Hoi Ying Chu

DFM 655
Professor George
November 11, 2017
Do You Know What is in Your Cup Noodle?

Have you ever wonder why people said cup noodle is not healthy? It is unhealthy because
it increases the consumption of total energy intake, fat, sodium, and decreases the consumption
of proteins, calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, and the essential vitamins (Park, 2011).
Additionally, if you consume instant noodle more than twice a week, there is a higher chance of
developing metabolic syndrome, especially for women (Shin, 2014). Besides the nutritional
factor that cause cup noodle unhealthy, it also contains a chemical call tertiary
butylhydroquinone (TBHQ).
TBHQ is a common antioxidant preservative that is used in many products to extend
shelf life and prevents rancidity from lipid oxidation (Schaefer, 2015). Some products where you
may find TBHQ are cup noodles, crackers, popcorns, chocolates, frozen foods, and many other
process foods that contain fat. Besides food items, you may also find TBHQ in your beauty
products.
TBHQ is widely used because it is cheap and it does not affect the final products quality
such as texture, odor, flavor, and color (Frankel, 2014, p.222). In addition, some recent studies
show that TBHQ may help relief spinal cord inflammatory response after a spinal cord injury
due to its antioxidant property (Jin, 2014). However, many studies found that TBHQ are harmful.
For example, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) provided many animal studies
demonstrating that TBHQ will cause skin irritation, vomiting, liver enlargement, acute
neurotoxic effect, convulsion, and medullary paralysis (NLM, 2016). In addition, through
cytotoxicity and genotoxicity testing, Morteza Eskandani found that TBHQ damages our DNA
and cause apoptosis (Eskandani, 2014). This is also one of the reason why the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) states that the total antioxidant content of a food containing the
additive(TBHQ) will not exceed 0.02 percent (FDA, 2017). Although one might assume that
TBHQ is safe to consume as long as it is under 0.02 percent, one might have the possibility of
exceeding the limiting amount that FDA stated by consuming multiple products with TBHQ. For
example, if we eat 2-3 cup noodles a day, we can easily exceed the 0.02 percent of daily
allowance.
 As a college student, I understand that you might not have the time, money, and energy to
buy and cook fresh produce but you should not choose to eat unhealthily. Even though many
students know cup noodle is high in calorie, sodium, and saturated fat, they still chose to
consume cup noodle because it is convenient and cheap. Now that you know there is another
harmful chemical, TBHQ, in cup noodle, you should rethink your decision of consuming cheap
and convenient cup noodle. Some steps that you can take to stay away from TBHQ are read your
food labels before your purchase, purchase fresh fruit and vegetable that provides dense nutrient
to help maintain a healthy body. In conclusion, cup noodle may meet your current needs but it
will put your health at risk.

Smog Test:
Polysyllable: 70
Grade Level: 11th Grade
Reference:

Bird, S. (2014). Whats bad about ramen noodle. Retrieved November 12, 2017, from
https://foodrevolution.org/blog/food-and-health/ramen-noodles/

Eskandani, M., Hamishehkar, H., Ezzati Nazhad Dolatabadi, J. (2014). Cytotoxicity and DNA
damage properties of tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) food additive. Food
Chemistry, 153, 315-320.

Food and Drug Administration. (2017). CFR- Code of Federal Regulation Title 21. Retrieved
November 12, 2017, from https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/
CFRSearch.cfm?fr=172.185

Frankel, E. N. (2014). Lipid Oxidation (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Woodhead publishing.

Jin, W., Ni, H., Hou, X., Ming, X., Wang, J., Yuan, B.. . . Liang, W. (2014). Tert-
butylhydroquinone protects the spinal cord against inflammatory response produced by
spinal cord injury. Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science,44(2), 151-7.

National Library of Medicine. (2016). T-Butylhydroiquinone. Retrieved November 12, 2017,

from https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search2/r?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+838

Park, J., Lee, J., Jang, Y., Chung, H., & Kim, J. (2011). A comparison of food and nutrient
intake between instant noodle consumers and non-instant noodle consumers in Korean
adults. Nutrition Research and Practice, 5(5), 443-449.

Schaefer, A. (2015). The potential TBHQ danger. Retrieved November 12, 2017, from
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/potential-tbhq-dangers#1

Shin, H., Cho, E., Lee, H., Fung, T., Rimm, E., Rosner, B., . . . Hu, F. (2014). Instant noodle
intake and dietary patterns are associated with distinct cardiometabolic risk factors in
Korea. The Journal of Nutrition, 144(8), 1247-55.