japanese women don't get old or fat

read this book few months back. thought it's relevant to comment.

japanese women don't grow old or fat

if you are foreign to the asian diet, then you should read it. otherwise like all asian diets, the japanese diet is rich in rice, vegetables, bean proudcts and lean in meat.

what differs from other asian culture is that

• the japanese do not view meat as the main dish. veggies are the main dish. meat is secondary. and when meat is consumed, it's usually sliced very thin, just for the flavour.
• the japanese consumes lots of seafood due to the buddhist belief of not consuming land based animals, given a choice.

nothing new really. we know this already but the first point of treating veggies as the main dish is something new to me. i believe this is where many asian food culture is wrong to treat meat as the main dish. this thinking alone, i believe, contributes to the much lower cardiovascular related diseases in japan.

the other thing to notice is that the author also feels that despite the japanese diet is working well, some tweaking is still necessary. incidence of stomach and colon cancer is very high in japan and it is believed due to the high amount of salt intake. hey, shoyu (japanese soy sauce), miso etc are all high in salt.

and when you consume meat, naturally salt will be added. perhaps not directly but indirectly through seasoning, soy sauce, fish sauce etc.

so all in all, this book worked for me as it taught me not to regard meat as central during meal time and also go slow on salt intake.