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The ideal nutritional proportions are 50 to 60% carbohydrates, 20% proteins, and the rest fat.

20 Comments

Kazunori Utsunomiya, a professor at Jikei University, who chairs the Japan Diabetes Society. The organization says diets that severely restrict carbohydrates are not recommended. (Yomiuri Shimbun)

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I agree with staying away from white rice and sugary drinks. It's refined-to-death simple carbs that need to be avoided; complex carbs are an important part of the diet and provide the fibre the body needs. Basically, the whiter something is, the less good it is for you (except milk).

1 ( +2 / -1 )

A cup of boiled edamame will give you somewhere in the range of 30 grams of protein.

Yum, yum. No thanks. I'll gladly get my protein from chicken, fish, pork and lean beef. My taste buds like the variety. Besides, in many counties, you can afford to do so. LOL.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Total nonsense; I have recently pulled myself back from the brink of Type 2 Diabetes, through weeks and weeks of hard exercise, and cutting out carbs from white rice, bread, pasta, etc., and also stopping drinking sugary drinks, etc.

It was not easy, but my blood work now checks out fine.

This would not have been possible if I had stuck to a carb heavy diet.

I base my eating on fruit high in fructose, rather than sucrose, chicken and pork which has a good amount of animal fats, vegetables, water and coffee.

I have converted my energy sources from sugar to fat and am faster, lighter and more healthy because of it.

Ignore this guy and his lies / rubbish, and stay away from white rice.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

The man is a fool and obviously malnourished of any current data on the topic of nutrition.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The French paradox anyone? French people have a relatively low incidence of coronary heart disease even lower then Japan , despite having a diet relatively rich in saturated fats.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

ok they probably recommended that coz they're afraid modern diets will eat into the demand for rice

other than that, this recommendation is pure garbage

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Why all the thumbs down?

People don't like to be told that they don't need all that meat on their plate.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Good reasoning, Cleo. Every time there was a hunt in early times, there must have been a lot of dead or injured cave men as a result. Why all the thumbs down?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

This is old news. I studied nutrition at University and despite some minor fluctuations based on different opinions, the balance has always been around 50% Carbs.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Francis

If we can live on protein alone, how can animal fats be "essential"?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The findings are absolute nonsense! Pure anti-science! The word 'protein' derives from 'proto' . It is the only foodstuff that is vital, and you can survive on that alone, but not without it. There is an obsession these days about fat-free foods, but according to Dr Charles Clarke (a real authority in diabetes) animal fats are essential and the excess is naturally ejected from the body as long as you don't take in too many carbs - they are the danger. Carbs are basically junk food! Food 'science' in Japan is greatly misinformed. Look at kyushoku in schools. It's extremely carb-heavy with very little protein. Often what little protein there is is fried (often in breadcrumbs) making it junk-food too. The Japanese seem ridiculously slim, so maybe their metabolisms can take it. But the truth is, it tires and irritates. The eiyoshi-sans in Japanese schools and kyushoku centres and certainly working on scientific principles that I am unaware of! Kyushoku is vastly unbalanced and un-nutritious. And another thing...Don't be overweight in Japan! If you are you will be ridiculed and persecuted, like a friend of mine, who constantly had to put up with rude comments from the 'polite' Japanese. You should have seen their faces when they realised he spoke really good Japanese and started tearing strips off them about their rudeness in their own language. And their teethe aren't so good, are they?

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

He's saying 20 to 30 percent of the ideal diet should consist of fat? I'm no expert, but that sounds crazy to me. Olive and fish oil, yes....but "fat"?!

Olive oil and fish oil are both fats.

Fats are very high in calories, so you don't need all that much fat in your diet weight-wise to have a good proportion of your calories coming from fat.

http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-olive-oil-i4053

0 ( +4 / -4 )

I usually do 40/40/20 for weight maintenance and up my proteins to 50 with carbs at 30 and fats at 20 when I want to get shredded. As long as you eat clean foods, stay away from junk foods, drink moderately and exercise daily, you will be very healthy.

I think being sedentary and eating 60% carbs will only make you skinny fat.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

He's saying 20 to 30 percent of the ideal diet should consist of fat? I'm no expert, but that sounds crazy to me. Olive and fish oil, yes....but "fat"?!

It sounds a bit like he's a spokesman for the polished white-rice lobby.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

I'm doing 50 to 60% ready-to-go supermarket food, 20% fast food, and the rest Asahi Wonda Morning Coffee. Cuts down prep time to zero and enables me to spend time on the things that count.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I love how people like to go from one extreme to the other. diets that severely restrict carbohydrates are not recommended gets translated into eat nothing but onigiri .

One onigiri by the way will give you somewhere in the range of 3.5 to 6 grams of protein. Not 20%, but hopefully you're not going to be eating nothing but onigiri. A cup of boiled edamame will give you somewhere in the range of 30 grams of protein. An adult man needs around 56 gm per day, an adult woman around 46. So a cup of beans and a couple of onigiri, and you're almost there.

You're not gonna convince me that humans, for the vast majority of human history (running around in tribes hunting and gathering) got 50% of their calories from carbs.

You know that hunters in the animal world have a surprisingly low success rate when hunting? Our ancestors, even if they preferred to chew on a mammoth steak, would have found it much easier and safer to get most of their calories from nuts, berries and roots that neither ran away nor turned round and used fang and claw to defend themselves. Meat would have been a special treat; most animal protein would have come from shellfish and insects.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Absurd. White rice has among the highest glycemic indexes, and no diabetes doctor should be pushing carbs. This guy is a victim of entrenched Japanese groupthink at best or just plain dishonest at worst. My friend was in the hospital for severe diabetes and they were feeding him white rice, fish and soy sauce. Madness.

7 ( +9 / -3 )

You're not gonna convince me that humans, for the vast majority of human history (running around in tribes hunting and gathering) got 50% of their calories from carbs.

The whole carb based diet is based on business interests, nothing else.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

just look at the onigiri for instance. there is no where near 20% protein in that thing. if there is a teaspoon of protein in all that you are lucky. the fried obentos are not much better either way more than 20% fat. healthy - NOT.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

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