There has been a ton of media coverage on the Japanese diet as many medical studies have shown that following this diet will help add years to a person’s life.
The Japanese diet emphasizes eating a lot of fresh natural foods like rice, fish, cruciferous vegetables and seaweed.
What is really interesting when looking at the Japanese diet is that adherents of this diet lifestyle are actually the skinniest in the world, this is great news for those of you looking for a diet program that will help you lose weight.
What Foods do the Japanese Eat?
The main foods eaten in the Japanese diet are rice (usually brown), seasonal vegetables, sea vegetables, tofu, miso, soy sauce, endamame, Fuji apples, tangerines, persimmons, noodles, cold water fish and seafood. There is also a huge emphasis on drinking Japanese green tea.
The Japanese usually eat 3 larger meals and 2 light snacks a day with a constant eye on the quality of the ingredients in their food, generally there is a Japanese eating tradition of eating until 80% full, thus always not feeling tired from digesting a huge meal. The Japanese do eat chicken and beef, although unlike the average American diet, they are not the main course.
Japanese Breakfast
The Japanese breakfast may seem a bit odd to the average American, but make no mistake, this breakfast is a great power breakfast that is a nutritional powerhouse. Generally, breakfast is white rice, eggs, seaweed, green tea and miso soup. This is a great breakfast because it gives your body a good amount of carbs after a night’s rest, thus providing the energy you need to start off your day.
Japanese Lunch
Generally most people are quite familiar with the Japanese lunch, as well as the types of foods associated with lunch. A general lunch meal would be a serving of rice, seasonal vegetables, seaweed, Teriyaki Chicken or Fish and a cup of strong Japanese green tea. This type of lunch is great as it will stabilize blood sugar levels and leave you feeling full for a while. As you can see with this lunch, there is always a strong emphasis on eating quality food and getting a good ratio of carbs and protein.
Japanese Dinner
The typical Japanese dinner is quite similar to lunchtime, but there is usually a change in type of meat eaten, as well as the Japanese usually like to eat miso soup and tofu at dinnertime. An average Japanese dinner meal consists of Salmon or chicken, tofu, brown rice, Miso soup, seasonal vegetables, and sea vegetables. What you may have noticed by now is that there is not a lot of extreme variation in this diet, and everything is extremely healthy, with a huge emphasis placed on freshness, this makes it relatively easy to achieve a state of balance in your diet.
When you decide to go on this type of diet, you will need to also know that you should exercise as well, as this diet provides you the best fuel for exercise and recovery. A really important thing that you should keep your eye on when eating this way is to make sure you are eating the right size portions, always eating until you are 80% full. This will ensure that you have plenty of energy as well as it promotes healthy weight loss.