Healthy Diets from Around the World: The Japanese Diet
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Healthy Diets from Around the World: The Japanese Diet
What do
the Japanese know about healthy eating that you don't?
"The Japanese have an aesthetic appetite. Enormous pleasure is taken in the presentation of food," says Elizabeth Andoh, owner of A Taste of Culture, a Tokyo school that educates non-Japanese businesspeople in the food and customs of Japan. They pay as much attention to the menu selections (which often feature foods in season) as to the serving plates that are used, whether lacquer, ceramic, or bamboo. Indeed, at formal Japanese meals, presentation is key. For added appeal, "you might see garnishes of leaves and flowers from the garden," says Lucy Seligman, who teaches Japanese cooking in Richmond, Calif., and who lived in Japan for 13 years. To those of us living in America, a nation of dashboard diners and connoisseurs of cubicle cuisine, such mealtime mindfulness may seem downright foreign, not to mention time-consuming. But American eaters would do well to turn off their TVs and cell phones and follow the Japanese lead by spending more time enjoying meals -- especially if they're watching their weight. Why All the Fuss? Ever since the sixth century, when Buddhism was declared the religion of the land and the flesh of fowl and "four-leggeds" was forbidden, the Japanese have prepared their meals to be "eaten with the eyes." To make their meatless cuisine more satisfying, they began stressing elegance. Although the Japanese are free to eat meat today, food is still beautifully displayed, much as you might expect it to be at a fine restaurant. Besides the visual appeal of traditional Japanese meals, there's also an element of reverence. According to ancient Buddhist principles, "eating should be a spiritual experience that gives you a moment of calm during the day," says Donald Altman, a former Buddhist monk and author of Art of the Inner Meal: Eating as a Spiritual Path.
According to Japanese tradition, a meal should be a meaningful sensory experience, he says. "It's not about how fast you can get it down so you can go on to the next thing." Feeding your senses and thinking of mealtimes as stress breaks can help make your meal more satisfying and slow you down enough to consume fewer calories, says Stettner. "Satiety is often absent when people wolf down their food or are very distracted." It takes 20 minutes for your brain to respond to increased glucose levels and get the "I'm full" message, he says. "If you were to eat a reasonable amount of food in less than 20 minutes, you could still be hungry." In other words, if you took more than 20 minutes to eat the same amount of food, you'd likely feel fuller. Eating on the run is also an efficient way to consume loads of fat and calories without even realizing it. For example, consider a McDonald's ham, egg, and cheese breakfast bagel. According to nutritional information furnished by the company, in just a few hasty bites during your morning commute you'll consume roughly 40% of the calories and sodium found in the average 2000-calorie diet and 27% of the allotted saturated fat. American-style speed eating can also leave you empty emotionally. "What you're lacking in fulfillment, you may make up by indiscriminately nibbling at different times of the day," says Stettner. Calories on the Rise With habits like these, it's no wonder the U.S. Department of Agriculture's statistics show that the average daily caloric intake of Americans has risen from 1,854 calories to 2,002 calories during the last 20 years. That significant increase -- 148 calories per day -- works out to an extra 15 pounds a year. Meanwhile, caloric intake in Japan has declined an average of 192 calories per day from 1975 to 1993, says the American Institute for Cancer Research, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, D.C. The typical Japanese diet has also remained comparatively low in fat, weighing in at roughly 9% less than the typical American one. An added bonus: According to the World Health Organization, Japan reports the world's longest healthy life expectancy (the number of years to be lived in "full health") for its population: 74.5 years -- 4-1/2 years longer than for Americans. The
Japanese habit of mealtime mindfulness probably contributes to this stellar
statistic. How can you translate their practices to your own life? Here are
three thoughts:
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