/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>10391619
It dropped substantially in August of 1945

>>10391619
Apparently it's illegal to be overweight in Japan.
I think it's more down to how much they actually work

>>10391635
>implying ~200,000 deaths would have an effect on the life expectancy statistic in a country of 70+ million
still got a little chuckle though

How do they avoid mercury poisoning from all that gnarly raw fish?

>>10391619
I'd advertise against trying a japanese dye it OP. They have the highest instants of deep recession and suicide in the world.

>>10391655
they clean it

>>10391619
The quality of life is horrible over that most people are too depressed to have an appetite.

>>10391649
>I think it's more down to how much they actually work
You might think that, but even the office workers aren't fat, and they move around about as much as office workers do here. Meaning not much if at all, long hours of sitting at a desk mean you aren't burning many calories. So that isn't really the answer.

I'd guess it is because on the whole they eat less in general, and less processed over sugared foods in particular.

my to go lunch:

>rice
>shredded nori
>katsuboshi
>separate container with a little bit of soy sauce if i feel like it needs some
>packed into a thermos to stay warm

thoughts? kind of smashed up rice ball i guess. feels like it's missing something though, maybe a red or yellow veg?

>>10391684
>>10391649
Asians have a stigma against being fat thats almost on the same tier as our stigma against homosexuality(used to be). Its only seen as acceptable to be overweight when you work a job that requires hard physical labor.

>>10391619
The Japanese do eat fairly healthy but they also rank as one of the more physically active nations in the developed world, especially among their older citizens.
They're not all hardcore /fit/izens but they walk a lot and are generally more active on a daily basis.

You're not going to like this but the more vegetarian your diet is the longer your life expectancy is going to be.

>>10391786
You act like this isn't common knowledge.

>>10391619
>get literally nuked and also have a nuclear power meltdown
>still have less cancer than mcdonalds eating amerilards

>>10391664

>deep recession

I know you're not using this in place of "depression"

also, they have the lowest rate of depression in the world

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_depression#By_country

>>10391684
They also walk a lot because getting a car is a pain in the ass over there. Same reason the French are so healthy. Because of so much goddamn walking

>>10391816
it's easy to have a low rate of depression when all your depressed people cut themselves apart in seppuku

>>10391834
People sleep on how much good walking does for their health.
Though I understand why it is kind of looked down on in the US, since the suburbs were laid out to be car friendly and that makes walking as part of getting things done a pain.

>>10391851
Or hang themselves in forests for YouTubers to find

>>10391649
Japanese work about as much as western Europeans and less than Americans.

>>10391655
mercury is a meme

Don’t they have a big emphasis on stress reduction. Like meditation and shit

>>10391619
Okay.
First thing is the portion. What they eat mostly vegetables or fruits at least, meat being constituted with eggs or fish.
Secondly is livestyle, with so much walking everyday desu I'm not even surprised how they're always be thin.
Third is umami I guess-the stock mades up most flavour base, so there are less salt nor sugar. Most people say umami is a meme but it's real.
Last is the useof ingredients-most cooking are simple
Cut up vegetables, meat slices-it's not muddled in sauce or anything, and eaten with rice it's a simple fulfilling meal.
I'll excuse myself now because this thread will soon be full of jiroposters and ameriturds polacks.

>>10391699
They walk most the time since main transport is train, and a lot of people walk something like half an hour to get to their home. In our office we have morning calisthenics as well.

>>10391619
Japan eats smaller portions. That's it.

Japan has just as much processed food and fried food and junk food as the west, if not more. But instead of getting a super sized meal at McDonalds with three hamburgers or whatever they get a medium sized fries and drink with one normal sized burger.

>>10392397
Yeah walking is definitely a necessity for most people.
Hiking is fairly popular hobby also, since their country is like 75% mountains.
Another big difference is the culture surrounding retirement and elder care. There's much more emphasis on keeping the elderly active and engaged rather than just sticking them in a home and waiting for them to die.

>>10392433
A lot of camping trips troughout highschool, and I've heard of school projects for watching stars outdoor even.
And you're absolutely spot on about the elderly, I've seen so many staffs that easily over 60s with full on white hair. I chatted with a long haul bus driver who was 73 y.o and still rocking those baggage like nothing, it's amazing. Lately they changed our retirement age to 65 to keep up with demand.
>>10392431
Burger size is the same, but it's even cheaper in japan.
I don't like the set menu but I'm still buying them for long trips sometimes.

>>10391619
Hah!

>>10391786
This. The primary characteristic of the Okinawan diet (the one that makes people live to 100) that separates it from other diets is the lack of meat.

>>10393225
Not even just Okinawa, more like Japan as a whole. I don't believe that they eat as much as the rest of the world, thereby not eating as much meat.

The Japanese let their elders die but claim they are alive to keep collecting pension checks. It's a pretty big problem over there.

>Japan has long boasted of having many of the world’s oldest people — testament, many here say, to a society with a superior diet and a commitment to its elderly that is unrivaled in the West.

>That was before the police found the body of a man thought to be one of Japan’s oldest, at 111 years, mummified in his bed, dead for more than three decades. His daughter, now 81, hid his death to continue collecting his monthly pension payments, the police said.

>Alarmed, local governments began sending teams to check on other elderly residents. What they found so far has been anything but encouraging.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/world/asia/15japan.html

>>10393252
The irony here is that stories about people who have been found dead in their bedrooms after decades are actually around a decade old themselves. Stupid piggu. You really think that this is some sort of widespread problem, even after the few cases of people aged to a ridiculous 130 and whatnot were dealt with?

>>10393252
81 isn't bad, anon. Better than most Americans.

>>10393252
>be american
>live to 60
Why is life like this

>>10393393
Mostly its the common lack of willpower that has built a culture of indulgence around us.

>>10391655

Retard

>>10391619
Does their life expectancy take the high suicide rate into account? If so I'm impressed. Also I'm sure diet is a small portion, other than suicide you don't have too many immigrants/former slaves killing people in their country.

>>10391651
63 thousand drug overdose deaths in 2016 lowered the life expectancy of the USA. that's with a population of over 300million.

>>10393422
>Does their life expectancy take the high suicide rate into account?
Yes? You do realize people die when they kill themselves, right?

>>10393422
Japan's suicide rate is just 2 more per 100k over Europe and the USA.

I lived in Japan for 4 years and gained weight until I started specifically watching caloric intake.

The food itself isn't magic, dudes.

>>10393463
You were probably eating hanbaga and other junk food all the time, piggu gaijin.

>>10393463
moar pics

>>10393470
I wasn't eating healthy, but that's my point. Unhealthy options are readily available and very obviously part of the "Japanese diet."

>>10393473
You got it, boss.

>>10393405
I'd say it's more a pervasive feeling of hopelessness and apathy.

Its part diet, part culture and environment. Often times you have to commute to work on foot for some length of time even with all their public transportation. On top of that theres a tremendous stigma against being fat compared to the west. Combine that with a traditional diet of rice and fish while mostly lacking beef, pork or chicken in large amounts and you're setup for success. As anons before have said theres plenty of unhealthy food options in Japan. Its just that people have grown to see them as rare treats rather than the norm.

>>10391695
A pickled vegetable maybe?

>>10391619
I can't find the page I read a while ago, but it said obviously Japan has less obesity and issues related to that but higher rates of stomach cancer and some other non-obesity related diseases.

Just not being overweight will cut your risk of many diseases and increase your lifespan, no matter what your diet is. One guy was overweight, lost weight while mainly eating Twinkies but just staying under his caloric limit, and his blood tests came back a bit better after losing all the weight even though he was eating all those Twinkies. The healthiest food will still make you sick if you eat enough of it to become obese.

>>10393461
Yeah, that's pretty big in percentages. And this is after more than a decade of anti suicide campaigns and policy.

I actually don't think the government should even discourage suicide. How can you be truly free if you cannot dictate the terms of your death. In any case I was just bringing up that high life expectancy has more to do with than diet. In my very brief time in Japan I was amazed at the how well traffic flowed (just from Narita to to chiba) and organized it was (compared to the other two countries I had recently visited, Guatemala and Thailand).

>>10393501
>Combine that with a traditional diet of rice and fish while mostly lacking beef, pork or chicken in large amounts and you're setup for success.
The "in large amounts" part is probably a bigger factor than what animal you choose to eat. Fish is usually lower in calories which means it's harder to overeat too.

>>10393571
>I actually don't think the government should even discourage suicide. How can you be truly free if you cannot dictate the terms of your death.
Suicide isn't always the best answer. It'd be better for people to work together and solve the problems that cause people to want to commit suicide in the first place instead of just letting people kill themselves. Obviously if someone is terminally ill or something and in a lot of pain and going to kill themselves to stop suffering, they should be helped to make sure it's as painless as possible. But if someone feels suicidal due to a general feeling of hopelessness, suicide should be discouraged while giving them the resources to figure out what exactly is making them feel hopeless and the tools to fix it.

Someone saying that suicide might not be the best solution to a problem isn't restricting freedom.

>>10393484
Speak for yourself anon. My apathy keeps me happy & aloof.

>>10393688
Sure it does, anon.
Sure it does.

>>10393225
Bull fucking shit I grew up in Okinawa. They eat roughly as much fish as the rest of japan. Not as much red meat, whatever was available was complete crap I'd barely feed a dog. I'd attribute the longer lifespans to the carefree island lifestyle and the extremely clean environment, the water around the place is crystal clear despite containing salt and algae and shit.

>>10391619
Not reading thread yet but I lived in japan and the big difference is their portions are almost always little girl size. Do that most of your life and you won’t be a 300 lb diabetes case.

>>10391655
Biomagnification are more severe on large fish. And by large i mean dophins or whale meats. Interesting enough there is this retard town in japan that feeds their school children with whale meat regularly and now they all have brain damage now.

>>10393894
>there is this retard town in japan that feeds their school children with whale meat regularly and now they all have brain damage now.
You don't say stuff like this without bringing up source.

>>10393905
This is the only related thing I could find, maybe it's what he was thinking of:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/whale-meat-in-japanese-school-lunches-toxic/article1079793/

I don't think any school regularly feeds their children whale meat because they don't get that much of it

>>10391915
Where do you get that? Western Europeans barely work

>>10391915
>less than Americans

I don't know what you are basing this on, but Japanese people generally don't take sick days even when they should, never use all their vacation days, and "death by overwork" is a serious public health problem.

There is absolutely no way they work less than Americans. They take so little vacation that the government created a new holiday a few years ago, Mountain Day, specifically to get people to stop working.

>>10393917
Don't have the links right now but it was my case study years back when i was still in class

>>10391619
some of it may be diet, but a large part r/K selection of various racial groups

some populations have few children but spend more effort raising them, and others have a lot but don't put as much effort into raising them. this applies to other animals too, e.g. rabbits breed a lot, wolves do not

so, to conclude, africans have naturally short lifespans, asians have naturally long lifespans, and euros are somewhere in between

africans also grow quicker, they spens a week less in the womb, can hold their head up earlier, learn to walk and talk sooner, get teeth earlier, and go through pubrty earlier. they develop faster, but unfortunately, not as far. the opposite is true for asians, and Whites are inbetween(but closer to the asians)

>>10391619
>diet low in red meat with fish, vegetables, and rice
>less reliance on cars for transportation, instead lots of walking or exercises
>fairly small portion sizes or portion control

>>10391619
Rice diet.
Daily exercise(walking/commuting via train).

what makessan marino's people so healthy tho

>>10391619
Japan has next to no feminism that's why they live so long. No stress from that bullshit.

>>10391695
what >>10393518 said. Takuan is my go to, and always has been since I started eating authentic. It's easy to buy, cheap, and required almost no prep.

Recently I've been adding more Umezuke but it can take some getting used to if you have a sheltered palate.

>>10395441
Oh, and to add, egg is always an easy addition but if you're doing a thermos it'd be better if it's tamagoyaki.

>>10395441
>umezuke
couldn't find much info on the taste other than its pretty strong. i assume it's just really sour and/or bitter? i totally dig that kind of taste though.

>>10395579
texture for most brands is like a maraschino cherry that's split up and its flavor has a lot of fruity from the plum and sour from the pickling process so it's really powerful in combination. But when mixed into rice it's really quite pleasant. Can't hurt to try.

>>10393943
I just disagree. As a white collar in america 60-80 hour work weeks are not uncommon, thankfully in my city there's a cultural emphasis on "work life balance", but you go to anywhere else, or even just high enough up the ladder or in certain professions, and it's extremely common to have 60 hour weeks plus calls during off hours. Also americans job hop frequently, every 6 months to 2 years is the norm. That shit takes serious time, and it's unpaid. Interviewing, usually 1-2 interviews plus a phone screen but sometimes even 4 interviews per company, you have to use your sick days on that bullshit. In Japan you are hired for life generally, unless you really fuck up somehow and get fired. I can't put enough emphasis on how much bullshit that would save everyone. In Japan benefits are also the norm, hell you have national healthcare system. here there are typically no benefits until after 3 months, and that's if at all, and if you job hop every 6 months, we end up scant to nothing in that ring. The new norm is to not have any paid vacation days in this frequent job change environment, because you're not with the same company long enough to accrue and use them.
So it ain't all sunshine and rainbows in freedom land. If anything japan is more laid back since there's less firing/lay off stress and commutes are chill a.f.. Train ride, walk a bit, it's chill. Here you're either expected 1-2 hours each way in white knuckle traffic, or you move heaven and earth to find a way to use public transit or walk/bike, which makes it hard to job hunt because from where you live there's only so many walkable jobs due to the massive sprawl problem. Just saying. Pros and cons.

>>10391619
you can buy convinient AND reasonably healthy food there~ mcdiabetes isn't their go-to, because they can get cold ready-made meals at grociery stores or they can eat at a local place instead.

>>10391697
then explain sumo

>>10396318
I liked reading your analysis anon.

>>10396318
>If anything japan is more laid back since there's less firing/lay off stress

This sounds like the polar opposite of Japan.

>>10391619
Biologically Asian people get less fat and muscle. In a way, they stay in young body shape all their life. While Caucasian and African get far more muscular or stacked after puberty hit them. It's called neoteny, which also explains their longer life and high IQ.