One doctor spoke recently about rumors concerning food additives, addressing concerns that even occasional consumption of instant noodles is harmful to the body.
“Long ago that might have been the case, but food additives have come a long way,” Taipei Medical University Hospital nutritionist Lin Yu-ju (林郁茹) said.
The Food and Drug Administration does not permit the use of preservatives in the noodles themselves, Lin said, adding that if seasonings contain preservatives, this must be clearly indicated on the packaging.
Most instant noodles are preserved through dehydration, using a high-temperature deep-fry process, boiling or steaming to kill bacteria, she said.
“However, while you are not going to turn into a mummy from eating instant noodles [as some online rumors have suggested], the noodles are high in oil content and will make you fat if you eat too much,” she said.
Rumors that instant noodles take up to 32 days to leave the body are not based on any scientific research, she said.
Taipei Medical University Hospital resident gastroenterologist Fan Chun-wei (范峻維) said that a healthy person will generally digest food within one day.
“What is absorbed by the liver is processed by the body right away. It is not very likely that something would stay in the body for 32 days,” Fan said. “Only if there is something that the liver really cannot process would it build up in the body.”
However, Lin said that even if the rumors are false, she would not recommend that people eat them often.
“There is just not enough nutrition in instant noodles, and the seasonings are very high in sodium, oil and calories,” she said. “People who occasionally eat instant noodles should use less of the included seasonings and add their own vegetables, eggs or meat to enhance their nutritional value.”
Fan tried to dispel the rumor that food additives can lead to hair loss, saying that hair loss is more often connected with hormone and stress levels, as well as environmental pollutants, such as mercury.
However, Lin said that eating an excessive amount of instant noodles could contribute to hair loss, as they are nutritionally unbalanced and low in protein.
Protein deficiency could affect hair and nail health, she said.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS