Why are there so few obese people in Japan?

I have worked in Japan for more than six years. I have lunch with my Japanese colleagues every day, so I know Japanese food very well. Because obesity is basically caused by diet. Indeed, as the questioner said, obese people are relatively rare in Japan. Of course, it is not completely absent. On the contrary, the fattest people are also in Japan. Then It's sumo wrestlers. Of course, this is an exception and does not fall within the scope of normal discussion.

The reason why the Japanese do not have too many people who are obese is entirely due to diet. In fact, compared with the current Chinese people, the average amount of exercise of the Japanese is not greater than that of the Chinese. Except for some people who prefer to Apart from running marathons on weekends, many people do not exercise more often or in volume than the Chinese. Basically, the Japanese do not have the habit of taking a walk after a meal, nor do the Japanese have the habit of dancing in the square at night.

There are two very obvious differences between Japanese diet and Chinese diet. The first is that the amount of food is very small. Japanese companies do not have their own canteens. Basically, the first and second floors of all office buildings are small restaurants. The staff in the office buildings will go to these small restaurants for lunch. The most popular ones are set meals, and some people also order takeout or bring meals from home. A meal for lunch usually costs 500 to more than 1,000 yen in Tokyo. The so-called set meal is a small bowl of rice, plus some scattered side dishes. The amount of the set meal is much smaller than that in China. Even if you bring rice from home, the amount is about the same as the set meal. This is the overall Japanese style. Determined by eating habits. In the first year after I arrived in Japan, I basically got hungry around 5pm every day and had to sneak in extra meals.

The Japanese eat very little for dinner. People who know Japan know that most of the Japanese eat out with colleagues and friends for dinner. The most popular place is an izakaya, according to Chinese saying , is the tavern. The number of dishes to order is pitifully small. A few pieces of barbecue are one dish, and a few pieces of grilled green onions are also one dish. Japanese people mainly eat together at night to drink, so the ordering is just a decoration. So when I first came to Japan and drank with Japanese colleagues, I didn’t dare to use chopsticks. According to our habits, a dish may be gone after using chopsticks once or twice. Basically, we will add another meal when we get home. Of course, after a year, I will get used to this kind of eating structure and no longer feel hungry.

Another characteristic of Japanese food is its lightness. Japanese food is mainly sashimi, barbecue and stewed dishes. There is basically no cooking. The cooking oil added to the dishes is also plain oil. A little bit is added when the dishes are almost cooked. The amount of cooking oil added is also quite small. It is said that some Japanese old ladies can use one pound of oil for two years. Moreover, Japanese cuisine rarely uses various domestic spicy seasonings. It is basically what is called in China "boiled cabbage with hydrogen dioxide". And there is a big difference between a small amount of cooking oil and Chinese cooking oil. Japanese cooking oil is very clear, not much thicker than water. It is especially easy to clean the range hood if there is oil stains, and there is no sticky feeling. The reason is that Japanese cooking oil undergoes more stringent filtration, filtering out all kinds of redundant and complex ingredients. Therefore, Japanese cooking oils also have less fragrance. When blended oils were first used in China a few years ago, many elderly people did not like to eat them because these blended oils had less fragrance than their own squeezed oils. Japanese cooking oil is less fragrant than domestic blended oil, which is enough to illustrate the lightness of Japanese food. Therefore, when Japanese people come to China and eat Chinese food once in a while, they will feel that it is particularly delicious and they will eat a lot of it.

Although the Japanese diet is very small in quantity and very light, the Japanese pay great attention to nutrition. Although the quantity of dishes is very small, there are many varieties of dishes, so the nutrition is relatively comprehensive and balanced. When eating in this way is both lighter and less, on the one hand, it greatly reduces the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, reduces the occurrence of three highs, and also reduces the possibility of producing residual fat. Therefore, the proportion of obese people is relatively low, but on the other hand, There is no lack of nutrition, which is an important reason why Japanese people are not fat and live long.

Everyone must be curious as to why there are so few obese people in Japan. It is even difficult to see obese people on the street. According to a survey by The Lancet, an authoritative medical journal, Japan ranks among the top ten in the world in terms of inactivity, but Japan has one of the lowest obesity rates in the world. Are you more curious, why are there so few obese people in Japan? The main reasons are as follows. I hope it can be of reference to everyone.

1. Japan’s aging population is very serious, and the medical system is fully covered. In order to reduce the government’s medical burden, the government has made weight loss a national policy and calls on everyone to maintain a healthy weight. . Therefore, there is an unwritten agreement in Japan that non-pathological obesity makes it difficult to get promoted. Combining weight loss with cultural politics has achieved very good results.

2. Most Japanese people choose very healthy travel methods such as walking and cycling. They get exercise on the way to work, which is environmentally friendly and healthy. Although I haven’t taken the time to actively exercise, such as going for a run in the park, exercising, etc. But in basic daily routine, exercise has been carried out.

3. The Japanese pay great attention to their diet. Anyone who has eaten in a Japanese restaurant knows that the portion of a meal in Japan is very small, and the amount of each ingredient is very small, but the variety is very rich and the combination is very reasonable. Very healthy way to eat. The principle of eight-point fullness has been thoroughly implemented.

The above are the reasons I think. I think what we can learn from is to combine culture and weight loss, let the concept of weight loss penetrate into the bone marrow, and make us feel that weight loss and promotion and salary increase Just as important. At the same time, for healthy and environmentally friendly travel, try to walk or ride a bicycle when traveling. Pay attention to a reasonable combination of meals, avoid overeating, and make every meal 70% full.

Respondent for this issue: Lu Zhimei, Master of Medicine. Welcome to pay attention to the Life Calling Order and obtain more useful health knowledge.

Japan is indeed a country full of contradictions, because according to a survey by the very authoritative medical journal "The Lancet", Japan is ranked among the top ten in the world for being inactive, so it can It can be said that the enthusiasm of the Japanese people for sports is very low, but at the same time, according to a survey by the World Health Organization, Japan has one of the lowest obesity rates in the world. Like Japan, all other countries with low obesity rates are Among developing countries, only one developed country, Japan, ranks among them.

Because Japan has a serious aging population and at the same time in order to ensure Japan’s fully covered medical system, in order to reduce the medical burden of the Japanese government, the Japanese government has really taken great pains to encourage the Japanese people to maintain a "healthy" figure.

The Japanese government has listed weight loss as one of its policies, which is unprecedented in the world. In response to the government’s call, many companies have proposed various employee health plans, and some companies have set up reward mechanisms for overweight employees. , overweight employees who do not lose 1kg can receive a reward of 5,000-8,000 yen. There are also many companies that have specially launched healthy eating canteens for enterprises, just to reduce the obesity rate of employees.

In addition, Japanese people’s favorite commuting methods are relatively healthy exercise methods such as walking, bicycles and trains. Therefore, Japanese people are not only not obese, but also have very few lumbar disc problems.

The eating habits of the Japanese are also remarkable. For example, the Japanese pay attention to the "eighty percent full" eating method. Once everyone eats 80% full, they will not be full. Continue to eat. In addition to this, we must also pay attention to the low-fat and low-protein intake of food ingredients. Although Japanese people love to eat fried food such as tempura, cooking oil never spills from Japanese fried food.

Only after I went to Japan did I realize that the Japanese diet is very unhealthy. It is either fried or too salty, but it is rare to see obese people in Japan.

As we all know, Japan is the country with the longest life expectancy. At the same time, Japan is also one of the countries with the lowest obesity rate in the world. The obesity rate in other countries in the world is generally as high as 15-30, but Japan’s obesity rate is only 3.7, so why is this?

First, let me refute two points.

One: It’s because the food in Japan is not delicious.

Many people say that there are few obese people in Japan because the food in Japan is not delicious. As a Chinese, I very much agree that Japanese food is not delicious; but in fact, Japanese people must think that Japanese food is delicious. After all, a country is nourished by the soil and water. They have grown up eating food, especially the food cooked by their mother. How could they not eat it? How delicious is it? Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many local restaurants on the streets of Japan.

Second: It’s because Japan’s diet is very healthy

Due to work reasons, I have traveled to Japan many times on business and lived there for a long time, so I have a relatively good understanding of the dietary structure of ordinary office workers in Japan. Most are rice with chunks of fried pork, pickles, boiled eggs, and miso soup. Tempura, which Japanese people love very much, is also fried in batter.

Therefore, Japan’s dietary structure is characterized by high carbohydrates, a lot of fried foods, a lot of salt, and almost no vegetables. Therefore, the Japanese diet is not healthy at all.

Then why are there so few obese people in Japan? I think there are mainly the following reasons.

In Japan, children are instilled in the value of "eat less" from an early age, whether in school or at home.

Japanese elementary schools and even some middle schools implement lunch rationing. First of all, the lunch menu is prepared by a certified nutritionist. Secondly, the school will cultivate the habit of eating less in children to prevent students from consuming too many calories, sugars and fats. And schools will also provide education and guidance to parents, which has led to a very low obesity rate among Japanese children. And more importantly, it also helps most children develop good eating habits in their teenage years.

In addition, Japanese people pursue the exquisiteness of food rather than the portion. Their food is not served in large plates, but in small plates. And not only local restaurants in Japan, but also Japanese restaurants in China do not see dishes served on large plates.

If you don’t eat much at every meal, you will naturally not gain weight.

Friends who have been to Japan should have noticed that Japanese homes and Japanese streets are very clean. This is mainly because Japanese people are very concerned about their image, especially their own image.

Japanese girls must wear makeup when going out. Not wearing makeup is considered impolite. The same goes for Japanese men. Shaving and trimming eyebrows are the most basic. In addition, they also remove body odor. Therefore, Japanese people will not allow themselves to become potbellied, especially Japanese women.

The topic that Japanese women are most interested in is losing weight. However, since Japanese women do not like to exercise, their method of losing weight is usually dieting. Over time, many women in Japan are malnourished. According to surveys, since 2000, about 21.7% of Japanese women have been underweight, and they only consume an average of 1,600kcal of food per day.

Therefore, there is an unwritten agreement in Japan that non-pathological obesity will find it difficult to get promoted. Japan has indeed achieved very good results by combining weight loss with cultural politics.

Because Japan’s public transportation system is very developed, many people do not choose to drive to work, and Japan has many separate bicycle lanes and pedestrian safety areas, so it is close to companies and schools. Japanese people will choose to ride a bicycle or walk; those who are far away also need to walk to the subway station. Therefore, Japanese people can get in shape by walking every day when commuting to get off work or school.

In addition, in most cities in Japan, good air quality, reasonable residential area planning and clean streets provide ordinary people with a good running and fitness environment; and there are always people on these roads In the company of other runners. Therefore, marathon is also a favorite sport among Japanese people.

Tea, as a healthy drink, is the favorite of Japanese people. Green tea contributes to physical health and can increase the body's metabolism, burn fat, reduce anxiety, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Many Japanese drink tea every day, and in many restaurants in Japan, tea is served for free before and after meals. Long-term tea drinking also keeps Japanese people away from obesity.

In addition, Japan does not have so many carbonated drinks with high sugar content. A considerable number of them are sugar-free coffee and tea drinks, which also eliminates the intake of sugar in drinks.

Written at the end:

Obesity not only brings harm to the human body, but also affects a person's image. Japan's control in this area is indeed good and worth learning from.

What do you think?

People in developed countries are generally very obese, but Japan and South Korea in Asia are exceptions. Compared with the United States, which has an obesity rate of over 32, Japan's obesity rate is less than 3, making it the thinnest developed country in the world.

On the streets of Japan, it is rare to see overweight people. Except for groups such as sumo wrestlers, most Japanese people maintain a relatively slim body shape.

The reason why Japan is so thin is closely related to its eating habits and life. Japanese food that helps maintain slimness

When it comes to Japanese food, most people’s first reaction is that it is light. Indeed, although Japanese food is exquisite and beautiful, its taste is extremely light and simple, and there is rarely any complexity. Season.

Japanese dishes such as sashimi and sushi are actually not common in Japanese life, but the diet of ordinary Japanese families is still relatively light and simple, consisting of stir-fried, boiled and a few fried dishes. Mainly fried.

Japanese food is less greasy and less spicy. The most common seasonings are salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.

In real life, a diet that is light and less oily, less salty and pungent can indeed help maintain a healthy figure, and Japanese cuisine does conform to this healthy eating practice.

In addition to taste, Japanese eating habits are also very helpful for a well-proportioned body, such as the Japanese dietary guidelines of "small amounts of various types" and "seventy percent full".

If you know something about Japanese food, you will find that whether it is a Japanese restaurant or an ordinary Japanese family meal, there are usually many kinds but the amount of each is very small, or even only one chopstick.

Japan’s requirement is that the types of ingredients should be as rich as possible, but the quantity must be small.

Modern people all know that eating less is effective for health, but it is really rare that they can follow it to the end like the Japanese. Under normal circumstances, Japanese people will leave room for meals and will not be completely full.

Looking at obesity in China and Europe, one of the main reasons is that you can't keep your mouth shut. In China, takeout is popular, while in Europe and the United States, there is an eye-popping pursuit of sweets.

However, whether it is takeout or sweets, there is not a big market in Japan, and Japanese people do not like this type of food.

Japanese children often bring lunch boxes when they go to school and office workers work, and almost no one orders takeout. This effectively avoids excessive intake of fat, salt, etc., while the Japanese He has a light taste and is not very interested in sweets.

Most people who cannot lose weight do so because they cannot control their eating. Japanese people have a good grasp of eating, low in calories, less greasy, and eighty percent full. This is also what Japanese people generally like. An important reason for being thinner and slimmer.

Often invisible movement

Japan is a country with many mountains. More than three-quarters of the country is mountainous. Many cities in Japan are not completely flat, but have some slopes. of.

The natural geographical conditions are such that the Japanese start various activities invisibly every day.

As a developed country, Japan has long realized that almost every household has a car, but not many Japanese people usually drive out. Parking fees in Japan are extremely high, and most Japanese people choose public transportation when going out. ***Transportation and bicycles etc.

More.

There is a saying in Japan that if it takes eight minutes to go out by car and half an hour to walk, Japanese people usually decisively choose to walk instead of taking a car.

The price of taking a taxi in Japan is quite high. Most people will not take a taxi casually. Commuting on foot is very common.

As a long-established developed country, cross-city commuting exists in various parts of Japan. It is not uncommon to live in Chiba and then take a bus to work in Tokyo every day. More than 78% of Japanese office workers spend about 100 hours commuting every day. More than two hours.

Since commuting takes a long time, and squeezing in the subway, catching a bus, running around, etc. also requires a large amount of physical energy, and it is often too late to eat breakfast, this also makes it difficult for Japanese people to gain weight. National advocacy and even strict regulations on weight loss may be a bit difficult for us to imagine. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare proposed the “National Waist Slimming Plan” in 2008, which clearly stipulated in the law that hiring employees Waist circumference should be checked when visiting the hospital, and obesity should be strictly controlled.

After the introduction of this plan, a weight-loss trend formed throughout Japan, and some companies even put forward slogans such as "Weight loss is not a personal matter, but a major matter related to the survival of the company."

In order to encourage weight loss, many Japanese companies directly provide cash and other rewards as rewards.

Even the country’s laws stipulate this, and the Japanese naturally began to speed up and make great efforts to lose weight. If they persist in this way, a very popular trend has been formed, and all the people are proud of losing weight and looking beautiful. must.

Japan is very concerned about people’s body shape. Whether it is the diet of students or the waistline of office workers, Japan is very strict about these restrictions. This is in line with Japan’s aging population and low birthrate. closely related.

Japan’s population growth has stagnated for many years, the elderly have continued to increase, and there have been fewer and fewer newborns. As the country with the longest average life expectancy in the world, Japan has spent more and more on medical expenditures on people’s health.

In order to reduce stress, the most direct way is to keep people healthy.

Obesity can cause many diseases and is not good for health. Japan strongly advocates and even enforces weight loss in order to promote the health of all Japanese people and reduce Japan’s burden on health care expenditures.

Japanese people, regardless of gender, old or young, are basically not obese, which is really strange. Later, after observation and understanding, I found that there are several reasons. First, Japanese people have relatively small appetites, and Japanese small restaurants sell The food is also relatively simple, for example, the ramen restaurant only sells ramen, and a bowl of ramen only costs two taels, with a braised egg cut into two. There are no cold dishes, no stir-fry dishes, no drinks, no wine, even if you want to eat. Just one bowl of noodles is not enough and only 60% full. Most people just order one bowl and leave after eating. Secondly, Japanese food is mainly seafood. The fish in the sea are full of unsaturated fatty acids and are not easy to gain weight. ; The third is that Japanese food is less greasy and pays attention to nutrition; fourth, Japanese legislation stipulates that the waist circumference of men aged 40 to 74 should not exceed 85 centimeters and that of women should not exceed 90 centimeters.

There are very few obese people in Japan. The main reasons are:

1) The Japanese diet has a reasonable nutritional structure, and the daily diet contains relatively little sugar, fat, oil, and salt. Rice balls, salads, fish fillets, etc. are all healthy foods. These foods taste average and will never fill your stomach. The so-called delicious food on the Chinese menu is hard to find in Japan.

2) Japan has a very good environment and has strict system control over food production and sales. Those who add additives such as antibiotics indiscriminately like Tianchao Food Industry will be severely punished. These messy additives increase the number of harmful bacterial communities in the human digestive tract and blood, produce harmful substances that affect the human endocrine and other systems, and cannot effectively decompose fats and other substances.

3) Japanese people do not like to exercise much, which shows that insufficient exercise is not the confirmed cause of obesity, or it is not the main reason. The pressure on the Japanese is beyond the imagination of Chinese people, which also proves that pressure is not the main cause of obesity.

South Korea also has less!

Look at the prices, they are so expensive that you can’t gain weight, you can only eat instant ramen noodles.

In Korea and Japan, fruits and vegetables are sold individually. A simple small watermelon can easily cost more than 100 yuan.

Just imagine how you can gain weight?

In addition, I suspect that the China of the future will be the South Korea of ??today.

House prices are so high that you despair, and prices are also so high that you despair

I have been to Japan several times to play with friends, and some Japanese friends have come to China to eat together. Japanese people have been cultivating health since childhood. concept, when our children are thinking about over-age learning and participating in various specialty classes during kindergarten, Japanese kindergartens teach children to learn the calories of various foods and how to match their diet every day to be healthier. To put it simply, let Children learn how to live. You can see from the Japanese dishes, why the Japanese only eat one small plate and one small plate. It is very boring to eat with the Japanese. China pays attention to hospitality and is generous. Every little bit fills the table, but the Japanese eat... When you are full, you won’t take another bite. In their words, no matter how good the food is, eating too much becomes poison. I hope this helps you.

I have not been to Japan, but when I was young, I often conducted health quarantine on incoming Japanese ships and witnessed the hard-working spirit of Japanese crew members. A thousand-ton cargo ship usually has a crew of about a dozen or even 20 people in our country, while Japanese crew members, from captain to chief engineer, all hold other positions, such as captain and sailor, usually 9 or even 7 people. They also used chopsticks to eat. Each meal was served with a bowl of rice, some vegetarian and semi-vegetarian dishes, and nothing else. They were probably about 70% full, and they had never seen a fat person.