Ramen has proven to be a pantry staple way past those glorious college days, saving your stomach from endless rumbling when you’re stuck late at the office. Although we hate to love them, these super-salty, processed noodles haven’t been doing much for your flat belly goals—until now.
Instant ramen’s inventor, Nissin Foods, has just announced that it will be updating its Top Ramen recipe nationwide on October 6th, just in time for National Noodle Day! So what can we expect from the revamped noodles?
For starters, all flavors’ sodium counts will be reduced by an average of 15 percent. The brand has also removed all artificial flavors and appetite-spiking MSG, although the product still contains trace amounts of naturally-occurring MSG.
Nissin Top Ramen’s original beef-flavored noodle soup recipe contained a whopping 760 milligrams of sodium per serving. Mind you, the serving size was only half the package, so if you slurped down the whole thing (like most people), you’d be ingesting 780 milligrams of sodium short of what the FDA’s nutrition guidelines recommend per day.
While we’re definitely happy to see the sodium count slashed in these new and improved recipes, we’re also hoping Nissin cuts out caramel color, one of our 23 Worst Food Additives In America.
The Japanese company also renovated its iconic flavors in hopes of helping hungry consumers “achieve their own moment of ‘noodle zen’ in the kitchen with a quick and delicious meal,” a company representative told us in an email. Hopefully, you can find your own happy place with Nissin’s two new vegetarian-friendly flavors, Chili and Soy Sauce (formerly known as Oriental). Not to mention, you can always fall back on our 20 Boss Ramen Recipes for busy nights.
