The Japanese eat rice every day yet stay 89% leaner than Americans
by wewewawa
The Japanese eat rice every day yet stay 89% leaner than Americans
The Japanese eat rice every day yet stay 89% leaner than Americans
by wewewawa
The Japanese eat rice every day yet stay 89% leaner than Americans
by wewewawa
37 comments
It’s because they don’t overeat and are largely pedestrian. It’s not rocket science.
This isn’t rocket science
I tell people who visit Japan to visit their 7-Elevan and then go visit ours in the US. Totally different atmosphere.
You walk into Japan 7-Elevan with healthy food selections, limited preserved food, and all sorts of treats that cater to the community.
You walk into US 7-Elevan with fried and processed food everywhere. Every items has preservatives and high concentrations of sugar and sodium. It’s ridiculous.
This is America folks.
There is much more diabetes and esophageal/stomach cancer here from diet than you would imagine. Carbs, salt, and sugar are much more prevalent than most people imagine.
It’s also because Japanese people are raised to like healthy foods. Taught in Japan for a bit, surprised how many kids would tell me their favourite food was carrots, or broccoli, or beans. Don’t think I heard one person say “McDonald’s” or any other type of “junk food”
Years ago in Cambodia while at an academy for bright minds, I noticed they were having millet for breakfast at the school. When I asked, the reply was about how families have recently had more money and would only be eating white rice if they could.
Like most things, moderation is probably best. Look where loaf after loaf of white bread brought the US. (United States: a high prevalence, with 14.6% of adults diagnosed with diabetes)
“”Japan has a prevalence of 11.8% (Approximately 11 million adults in Japan have diabetes, a figure that has risen from 6.9 million in 1997)
“Even though it is not sweet, sticky white rice is another food that can deceptively bump blood sugar. Devoid of the fibrous outer bran and nutrient filled germ layers, white rice is mostly starch with a correspondingly high glycemic load.Jan 30, 2023”
“The rising burden of type 2 diabetes is a major concern in healthcare worldwide. This [research](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7310804/) aimed to analyze the global epidemiology of type 2 diabetes.””
Because eating rice doesn’t make you fat.
Overeating does.
Portion size and movement
They also tend to not eat until they’re completely full
the idea that rice is bad for you is insane, you know whats bad for you? sugary drinks. People would be shocked how quickly they would lose weight if that was the only thing they cut out of their diets
Now do bread and pasta.
I don’t get the headline. Do people think rice makes you fat? Is this part of the anti carb craze?
They walk everywhere and don’t over eat like we do. Does them being hard on fat ppl help as a society? Sure, but it’s mostly the other 2 things. Here in the states I tell ppl about walking 20 min to get groceries and they’ll look at me in disbelief.
The Japanese WALK A LOT. Makes sense.
Not a scientist, but lost 17 pounds (over 10% of my weight) after 4 weeks in Japan even though I tried everything, ate anytime I wanted and constantly snacked on hard candies and kit kat bars. I walked a lot in the cities. The rice portion isn’t huge. They almost always serve soup as the article mentioned. There is plenty of unhealthy stuff in the diet but the portions are small. A few thin slices of pork and half an egg is pretty typical for the protein portion of a bowl of ramen in Japan. Sometimes the vegetables seem like they’re more decorative than anything else.
The Japanese walk a lot more than the average American, and if you’ve ever been to Japan, you will know that their food is quality over quantity. Their main course size is really just our glorified appetizer size.
Yeah also, being fat is looked down upon in Japanese culture. You actually analyze what “skinny” people eat, instant ramen, fried food, etc. they just eat smaller portions and oil is the devil.
This could be said for all Asian cultures. You’ll always have that one aunt, “you got fat.” Or it could be your mother or grandma. It’s not really the food, but more the beauty standards and ideals. There’s still overweight people in Japan.
I couldn’t get through that article with all the popups
There’s also being taught to understand fullness and stopping eating before you feel completely full.
That’s because the issue is not with complex carbs, but sugar.
Even American mustard is sweet.
One thing no one mentions is the obligatory annual health check where they definitely will mention your cholesterol and BMI if they are projected to get worse. As in preemptive care, which is very important for long term health.
It Japanese or in Japan, but as an American, my perception is that it comes down to 1. American food products are loaded with sugar and addictive ingredients and unhealthy additives; 2. American culture often focuses on unhealthy foods; 3. American grocery stores are like giant convenience stores rather than a place that focuses on produce, meat and dairy; 4. Americans don’t exercise as much; 5. Americans have normalized being overweight, whereas Japanese culture does not.
Source: am American, am fat.
The portions are a lot smaller.
More walking, less driving.
They also walk around like crazy.
Because we (Americans) put salt, butter and sugar on EVERYTHING.
American here, I’m guessing the portion size is different. Also less junk food snacking in between meals. Sugary sodas are replaced with green tea, I’m ashamed of what my nation has become.
Portion is the key
Also Japanese consume much less sugar
They also have a) universal health care, b) drink less soda and c) walk way more. There I solved it for you.
They also have a system for workers called [Ningen dock](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8884042/). Ningen = human and dock = like a boat going in for maintenance. It’s a yearly check up done for free or insanely cheap that can include everything from a general physical to a colonoscopy. You’re given a grade and the workplace can face fines if there are too many unhealthy workers, so many places usually have things like a cafeteria with a menu prepared by a dietician. Other things that were mentioned that are important to staying generally healthy:
Walkable cities and wonderful mass transportation
Incredibly healthy and diverse school lunches/ teaching children to eat healthy from a young age
Universal health care
And the social aspect of it all. Friends and coworkers will straight up tell you that you’re gaining weight. (Source: lived in Japan in the late 90’s/early 2000’s).
Portions are smaller + more walking.
I visited Japan last year and lost 2 pounds. I ate and drank like a bastard, but was also walking 15,000 – 20,000 steps a day. Beef gyudon from Yoshinoya, for breakfast, was a favorite meal of mine. I’d get the regular portion – a few small slice of beef, onion, rice, also an egg + miso soup. I was full. When I have gotten the same dish at Japanese restaurants in the USA, the portion was easily double that.
The walking and movement helps. My job keeps me semi-active but it’s nothing in comparison to the amount I moved while in Japan. You need carbs so you have the energy to walk everywhere.
Well, walking around is much easier here than driving around. Most stores are within in walking distance, I walk around 7 miles a day during weekdays on average and 12 miles during weekends.
Doesn’t hurt that Japanese walk twice as much as Americans. Went to Japan for two weeks and rode in a car for 15 minutes of the whole trip
I’ve been in Japan since 1990. The number of overweight people here has increased dramatically in that time
Computer games and processed food have a lot to answer for….
I lived in Japan for 2 years and I have never been as thin as I was there. I worked at a school so I ate school lunch most days. I remember a huge portion of rice and a small loaf of bread would come with lunch some days. I also ate a 7-11 for dinner or breakfast or both most days (tons of yakisoba and onigiri but also stuff like corn dogs). I ate ice cream a lot.
About three months in I remember eating this today dessert thing and suddenly being like WOW this is tasty! Where before it had no flavor to me.
I did walk a fair amount but also drove a lot. I’ve lived other places abroad where I walked way more and didn’t drop the pounds like Japan.
In the end, I really have no idea what the reason was but I wish it would happen again!
That’s because Americans eat ultraprocessed food for 75% of their meals
Honestly, we have really bad city planning and there is way too much filler in our food.
There aren’t many places made specifically for walking. The few shopping areas that are, get populated by store owners that can afford the premium storefront. So the quality of the shopping area suffers as the stores are not made to make money, they are made to entertain the owners wish of having a quaint little store that sells nothing but Bar Soap and repackaged Hobby Lobby charms as “Hand Made Jewelry”.
Then our food is filled with so much sugar, it’s wild. A lot of the dyes in food are really bad for you, and a lot of the chemicals in our food are just outright banned in other parts of the world. Portion control is important, but there is so little nutritional value in the food here that the only thing that is filling is mass.
You can’t walk anywhere. The food is bad for you unless you can afford clean food. Then the American Dream has been reduced to going to school for 4 years in order to sit in a cubical for 9 hours a day. It’s all just a perfect fomula for an unhealthy population.
Visually appealing food in small amounts but with high variety.
Add nori, seafood…
And highly walkable neighborhoods.