Sober Ramen, rice or kim udon. Maybe your noodle preference is two minutes. What type of noodle do you enjoy best? Because there are so many types available with the supermarkets that it can be a little bit confusing. Hi, I'm Susie Burrow and Adelie and Wood and as two of austraight Is leading dieticians, we bring you the Nutrition Couch Product Review, a weekly chat on new products and old favorites that you can find in supermarkets. And I know that this.
Is a really popular meal choice.
I know Ozzie's love their noodles and so we've chosen three very different varieties to discuss the pros and cons of each in a big shout out and thank you to our dietitian help out Amy who has gone and done the research for these and really helps us with our products. So a big thank you to her. Now what I need to know straight away, Lean is what noodles did Sophie buy in the I don't know what your maiden name was, I know your Ward that was your name in the Ward household.
Yeah, watery bow background. Mum would always bar either Russ or Hocken or occasionally we do sober. My dad would hate it. He'd be like, what's this crap? So mostly we did either a rice noodle or a hockey noodle I think grown up. My brother definitely liked the howk and he didn't like riss.
I don't do a lot of noodles now. I'm not a massive noodle fan myself, and of course, if we're adding tie, who doesn't love to pad tie? But I don't ever cook them myself. But you've just jogged my memory that my mum would cook a hokin noodle sturfry every week. In the nineties. The noodles were new in the supermarket. It was like the latest thing. So we would have that sturf fry every single week, and I think I had my over full fill with it growing up.
So anyway, we've got some interesting ones to talk about. The first is that and will include images of this on our social media, so if you haven't followed us on the Nitition Couch podcast, you can actually see what they look like. These ones, I'm not really that familiar with them, but they're called the Haku Baku organic sober Noodles. Now they retail about four dollars. Althoy were on sale at this point for just under three dollars it calls. At the time we recorded this. Now they recommend it
is three servings per pack. And I think one of the big discussion points with noodles is serving size, because it's like anything, A small amount of anything is probably not a big problem, but the serves I've noticed in general can be quite large. So this is suggesting for a packet of these you do three serves per pack and then lean that will come in at twelve hundred and ninety six kilo jules, which is over three hundred
calories per serve just coming from noodles. If you stick to that portion size, you're getting just almost ten grams of protein per serve, so not insignificant coming from the base of that noodle, coming from the actual great cereal itself. At nine point eight grams fat, low as you would expect in a noodle, one point six grams one point eight per hundred point three saturated, very low as you would expect, but it's a high carbohydrate food. Noodle is
similar to rice or pasta. So this is sixty one grams per serve, so about two thirds of it is carbohydrate. Sixty exactly two thirds sixty seven point eight per one hundred. It hasn't listed the dietary fiber on here unless you were having kind of I would assume something like a legume based pasta or noodle. You wouldn't get a huge amount of dietary fiber. It does tend to be more refined and eight hundred and three milligrams of sodium, which
is not insignificant. When you think it's sort of a plain food, you wouldn't necessarily imagine that it had some sodium matter, but it certainly does. The first ingredient was organic wheat flour, which is where that protein's coming from its sixty nine percent, followed by organic buckwheat flower twenty nine percent, and some salt in there to flavor it up.
So it's not insignificant. Eight hundred milligrams. I have to say I would be a little bit concerned with some clients having that, particularly when it's often included as part of an Asian meal where you're having a lot of extra sources through that will end up being a really high sodium meal. Made in Australia from at least seventy one percent of Australian ingredient, So, oh, what do I give it? I'd probably give it maybe a seven.
You know.
I like the ingredient list in the sense it's got a really good quality wheat flour and buckwheat flour. I'd love to see a fiber on it. We don't have that on the label. I think the sodium is a bit high, which would steer me away. But with any of these noodle that I would make it last sort of doubleout serving, and I'd make it last six per serve and then dilute that and have a lot more
being protein and veggies as part of a meal. And then of course you're only get four hundred milligrams of sodium, so a bit better nutritionally. So yeah, I think it's middle of the ground for me noodlewise. I haven't tried them. What about you? Have you tried them before?
Yeah, I've tried them. They're not my favorite noodle. We did have them a couple of times growing up, but as I said, Dad, my dad was never a big fan of them, so he'd be like, don't use these again, soupie.
He's a Scottish man, isn't he.
That is that Scottish? No English? Your background, yeah, English, Yeah, great grandparents or something heritage. So I would say that they're not delicious, but they're also not horrible. I think a lot of people buy these because of the cleaning ingredient list, like you know, nearly seventy percent wheat flour and nearly thirty percent buckhet flower with a little bit of salt. The ingredient list is very clean. It's a
nice ingredient list. As you said, the sodium is a little bit concerning because you tip would put this with you know, soy sauce or other umami type flavors which are quite high salt, or you put it into something like, you know, a soup like a ram and soup or something like that. So the sodium for me is concerning definitely. The portion size is large, like the packet of noodles is two seventy grams and a third of it. They like these little sort of ribbons around them, so they're
actually pre portioned into three sections. That makes it really easy, and each section is about ninety grams. It's a very large serving size. You could easily get two portions out of that. But I do love noodles for the ease of they're either ready made these days, like you can buy noodle and or hock and already made. Basically you just put them into whatever you're making, or you just pour boiling hot water over the top of them. So
they are very easy carbohydrates, so particularly for kids. Though it's funny me won't touch a noodle like she loves pasta. Won't touch noodle, just like flick them on the floor. I don't know what it is. So they're an easy carbohydrate or energy serve for children, but for adults, I think, as you said, we need to watch the portion sizes, so definitely recommend these, but I think the portion size is key and the amount of salt, particularly what you're
putting it with if you're using them. My mum used to make this as part of an Asian chicken salad, so she'd use the cold sober noodle. You just pour hot water over them, she'd cool them down a bit. She put a bit of chicken breasts, some fresh herbs and veggies, and then a little bit of like at amamae or sesame through the top of that. With you can put like a nice sort of soy citrus dressing on it, so it makes a beautiful, salad great and
soup good for a stir fry as well. But you really got to be careful of what you're putting it with, particularly if you do have sort of cardiac issues, or you do need to be aware of your sodium intake. True, very very true.
All right, I'm just having a look at the next time which I actually find very interesting products, so I'll
be interested in your thoughts. This is the Walker Ramen noodle, four hundred grams two or seventy it Wallies recommending four servings per packet, so the quantity or the calories per service just over one hundred, five hundred and six Killer Jeels, five point five grams of protein a get low fat, one point one grams of fat, very little saturated, twenty one point nine grams of carbohydrate which is very very lowly, and and twenty six miligrams of sodium, which is also
very low. So when we take a look at the ingredient list, the first ingredient is water, followed by wheat, flour, thickener, vegetable oil, egg, white powder, salt, acidity regulator, and turmeric.
So this is quite.
A low calorie, low carbohydrate noodle.
So we went with this one, and it's interesting because if you've ever bought these, they taste delicious. But show me anyone who's getting four serves per pack. So look at the ood on needle that we previously did, A serving size was ninety grams. In this one, a serving sizes one hundred grams. But they're ready made noodle, So even though the serving size is it seems on par.
The others were like a raw noodle, you had to cook it first, and this is a ready made one, so most people would get they'd eat the whole packet, or they don't get two servings out of it. So I think realistically it's a great product. I like that a lot of these sort of yellow hock and style noodles are sort of artificially colored as well. I like that this brand uses tumeric to add that kind of yellowness into it, and it uses a little bit of egg white powder as well. So I like it from
a I guess an energy density perspective. It's got a good amount of protein in it. It's not too high in carbohydrates. So for anyone with engine resistance or worried about, you know, diabetes, gestational diabetes, it's a good carbohydrate controlled product without you feeling like you're eating something that is, you know, like a fake noodle, like a zucchini noodle or something like. It's actually the real deal. So I
quite like it from that perspective. But I would struggle to see anybody sticking to one of these serving sizes. I think most people would use that packet between two people very easily.
Like three or four noodles. Is the serve not a big pack because twenty grams of carbohydrate per serve is pretty low for a noodle, Like I would assume that's a very small pinch is a mixture of stir fries.
But even if you doubled that, you know, forty four grams and a serving is still great.
Still, Yeah, it's a good one up. Yeah, so I actually quite like it. Actually, probably if someone asked me, I'd be inclined now to say, actually, that's quite a good choice if you can stick to a reasonably small portion and make it last two or three people. So yeah, great, find very interesting.
This is really the alergies we have to watch with the egg and the gluten.
True, and it's very long sodium, which is beautiful, but it is made in Taiwan, So if you're keen to stick to Australian products, it's that sort of a downside of it all right. Now, last, but not least Land two minute noodles.
You had to put them in. I had to put them in soosie, I had to.
Have you even been a student if you haven't eaten two minute noodles. Now, this is the magic two minute noodle instant whole grain variety in a twelve pack for ten dollars, which is incredibly affordable at the moment, in particular with the cost of food through the roof coming in at what is that eighty cents per packet and the serving size when you add the water. So this is in the case where you haven't used the sashet yet and it's just the actual noodle bulk, the sort
of dry noodles people sometimes will snack on. And the serve is three eighty grands when you've made it up with water and consume it as the soup and add the sashe in. So that's good that they've included that,
which is where all the salt is. So the energy is nine hundred and sixty kiloduls, so that's just sort of two forty calories or so seven point eight grams of protein in one point three grams of fat, less the one saturated to a low fat product, forty five point two grams of carbohydrates, so roughly three four slices of bread worth in that packet, less than one gram of sugars, two point six germima dietary fiber which they have listed, which is coming from the whole grain flour
going through it, and then the sodium as we would expect, nine hundred and thirty five milligrams, so just shy of half our recommended upper daily intake of sodium, which does come from the sashet, which if you've ever tasted, is pretty pretty flavor. Somebody dealt with a nice dose of MSG,
as we will check in a second time. So the noodle itself is wheat flour, wholemeal flour just ten percent, but they are giving a little bit of fiber from that tapeoca starch, water mineral salts quite a lot of different flavors through their vegetable oil salt stabilizes vegetable gum.
But then our sachet first ingredient idol salt followed by flavor enhances MSG six two one and another flavor enhans are sixty three five, which is why it tastes so Moorish mineral salt, mult dextrin flavors, sugar onion powder, so the ingres, the ingreens goes on and on. It's pretty processed and certainly not one I'd be recommending for small children at all, given the addition of MSG. Oh yeah, what would we give it? Six out of ten?
The noodle itself isn't that bad a flavor mixed sense. We're adding in flavor enhancers which we don't love. We don't love MSG. And there's a huge sodium amount, like
nearly nine hundred and fifty milligrams for the block. If you were just to use the noodle itself, I think the problem lies in that people add the hot water and they eat this as a snack or they eat this as a lunch versus if you just took My mum used to buy these from a budgeting or affordability perspective for us growing up, and she would just use the noodle in the sturfry. She'd never ever add the
sashue to it. She'd use, you know, a base of chili and garlic and soy and fresh ginger and some fresh herbs, and that's how she would make the sauce for a sturf fry. So I don't have really a big problem with the noodle base itself because I think from an affordability perspective, eighty cents for you know, the cake of noodle and actually goes quite a long way, is not too bad. But it's when you're kind of eating that as a meal itself or as a snaw,
there's nothing really there in terms of nourishment. You don't have the protein. We want more fiber, We of course want some vegetables, we want a little bit of healthy fat there too. You're just eating a salty, carbohydrate based product. But I will disclose that in my first trimester of pregnancy, I couldn't get enough of these, Like I was just so nauseous. All I wanted was salt, and so I was using these and I was adding the salt the salt thing, and David was like, what is wrong with you?
Like who are you? And that was all I craved the steam inut noodles. So I had to add that in full disclosure. Very funny, but yeah, I don't think the noodle itself is that bad. They're not. It's not the cleanest ingredient list, let's be honest. But from an affordability and a budgeting perspective and a taste perspective, I think they're good for, you know, big families on a budget. I just would be very careful about adding the flavor sachet mix into there. Use the noodle base as part
of a recipe. Don't give your kids it as a snack. That's where I kind of draw the line.
Yeah, and this is where big companies have got a big role to play, you know. Imagine it's a big company or I don't even know who's the main owner, but the brands, you know, so so I think they've got responsibility to be getting those kind of flavor enhancers out of the food supply. The issue is that because two minute noodles have got such a cult following that if you change the formulation, all the die hard old users of it get really cranky and it really affects
their sales because they're so programmed. It would be like if you took it out of chicken crimpies, Like, the consumers just don't respond well. Even though it's better for health long term. So I think it's just really important for mums of young children to be aware of keeping our younger children off flavor enhances is important. It really drives appetite. It's very stimulating because it's such an intense flavor, and there's evidence to shot lights the brain up as such.
So I would definitely not be adding those sachets or anything with MSG into the diets of small children. You know, it's like anything, It's probably not going to really hurt a teenager in the scheme of things, But yeah, I wouldn't myself. I don't ever buy them, I don't ever use them, and I wouldn't recommend them. But if it's from a budget perspective, per noodle packet, they're very cost effective and if you can use them as a base to your own meals and cook it, absolutely I'm with you.
So you know, i'd give it six and a half seven minus the flavor sachet, which we'd really encourage Maggie to consider the use of added MSG into products long term, and.
We definitely prefer the whole grain base of the two minut noodles as well the extra couple of grands of fiber. It's not the white refined product like the normal two minut noodles. So if your kids need to eat them, if you need to buy them, definitely off for the whole grain variety if you can.
Like it's still wheat flour with a bit of wholemeal added. It's not refined. There's a little bit of health halo with it. Yeah.
Yeah, it's still a little bit better, a bit.
Like we've added a bit of fiber but still have a nice whack of MSG in there. So yeah, definitely, it's a definite medium. Yeah, it's not it's not in the nutrition catch product and Kine put it that way.
We still want a bit of protein and some vegetables in there as well as complete the meal. We're not giving it five stars. Put it that way. It's not all thumbs up from us, it's it can have a place.
Yeah, And what I will say, actually, the noodles I like is the slendier meta marmaie and Sowe noodle. I think they're really quite good.
Nah, you don't. I don't like them. I like actual noodles.
Yeah, some people don't like I'm not talking about the conjact.
Yeah, yeah, I know. The green ones the thicker green at a mind.
Because the contacts are very polarizing. But I think the box ones are not too bad if you can use it as a base in things, but better probably with pasta more than asians was true, Yeah, but a few options there anyway, if you're a noodles fan, so that brings us to end of the nutrition catch product review, don't forget to subscribe to have us delivered twice weekly. And we have our product guide if you're interested in
the products we like and recommend and use ourselves. And we have a takeaway guide in the work which will be out very soon. So if you're regularly eating out in cafes and fast food outlets, we are going to help you choose some of the better options nutritionally. And we will see you someday for our regular weekly update. To have a great week, you guys later.