Rice Noodles Nutrition Facts
Rice noodles have a very mild flavor, making them a perfect bed for flavorful sauteed veggies or a grilled cut of lean meat. You won’t get a lot of nutrients from rice noodles, though. They’re high in calories and carbohydrates and very low in vitamins and minerals.
Rice noodles have a very mild flavor, making them a perfect bed for flavorful sauteed veggies or a grilled cut of lean meat. You won't get a lot of nutrients from rice noodles, though. They're high in calories and carbohydrates and very low in vitamins and minerals. Because of the high calorie content, you'll want to measure out your portion carefully, rather than scooping a pile in your bowl.
Calories and Macronutrients
If you cook up a package of rice noodles and measure out a 1-cup portion for yourself, you'll get around 190 calories from that serving of plain noodles. Twelve calories, or nearly 7 percent of the total calories, come from the 3 grams of protein. Just 3 calories of that total amount -- less than 2 percent -- come from the 0.4 gram of fat. The remaining 91 percent of calories, or 174 calories, come from the nearly 43 grams of carbs.
The Other Carb
Fiber is a type of carbohydrate in rice noodles, but it doesn't digest in your body and doesn't add any calories to your diet. A 1-cup serving of cooked rice noodles offers 1.8 grams of fiber, less than 7 percent of your daily requirement for a 2,000-calorie diet. The publication "Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010" states that you should get 14 grams of total fiber per 1,000 calories you consume from your diet. Based on a 2,000-calorie diet, for example, you'll need 28 grams of overall fiber in your daily diet.
B Vitamins
The only measurable amount of vitamins you'll get from rice noodles are a bunch of the B vitamins. Having a 1-cup portion of prepared rice noodles offers very small amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6 and folate. These B vitamins work together to convert the food you eat into energy, support blood cell functions, keep your nervous system working and keep your skin and hair in optimal shape.
Mineral Makeup
Don't rely too heavily on rice noodles to up your mineral intake either. Rice noodles give you a little calcium, phosphorus and magnesium to support your bone and teeth structure. You'll also get a touch of potassium, a mineral that supports electrical flow for heart, digestive and muscle functions. Lastly, your dish of rice noodles gives you a small amount of iron, which helps keep oxygen going to all of your cells, and zinc, which powers your immune system.
Sodium Considerations
Rice noodles are naturally very low in sodium. While you can have some sodium in your diet -- up to 2,300 milligrams a day if you're generally healthy -- you shouldn't go overboard, "Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010" reports. Too much sodium ups your blood pressure and can eventually increase your risk of heart disease. You'll get 33 milligrams of sodium from a 1-cup cooked serving of rice noodles, though, which is only about 2 percent of that maximum allowance.