AIBU feeding my kid instant noodles several times a week

[cooknwithbaby]

I had dinner with my DS and my mum saw we were eating instant noodles with chicken soup and extra vegetable I added. She shamed me about feeding my DS instant noodles, saying it was unhealthy.

It's easy for me to make and everybody likes eating it. DS has loved noodles since he was 6 months old. I cook it several times a week. But I usually make it a bit healthier with broccoli. Sometimes I add a fried egg.

AIBU by feeding my kid some instant noodles for dinner?

Wait... so if I use them as a replacement meal, it means it doesn't count as calories as it passes straight through me?

Regardless of salt and fat - anything with preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, and most stabilisers are toxic to your gut bacteria.

Pretty much every day new research is published which connects the state of our gut bacteria/microbiome with illnesses which, on the surface, have nothing to do with your gut.

For example, it's increasingly clear that what we eat has a direct impact on our mental health - particularly anxiety and depression. It's also looking likely that eating highly processed food like instant noodles causes changes in our brain which make us crave more highly processed food, with an inevitable impact on the likelihood that we will be obese, and all the health outcomes associated with that.

As someone said upthread - almost everything we've been taught about 'bad' food is wrong. Eat anything you like that is not processed - for eg. potatoes are great. The most important thing, the thing we should all burn into our brains and have tattooed on our hands is not to eat food that's been fucked with.

It's a nightmare massive shock to the system at first - even those of us that think we cook from scratch aren't really avoiding processed food, because most stock cubes, sauces and flavourings, even 'posh' ones, have got shit in them. Likewise other stuff - 'artisan' wraps for eg still have the same shit in as the cheapest own brand ones. It's all marketing, and it's cynical as fuck.

At first it made cooking insanely time consuming - but once I'd worked out which products I could use and sort of started a system in terms of what I could bulk cook and prep ahead, it's not so bad. I still feel a bit Amish, but it's not as bad as feeling like your fucking with your children's mental and physical health every time you give them something to eat.

I know what noodles are but are those plain nests of egg/rice noodles considered to be "instant noodles". All I have to do with them is soak them in boiling water and then stir fry with meat/veg/prawns etc. I mean that's pretty instant.

Nests of dried noodles have not been fucked with.

Well you'd think. But:

• IngredientsWheat Flour, Pasteurised Egg (2%), Salt, Acidity Regulator (Potassium Carbonate)

and: Associations of sodium and potassium consumption with the gut microbiota and host metabolites in a population-based study in Chinese adults

I once had to live on instant noodles for about 4 months (no home, only access to cooking at the hostel I was in was a hot water dispenser). I gained so much weight and was so ill - I did not realize quite how bad for you they are before then. Just use the regular egg noodles - probably cheaper too!

@Comedycook the noodles labelled instant noodles seem to be the ones that come with flavouring. Maybe they don't consider plain noodles to be instant because you have to add flavouring or other stuff?

I’ve pre-ordered a copy of this new book that’s being published in a few days.

https://www.mailplus.co.uk/authors/dr-chris-van-tulleken

Normal noodlesconlybtake 3mins to boil anyway. We use these and add in chicken and veg.
Instant noodle are ok for an occasional snack but i would imagine normal egg noodles would be a cheaper more nutritious option.

I agree with you. I wonder how many of the more recent issues, both mental and physical from the last 40ish years are due to diet. When I was growing up people didn't have allergies, now it's more a question if who doesn't

Agree with all off this. It's easy to come across as a miserable joyless fucker on this stuff but ultra processed foods have been a disaster for our physical and mental health. After decades of ill researched and constantly changing guidance from vested interests and even health agencies like the NHS, I think people are slowly realising that UPF is the real problem.

As many people have pointed out there is a massive difference between regular egg noodles (processed) and instant noodles like pot noodles or suoernoodles (UPF).

I'm far, far from being a model parent, in fact I am probably too lax about a lot of stuff. But I am doing my best to remove UPF from their diets. It's bloody difficult though.

Not just UPF but I’m now seeing that plastic is making us fat and infertile especially when heated - my steamer and rice cooker are both plastic 😫

It's really not as monstrous as some people on here are suggesting... yes there are obviously healthier things you could be offering but there are also far worse things you could be giving them.

Obviously dried noodles are fine. But instant noodles like indomite, soba, Nissan etc, whilst very tasty, are not for kids. They are actually banned in some countries. It's not real food.

Just fry your protein and veg. Boil your noodles and add some sauce. Sweet chili mixed with soy sauce and peanut butter ia quite nice. Or a soy bean paste from an Asian shop. Super quick and simple and 1000000 times healthier.

Anyone saying it's precious to demonize instant noodles for little kids, has lost sight of normality.

This is good, from the doctor that @PollyThePixie mentioned upthread. DR CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN: What happened when I ate ultra processed food? In the mail today

Actually there aren't many worse things than instant packet noodles with the sachets.

There are so many cultures that never eat processed food, or even ultra processed food, but of course Chris Van Tulleken acts as if this is news. My mum has literally never eaten any processed food, except perhaps biscuits and crisps from time to time. 99% of her diet is unprocessed. My diet is about the same.

You seem to be implying that van tulleken has some kind of nefarious motivation in bringing the damage that ultra processed foods cause to light which is … weird. His whole point is that barely any of us eat like your mother does and barely any of us understand the impacts of that fact.

He is a bit of a crashing bore though let's face it. I do get it, but he's like a one trick pony.

No, I am not. I just get annoyed by this- I don't want to say appropriation- but sort of "Look what I discovered" stuff from Western gurus. So many influencers touting superfoods they borrowed from other cultures. Some miracle stew made its way onto my social media feed the other day, and then it turned out to be the staple food of billions: beans. Not baked beans.

Anyway, ignore me.

It's impossible to answer this without knowing the rest of your child's of your child's diet. If they get daily fruit and veg intake for the rest of their meals/ snacks? Are you preparing the noodles without the added flavouring? What is the soup you provide? Tinned/homemade? How much salt/sodium is in their daily intake? Do they get vitamins and minerals elsewhere? What is the portion size? If you ensure that their daily diet is balanced and varied and the way you prepare and serve the noodles fits with this then no, yanu. If everything else is also high carb, high fat, high salt and highly processed then maybe it warrants a rethink of their diet generally. Its tough having to come up with stuff that's going be good for them and then do all the prep etc and then hope they'll eat what you give them. Personally I think its the hardest part of parenting 😕.

Yes. That’s the book I’ve pre-ordered. Not that I eat much processed food at all. I’m a cook from scratch cook. But I thought I’d read it out of curiosity on the back of this thread.

ok, everyone knows they are not exactly healthy foods. But what if your kid is a food refuser? And its one of very few things they would eat?

That's different issue, though. There is a big difference between knowing UPF is shit but trying to balance that against the need to feed a child with genuine food refusal, and mistakenly thinking that suoernoodles nutritionally equivalent to pasta or potatoes.

I'm not sure many people know but instant noodles are deep fried before packaging so they are not really the equivalent of pasta. There is also some debate whether they have a high trans fat content - a particularly bad form of fat. Saying that I think as an easy meal they are great as long as you make sure there's an egg or some other protein in there, veggies and like others say avoid the sachet and put in a low sodium msg free stock cube for children