Japanese diet and question about butter

jeaninecomstock

I have been looking into the healthiest diets from around the world and honestly, culturally the Japanese live the longest and are the thinnest nation in the world. I notice that they eat a ton of fish, rice, fruit and veggies all of which I love...However what I find interesting is that they eat rice with just about every meal(from what I read) and remain very thin.

Would this be the ideal diet for an American looking to lose pounds to? I try to exercise once a day but I am not sure just HOW active they are in Japan. I don't know if walking/exercising once a day for 30min-1hour is enough.


Also, what is your opinion on cooking with butter over oil?

Mokey41

I have a good friend who lives in a suburb of Tokyo. She doesn't own a car and usually rides her bike wherever she goes. She also walks or takes a train if the distance is too far. She's way more active than I am without even trying. Her breakfast is usually a bowl of miso soup. Other meals are often rice with vegetables and maybe a very small amount of meat but more likely tofu. Sweets are not even on her radar.

My work crew is almost entirely Vietnamese. They eat a lot of fresh fruit, rice and vegetables, or rice noodles. Very little meat and again no sweets. They work 9 hour days, often 7 days a week doing manual labor and none of them are even close to being overweight. I've heard people say it must be genetic but they children of these original boat people are now eating our North American diet and starting to gain weight so I don't think genetics plays into it because those kids have the same genetics.

Most of the food is steamed so I'm not sure if they use oil for cooking. From experience I know that butter burns really easily so it's tricky to cook with. I don't think there's much caloric difference than using a good oil.

dhiammarath

I lived in Japan for a bit (in Tokyo) and boy was I way more active over there than I ever have been over here. Mostly because I walked EVERYWHERE. Walk to the subway station, walk to the train station, walk to work, walk to groceries, carry groceries home, carry work stuff home. Walk, carry, lift, walk -- well you get the picture. The food was portioned out a lot smaller than over here as well. I loved, /loved/ the food over there and would live in Japan again in a heartbeat.

They don't have a lot of varieties of sodas - but they had tons of varieties of teas, juices, etc. So their diet is definitely different. At least in Tokyo, too, you didn't really go home and sit down and stuff. There were dinners to go to, stuff to do -- so it was just a very active lifestyle. It was awesome. Just being over there for a short amount of time had me dropping weight like crazy. Then I came home and the public transportation system over here just isn't as good. It's a lot harder to walk/bike/etc everywhere you go. And why? I have a car! I just hop in it and go!

I don't know if that helps... but what I do remember of living over there was their diet definitely was healthier (in terms of portion, freshness, and quality), but I think you could do the same anywhere. Just gotta exercise it off!

HopefulLeigh

I try to exercise once a day but I am not sure just HOW active they are in Japan. I don't know if walking/exercising once a day for 30min-1hour is enough.

They're generally far more active than that. Many Japanese companies have mandatory fitness time at work.

dunlunicor

I know nothing about the Japanese diet, but as for your other question - butter all the way! As long as you're not sensitive to dairy. Butter is very stable for cooking and baking, slightly lower calorie than oil because of the milk solids (this does not apply to clarified butter, which has these solids removed). For higher temps, use clarified butter so it doesn't scorch. Here's a tutorial: http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/culinaryfundamentals/ss/clarifiedbutter.htm