Everybody loves a hot bowl of ramen noodles. They’re delicious, they’re easy to prepare, and they stick to your ribs. Not only that, but they bring back nostalgic memories of late college study nights. That said, we’ve gotten older since college. Now we don’t just want foods that are tasty and filling. We’re also concerned about whether our foods are healthy and natural.

Now, you might think that means that ramen noodles have become a guilty pleasure food – something like ice cream, that you enjoy every once in a while. But ramen doesn’t have to be processed junk food. When it’s made the right way, with the right ingredients, it can be as nutritious as anything else in your diet. Here’s what sets Mike’s Mighty Good apart from the rest.

Steamed Noodles

When you think of any kind of noodles, you probably think they’re cooked with water. Sadly, that’s not always the case. If you’re buying ramen off the shelf from a major brand, those noodles have almost certainly been fried in oil before they were dehydrated. This allows the noodles to be cooked in mere seconds, which improves production efficiency and keeps prices low. Unfortunately, it also adds unnecessary fat to the noodles.

Moreover, fried ramen has a fundamentally different character from freshly-prepared ramen. When you go to a ramen bar for an authentic ramen bowl, those noodles aren’t fried. They’re steamed, which makes for a chewier noodle. And steam doesn’t introduce any off flavors, whereas fried noodles absorb oil that can clash with the flavor of the broth.

At Mike’s Mighty Good, we make our noodles the traditional way, with steam instead of oil. This isn’t just healthier. It also tastes better, and provides a superior texture to flash-fried noodles. Preparing noodles this way takes a little more time and effort, but the results are well worth it.

All-Natural Ingredients

Another thing that sets Mike’s noodles apart is the ingredients. A lot of brands use heavily-processed flours, sugars, and other ingredients that aren’t always the best. We use only organic ingredients, the kind you’d be happy to have in your own pantry.

We also don’t use any artificial colorings or flavorings in our ramen noodles. Our noodles get their taste from the natural ingredients alone. And the flavor packets are the real thing.

One other thing you’ll find in a lot of commercial ramen is preservatives, typically a chemical called tertiary butylhydroquinone (or “TBHQ,” if you’d rather not tie your tongue in a knot). It’s perfectly understandable that companies would want to use a preservative, but it’s equally understandable that many people want to avoid eating it. Mike’s Mighty Good contains zero TBHQ.

Lower Sodium

When it comes to nutrition, sodium is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s an essential nutrient; you could literally die from a deficiency. On the other hand, most Americans eat too much sodium, and the majority of this sodium comes from packaged foods. That’s why the FDA has asked packaged food companies to add less salt to their recipes.

Too much salt isn’t just a health concern – it’s also a matter of taste. Cheap ramens load up their recipes with salt to cover up other deficiencies. They can get away with using inferior noodles and sub-par spices by putting more salt into the mix. It’s certainly a potent flavor, but there’s no subtlety or complexity.

At Mike’s Mighty Good, we use 40% less sodium than the major commercial brands. But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice flavor. We use rich blends of spices to create a more complex, nuanced flavor. Once you’ve tried it, you’ll never buy a big commercial ramen again.

Comparing the Results

We decided to compare a cup of commercial chicken-flavored ramen to our own equivalent. The major brand had 290 calories, while the Mike’s cup had 210. This was mostly thanks to the reduced fat; the Mike’s cup has six grams, while the commercial brand has 11 grams – nearly twice as much.

You can also see the difference in the sodium level. The cup from Mike’s Mighty Good has 780mg, which is already fairly salty, 34% of your daily recommended value. But the cup from the leading brand has a whopping 1,160mg of sodium, more than half of your daily value! No matter how you cut it, Mike’s is a superior choice.