Food and health

I was asked to talk about grocery shopping and eating in general in Japan, and I thought it was a good idea. Keep in mind that this is purely about my experiences in Japan (as well as what those experiences may be influenced by), and may not necessarily be the same for everyone else all over Japan.

First, what I knew about food in Japan before actually coming to Japan:

One of the biggest tropes and clichés I hear a lot is how healthy Japanese food is. Japanese people are so very healthy and they live forever and Japanese food is super healthy, it’s nothing like American food, it’s so healthy, if you eat like a Japanese person you can live forever! On and on about how amazing and fountain of health the Japanese diet is, but there isn’t usually anything specific about what is eaten outside of mention of sushi and rice balls.

Let me tell you a thing: They eat other kinds of food.

Let me tell you another thing: It is not all healthy.

First of all, take some time and consider what you think of when you think, “Japanese food.” I, personally, think of ramen, yakisoba, udon, piles of white rice, sushi, fish of all kinds and manners of preparation, tempura and other varieties of fried food, and tons of different kinds of sweets. Your list may be similar.

You know how much of that is actually healthy? The sushi and the fish. There are of course vegetables, eggs, fruits, soups, hamburgers (meat loaf on a bun), pizza, ham and pork as far as the eye can see, fried chicken, octopus, bread, this mysterious substance called konyaku that I’m told is from a plant but looks like it’s from an alien planet, tofu for days, and on and on. There is so much to eat here! Lots of things to choose from, so long as you have the stomach and funds to try new stuff that doesn’t look the least bit appetizing in some cases… But then you close your eyes and you actually try it and sometimes you find out it’s absolutely delicious! And yeah, some of it is actually good for you and you should eat lots of it.

But a very large amount of affordable and available food here is, much like in America, not healthy at all if not outright bad for you. Again, much like in America, food that is very good for you, is also very expensive and not always of very good quality.

“Why is it unhealthy,” you may be asking.

Because most of it is loaded with preservatives. I have been told you’re not supposed to drink the broth in ramen and udon. It’s advised to not eat yakisoba more than 2-3 times a week, if that frequently. These are some pretty basic staples of Japanese food as far as foreigners are aware, yet we’re told to consume them sparingly. Why?

Massive amounts of sodium.

Sodium is measured in milligrams on nutrition labels. I have picked up a package of yakisoba and checked the nutrition. The level of sodium is usually over 1,000. Per serving. I picked up one package in particular, and they didn’t even bother with milligrams. It straight up said there were 2.1 grams of sodium. Fortunately that isn’t for the actual noodles but the sauces that they come with. If you opt not to use the sauce, you’d be fine. If you opted not to drink the broth, you’d be fine. I for one love the sauce and the broth. I don’t much see the point in eating noodles without the intended sauce or the broth; I might as well eat spaghetti.

I don’t need to explain why fried food is unhealthy (I hope), but it is everywhere here. Probably more so than in America (I’m from California, though). There is fried chicken, fried fish, fried vegetables, fried pork, fried beef, fried sweets, fried this, fried that. And it’s not all fried in tempura, which people would have you believe is the healthy way to fry food (pro tip: it’s not. It’s still breading, it’s still oil). It’s also fairly cheap, and very convenient. So, the next time someone makes a crack about how Americans fry everything, I will say, “Have you been to Japan?” About the only thing I haven’t seen fried here is fruit, but I’m sure they tried it.

“Well, the Japanese diet of fish and vegetables is absolutely healthy!” you cry. And I would agree with you: Fish and vegetables are damn healthy, but the combination is hardly a unique diet to Japan. You can find that sort of diet in a lot of places with a coast line and a fishing industry. Furthermore, people don’t eat just “fish and vegetables” anymore. They eat rice, and ramen, and tempura, and udon, and yakisoba, and fried food. They also eat tons and tons of convenience store food, which is, once again, packed with preservatives so that it can sit there all day waiting for some poor soul with no time, energy, or skill to cook food at home to finally stumble in at 10 at night to desperately scrounge around the 24-hour store for something resembling food, a substance they likely have not had since lunch time, if they had it all.

*I personally don't think I have a sensitive stomach, but the last several times I got food at a convenience store, it bothered my stomach and didn't stay in there for very long.

Often times you can find people snacking on starchy things that have almost no nutrition or protein to speak of and, if you know anything about proper nutrition and eating habits, you know that this is not healthy eating. We criticize fad diets and crash diets that exemplify such practices, and here we have an entire culture living it day to day.

Let me tell you a thing: Japanese people are not all healthy. They are run down, they are exhausted, they are sick just as often as we are, they are under tremendous amounts of stress and pressure from work, family, and society in general, the conditions that they frequently allow themselves to work under prevent them from doing much of anything outside of work (as far as teachers are concerned, anyway), and they don’t eat properly. And a lot of them are in fact fat.

Sound familiar?