Instant food: is it harmful for our health?
By jofeli
@jofeli (502)
Indonesia
July 17, 2008 8:28am CST
The trend of consuming instant food is growing rapidly these days. Certain products such as instant noodles, instant rice, instant porridge overflows our life without our awareness that they might have harmful effects for our body.
What's funny is, there's one advertisement of an instant noodle product in my country claiming that their products have nutritions like vitamins, mineral, etc. I just wonder, how can it be that such instant noodles could have those nutritions? Well, probably they just use it as a promotion to their product. In fact, as far as I know, those instant food are not good for our health. They may contain Mono-sodium glutamate (or any other substances) that can cause cancer if taken in a regular period (a.k.a "habit" of eating those products).
I think that the best food for us, is something that comes from nature, like fresh veggies, fruits, meats, etc. Do you agree with this? Or do you still prefer to consume those instant food? Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.
13 people like this
42 responses
@deemazing (395)
• United States
18 Jul 08
Yes, this has been proven. Anything that is preserved or frozen does not really contain any nutrition to it. That's why they say it's healthier to eat raw vegetables than frozen ones. Instant food, such as TV Dinners, is just as good as eating McDonalds.
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
18 Jul 08
hi most frozen veggies and fruits are actually more full of
vitamins and minerals than fresh as they are frozen at the
peak of perfection and you get fresher stuff at timesthan you get with fresh produce in the market, course home grown is best but we dont all have veggie gardens and now a lot of companies are putting out healthy frozen dinners that stack up well against the raw stuff. so a lot of those beliefs people stick to havebeen proven false. not all instant is bad, just some of it. pays to read allthe labels and do some checking on the net too.
@jdyrj777 (6528)
• United States
20 Jul 08
Read the ingredients. If you can not pronounce it dont eat it. It is so easy to get cheese and macaroni and make it from scratch. Or Scallop Potatoes , Potatoes Agrautn. Pull out granny's old cookbook. Its easier to cook from scratch than most people realize. Even breads are easy.
Scallop potatoes. melt a 1 tbsp of butter add 2 tbsp flour, mix, add 2c of milk. Mix. Thinly slice 2-3 potatoes. Bake 1 hr in 350 oven.
Agrautn- add 1c colby jack (or similar) to the milk mixture.
Hint: taste good with a little bit of pharmesan cheese with your other yellow cheese too. And im not talking about the pharmesan cheese in the can, im talking fresh.
@saivenkaat802003 (4823)
• India
20 Jul 08
I love to have home made foods, that are not too spicy.With a lot of veggies, available in my town.. i never intended at any point of time to have instant foods.
And sure the information of taking the instant food..leads to cancer is really shocking. Why not government take steps to ban the instant food.. and junk foods.. if it is really dangerous for us.. Again one reason i could find is the lack of application from the bureaucrats.
1 person likes this
@Andyck (220)
• Indonesia
17 Jul 08
Of course i prefer fresh meals...fruits, vegetables,etc. This year..National research in my country doing alot warning on tv and newspaper about instant food.Many products was stated cannt be consume...they are talking about formaline, natrium benzoat..something like that (well i'm not cemistry-man).But i consume some instant foods when i'm hiking/camping more than 3 days and using some multivitamins to keep our bodies.
1 person likes this
@jenalforque (151)
• Philippines
18 Jul 08
I consume instant food whenever I'm busy and have no time to cook. I heard once in an interview by a doctor that all foods are not bad as long as it is eaten in moderation. So the key is eat everything in moderation.
1 person likes this
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
18 Jul 08
Any time the composition of food is changed it is hazardous to our health. When the food companies produce instant food from it's natural state the take way what is good about the food then start adding chemicals that we can't even pronounce to give it back it flavor and texture. They don't know what those additives will do to us in the long run. We are much better of getting our food as close to the way it was grown as possible.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
18 Jul 08
Making it yourself is best. If you want to have noodles or pasta, but the package, and then make the soup or the sauce with the meat and vegetables yourself and add them The same with rice. We use converted rice, and that is almost like brown rice. I do have brown rice when there is not any converted rice around, and that is way much better than instant rice. Besides I cannot stand the taste, tastes like wallpaper paste.
Much of those instant noodles or whatever packages, have way too much salt and that is bad for you.
@PearlGrace (3171)
• United States
20 Jul 08
Hello jofeli.
I am not a fan of pre-packaged foods and try to avoid them as much as possible. They tend to be excessively high in sodium, which is not healthy for me. I'd just as soon have some frozen vegetables cooked in the microwave or a fresh fruit. I don't usually buy the "instant foods", so it's easy for me to avoid them. I suspect they don't taste very good anyway.
@saundyl (9783)
• Canada
21 Jul 08
I think instant food is bad for you...so often its packed with junk type stuff than it is nutritional foods. I was shocked when i went to a store in Minneapolis how many aisle for frozen pre-made foods there was...here theres one aisle in the store maybe two but there the stores had 4 rows of freezers with both sides filled so...8 sets of freezers. When i come home from his house i am CRAVING real food. I want a baked potato and scrambled eggs. I feel healthier when i don't eat instant foods.
@eihdra (3115)
• Philippines
18 Jul 08
They all have MSG or monosodium glutamate and other preservatives. If you will frequently or always consume those products, they become cancerous. They tend to stay in the body, less absorbed and digested. They boast of having those vitamins and minerals because they really do have it, but they also mentioned in the package that they added preservatives. And that's what kills if you're always eating them.
My family loves instant foods and we do eat them, BUT, not always. Assuming we ate one today, we wouldn't eat again, let's say for another week. It's like giving your body a break from all those harsh ingredients. We couldn't stay away from it because apart from the fact that it's easy to prepare, It does tastes really good.
@msedge (4011)
• United States
26 Jul 08
We eat sometimes instant noodles but i cook it and mix with veggies.I still believe that vegetables and fruits are the best for our health.
@Theresaaiza (10487)
• Australia
27 Jan 09
very much because they are loaded with preservatives. And food loses nutritive value over time so yes, it may not spoil right away but it's definitely just chunks of empty calories.
Next, they are deprived of fibers,water and anti-oxidants. Especially the dried ones.
And they are so excessive in either sugar or sodium which is not good for diabetics and hypertensive.
Man, I know so much stuff but Im a false prophet because sometimes I still patronize them when there's very little time to prepare healthier food. :-(
@nengs10 (3180)
• Philippines
18 Jul 08
I think those kinds of food are really not that good to our health. Though I myself am fond of eating those instant packages. They contain preservatives that are cancerous as experts would put it. In my case, I patronize those food simply because they are made easily and I can save time.
@Pose123 (21635)
• Canada
18 Jul 08
Hi jofeli, I prefer to avoid instant foods and eat more fresh foods and vegetables, if you can grow it yourself it's even better. I am not able to grow my own but it was something my parents did when I was growing up. I often think of how much better it tasted than what we get in the supermarkets today. I've read that most instant foods have a great deal of salt, so anyone who eats a lot of it would be wise ti read the labels carefully. Blessings.
@newtondak (3946)
• United States
18 Jul 08
Most of the instant stuff as a lot of preservatives and is very high in sodium, making it an unhealthy choice.
@inia_54 (175)
• Malaysia
18 Jul 08
It's the seasoning in instant food that is harmful to our health. They contain too much mono-sodium glutamate. Each time I eat instant food, I feel more thirsty and my throat dry. I don't use mono-sodium glutamate in my cooking. So I can really tell the difference between eating the food I cook and eating instant food. I have not done much research on the effect of mono-sodium glutamate on health. But I dare to say, when I stop using msg in my cooking, I seldom get headache and migrain.
@adamturner2007 (83)
•
18 Jul 08
I don't feel that it's bad for you - in moderation. Of course, you shouldn't be eating instant stuff everyday, that just can't be good for you.
If I'm really hungry and can't wait, I usually rustle up some pasta. Healthy and quick! That or an omelette or something along those lines =]
@Tina236099658 (2)
•
18 Jul 08
I gree with you, I don't like instant food and it's not very clean,I like housecook.
