Blasefaun comments

How are Japanese people amongst the healthiest people on Earth when their food contains lots of salt and sugar? Especially sauce, like sauce for yakitoris, but also red bean paste is like half sugar.

7 Secrets to the Way the Healthiest Japanese Eat

The traditional Japanese diet does not consist of a lot of sugar and salt. The traditional Japanese diet is the way the Okinawans eat (whose lifespan is among the longest in the world.)

Portion control - the actual amount of food consumed helps determine both your weight and your overall health (a typical traditional meal contains probably 1/2 the portion size of an American diet.)

Balance - a traditional Japanese meal consists of soup (with kelp), vegetable, grain, protein, and fermented pickle at the end of a meal. This meal is both balanced and nutritively complete.

Diet contains probiotics, which increase digestion. Sometimes the meal will contain three probiotic elements, i.e. Natto for protein, miso soup with digestive enzymes, and fermented or pickled food at the end.

White processed sugar was essentially introduced into the Japanese diet in the 1880s, with a subsequent rise in all forms of degenerative disease. It is not typically included in a traditional Japanese diet.

Sodium is necessary in our diet, and a traditional Japanese diet contains sodium that occurs naturally in various foods, i.e. miso, soy sauce, and tamari. It is not, however added commercial grade salt, found in the diets of many westerners. This type of salt is cut with aluminum and is far more harmful than salts derived from the sea (which are full of a wide variety of minerals.)

There is a pattern or way in which to eat. Starting with the miso to begin the digestive cycle, then protein, going to the grain, then to the vegetables, then to sea vegetables, and lastly to the fermented pickles. Compare this to the way most Americans eat.

Chewing. Typically traditional Japanese dining consists of much chewing. I wondered why, then saw this YOU ARE "HOW" YOU EAT “chewing stimulates the release of parotin hormones, which encourage the thymus to create T-cells, the protectors of the immune system. Parotin hormones are released by the parotid glands, located on each side of the jaw behind the ears.” - this from scientific studies by Dr. Tomozaburo Ogata of the Schooll of Medicine at the University of Tokyo.

I have adopted the ways of eating for the past 25 plus years and have been blessed with good health, stamina and the ability to follow and manifest my highest dreams.

As I saw the results of others, and watched my own health grow, I was inspired to study Macrobiotics, the art of eating for longevity. It is based upon the way the traditional Japanese ate/eat. (Macrobiotics means big or large, life, or a life that includes all the elements consciously balanced.)

I hope this has helped someone.

Peace and Bon Appetit!