Is Indomie healthy?

A pack of Indomie on its own is a thin meal. Like most instant noodles, it is made mostly from refined wheat flour and oil, with little protein or fibre, and a pack carries a lot of salt.

One pack cooked with an egg and some vegetables, eaten now and then, can still fit a healthy week and a weight-loss plan.

Maybe you were boiling a quick pack at 10 pm after a long day, and an aunty in the house said Indomie is poison. Or you have been eating it in secret because you’re “supposed” to be dieting.

I’m Odunayo, a pharmacist and nutrition coach, and I don’t ban Indomie for the clients on our customised meal plan. On this page I’ll show you what a pack carries, whether it makes you fat, which side effects have real evidence behind them, and how to build a better Indomie plate.

What is in a pack of Indomie

Here is what the label on a Nigerian 70 g pack of Indomie chicken flavour, made by Dufil Prima Foods, says for the whole pack:

The Super pack (120 g) and the Hungry Man carry more of everything, so check the label on the bigger pack before you count it as one meal. You will also see different figures for Indomie online, often from labels printed in other countries, so go by the pack in your hand.

Protein and fibre are the parts of a meal that keep you full for longer. At 7 g of protein and 1.2 g of fibre, a pack carries little of either, which is why it can leave you hungry again before long. For more ways to bring protein into your meals, see our guide to high protein foods in Nigeria.

Is Indomie fattening

Fat gain comes from regularly eating more calories than your body uses, whichever foods supply them.

Two 70 g packs come to 640 calories before anything else goes in the pot.

One tablespoon of vegetable oil in the pan adds about 120 calories, and a few slices of bread on the side add more again.

Because a pack has so little protein and fibre, hunger comes back sooner, and that is often when the second pack or the late-night snack happens.

Indomie is a refined carb, so it sits with the other carbs on your plate. To see how it compares with the carbs you eat every day, read my guide to the best carbs for weight loss.

Our Nigerian food time table gives you a full week of breakfasts, lunches and dinners, so an Indomie night can take one slot without taking over the week.

Indomie side effects

The side effect with the strongest evidence is the salt. The World Health Organization advises adults to eat less than 2,000 mg of sodium a day, just under a teaspoon of salt, because too much sodium raises blood pressure.

On the Nigerian label, a 70 g pack of Indomie carries 1,180 mg of sodium, about 59% of that daily limit. Two packs come to 2,360 mg, more than the whole day’s limit in one meal.

The seasoning sachet is where you control the salt. Using half of it is the simplest way to cut what goes into your bowl.

In a survey of 10,711 Korean adults, women who ate instant noodles two or more times a week were more likely to have metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. The link did not show in men, and a survey like this shows an association, so it cannot prove the noodles were the cause.

Then there is MSG, the flavour enhancer many people worry about. The US Food and Drug Administration treats added MSG as generally safe, and in studies of people who call themselves sensitive to it, MSG did not consistently trigger reactions when compared with a placebo.

An independent review the FDA asked for found that some sensitive people may get mild, short-lived symptoms such as headache after 3 g or more of MSG taken without food. A typical serving of food with added MSG contains less than 0.5 g.

You may also remember the 2023 news from Malaysia and Taiwan, where health officials said they found ethylene oxide in Indomie’s special chicken flavour. NAFDAC tested Indomie made in Nigeria that year and said it did not contain ethylene oxide.

If you have high blood pressure or kidney disease, follow your doctor’s advice on salt, and do not stop or change any medicine on your own.

How to make Indomie healthier

Start with one pack, and make it the smallest, the 70 g. Boil the noodles in water, use half the seasoning sachet, and if you like your Indomie fried, measure a teaspoon of oil instead of pouring from the bottle. A teaspoon of palm oil is about 40 calories, and a tablespoon is about 120.

Then add what the pack is missing. One hard-boiled egg of about 50 g adds about 78 calories and 6.3 g of protein.

Add 50 g of shredded cabbage and 50 g of grated carrot, and you get about 33 calories and 2.7 g of fibre between them. Spinach or onions work too.

So your plate is one 70 g pack at 320 calories, plus about 111 calories of egg and vegetables, about 431 in all. The egg and vegetables double the protein to about 14 g and take the fibre from 1.2 g to about 3.9 g.

If you want more protein than one egg gives, 50 g of sardines canned in oil, drained, adds about 104 calories and 12.3 g of protein. Count the sardines as part of the plate, so the noodles stay at one pack.

If you prefer your egg fried, the same 50 g egg comes to about 98 calories, about 20 more than boiled, so measure the oil by the teaspoon here too.

How often to eat Indomie on a weight-loss plan

For my clients, I keep Indomie to one 70 g pack once a week, twice at most, and only when the rest of what they eat is reasonably balanced.

One 70 g pack carries more than half the day’s sodium before you have eaten anything else, and the Korean study’s line was twice a week.

Can you eat Indomie every day and still lose weight? If it fits your calorie target, the scale can still move, but the salt makes daily Indomie a poor habit to build. I also don’t recommend going below 1,200 calories a day, so an Indomie plate has to sit inside a full day of proper meals.

A customised Nigerian meal plan

If you want your portions worked out for you, built on your goals, your daily schedule and the Nigerian foods you like, have a look at our customised meal plan for everyone.