Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
11–20 of 268 posts
Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
#12Paywalled so didn't read TFA but: It's always surprised that the longevity in Japan is often attributed to diet. From my travels there my impression is of a diet that largely consists of rice and various meats and a high consumption of alcohol and cigarettes. Although there definitely seems to be far less sugar in everything. Culturally it seems that fitness in general is encouraged, combined with a very different at…
In the USA, it's called fat-shaming. In Asian countries, you may feel a little bit shamed if you're overweight. You'll even get less food around the table if you're fat. Societal pressures could be both a curse and a blessing.
Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
#13Subtitle: Japan’s rate of strokes fell during a period when it began eating a bit of meat Article is paywalled, but the subtitle appears to make a correlation between the consumption of meat in Japan and the decline in the rate of strokes. At face value, this seems dubious.
It seems plausible to me. A small amount of meat could fix a vitamin B12 deficiency.
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Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
#14I would sincerely like to get a breakdown of all the factors that contribute to the Japanese living to such an old age, rather than the usual "this one weird trick" bullshit that Economist and others try to swindle on the Western readership. It's quite frankly annoying, although I've lost the last ounce of respect I've had for the Economist years ago so I'm the idiot for expecting them to be any better.
I've gone through pop diet literature like How Not To Die, Blue Zone, and others, but it's mostly just people trying to push an agenda in one way or another. I just want the facts, in somewhat of plain as English as possible but I don't mind some technical fluff if it will help clarify things. I tend to find in a lot of this sort of literature that the technical fluff is useless to majority of the readership and yet takes up 80%+ of the content, as the authors try to use as many half-baked analogies and metaphors as they can to explain technical concepts that nobody cares about. At the same time, something more substantial than "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" would be welcome. You know, how does exercise play a part in it. How does ancestry that has also lived to an old age play a part in it. Is it kind of a big deal, or nice to have? How many consecutive generations of people living to 100 does it take before it happens at a regular basis. These sorts of things. Holistic analysis that compares more than just "Wim Hof has slightly more brown fat than most people and that's the reason why he is superhuman" level of nonsense.
The latest bit seems to be from longevity research where cold showers and fasting are in vogue again, for the Nth time. Oh, but our company is the only one that provides this one unique test that checks your age biomarkers. We didn't just name drop the company in there for the sake of baiting you into it or anything.
Why is it so bloody hard?
Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
#15Paywalled so didn't read TFA but: It's always surprised that the longevity in Japan is often attributed to diet. From my travels there my impression is of a diet that largely consists of rice and various meats and a high consumption of alcohol and cigarettes. Although there definitely seems to be far less sugar in everything. Culturally it seems that fitness in general is encouraged, combined with a very different at…
A normal home meal is fairly balanced, if you were eating out a lot that isn't a great representation of a normal diet. Also portion sizes are much smaller than the west.
I think you are right about fitness, in general there is a lot of riding and walking in daily life. Unlike in a lot of the west, where you can go from sitting at home to sitting in your car to sitting at your desk without more than 100m of walking.
I will admit that it's amazing the smoking is rarely mentioned. It's everywhere oh my god, I got head spins from one cafe. Your clothes smell like cigarettes half the time. I think it's getting better, lots of places choose to ban smoking inside now. But it's still pervasive.
Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
#16Paywalled so didn't read TFA but: It's always surprised that the longevity in Japan is often attributed to diet. From my travels there my impression is of a diet that largely consists of rice and various meats and a high consumption of alcohol and cigarettes. Although there definitely seems to be far less sugar in everything. Culturally it seems that fitness in general is encouraged, combined with a very different at…
Yep, article (title) is hard to believe. The affordable food is rice, noodles and fried things like chicken and some fishes. Every other thing (meat, vegetables, fruits) is really expensive. It’s often not worth the hassle to cook lunch meal in comparison to the cost of raw ingredients in the supermarket. To add insult to the injury Japanese cooking involves a lot of steps, tools and preparation so cooking something…
I'm interested what dishes you're specifically talking about here? Japanese cooking is not complicated, just different.
Me and a lot of my friends here can all meal prep <500yen per meal and that ranges from Japanese food to Indian/Italian/Mexican. You just need to make smart adjustments and substitutions.
Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
#17I would sincerely like to get a breakdown of all the factors that contribute to the Japanese living to such an old age, rather than the usual "this one weird trick" bullshit that Economist and others try to swindle on the Western readership. It's quite frankly annoying, although I've lost the last ounce of respect I've had for the Economist years ago so I'm the idiot for expecting them to be any better. I've gone thr…
Isn't Okinawa a good place to start? You get two interesting comparisons: Okinawans vs other Japanese during the last century, and Okinawans then vs now. It reduces the number (or at least the scale) of differences so that you can better pinpoint the factors, right?
Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
#18I would sincerely like to get a breakdown of all the factors that contribute to the Japanese living to such an old age, rather than the usual "this one weird trick" bullshit that Economist and others try to swindle on the Western readership. It's quite frankly annoying, although I've lost the last ounce of respect I've had for the Economist years ago so I'm the idiot for expecting them to be any better. I've gone thr…
If something is truly genetically linked then dieting for you might as well be lipstick on a pig if you don't have the right heritage. There are a couple other places in Asia with similar levels of longevity. Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea come to mind. Maybe look into what similarities they share with Japan. For Europe there are the usual Mediterranean countries, including Israel. (For European demographics, remember to adjust for large numbers because population size vary wildly.)
Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
#19Subtitle: Japan’s rate of strokes fell during a period when it began eating a bit of meat Article is paywalled, but the subtitle appears to make a correlation between the consumption of meat in Japan and the decline in the rate of strokes. At face value, this seems dubious.
It seems plausible to me. A small amount of meat could fix a vitamin B12 deficiency.
a small amount. Not the obscene amounts we eat here in America
Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets
#20I would sincerely like to get a breakdown of all the factors that contribute to the Japanese living to such an old age, rather than the usual "this one weird trick" bullshit that Economist and others try to swindle on the Western readership. It's quite frankly annoying, although I've lost the last ounce of respect I've had for the Economist years ago so I'm the idiot for expecting them to be any better. I've gone thr…
What's an alternative to the Economist? I can't find a better publication short of an academic journal or literature. Someone recommended Foreign Affairs but I've yet to buy one.