Features of the Japanese diet are:
High
rice content - this is the main dietary staple.
Low
fat content - especially in saturated fat.
Twice
as much fish as meat (Westerners, by contrast, have on average 47 times
more meat than fish!)
Vegetables,
which play an important role - the more popular include bamboo shoots,
eggplant, various mushrooms, sweet potato, and Chinese cabbage.
Many
natural flavour additives in the form of herbs, spices and condiments such
as ginger, lemon, sesame seed, mustard.
Use
of rice-based sake wine both as a tenderiser and to minimise pungent aromas.
Most
dishes involve dashi - stock and seasoning made from kelp and mackerel
- and shoyu (soy sauce).
A
high variety of foods, especially plant foods. A recent Japanese
survey of the diets of 200 elderly women revealed they consumed a variety
of over 100 biologically different foods per week. By contrast, in
most western countries the recommended minimum is only 30.
Research shows that the higher the variety, the less risk of many diseases
including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many cancers.
A
high intake of soy products - approximately forty times more than the Western
intake.
Green
tea - this is particularly rich in antioxidants. Our own black tea
is also antioxidant-rich, but the effect is destroyed with the addition
of milk, which prevents their absorption.
A
high salt intake (soy sauce, for example, contains 16% salt).
This is a health negative, and is implicated in the high Japanese incidence
of hypertension, stroke and stomach cancer. This last disease
is the commonest cause of death in Japan. Salt is also implicated
in liver and nasopharyngeal cancer.
A
high intake of pickled foods - another negative. These contain
chemicals called nitrosamines which may be implicated in stomach, liver
and oesophageal cancers.
Low
dairy food intake. Since World War II this has steadily increased,
and with unprecedented access to dairy products in childhood, the average
height of Japanese has increased dramatically.
A
fondness for fugu (puffer fish), which can be lethal.
Fruit
is served at the end of a meal.
In
recent years, a doubled intake of alcohol. The protective effects
of alcohol against coronary heart disease are thus outweighed by an increased
risk of liver disease, diabetes and hypertension.
Japanese who move overseas and
adopt a Western-style diet have an increased risk of breast cancer, coronary
heart disease and diabetes. The manner of eating, as
much as the food content, is important. A traditional Japanese
celebratory meal may include a dozen miniature courses served in strict,
artistic sequence. With beauty and ingenuity, food will be
fashioned to reflect the seasons, with aesthetics, tradition, religion,
history, ritual and symbolism woven into every meal - a lesson in
relaxation. It is instructive to contrast this with the rushed
meal in front of the television which has become a familiar feature of
Western dietary routine.
Breast cancer is rare in Japan.
A low fat intake, and a high intake of soy (with protective phyto-oestrogens),
antioxidants and fibre, plus high food variety, are probably all involved,
although there may be a genetic element.
A low intake of meat is a major factor in the low bowel cancer rate in Japan.
The lesson from all of this - as from the Mediterranean diet - is to recognise the benefits of a high food variety, with minimal saturated fat, more fish, less meat, and especially more fruit, vegetables and grains.
Copyright
© 1998 Clive Barnett
