February 13, 2012 | 9:56 AM |

Ramen And Gatorade: The Inside Picture (In Your Digestive Tract)

FILED UNDER: Medicine/Science, Personal Health, digestion, gastrointestinal, nutrition

Curses. Thanks to this Massachusetts General Hospital combo of art and technology, I’m thinking I have to learn how to make noodles from scratch.

This memorable video was posted in late January on YouTube and has been viewed nearly 1 million times since. The Huffington Post wrote about it late last week and the post has been shared on Facebook nearly 25,000 times. But here’s how I really know it’s gone viral: I was talking about it at the Trader Joe’s check-out line this weekend and a nearby cashier responded that oh, yes, he had seen it already.

The Huffington Post sums it up:

TEDxManhattan 2011 Fellow Stefani Bardin’s video, below, shows what happens in your body when you eat processed foods vs. homemade versions of similar foods, using a tiny “M2A” (that stands for Mouth to Anus, and it’s trademarked, mind you) LED/camera capsule. The project looks at two subjects eating two similar meals: one composed of processed foods (gatorade, ramen, and gummi bears); the other of homemade versions (hibiscus drink, homemade broth with noodles and gummi bears made of juice). What happens to the foods is drastically different; possibly because, as Bardin puts it, Top Ramen is made to survive armageddon, while homemade noodles are made to be eaten.

Some YouTube commenters respond that the video doesn’t really prove that processed foods are bad for you. Readers?

(Hat tip to Tom Mashberg)

  • https://identify.us.com IdentifyUS

    The ingested items have been pre-processed in some form, whether they include synthetic ingredients or are ‘fresh’ items from a farmers market. While there may be some reason to believe that one is more nutritious or ‘better’ than the other, that is a different argument than what is depicted and implied in this video. Whereas the imagery may offer a kind of ‘incredible journey’ to sights rarely seen, this far from a rigorous test, and it would be inappropriate to conclude anything other than some poorly chewed food remains recognizable after some hours in the alimentary system.  Too bad the M2A doesn’t come complete with a microphone.

  • Mjjwmb

    this is someone who does not chew their food.  Invalid test — too bad, honest empirical data is needed.

    • Batcrazy

      Seriously? you chew your ramen like you chew a steak,  That looks pretty empirical to me

      • Reasonable?

        Agree.  I think this is really misleading.  Pictures don’t tell us the whole story.  I’m no proponent of processed food, but if something is not absorbed last in digestion, that’s not necessarily bad and if something is absorbed by late digestion that’s not necessarily good.  For example, a cup of Karo corn syrup would be very well absorbed with no residual colors, while a cup of flax seed meal would still be visible b/c it’s mostly insoluble fiber..  What does that mean about the nutrional value of corn syrup or flax seed…..not much!  The real story is way more complex. 

        This videao grossly over simplifies the implication of the images in the process of digestion

        • http://www.edgartownnews.blogspot.com Sara Piazza

           I’m not sure there is a “real story,” since it all changes so much and so often: eggs/no eggs; coffee’s bad/coffee’s good – even a five-year study they did a few years ago concerning women and fat consumption as pertains to heart disease didn’t turn up much – ha, I think it even showed that it made no difference (we were taught, years ago, that fat is a necessary fuel for the body, and I’m sticking with that).  I’ve given up everything – thrown out every supplement (with their mostly bogus and impossible-to-prove claims, sorry to say) – and now simply eat a common sense diet with a balance of food groups – including coffee and alcohol in moderation and a minimum of junk food (but some junk is good! And fun!), plus getting exercise (more so in the summer than in the winter and more by virtue of walking everywhere, combined with a very busy and physical life-style rather than driving to a gym). I think, if there is a real story, it’s balance, moderation, and exercise (of the body and the brain).

          The best quip I heard this week was, “Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals, dying of nothing.”

        • Mabrod

          Agreed. The line about how one of the ingredients in ramen is related to butane really pissed me off. All that but- prefix means is that it has four carbons in a row. Either the person who did this project doesn’t know basic chemistry, or is intentionally trying to mislead.