SEOUL, South Korea — A study by Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital in the United States has linked instant noodles consumption by South Koreans to some risks for heart disease.
The study was based on surveys from 2007 to 2009 of more than 10,700 South Korean adults aged 19-64. A diet rich in meat, soda, and fried and fast foods, including instant noodles, was associated with an increase in abdominal obesity and LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol.
Eating instant noodles more than twice a week was associated with a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome, another heart risk factor, in women but not men.
The study raises important questions but can’t prove that instant noodles are to blame rather than the overall diets of people who eat lots of them, said Alice Lichtenstein, director of the cardiovascular nutrition lab at Tufts University in Boston.
