In the past few weeks, my wife and I have been streaming Korean television and films. It started with me walking through the living room one day and hearing a language that I didn’t recognize. When I asked my wife, “what are you watching?”, as she lay curled up, under the blankets, on the couch on a Saturday. She responded by telling me that, “It’s a Korean horror movie. They’re AMAZING!” Since that weekend, we have been drinking from the fire-hose in terms of watching Korean content.

Immediately I noticed that eating was a significant part of Korean culture as there is almost always a scene in a show or movie where someone is in a restaurant or having a quick bite on the go. This of course has led me down numerous YouTube rabbit-holes on Korean cooking and dining, but that’s a story for later. What’s is important is that Koreans EAT. Which is great because I, like, most likely you as well, LOVE to eat. And what these people are eating looks DELICIOUS!

Now, as a sports scientist, the two things that I noticed next really confused me. First, everyone seems to be relatively thin and healthy looking. I’m not just talking about the main characters on the shows and the movies or the personalities in the YouTube videos, but the people in the background. The REAL actual people. The second thing is that it seemed like most people had at least one meal a day that was an instant noodle or rice bowl. Usually for lunch or breakfast. From what I was seeing, Koreans LOVE instant noodles. To me, a light bulb moment.

So, I bought a TON of instant noodles and rice bowls. Specifically, Korean instant noodles and rice bowls. What I found out is they are disturbingly cheap to buy in bulk on Amazon. Like I said, I bought a lot of them. And, what I did was replace one meal a day with noodles or rice and you know what happened? I started to lose weight. I also wasn’t hungry afterward. They fill you up because it’s basically having soup for a meal. Couple this with a healthy dinner in the evening and you are good to go.

Now, what about all of the vitamins and minerals? Is there ANY nutritional content in these instant bowls? Well, most bowls come with a packet of dehydrated vegetables. Regardless of what someone says (Google!), they are still vegetables, so they DO have nutritional content and with the water that you add YOU also get hydrated along with the vegetables. What about carbohydrates? Are the bowls wasted calories? I get SO frustrated with this question. You NEED carbohydrates to fuel both your cells AND your brain. Cutting carbs makes you weaker AND dumber.

The bottom line is that noodle bowls and rice bowls are a GREAT way to teach portion control to anyone living in our American food society. Coupled with a healthy evening meal, these bowls can be a good approach for anyone looking to lose weight. Eating these bowls has even caused me to eat less in the evening. But, Google doesn’t think it’s a good idea and when I searched for info on this subject, I got a lot of push-back from their algorithm and search results. So, it’s up to you. Are 50 million Koreans wrong? Does Google have the final say on your health and weight loss? You decide. I’m having a noodle bowl.