Health by omission - what they don't eatUnfortunately, in many developed countries far too much of this is consumed, which is linked directly to the poor overall state of health in these countries - even in the USA, which spends far more on health care than any other country. It has been shown that people from normally healthy countries eventually suffer the same poor health when they change their diet to a ‘Western’ one, whether at home (like many young people in Japan today) or by moving to another country, such as the Japanese immigrants in California whose children or grandchildren eat mainly American food. So what are the ‘offending’ items which are missing from the traditional Japanese diet? The two most obvious are: animal fat and sugar. The traditional Japanese diet does not include meat (or at least ‘red’ meat), except in rare examples such as sukiyaki or shabu-shabu, although these might be considered foreign dishes anyway. Dairy food was also unknown in most of Japan until recently; even now very little cream, butter and cheese are consumed, although some milk products are becoming popular. There are probably two reasons for this: firstly, cows are not native to Japan, and secondly the hot, sticky climate makes dairy products unappetising! There is evidence that both meat and dairy produce are unhealthy - apart from the obvious fat element contributing to obesity, heart problems etc., there is evidence that they can actually cause LOSS of calcium and bone problems - osteoporosis, fractures .... The third unhealthy group is desserts - as we know them, i.e. cakes, puddings, pies, chocolate mousse etc. Again, these are becoming more popular now among younger people especially, but they are still regarded as foreign, and many Japanese do not eat them. Not only that but cakes in Japan are quite light, and portions very small. Incidentally, such desserts are regarded - and sometimes referred to - as “ladies’ food” ! So, relatively little sugar and animal fat in the traditional Japanese diet - probably the two worst items consumed by Westerners, often in unhealthily large quantities. Although many Japanese dishes now include a small amount of sugar, which has become a more popular sweetener than older, traditional forms, they do not eat large amounts of cake, biscuits, jam, sweets / candy etc. and other less-obvious sources of sugar such as bread, ice-cream, chocolate, coffee & tea (with sugar), even canned vegetables (look at the ingredients list on your baked beans) and breakfast cereals. If you haven’t seen it yet - you MUST read this article on sugar. It’s even worse than you might think. Click here for Sugar article
|
