Diet of the Okinawans

Trying a New Diet

2011-09-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

Years after starting this blog, I had never really tried any dieting plan. I am now blogging at this new blog where I have just started a low carb diet plan. So do visit the site below and read up about my progress:

Low Carb Diet Blog

Hope you will find some interesting pointers or share interesting pointers with me.

Lose Weight with Okinawa Diet

2010-01-04T23:34:00.001-08:00

If you follow the Okinawa Diet, you are bound to lose weight.

The Okinawa Diet comprises of eating lots of vegetables, and is basically a nutrient rich low calories diet.

Many commerical vendors have followed the diet of this people and structured diet programmes that replicate the Okinawan's diet closely.

If one follows the lifestyle of these people, you are bound to lose some weight.

Chasoba

2008-08-24T05:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, this might or might not be a diet of the Okinawans but I guess they must eat it since it is so popular in so many Japanese restaurants.

This is Chasoba or green tea flavored soba. It is one of my favorite food of all time. It is meant to be eaten cold and dipped into some Japanese soy sauce (with a dash of wasabi). In fact, one can pick up a packet of this chasoba in supermarkets and cook it just the way you cook spaghetti. Except that you have to run it through ice cold water to make it cold and nice. Lovely!

7 Servings of Vegetables

2008-08-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

From what I have read, the Japanese in Okinawa eat up to 7 servings of vegetables a day. How is that for a healthy diet? No wonder the older generation of Okinawans have such long lives. Imagine eating 7 servings of vegetables a day. That would roughly be 3 servings for lunch and 4 servings for dinner.

Carrots, cabbage and beansprouts are some of the staple vegetables. And they do not eat it raw like salads. The vegetables are cooked together with other dishes or put in soups.

There are also some vegetables which are not commonly found or eaten in mainland Japan. An example is the Goya (bitter melon):

What is Miso Soup

2008-08-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

Miso soup (味噌汁 miso shiru) is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of a stock called "dashi" into which is mixed softened miso paste. Although the suspension of miso paste into dashi is the only characteristic that actually defines miso soup, many other ingredients are added depending on regional and seasonal recipes, and personal preference.

Further definition is as follows: Miso is soy bean paste, which is an essential condiment in Japanese cooking. Miso is made by fermenting soy beans with salt and koji. Koji are fermented grains such as rice, barley, and soy beans. It takes about 10 months to a year for miso to be ready for use.

About Dashi

Dashi (出汁, だし) is a class of soup and cooking stocks considered fundamental to Japanese cooking. Shizuo Tsuji (1980) wrote that "many substitutes for dashi are possible, but without dashi, dishes are merely a la japonaise and lack the authentic flavor." Dashi forms the base for miso soups, clear broth soups, Japanese noodle broths, and many Japanese simmering liquids.

The most common form of dashi is a simple broth or stock made by boiling kombu (edible kelp) and kezurikatsuo (shavings of katsuobushi) and then straining the resultant liquid. Fresh dashi made from dried kelp and katsuobushi is rare today, even in Japan.^[1] Most people use granulated or liquid instant substitutes.

Other kinds of dashi stock are made by soaking kelp, shiitake, or niboshi in water for many hours or heating them in water nearly to boiling and straining the resultant broth. Kelp stock or kombu dashi is made by soaking kelp, or sea tangle, in water. Shiitake dashi stock is made by soaking dried shiitake mushrooms in water. Niboshi dashi stock is made by soaking small dried sardines (after pinching off their heads and entrails to prevent bitterness) in water.

In 1908, the unusual and strong flavor of kelp dashi was identified by Kikunae Ikeda as umami, the "fifth flavor", attributed to unique taste receptors responding to glutamic acid.

Prevent Breast Cancer with Miso Soup

2008-08-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

Yet another reason to follow the healthy diet of the Okinawans (who boast one of the longest lifespans on planet Earth).

Miso soup is also one of the Japanese staple diet. Read below for the health benefits of the humble miso soup that we can find so easily in any Japanese restaurant.

By Takeshi Yokokawa

June 18, 2003 (Wed)

A Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare research group announced on June 18 that miso soup inhibits the development of cancer cells. Three bowls of miso soup a day reduce the possibility of breast cancer by half, reported the researchers.

The group conducted a 10-year study of volunteers aged 40 to 59 years from Iwate, Akita, Nagano and Okinawa prefectures to observe the relationship between soybean product consumption and breast cancer. Miso is made from soybeans, which include isoflavone. The researchers discovered that a high intake of isoflavone yields favorable results in the prevention of breast cancer and that as a result, there is a correlation between the amount of miso soup intake and the incidence of breast cancer. Compared with consuming one bowl of miso soup or less a day, two bowls provide a 26 percent reduction and three bowls a 40 percent reduction in the occurrence of breast cancer.

The groups said that consuming an excessive amount of miso soup, however, can introduce too much salt into the body, causing high blood pressure and stomach cancer. They highlighted the benefits of not relying strictly on miso soup but also eating other soybean products.

Once breast cancer is detected, female hormones help cancer cells multiply rapidly. Isoflavone has the same structure as cancer cells, and female hormones can send isoflavone through the body quickly as well. Isoflavone is believed to hinder the development of cancer cells.

Replacing Coffee with Green Tea

2008-08-15T03:43:00.003-07:00

I think it should be quite obvious that the Okinawans must drink quite a fair bit of green tea. Many a times we drink coffee because it is a comfort drink - the feeling of a nice hot drink just makes us happier.

Perhaps it is time to switch to green tea. And it has less caffeine than coffee!

Green tea is also good for high cholestrol.

Green Tea is Good for Health

2008-08-15T03:43:00.001-07:00

I think it should be quite obvious that the Okinawans must drink quite a fair bit of green tea.

Green Tea is a good anti-oxidant. It is good especially after an oily meal.

Drinking a cup of green tea a day ought to be good for health.

Hara Hachi Bu

2008-08-14T21:45:00.001-07:00

Hara Hachi Bu - eat until you are 80% full.

The traditional Okinawa diet, with its emphasis on vegetables, whole grains, fruits, legumes (soy foods) and fish with limited amounts of lean meats serves as a model for healthy eating and healthy aging that not only reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease but also helps to minimize free radical production. Free radicals are cell-damaging molecules that are generated mainly by our bodies' metabolism when we create energy from food.

The Okinawan cultural habit of calorie control called hara hachi bu, which means eat only until you are 80% full, plays a role as well as their habit of eating an antioxidant rich plant-based diet. Stopping at 80% capacity is actually a very good strategy to avoid obesity without going hungry because the stomach's stretch receptors take about 20 minutes to tell the body that how full it really is and 20 minutes after stopping you will really feel full.

In Okinawa, Heart Disease rates are 80% lower, and stroke rates lower than in the US. Cholesterol levels are typically under 180, homocystein levels are low and blood pressure at goal levels. Rates of cancer are 50-80% lower - especially breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer. Hip fractures are 20% lower than mainland Japanese and 40% lower than in the US. Dementia is rare.

However, Okinawans who adopt Western eating styles have similar rates of heart disease as in the US. Young Okinawans, eating more processed foods, have a higher risk of heart disease than their elderly relatives. A study of 100,000 Okinawans who moved to Brazil and adopted local eating habits, showed a life expectancy 17 years lower than in Okinawa.

In summary, the Okinawa approach is:

Consciously controled portion sizes through the practice of Hara Hachi Bu: eat until you are 80% full.

A low-calorie, mostly plant-based diet with plenty of fish and soy foods, a great variety of vegetables as well as moderate amounts of the monounsaturated fats and Omega 3’s. Include high fiber whole grains and starches.

Regular, life-long physical activity. Tai Chi, walking and gardening are common forms of exercise.

Staying lean and fit. The combination of diet and activity keeps body fat low (BMI 18-22).

Okinawans becoming obese and diabetic

2008-08-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

The Okinawans on Okinawa Island in Japan – famed for their longevity and good heatlh - are getting fat and sick. According to a Bloomberg report published in The Straits Times, half the men and a quater of the women in Okinawa are now overweight or obese. Diabetes in Okinawa is on the rise.

The reason for this? GIs' diet of American-style barbeque, hambugers and soda.

After the Second World War, the US established a military base in Okinawa and brought along 36,000 troops and over 100 fast food restaurants including McDonald's, KFC and A&W. Okinawans even started their own fast food chain, MOS Burger.

And so today, the Okinawans today eat at fast food restaurants up to three times a week, compared to the average Japanese who eats Western style fast foods only once a week.

Before 1945, however, Okinawans consumed mostly fish, soybeans, seaweed, vegetables. tofu and pork.

Okinawans eat pork lard

The report cited 100-year-old Ms Shizu Miyagi, who retains her traditional diet and... “often invites friends home to share a lunch of stewed pork leg, potatoes, rice and red beans.”

Pork leg is, of course, full of pork lard - saturated fat. In fact, the Okinawans cook mainly with pork lard. Yet all that saturated fat and cholesterol did not clog up their arteries. It did not give them heart disease, diabetes or other degenerative diseases, it did not even make them fat!

So what has changed?

Is it because they are now eating beef (in hamburgers) instead of pork? That's not the likely reason. The Koreans eat lots of beef, yet they, too, are relatively healthy with low rates of heart disease, cancer and obesity.

And it is not just the Okinawans or Koreans who lead healthy lives on a diet with plenty of saturated fat and cholesterol. The French too. And the Greeks, Swiss, Austrians... The extreme case would be the Masai of Africa. They eat only meat, blood and milk. No grains and veggies in their diet. Yet they, too, are healthy and free from degenerative diseases.

So what is it in the American fast food diet that makes people fat and sick?

A more likely culprit is the soda - incredible amounts of sugar in there. Another is, of course, the harmful trans fats present in the hydrogenated oils used by fast food restaurants for frying

But I would say it is not any one element in the American diet that younger Okinawans have adopted. Rather, it is the entire system of preparing food US-style, a system that is highly processed, highly chemicalised and highly artificial.

Americans get themselves sick by consuming industrial “food”. But they cannot see their own mistakes and folly, so their scientists blame saturated fats and cholesterol, completely ignoring the fact that other cultures enjoy excellent health and longevity on a diet rich in saturated fats and cholesterol.

It is sad that the rest of the world is increasingly adopting the Standard American Diet (SAD).

But the greater tragedy is that learned scientists, doctors and health authorities all over the world - including Singapore - have all blindly embraced the American theory that saturated fats and cholesterol make people fat and sick.

Can't our scientists, doctors and health authorities think for themselves? Seems that all they do is swallow.

Okinawan Diet (from Wikipedia)

2008-08-14T02:56:00.000-07:00

The Okinawa diet is a nutrient-rich, low-calorie diet^[1] from the indigenous people of the Ryūkyū Islands. In addition, a commercially promoted weight-loss diet (which bears the same name) has also been made based on this standard diet of the Islanders.

Indigenous islanders' diet

People from these Japanese islands of Ryūkyū (of which Okinawa is the largest) are reported to have the longest life expectancy in the world. This has in part been attributed to the local diet, but also to other variables such as genetic factors, lifestyle, and environmental factors.

Generally, the traditional diet of the islanders is 20% lower in calories than the Japanese average and contains 300% of the green/yellow vegetables. In addition, the Okinawan diet has only 25% of the sugar and 75% of the cereals of the average Japanese dietary intake.The traditional diet does include a relatively small amount of fish (approximately 1% of caloric intake) and significantly more in the way of soy and other legumes (6% of caloric intake).

The typical Okinawan reaching 110 years of age has had a diet consistently averaging no more than one calorie per gram and has a BMI of 20.4.

Commercial weight loss diet

The diet consists of a relatively low intake of calories and contains similar foods to the traditional Okinawan diet. The principal focus of the diet consists of knowing how many calories per gram each food item contains. They posit that there is a tight correlation between the high proportion of Okinawans over 110 years of age and the relatively low caloric density of their diet.

The proponents of this diet divide food into 4 categories based on caloric density. The "featherweight" foods, less than or equal to .8 calories per gram which one can eat freely without major concern, the "lightweight" foods with a caloric density from 0.8 to 1.5 calories per gram which one should eat in moderation, the "middleweight" foods with a caloric density from 1.5 to 3.0 calories per gram which one should eat only while carefully monitoring portion size and the "heavyweight" foods from 3 to 9 calories per gram which one should eat only sparingly.