Why Aren't Japanese People Fat?

peachfigs

What I will say is that there is a strong social pressure to not be fat in Japan and it starts with mothers teaching their children to only eat until they are 80% full. If you are a woman and an American size 10 in Japan you will not find much in the way of clothing that fits you. And it is the same for men. All of my suits that I owned there were either purchased in Hong Kong or the U.S. or were custom made. That alone provides quite an incentive for many people to stop growing.

Whereas in the U.S. it's more of a... "If you're fat you're beautiful and if you don't think fat people are beautiful then you're a degenerate waste of a human being who promotes anorexia" kind of thing. If you can't find clothing that fits you, it's because the clothing makers are perpetuating an unattainable ideal and you should definitely write a blog complaining about how Marilyn Monroe would be a size 14 today and maybe file a civil lawsuit.

I mean, whatever. Society man.

I don't think the US, or any other Western society admires being fat as much as you just said. There may be a minority of people who are accepting, that's as far as it goes. Fat is hardly ever seen as beautiful.

peachfigs

Edit: my post was posted twice.

Joocey

I don't think the US, or any other Western society admires being fat as much as you just said. There may be a minority of people who are accepting, that's as far as it goes. Fat is hardly ever seen as beautiful.

I'm probably using "fat" in sort of... less than scientific way and possibly mean way. Reword what I wrote above where "fat" = "more overweight than what the Japanese would consider fat" which, in case of the post I was responding to, appears to be anything over a U.S. size 10.

It may be a minority, but it's a vocal enough minority that advertising, and U.S. corporations, have taken notice. I mean... we have a National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance* which is sort of weird to me since most people can stop being fat if they don't want to be.

That seems like a distinctly-American thing.

*Separate from the issue of bullying or shaming, which shouldn't take place because it's just not nice.

LAW_714

Are levels of consumption not the "how much" rather than the "what?"

Wouldn't they be both: relative in terms of caloric load and relative in terms of proportions to one another?

It doesn't have to be a case of solely one or the other.

And with the way it's set up as a question in the title, wouldn't it also, implicitly, be Japan relative to wherever you're comparing it to?

CookNLift

1 word, 2 syllables : Kung Fu. That's why.



jk.

it's all because of ramen, it's SUPER low calorie (to the guy that said they don't have fat in their food). /end sarcasm

llangstraat

Awesome article! Thanks for sharing!

BeachIron

so, are Sumo wrestlers a figment of our imagination? or are they automatons?

Yes. Don't you realise there is only ONE rigid definition of what a Japanese person can be? Shame on you for suggesting that Japanese people are anything other than thin and zen-like. :laugh:

This is actually part of the point. The article is refuting a lot of the cultural "observations" that have been made by casual observers who like to compare the U.S. to other cultures, and I will grant that this is yet another somewhat casual observation. It doesn't have to be just the comparison between the U.S. and Japan. Similar arguments have been made about the Mediterranean diet, for example. The Japanese eat a variety of foods, some "healthy" in the sense that they are nutrient dense and lower in calories, and much that would not fit that description. The point is simply that while the Japanese do consume fatty, sugary, and msg laden food, they eat a lot less overall than what you see in the U.S., and if you want to point to any key input in that mix, it is fewer calories.

My0WNinspiration

"Eating less is more important than what you eat."

peachfigs

so, are Sumo wrestlers a figment of our imagination? or are they automatons?

Yes. Don't you realise there is only ONE rigid definition of what a Japanese person can be? Shame on you for suggesting that Japanese people are anything other than thin and zen-like. :laugh:

This is actually part of the point. The article is refuting a lot of the cultural "observations" that have been made by casual observers who like to compare the U.S. to other cultures, and I will grant that this is yet another somewhat casual observation. It doesn't have to be just the comparison between the U.S. and Japan. Similar arguments have been made about the Mediterranean diet, for example. The Japanese eat a variety of foods, some "healthy" in the sense that they are nutrient dense and lower in calories, and much that would not fit that description. The point is simply that while the Japanese do consume fatty, sugary, and msg laden food, they eat a lot less overall than what you see in the U.S., and if you want to point to any key input in that mix, it is fewer calories.

I agree!

neanderthin

so, are Sumo wrestlers a figment of our imagination? or are they automatons?

Yes. Don't you realise there is only ONE rigid definition of what a Japanese person can be? Shame on you for suggesting that Japanese people are anything other than thin and zen-like. :laugh:

This is actually part of the point. The article is refuting a lot of the cultural "observations" that have been made by casual observers who like to compare the U.S. to other cultures, and I will grant that this is yet another somewhat casual observation. It doesn't have to be just the comparison between the U.S. and Japan. Similar arguments have been made about the Mediterranean diet, for example. The Japanese eat a variety of foods, some "healthy" in the sense that they are nutrient dense and lower in calories, and much that would not fit that description. The point is simply that while the Japanese do consume fatty, sugary, and msg laden food, they eat a lot less overall than what you see in the U.S., and if you want to point to any key input in that mix, it is fewer calories.

Hara hachi bu.

My0WNinspiration

Well shoot eating with chopsticks alone is like an intense cardiac exercise. Try eating rice without breaking a sweat.

lmao

Mario_Az

Sumo wrestlers

ndowns22

You earn your body.... NO one is "stuck" being fat or overweight. Abs are made in the kitchen, weight loss is 70% kitchen 30% exercise. You cannot compete with a bad diet. With will power and determination anyone can achieve their health and fitness goals!!

dmpizza

There is no fat in there food

I have worked with many Japanese people that came here in their twenties, They all sit at work eating candy ALL DAY, and they are all thin. I would assume its all genetic. I used to think it was related to a certain diet when they were growing up, but they all say that grew up eating traditional Japanese foods AND crap.

thatsbroscience

okinawan diet

"Their overall traditional diet would be considered a very-high-carbohydrate diet by modern standards, with carbohydrates, protein, and fat providing 85%, 9% and 6% of total calories respectively.["

RM10003

When I lived in Tokyo I'd generally make a stop at Starbucks on the way back to the office after lunch, and I'd see young "office ladies" having some sort of baked good along with their frozen crappuccino whatever. At some point it dawned on me--that was their whole lunch. They weren't eating a full lunch somewhere, and then having their sugary crap, they just went straight to the sugar. So yeah, it's not a nutritious well-balanced meal, but it's portion control in some odd sense of the word.

RaggedyPond

I've been living in Japan for a year now and everything in this article is true. They have amazing junk food but even their junk food has less sugar than ours. Another thing to add is that they eat sitting down. It is frowned upon to be seen walking around eating and even drinking.

bragaswag

It can be the way eat and exercise and stuff, but I strongly believe it's their genetics. DNA is very sensitive and diet has a huge impact on our internal structure. The food that has been processed so much and GMO and fast food, I believe, messed up our genetics over the past decades. America wasn't always known as being fat.

astronomicals

Best line in the article

"You don’t go looking for scapegoats, you put less food into your pie-hole."

That pretty much sums it up.


haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

crandos

Sumo wrestlers are fat!!

missjojo31

well, that was interesting...

pyrowill

Godzilla [ɡodʑiɽa] has eaten most of them because they stick out and are slow.



Edit after actually reading article.

lol

IronPhyllida

My ex sister in law is japanese and she could eat 3 helpings of what we had and still be stick thin. I just hope that one day, or in another life, it comes back to bite her. That's the only way I can think it's fair.....:sick:

ElliInJapan

The article is spot on. I live in Japan for a year now and from the very beginning I was surprised with their food, it's not that 'healthy'. Then I went for a trip to the US and I was really shocked with the portion sizes. Japanese portions look like this



Compare that with


Edit: I'm too lazy to resize, sorry for the huge image. It actually helps with the point I'm trying to make though

be_patient

because they live on konnyaku, something that is pretty much 0 cal

jen_zz

I've been living in Japan for a year now and everything in this article is true. They have amazing junk food but even their junk food has less sugar than ours. Another thing to add is that they eat sitting down. It is frowned upon to be seen walking around eating and even drinking.

I learned the latter bit when I was in Tokyo. I grabbed a croissant from a 7-eleven and started eating it while walking on the street. The looks people gave me...:grumble: :grumble: :noway: :noway:

jen_zz

Its a cultural thing. Among my friends, Asians are the only people who will greet me hello, and then in the same breath comment on how I'm getting fat. They don't say it to be rude like you'd expect, more that like 'hey you should be careful'.

*source: I'm half Chinese*

Yup, yup yup. And I will say that in Asian countries, it's a pain in the *kitten* to be fat. My aunt lives in Thailand and has hypothyroidism so she is something like an American size 18, maybe a 20. There are no stores that sell clothes that fit her so she has to have clothing custom made (like for her job, which requires a uniform) or she buys clothes here in America when she visits.

Yup, I'm Chinese living in Hong Kong and trust me, people tell me I'm fat before I even realize it.

It's true that here people say "omg you got fat!" not so much in an insulting rude kinda way, but more like "oh dear how could you let that happen?!" concerned kinda way.. it's hard to explain..

grandevampire

Its a cultural thing. Among my friends, Asians are the only people who will greet me hello, and then in the same breath comment on how I'm getting fat. They don't say it to be rude like you'd expect, more that like 'hey you should be careful'.

*source: I'm half Chinese*

But it comes out rude anyway. Lol.
*source: Chinese descent on both sides.

Totally 1) portion control + 2) much less sedentary on average (even taking public transit is considered active when compared to driving EVERYWHERE)

I live in Europe now, and when I go back to Canada to visit, I am always stunned by the amount of food heaped on plates. I used to see that as normal, but now I realize they just put a huge quantity of filler stuff to make it "worth your money". Here, when you eat out, it might be rich, but the portions are sensible ("tiny" by NA standards). You feel sufficiently full at the end, and feel no pressure to eat beyond what you need so that you don't waste perfectly good food left on the plate. You can even indulge in a dessert at the end with your (tiny) coffee if you are feeling decadent, but it's so small that it is a reasonable sweet note at the end of the meal without being a 700 calorie epilogue.

tigersword

It can be the way eat and exercise and stuff, but I strongly believe it's their genetics. DNA is very sensitive and diet has a huge impact on our internal structure. The food that has been processed so much and GMO and fast food, I believe, messed up our genetics over the past decades. America wasn't always known as being fat.

You realize you're talking about Japan, right? The company that pretty much utilizaes science and technology for everything? If I recall, they are one of the world's leading producers of artificial sweeteners? Hell, they've created square watermelons so they could ship more of them by stacking them. You want to complain about the amount of tinkering supposedly in American food, I can almost guarantee there is way more of that in Japan.

grandevampire

It can be the way eat and exercise and stuff, but I strongly believe it's their genetics. DNA is very sensitive and diet has a huge impact on our internal structure. The food that has been processed so much and GMO and fast food, I believe, messed up our genetics over the past decades. America wasn't always known as being fat.

You realize you're talking about Japan, right? The company that pretty much utilizaes science and technology for everything? If I recall, they are one of the world's leading producers of artificial sweeteners? Hell, they've created square watermelons so they coul;d ship more of them by stacking them. Yoiu want to complain about the amount of tinkering supposedly in AMerican food, I can almost guarantee there is way more of that in Japan.

Yeah, I highly doubt my DNA has evolved in one generation (or for my parents during their lifetimes, zero generations). During my adult life living in North America, I was fatter and more unfit than now, where I have portions controlled for me and I have to walk everywhere and climb loads of handicap-inaccessible stairs everywhere in public. Take theatre popcorn for example. I love popcorn, so I rarely don't get some whenever I go. In Canada, the smallest size at your average megaplex was about twice the size of the largest one available here in Paris. And I never used to get the smallest size because it was only like 25 cents less than the "regular" size, which was twice as big.