Relieved...

Warning, the following contains childish content. Reader's discretion is advised!

Woot, midterms are over! If I have learned anything over the past couple of weeks cramming for these exams, it is that instant noodles = instant runs... well, almost... (Warning again if you chose to ignore the previous warning... This blog may be nasty :D) Having eaten instant noodles for almost every day of the past week or so gave me plenty of time to think about various things while on the throne. Aside from reviewing course material in my head, one of the things I got to think about was "Why am I here? Why am I spending so much time on this thing?" And no, I wasn't thinking about my existence nor anything else important (not at that moment anyway). It was more of a down to earth kind of question, or more specifically, why am I getting the runs and upset stomach so often lately??? Eventually I figured out it was the instant noodles, but dammit, they smelled so good (in their original cooked form) and with my housemates eating them, how could I resist? So of course I continued to eat them knowing full well where my noodles and I would end up eventually, but hey, who cares, 'cause at least I'll be full!

Well, now that exams are done, I can take some time to look into this a little bit further and find out exactly what ingredient(s) was causing my discomfort (other than the obvious spicy food now = pain later). So here are the ingredients of my instant noodles:

Noodles:
wheat flour
palm oil (tocopherols)
salt
potassium carbonate

Soup base:
salt
monosodium glutamate
chicken flavouring (citric acid, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate)
sugar
hydrolysed plant protein (corn soy wheat)
garlic powder
soy sauce powder (soybeans, wheat, salt, dextrin)
dehydrated green onion
onion powder
spices

Seasoning oil:
sesame oil
colour
spice flavouring

Now, from those ingredients, the ones that I was suspicious about are (mainly because I've never heard of them before, other than MSG...) MSG, disodium guanylate, and disodium inosinate. Well, after some digging, it turns out that MSG has another name - hydrolyzed protein - and while it may cause some diarrhea, it's problem is mainly whether or not it contributes to certain neurological diseases. Hrmmm, that'll explain why I'm so.... Anyways, I also discovered that the other two ingredients (disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate) also cause GI discomfort, and its evil brother, diarrhea. Already we have 3 iffy ingredients :( but is that it? Nope! Lo and behold, potassium carbonate also causes diarrhea! Yay!!!! Well, it apparently is found in some dishwasher soap, so I guess the ppl who brought us instant noodles really wanted us to have a good cleaning! Another ingredient that surprised me was dextrin. I knew it was some carbohydrate and stuff, but it turns out that it's also used as glue. Now I can't say I know what purpose it serves in the soup base (nor any of the other ingredients for that matter), but I'd like to think that it's their attempt to make our unloading easier by making things more sticky :D So there you have it - if you ever see these ingredients, make sure you're prepared, for otherwise, if you feel sudden tense...