JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Japanese people live longer, healthier lives than people in any other developed nation.
Japanese people have the lowest obesity rate of any people in the developed world. Only three percent of Japanese women are obese, compared to 11 percent of French women, 14 percent of Canadian women and a staggering 34 percent of American women.
Is the secret to these long, healthy, slim lives in Japanese genes?
No way, says Naomi Moriyama, a Japanese American who is promoting Japanese eating habits with her book Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat. She said Japanese food and canola oil are the real secrets.
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Just look at her as an example.
“When I came to America for the first time to go to college, I gained 25 pounds in two months,” said Moriyama, who spoke to the Canola Council of Canada’s convention here.
She had taken up eating mashed potatoes, meatloaf, pizzas and hamburgers upon arriving. She returned to Japan much fatter than the average Japanese woman, but that didn’t last once she moved back into her parents’ house.
“Thanks to my mother’s Tokyo kitchen … the pounds that I gained melted away. I didn’t even try to lose the weight,” she said.
“All I had to do was go back to my mother’s Tokyo kitchen, her traditional Japanese style cooking.”
Moriyama’s book does not promote restaurant-style Japanese cooking, which is richer than the diets of ordinary Japanese people. Instead it provides the basics, the “seven secrets” and the “seven pillars” of the Japanese home’s kitchen, and includes a host of recipes.
Moriyama said the average Japanese meal is simple: a bowl of rice; a bowl of miso soup; a piece of fish; and two side dishes of vegetables stir-fried in canola oil.
This is followed by a light dessert, with it “all washed down with a cup of green tea.”
The diet works for western white males too, Moriyama said. Her husband and co-author, William Doyle, also began following a Japanese style diet and dropped 35 lb.
Throughout her recipes, or rather her mother’s recipes, she uses canola oil, which she said works uniquely well for Japanese cooking.
“Japanese women use canola oil for stir fry vegetables. They use canola oil to sauté fish and make tempura. They use it to help make healthy veggie foods and work up mouthwatering Japanese breakfasts,” said Moriyama.
“Why is there this Japanese love affair with canola? I’d like to tell you it’s all about monounsaturated fat and omega 3 and biochemistry, but I think it’s all about taste.
“The very light, clean and natural taste of canola oil is perfect for Japanese home cooking, which avoids the use of heavy creams and sauces, and is all about letting the pure flavour personality of each ingredient shine through.”
Also key is the Japanese commitment to portion control. Japanese people learn to be satisfied with a meal that falls just short of leaving them feeling full, Moriyama said. If you finish and still want a little bit more, you’ve had the perfect meal.
