PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2016-07-06 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Harvard Study Reveals Just How Much Damage Instant Noodles Do to Your Body (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • On 4 July 2016, the web site NextShark published an article reporting that a Harvard study had found that the consumption of instant ramen causes extensive health problems to those who frequently partake of that convenience food: The claim gained traction in July 2016, but it was not new at that time. The article on which the claim was based was originally published in by Live Science in August 2014 and simply reiterated portions of the study along with commentary from a nutritionist on whether the research from Korea might also apply to noodle-eaters in the United States: The research was later often billed as a Harvard study, but we couldn't find any reference to Harvard in its text other than the affiliations of some its researchers. Information made available to the paper's publisher indicated some funding came from the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute Cardiovascular Research Review Committee, but neither Harvard nor Baylor was directly involved with the research. According to NextShark, the study showed that South Korean women were at high risk of metabolic syndrome from heavy ramen consumption, but the supporting material painted a more detailed picture. In the paper's methodology section, researchers stated that the study aimed to investigate the association between dietary patterns, instant noodle consumption, and cardiometabolic risk factors by using the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) cross-sectional survey, with subjects self-reporting their eating habits. Researchers also described using a 63-item food-frequency questionnaire, or FFQ, and explained how instant noodles showed up as a dietary factor: Respondents organized themselves into two rough groups. The first consumed a more basic and traditional diet, while the second reported ingesting a laundry list of non-healthy items including fried food, pizza, soda, and instant noodles. The researchers examined the data from myriad viewpoints to assess the specific effects of instant noodles on dietary health among Korean participants and noted some mitigating factors in the results: The paper concluded that traditional Korean eating patterns (including higher amounts of fish, rice, and vegetables) were associated with better outcomes than a more modern, junk-filled diet (e.g., fast food, fried food, and ramen): It is true that a study published in 2014 examined the potential adverse effects of instant noodle consumption in Korea, but the research relied on self-reporting, did not isolate instant noodles as a cause of health problems, and was not necessarily applicable to subjects outside that country. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url