In the beginning of February, my student / doctor took my blood pressure. 130/76. Not terribly high, but defined as pre-hypertension by a quick google search. My doctor's advice? You guessed it; stop drinking the ramen soup.
Let me make one thing clear. I hang out with ramen geeks. We drink ramen soup. Case in point, a recent video from Keizo, aka Go Ramen, aka the manager at one of the best ramen shops in Tokyo, Bassanova.
Actually, I am fairly in tune with my health. Go back 6 years and I was a 270 pound, Taco Bell eating, Mountian Dew drinking fat man. The story of my diet success is long, but the end result is that now I sit at around 180, and have never felt better. I watch what I eat, and was curious how ramen soup correlated to my high-ish blood pressure.
For the next month . . . no soup. Eat the noodles, spare the broth. It wasn't easy, but I did it. From 130/76 to 123/69. There you go. A month of no ramen soup and I dropped 5%. Was it worth it? Not really. Was it a truly scientific health study? No way.
Speaking of facebook, I've got a contest over there. Leave a comment on or like the contest post to be entered. Good luck!
11 comments:
That first video is awesome! and I knew it was going to be awesome from the first 2 notes of the song :)
Quick question: seeing as you eat ramen quite often, have you ever considered carrying reusable chopsticks instead of using waribashi every time? (I don't mean for this to sound accusatory at all, just curious)
Thanks Erikizzle. The video was made by my friend Keizo. Last year he slurped something like 600 bowls. Crazy!
I have considered carrying "mai hashi", but I haven't found a pair I really like yet. The don't grip as well as the disposable ones.
Oh my gosh... what is HIS blood pressure like?! (kidding)
It took me a while to find a good pair, too! I actually found some in Asakusa (super touristy, I know) that are like normal chopsticks and not the plastic ones that you see often! :)
Anyway, love your blog, though it's torture to read on an empty stomach!
-Erica
Use the soup to wash down a 100mg gelcap of coenzyme Q10. That will keep the BP in check.
Thanks @Mrattio. That will be my next "scientific" experiment.
My logic is that if you drink all the broth, its the same as drinking all the oil that was on the ramen, which is right. My ritual was to buy pgx to ensure that I would not eat so much and once the ramen is cooked I would add a lot of water and spices to the broth. Paprika and chili powder is what I add, salt is never an option.
But the soup is the best part of Ramen! Maybe if done on moderation or just a few sips would be nice.
Finally, it's confirmed that the soup isn't healthy. I believe it contains lots of sodium and fatty broth - and sodium's not good for us (too much of it, isn't). I also love drinking Ramen soup up to the last drop, but after I had a belly fat removal process, I was advised to lessen my sodium and fat intake. The good thing is that, I'm now disciplined in eating.
The post enlighten me about how or what's the best way to eat a Ramen. Learning that the soup isn't good for our health, I'll probably start changing the way I eat it.
That is because of the amount of sodium that is on the broth. Try some stir fry noodles but be sure to use olive oil to make it healthier, add sliced vegetables and lean chicken meat then its a complete meal.
At this point and time, it's hard to go find some real ramen created manually and cooked traditionally. And I was just too glad for you that you sure are an expert when it comes to ramen stuff, and I'm thinking that maybe your doctor suggested that you stop drinking the ramen soup is because there are some fatty ingredients in it, well perhaps he just want you to keep up with your health and diet at the same time especially at this time it's hard to find healthy and nutritious foods that could match up with our lifestyle.
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