Japanese women don't get fat

How do they do it?

We have written in the past about the Japanese diet and how Japanese girls can be so slim.  Well, Naomi Moriyama is profiting by telling the secrets in greater detail than our article that summarized the Japanese food for dieting a few years ago.  In her book, “Japanese women don’t get old or fat; Secrets of my mother’s Tokyo kitchen,” she does what Mireille Guiliano has done in “French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure.”  (Related:  How to be like the French women?)

Japanese diet is one of the healthiest diets in the world. Japanese people are by far some of the skinniest and healthiest people on the planet. This is changing as their diet is becoming similar to ours, but their traditional diet still has many lessons for all of us.  Moriyama writes in a very simple format; it is a pleasure to read her book. In her book she describes the Japanese diet along with a bit of Japanese culture. Below are the key points of her book:

• Japanese eat small amounts of many foods in each meal. Americans eat big amounts of the same food in each meal (e.g. pasta).  There is a very old saying in Japan "Hara hachi bunme" (translated as "stop eating when you are 80% full").
• Japanese cooking is very light. They use broths to flavor the food instead of heavy sauces. One of these broths is dashi - it is sold in many gourmet stores or you can make it yourself.
• Japanese eat rice, instead of bread. Rice is better than cheap bread full of sugar, but not superior to all bread.
• Japanese eat a heavy breakfast. The breakfast in Japan is a complete meal similar to dinner, along with fish and miso soup.
• Japanese do enjoy desserts but not very often and in a smaller amount.
• The author says that Japanese women do not think of diets. However, in our own experience, this is not quiet accurate anymore, but by all means, they are very skinny.
• Japanese walk a lot. While they do manufacture a lot of automobiles, walking or going on a bike is very much a part of daily Japanese life. Many old buildings do not have elevators and Japanese regulation does not insist on elevators for building with up to four floors – which means, plenty of opportunities to burn calories if you live/work in one of these apartment/office buildings.
• Japanese eat fish, vegetables, rice, soy, noodles, tea, and fruits.
• Japanese bring beauty and harmony to the table. They use pretty sets of small dishes with different purposes.
• Although to switch to a Japanese diet completely does not sound reasonable, some Japanese dishes and principles are easy to incorporate in our lives and they can help us lose weight and enjoy food.

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