Do YOU consider this the same as fast food?

What are the stakes here? What do we gain or lose by answering either way?

I don't know about others, but my brain refuses to register them as junk food.

As someone who's studied and regularly thought about nutrition for years, I definitely see junk food being a significant problem in East Asia, just as with other parts of the world.

- Noodles are usually made from the starchy part of the grain, and are therefore low in fibre, vitamins & minerals, plus high in salt.
- White rice is similar, just less processed. Both of those are glycemic aggregators, and I understand diabetes is sadly common in white-rice eating cultures.
- Tofu has that healthy reputation, but not only is it a processed food retaining a lot less of just about everything desirable in soy beans, it also tends to be fried, with high-salt, high-fat, high-sugar sauces added for flavor.
- Most bread everywhere is a lot like the noodles problem.

at american portion levels yes
cico

Something can still be junk and not fast food. Fast simply means serving time is quick IMHO.

Fast good imo is food you can get in (or drive to), order and get out - fast-like. As opposed to sitting down, having your order taken and food prepared after order, and have a chill meal out.

Most fast food is junk food, though it's gotten slightly better with bowls and sushi and stuff that is fast but not junk. I think you're talking about junk food that is not fast food, but I'm not quite sure of my or the official definition of "junk food", so I'm not gonna speak out of turn.

They can be. IMO it being fast food or not depends more on the restaurant and their methods of preparation rather than the specific dish. You can have ramen that's fast food and you can also have a burger that isn't.

You've been duped. It's the macros and quantity that matter, that's it.

Heavily processed carbs are bad for you, that includes ramen. Simple as.

The ideal number of ingredients on a package is one. The more ingredients, the farther away from healthy you're moving (with one obvious exception being sugar, that's one ingredient, and still bad for you, I expect you to be able to parse this on your own without being pedantic.)

What's in the bag? Blueberries, broccoli, milk, chicken, spinach, brussel sprouts, olive oil, etc. One thing only. Process the food yourself, that is cook it. That's how you know you're eating healthfully, that's the only way.

Here's the thing, capitalism demands profit, the more processing goes into food, the more people standing between you and your meal, the higher the cost, and the lower the quality. They all need to get paid, and the people at the top still demand a profit. That needs to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is, in large part, from the quality of the food, plus poor working conditions.

Carbs generally are not a dietary problem. It's excess sugar and excess calories that are getting most people (at least in the west) fat, more than carbs. Yes, excessive carbs can contribute to excessive calories, like eating fries with every meal is definitely going to get you there, though your body needs carbs _far_ more than it needs sugar!

Hence why when most people cut out even just sugar filled drinks and desserts, they can often exercise past how many carbs they eat.

Fast food is inexpensive food that is prepared and served quickly. Nothing else is relevant.

Conversation is it's own reward.

Not everything needs gamified.

Carbs are sugars. Just more complex than simple sugars. That's why carb-rich diets can still be terrible on health over time, regularly messing with glycemic load and constituting 'empty calories.' So, even worse than a pre-diabetic source, as I mentioned.

I'd recommend you do a modern nutrition course to catch up on this stuff, because science & nutrition is way past the simple idea of calories-in / calories-out. The fact is that the FORM of the calories matter hugely, with processed foods in general being pretty bad on health, long-term. These are what the studies collectively say.

It's absolutely fast food, just like konbini or super bentos. I guess some of those would be called "fast service" in US terms, but Yoshinoya, Matsuya, and the like are fast food.

Bread in East Asia also tends to be sweet, and this is coming form someone who grew up in the US.

[tofu] also tends to be fried

I think I see it fried less in Japanese cuisine, though agedashidofu is certainly one of the more famous ones. Especially this time of year (hot), silken tofu with a splash of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil is quite common. It's also in some miso soups and dishes like mabodofu (mapo tofu) and not all recipes (if any?) have it fried... though that's not to say those are super healthy foods, either.