Thursday, September 25, 2014

“Economics of Ramen”

Morgan Aschenbrenner
Economics B3
Sharon Straub
9/23/2014

“Economics of Ramen”

As the top percentage of the people who are taking this economics class and are about to read this blog are seniors, we have all been college bombarded and focused. We are being told to begin saving as we will soon be entering the real world where we will have to, if we haven’t already been, providing for ourselves and ensuring that we can feed our own hungry mouths. One of the most important staples that feeds the demand of the average college student would be the famous ramen noodle originally brought over from China to Japan to eventually the American people. This instant food is incredibly cheap and has different flavor packets to satisfy the preferences of any individual. Though they seem fantastical and easily could become breakfast, lunch, and dinner to save money, is their lack of nutrition and effects on your body really worth the cheap economic cost?
The average ramen noodle package takes about four minutes to make taking away little time from one’s day to perform other tasks such as working, doing homework, or hanging out with friends. The opportunity cost of ramen noodles is very low making its demand to the busy stressed college student rise. In addition the cost of the instant noodles is averaging from $0.25 to $0.45 a package. Theoretically letting a poor college student spend a dollar a day to ensure their bare minimum nutrition is met.  
Below is a chart depicting the percentage of how often people on average consume ramen


However, relying on ramen isn’t exactly the best idea far as nutrition goes. Ramen is very high in salt and other things in high quantities which aren’t exactly helping you in any form. A study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that ramen noodles could actually be leading to shorter lives. Along with other forms of instant noodles it is actually increasing a person’s risk for cardiometabolic syndrome. In addition most instant noodles are packaged in Styrofoam which contains BPA which is a hormone disruptor, and it also contains MSG on top of being high in saturated fat. In fact a viral video was made of what happens when one’s body tries to digest the noodles which showed the stomach working over time.
As we are about to enter a new world of responsibilities as young adults, we need to start making our own life decisions that will follow us for the rest of our lives, especially including our own health and nutrition. So before we automatically decide to save money and think thriftily by buying cheap foods like ramen to ensure our survival, we need to be thinking about the negative externalities that is causes to our health. Just because our savings may have increased by a small marginal benefit, is it really worth it?  

Johnson, Carolyn. "The global power of instant noodles ." The Boston Globe . N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. <http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/09/08/the-global-power-instant-noodles/slwhJDp9yoE6M5C1uokrlJ/story.html>.

Brickman, Sophie. "The History of Ramen Noodles." The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. <http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-history-of-the-ramen-noodle>.

Y-N, Ken. "The impending instant ramen sticker shock ." What Japan Thinks . N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. <http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/11/05/the-impending-instant-ramen-sticker-shock-part-1-of-2/>.
Greenfield, Beth. "Why Ramen Noodles Could Cut Your Life Short ." Yahoo Health . N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014. <https://www.yahoo.com/health/why-ramen-noodles-could-cut-your-life-short-94747327572.html>.
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19 comments:

  1. Hi Morgan, I really like your blog post topic! I think you bring up a really good point about eating in college. Even though things are cheaper doesn’t mean that they are automatically better, usually things are cheaper because they are actually bad for you and the business needs to get you to buy it somehow. If we want to avoid the “freshmen fifteen” we need to make good choices for food when we go to college. Although these foods may cost more they will keep us healthy. Even if we spend more now, we actually might be saving ourselves later on down the road. If we choose to eat all the unhealthy cheap foods like ramen we will save money in the present but if we have health problems later on in life related to a sodium high and unhealthy diet, the money we spend trying to cure ourselves will most likely be more than we saved by buying Ramen. Although I love ramen and think it is really tasty, I don’t think I will be eating it too much in college or otherwise, especially after seeing that video! Way to pick such an applicable topic to our lives, good job Morgan!

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  2. Hi Morgan ! You’re title immediately attracted me to your blog post. Because, yes, college and the future is most definitely on my mind as I would think it’s on a lot of the other seniors’ minds. Ramen has always been the “go to” food for college students, but looking at your pie chart, it was actually quite interesting that people don’t necessarily eat it as often as a thought. I do wish you had data of just college students rather than just people in general.

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  3. I like the topic you chose because lots of people eat Romen Noodles because it's cheap and it's good. Taking a few extra minutes to make fresh noodles is a lot better for people and their daily meals. While I was watching that video, it made me feel sick to my stomach. I mean, the only time I eat Romen noodles is at my friends house, and I don't eat them all the time. Maybe 1 every few months. They aren't very healthy at all and are processed. I also found interesting facts that I didn't know about Romen so thank you for that!

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  4. I really liked the topic as well and agree a lot with Claire, but being me, I do have to play devil's advocate. If in fact you were trying to prove that Ramen is something of a health concern with over consumption, you should have had some sort of stat, graph, or other means of data to back it up. Just telling us that it isn't healthy is mostly common sense, but showing us how it actually effects us is really hard hitting. And it is a way for college students, and a lot of high school students to get a cheap meal. However there are some alternatives to what your concerns are. The instant cup noodles are the less commonly bought, and more expensive spin off of Ramen. The bagged Ramen is where it's really at, and doesn't have the Styrofoam cup around the noodles, producing bad hormones; so that problem is solved. Also, there is a real simple way to cut back on that sodium, while still getting a cheap meal. Chicken and beef broths are fairly inexpensive and easy to come by in most grocery stores, including Walgreens (commonly on sale, 2 cans for $1), which you mix with the noodles and throw away the package of flavor (where all the sodium is) and there you have a fairly healthy[er] meal, for about 75 cents or less. Good topic, great ideas, and yes I do for the most part agree, just a little more evidence is all it needs!

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  5. This was a really great topic to talk about, especially because college is approaching so quickly! Surely students are looking at ways to save money, because as everyone knows, college isn’t cheap. You brought up a great point about the negative externalities of these cheap instant noodles, because they really aren’t healthy for you. But are students really going to worry about how Ramen is digested in their body, or are they going to worry about how much money they are losing by buying something more expensive? My guess is students will want to save that extra cash, and increase their marginal benefit, but that’s because they aren’t thinking ahead, and what these noodles could possibly do to their future health. Overall, this a very controversial issue, and was very interesting to learn more about, great job!

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  6. First of all, I would like to thank you for shedding light on the issues of this product and for pointing out the consequences of eating this soup. I find this information very valuable as I, along with a lot of other seniors, will be heading off to college. I think that it’s a huge issue that America has not banned the sale of this product since its consumption only has negative impacts in our overall health. First of all, one package of this soup has 1,731 grams of sodium, this is more than half the recommended sodium intake for an adult! Children also consume these soups, so this is also a huge issue to their health! Consuming such cheap foods has a negative impact on our country’s obesity rate, which is an issue the United States has been dealing with for the last couple of decades. There are better and more nutritional options out there, and I think people should take advantage of them. Ultimately, saving a couple of dollars might be nice but what is not as nice is when we’re putting our health at risk.

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  7. Wow Morgan, I never really thought about ramen like that. I knew that they were high in salt and just overall not very good for you, but I didn't know that they are actually worse for you than that. Along with the higher risk of cardiometabolic syndrome and shorter lives, the MSG and BPA are also negative externalities that really are not worth the money saved by buying this cheap "food".

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  8. Morgan, thank you for the rather enlightning information! Personally I don’t eat ramen as often as I use too but reading this post it’s a little scary seeing the unhealthy benefits of such a simple meal. You did bring up a good point on how ramen noodles prove a bad externality through negetive effects on our health. But I would like to disagree in saying that risking ones health is totally worth it. Come on! It’s ramen its unfortunately like many other foods that we have access to. Though there may be certain harmful chemicals within our food, our food is still rather delicious and will always forever be. Even though ramen is cheap, its still worth buying no matter what.

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  9. That is the first time I ever really looked that in depth about Ramen Noodles. They do taste pretty good though. #econ2014. College is a million times more expensive as Ramen and it is healthy for you. That is why we can't have nice things.

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  10. While ramen noodles may not be the most healthy thing to eat, I don't see how it is different than anything else the typical American may eat. If it saves you both time and money, then the health benefits should be of no concern. If they were, there are even cheaper food alternatives that are far more healthy than a bowl of ramen noodles.

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  11. Morgan I love your topic. I have never had ramen before but I have always wanted to try it. I have certainly never thought about ramen like that. I knew they were cheap and really not that good for you. But I certainly never thought that ramen could shorten your life!!! That’s crazy! I think that takes the cake for the worst negative externality.

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  12. It's very true that the opportunity cost of ramen is very low seeing as it takes a short amount of time to make and it very cheap, meaning us soon to be poor college kids can afford other stuff but at the same time, you're right. It's extremely unhealthy if eaten everyday or possibly even every week. The negative externalities to our health might end up piling up and making the marginal benefit of the cheapness not worth it. I guess it's all up to how much money the person is willing to spend on food in college.

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  13. Morgan, this is a very interesting topic to choose and you made a really good argument about the negative economic choice is. I always thought of ramen being a good economic choice for an individual because it is so cheap, and relatively easy and non time consuming. I never realized that the negative externalities outweighed the extra money that you would have instead of buying healthier, more expensive foods. I now know when I go off to college next year that although ramen may seem like a solid economic decision it has negative externalities that will outweigh the benefit of having extra time and money, because my health would suffer.

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  14. This makes me pretty worried for my youngest brother; the only things he ever eats are Mac'n'Cheese, candy, pastry, and Ramen. Especially Ramen. Several times a week.
    It's kind of sad, though, how all the cheap and easily accessible foods are so terrible for us, but most healthy foods are too expensive, money wise and/or opportunity cost (time/effort and such) wise, for most people to consider consistently buying. It makes me think that, if all those health activists trying to change the laws want people to eat healthier, they should spend less time trying to outlaw soda, and more time trying to make healthy food as cheap and accessible as junk food. Because I'm pretty sure no one wants to have health problems because they could only afford to eat Ramen while they were in college.

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  15. This is an interesting topic to consider, especially during the span of college. In the short run, it seems that the financial advantages far outweigh the health disadvantages. In the long run, however, it appears that the marginal costs -- primarily health problems -- significantly outweigh the marginal benefits which seem to be solely financial. Having just gone to the store to purchase 150 packages of ramen noodles for a food drive, this issue is fresh in my mind and brings great interest to me.

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  16. Morgan, you definitely brought up some great points in your post. Not only was I blind to the unhealthy side effects of ramen noodles, but completely unaware of the harm the packaging can cause as well. At first, we may think that the negative externalities are no big deal compared to the low cost of these noodles, but when we really take a step back and examine the minor consequences, constant consumption of these noodles are far from healthy. It is similar to when people who drink Starbucks or eat McDonalds almost everyday don't realize the unhealthiness of their actions, and the little money they spend each time starts to add up. As others have said, at the time, the benefits of an easy and inexpensive lunch may be great, but in the long run, when the negative consequences start to pile up, we realize that there are other foods out there just as cost efficient and extremely healthy as well.

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  17. You seem to be against a ramen based diet and I agree, it is very unhealthy but according to your own chart, the biggest portion of people only eat ramen once a week and the majority eats it less than 3 times a month. I just feel like the pie chart is a little contradictory to your statements about how ramen shouldn't "ensure your survival" where it's obvious these people aren't only eating ramen. That brings me to to think that either these people are eating other quick cheap foods the rest of the week (there are limited other cheap, fast foods similar to ramen) or they are eating other, possibly and probably healthier foods.

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  18. Great job on this blog post Morgan. It was very interesting to read. You brought up good, arguable statement for people to read. Although a fan of Ramen myself, I do not think that, mainly college students, should be eating this unhealthy food. The risks out weigh the benefits. Really, there is no benefit to eating Ramen, except for how cheap it is at 25 cents per package. This generation going into college should learn to take care of themselves as you said.

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  19. What a relatable topic considering most of us here will be consuming a lot of this in the years to come! There is no denying the great cost of ramen but there is also no denying that it is basically processed crap! It is important to take note of foods like this as many people don’t realize the true harm that all these foods can have on our body, who cares about the price! What many don’t realize is that your local grocery probably has a section where bulk noodles are sold by the pound and this can prove to be a great deal where you don’t have to sacrifice too much more money for quality product.

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