When most people think of ramen noodles, the image of a college student on a minimal budget comes to mind. We’ve heard for years that ramen noodles are bad for us, primarily because of the absurd amount of sodium, the presence of preservatives, and the lack of nutrients. One thing is for sure: You certainly shouldn’t try to live on them. However, an 84-year-old man in South Korea begs to differ. Park Byeong-gu has eaten nothing but ramen noodles three meals a day since 1972. At that time, he was suffering from a stomach disease and began throwing up everything he ate. He tried healthy food and medication, but nothing worked. Then one day, he came across Samyang Sogogi Myeon, a mild beef-flavored cup of ramen noodles. He began eating them and discovered that the vomiting stopped and his stomach was comforted. Since then, Park has eaten nothing but ramen noodles at every meal. Because he lives in a remote area of Gangwon Province, far from any grocery stores, Nogshim — the country’s largest instant noodle maker — has been providing him with their ramen. The company sends Park 432 packs every quarter and has been doing so since 1994……for free. Doctors have said Park is in remarkably good shape. While the Nutrition Research Team at Nongshim has said that ramen has been evolving to a dish with good nutrition, they also acknowledge that you can’t attain all the nutrition the body requires through ramen and that Park’s case is very unusual.
