介绍:
Xiaohua: Chinese people eat 46 billion packs of instant noodle a year, and that 34 packs per person. 资料显示，中国人每年会消费462亿包方便面，算下来大概是人均34包。Is that a bit too many? Well, first of all, do you guys eat above or below the 34 packs line?
Zhou Heyang: I have never reached that magic number and in the old days when I was living overseas, I wanted a packet of home once in a while and it was instant noodles that I would go for, so…
John: Where did you get the instant noodles though? Did you get them shipped from China or…?
Zhou Heyang: I used to just get them from the Chinese supermarket in Beijing and I would bring it with me overseas to make sure that it was the exact flavor of home that I would get. But actually, it’s a bit sad to say it’s a reference of home, because my mom’s home cooking is so much better than instant noodles, but when you are overseas, that’s all you can get.
John: Yeah, it’s like McDonald’s for me sometimes. I mean McDonald’s tastes like home, but we all know it’s pretty crappy. It’s not really representative of American cuisine or you know the quality of my mother’s cooking either, but memory is memory. Food and taste are very strong link, perhaps the strongest link, or the power to invoke certain feelings and memories, but 34 packs per year, that’s sounds disgusting, because instant noodles, if you think about it, all it is are processed carbon hydride, which is bad for you. And then salt and oil…
Zhou Heyang: Actually I think 34 per year isn’t too bad, but when you count China’s base population as it is into the equation, that’s really horrifying when you see that humongous figure.
John: Thirty-four per year is about one pack every week for nine months. It’s quite big.
Xiaohua: Yeah, or something like one pack in 1.5 week or something like that. But I think as to your accusation that it’s unhealthy which many people agree…
John: Are you trying to defend your eating habits here?
Xiaohua: No, I don’t eat instant noodles. My husband does.
John: You are trying to defend your husband eating habits here.
Xiaohua: No, please allow me to finish. What I’m trying to say is that it’s not as bad or harmful as people think. It’s not nutritious certainly, it has some additives certainly and it’s being fried, so a lot of oil and carbon hydrides like you said certainly, so it’s not nutritious. But you say that is it poisonous or you will die, if you eat too many of it a little bit too much.
John: I wouldn’t go that far, but you know humans cannot live long without certain types of vitamins. If those vitamins are not being provided in your diet, you are not going to be healthy NO. 1. So yes, of course, they are not nutritious, but in that sense they are anti-nutritious, because if you are eating instant noodles, again it’s basically just carbon hydrides, salt and oil, more than likely you are going to get fat on that, and you are not gonna eat other stuff.
Zhou Heyang: Well, that’s the point. When people have a couple of noodles, they want to fill their stomach quickly and easily I suppose and often it is those who are not really foodies, like Xiaohua those who just want like…
John: That’s negative. That’s a horrible accusation made to everyone.
Zhou Heyang: What do you mean? I mean that I say foodie in the most positive light.
John: So are you calling her wonder or not calling her wonder?
Xiaohua: She is calling me the one.
Zhou Heyang: She has self claimed herself to be a proud foodie many times. Don’t you listen to our show?
John: No.
Zhou Heyang: Aren’t you here?
John: Yeah, I think so.
Zhou Heyang: My point is those who just want to a quick dinner, lunch or whatever, that usually go for these options.
John: Yeah, I think definitely you can make instant noodles healthier than they are. I think that’s definitely a possibility. But we have no way of knowing that looking at consumption rates like what people are actually doing. I mean for what I usually see what some people call anic-data is people who are on an airplane, people who are waiting in the airport and people who are on the train or waiting in the train station. This is where a lot of the instant noodles are being consumed and in those situations, there is absolutely no way to make it healthier, because you are not going to bring in vegetables, fresh vegetables.
Xiaohua: That is true. But you know, also if you compare it with gutter oil or this麻辣烫on street side. Which one is more poisonous? I think it’s hard to say.
John: No one says it’s poisonous. I don’t think anyone suggest people should eat gutter oil either.
Xiaohua: But we probably are already eating gutter oil without ourselves knowing, if you are eating instant noodles, at least it’s being manufactured by a legitimate factory.
John: A legitimate factory has a history of not producing the safest stuff either.
Xiaohua: That’s true.
Zhou Heyang: So it’s sort of like a buyer beware situation. But earlier there has been this discussion about the cup, the plastic inside, the polystyrene cup that carrying these instant noodles which you need to put boiled water into it and that could be a source of unhealthy elements being released into the noodles. However, that was being considered as false information.
Xiaohua: Yeah, that’s true. So Draco says, I was once a big fan of instant noodles, until my mom told me the more I eat, the duller I would be. Is this kind of saying true? I mean more stupid, I guess that’s what he means.
John: I think so as well. For me, it’s just about nutrition and making nutrition choices. If you are choosing to eat instant noodles, you are not choosing to eat more nutritious food.
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