantly visible difference in digestion between homemade noodles and the pre-packaged genre. While researchers still aren’t sure what kind’ve effect this could have long term on your body, the fact that store-bought-Ramen nommers suffer metabolic disorders and obesity’s reason enough for me to eschew even the vegan version of this stuff anymore.

But, as a noodle addict, that means I need a yummy sub on deck.

Luckily, I’ve got exactly that.

(Vegan ramen, with blocks’ve tofu, mushrooms, taters, and whatever else your little heart that won’t step beating thanks to processed ingredients desires.)

Example? Well, first the homemade version of noodles is just fine (and, honestly, doesn’t really take *that* much longer to make). But if you’ve not got a stove – just a nuke box sitting in your dorm room – no worries. Shirataki noodles are a fabulous plant based sub that can sit in your fridge ’til you’re ready to enjoy ’em. Or, if you really wanna be healthy, buy a spiralizer and pump out some voodles (veggie noodles) into that bowl – they’re anything (from squash to zucchini) that you’d like, spaghetti’d into noodle form, give you the awesome mouthfeel plus fiber – without all the simple carbs that’d have you crashing later. (And that’d also have you eating more junk, thusly nosh demolishing your long term weight loss goals.) And if you’re still thinking you can quit your Ramen about as easily as the Brokeback mountain dude could quit Heath Ledger? Fear not. All you’ve gotta do is cut your consumption down to twice a month (yes, thrice a week’s still detrimental), and maybe only have half the packet of that salty seasoning when ya do.

So, use your noodle and toss the processed Ramen noodles quicker than you can cook up a cup’ve it.