Ramen and Your Body

"Ramen is bad for you." You hear it a lot. Then again, you also hear, "It's fine once in a while," or "Add vegetables and you're OK." What is the truth?

This chapter looks at ramen and the body from three angles: salt, calories and nutritional balance. Note that what follows is general information. If you have a medical condition or are on a restricted diet, follow the guidance of your doctor or registered dietitian.

The Biggest Issue Is "Salt"

When thinking about ramen and health, the first thing to watch is salt.

The amount of salt in a bowl of ramen varies greatly by type and shop, but materials from local governments and other sources give a guideline of around 5 to 7 grams per bowl. A strongly flavored broth, a large serving or a kaedama (noodle refill) pushes it higher still.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's "Dietary Reference Intakes for Japanese" sets the daily salt target for preventing lifestyle-related diseases at less than 7.5 grams for adult men and less than 6.5 grams for adult women. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends even less: under 5 grams a day. In other words, drinking every drop of the broth in one bowl of ramen can take up most of your daily target on its own, and sometimes more.

Too much salt is known to raise the likelihood of high blood pressure and increase the risk of stroke, heart disease and kidney disease. Salt intake in Japan has fallen compared with the past, but it still exceeds the target.

How Much Do You Save by Leaving the Broth?

Most of the salt in ramen is in the broth. The noodles contain salt too, but leaving broth in the bowl cuts your intake considerably. Materials from local governments and others give examples showing that leaving half the broth of a noodle dish reduces salt per bowl by around 2 grams (about 1.5 to 2.5 grams, depending on the source). Leaving all of it cuts even more.

Many people will think, "But the broth is the soul of ramen." If leaving it all is hard, you can still cut salt by eating in ways like "savor just the first few sips, then enjoy the noodles and toppings" or "decide in advance how many spoonfuls you will drink."

Calories and Nutritional Imbalance

The energy (calories) in a bowl of ramen also varies greatly by type. Light soy sauce ramen is often around 500 kilocalories a bowl, while ramen heavy with back fat or tonkotsu ramen runs 600 to 800 kilocalories, and Jiro-kei bowls piled with vegetables and meat, or large servings, can go well past 1,000 kilocalories. Add rice, fried rice or gyoza as a set and the total climbs further.

In terms of nutritional balance, ramen centers on carbohydrates from the noodles and fat from the broth and aroma oil, and tends to be low in vegetables. You get protein from chashu and nitamago (marinated egg), but vitamins and dietary fiber tend to fall short. On a day you eat ramen, eating more vegetables and fruit at your other meals helps balance the day as a whole.

"Three or More Times a Week" and the Broth: The Yamagata Study

Some research has examined the link between how often people eat ramen and their health. A research group at Yamagata University followed 6,725 people aged 40 and over living in Yamagata Prefecture for a median of 4.5 years, examining the relationship between how often they ate ramen and subsequent death. The results were published in 2025 in an international nutrition journal.

In this study, people who ate ramen "three or more times a week" tended to have a higher risk of death than those who ate it "once or twice a week." However, across all participants, the difference was not statistically significant (that is, it could plausibly be due to chance). When the analysis was limited to people under 70 or to people with a drinking habit, however, the death risk for those eating ramen three or more times a week was significantly higher (though, since these analyses narrowed the group, the range of the results is wide). People who drank more than half the broth also tended to have higher risk, but the difference was not statistically significant.

The research group says the study suggests that eating ramen frequently may be linked to health risks in certain groups of people. It does not prove that "ramen causes more deaths"; people who eat ramen often may also share other lifestyle habits, such as too much salt or drinking. Even so, it is one study that supports, with data, the idea that it is important to watch both "frequency" and "broth."

About Umami Seasoning and Collagen

Ramen also attracts claims with no clear scientific basis.

One is that umami seasoning (monosodium glutamate, MSG) is bad for you. Glutamic acid is an umami component also found in kombu, tomatoes, cheese and more. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization has assigned MSG an acceptable daily intake of "not specified," and the amounts consumed in a normal diet are considered to pose no health problems (in 2017, the European Food Safety Authority set a guideline amount to avoid excessive intake). In fact, some research shows that using umami well makes food taste good even with less salt, helping to reduce salt intake.

The other is that "tonkotsu broth is packed with collagen and good for your skin." Tonkotsu broth does contain plenty of gelatin (collagen dissolved by heat), but collagen you eat is broken down in the body into amino acids and small peptides before it is absorbed. Collagen you eat does not simply become collagen in your skin, and there is no solid evidence that ramen broth improves your skin.

Shops and Towns Tackling Salt

High salt is ramen's weak point, but there are also efforts to overcome it with ingenuity.

When the umami of the stock comes through strongly, food tastes good even with less salt. Some shops serve "reduced-salt ramen," making a concentrated stock from kombu, katsuobushi, niboshi and the like and using less tare. Around the country, there are also efforts to develop lower-salt ramen in cooperation with registered dietitians at local governments and hospitals, and to display salt content at shops. Instant ramen, too, is sold in versions with less soup or reduced salt.

When and How Much

When you eat ramen also affects your body. "Shime no ramen," a bowl to round off a night of drinking, is a familiar custom in many Japanese towns, but eating a meal high in salt and fat late at night can burden digestion during sleep and makes it easy to take in too much energy. It is also worth noting that the Yamagata study introduced in this chapter found higher death risk among people with a drinking habit.

Quantity matters too. A large serving, a kaedama or extra toppings greatly increase the energy and salt in a bowl. Recently, more shops offer "small" or "half-size" portions with fewer noodles. Being able to choose a portion that suits you is another way to keep enjoying ramen for years to come.

Allergies and Dietary Diversity

Ramen uses many ingredients that can cause food allergies: wheat (noodles), egg (noodles and nitamago), milk (broth and butter), shrimp and crab (seafood stock) and more. Restaurants are not required to label allergens the way processed foods are, so people with food allergies should check the ingredients with the shop.

More shops now serve gluten-free ramen with noodles made from rice flour, konjac or other wheat-free ingredients, and vegan ramen made without animal ingredients (Chapter 6). Now that ramen has become a dish of the world, efforts to let people of different religions, constitutions and beliefs enjoy ramen at the same table are more important than ever.

Health-Conscious Ramen

The ramen industry is also trying to respond to growing interest in health: lower-salt broths, noodles with whole wheat flour or added dietary fiber, ramen piled with vegetables, vegan ramen without meat or fish, and wheat-free gluten-free noodles. Instant ramen, too, increasingly comes as non-fried noodles or reduced-salt products (Chapter 3).

Here is a summary of ways to enjoy ramen more healthily.

• Don't drink all the broth. Leaving just half cuts your salt.
• Add vegetables. Toppings like bean sprouts, green onions and cabbage add fiber and vitamins.
• Set a frequency. Not every day; have your own guideline, such as once or twice a week at most.
• Go easy on sets and kaedama. Adding rice or gyoza increases both energy and salt.
• Balance it with other meals. On days you eat ramen, cut back on salt at other meals and eat more vegetables and fruit.
• To change the flavor, use vinegar or pepper. Changing the flavor with the vinegar, pepper or garlic on the table keeps salt lower than adding more tare.

Ramen is certainly a food high in salt and energy. But that does not mean "you must not eat it." How often, and how, you eat it: knowing that, and then enjoying the bowl, is what matters.