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Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

economist.com

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Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#171

Post by inglor_cz »

ynfnehf wrote: post #141
marcyb5st wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in my experience. I also lived in Sweden and UK. Blood tests are usually only a reactivate thing. You're sick you get blood tests. As prevention not as common I'm afraid.

The reason Sweden doesn't do regular health checks of the population is because there is no good scientific evidence that it has any effect. And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are. I think the similar reasoning is used in other countries. If you can read swedish/use Google translate, this page explains it very clearly: https://www.1177.se/fragor--svar/nationellt/behandling--hjal...

"And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are."

Uh, high blood pressure is a typical "silent" disease with major effect on health later.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#172

Post by refactor_master »

CraneWorm wrote: post #166
gillesjacobs wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goes to show how important culture and religion can be in diet. Eating seafood instead of meat once a week, usually on Friday, is a widespread Christian practice called the Friday Fast. [1] In Europe, I know a lot of people that still stick to this practice even without practicing Christianity. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Fast

> seafood instead of meat most of that's still meat though?

According to science it should be better than red meat. Additionally, a lot of seafood comes in smaller portions, is full of bones, shells and whatnot, whereas it’s relatively easy and cheap to get large quantities of fully edible red meat. It’s not that you couldn’t have a pound of peeled shrimps, but my own experience with seafood says it’s not very common.

So overall you’re most likely ending up eating less meat, and not just different meat.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#173

Post by collyw »

euske wrote: post #47

What's not mentioned in the OP: - INSANE peer pressure. If you're skinny as a twig in the US, you're probably considered normal in Japan. If you're actually an obese person (again, in the US standard), people here wouldn't even look at you straight. This kind of environment put a huge pressure for one to stay in shape. - INSANE obsession for health. I hear that Americans are obsessed with health, but oh boy, have the…

From an external perspective being slim and healthy seems like to sensible things to be obsessed about.(Though your comment implies "too skinny" over "slim").

It seems better than "body positive" movements telling us that being overweight is "healthy" despite it being pretty common knowledge that it isn't. To me it's the equivalent of saying that smoking a few cigarettes a day is healthy.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#174

Post by christiansakai »

When my wife was working in NYC, she gained weight considerably, with her normal eating portion. After she went home back to Japan, and still had her normal eating portion, she lost her weight.

At the same time, every time I visited Japan for 2 weeks I usually splurge daily, above my normal portion, and I did not gain weight at all. I might've even lose some occasionally.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#175

Post by stefap2 »

HungSu wrote: post #117
carlmr wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>many salarymen seem to live on a diet of fried chicken, hard liquor and cigarettes. That's what surprised me the most visiting Japan. All the skinny people in Japan eating fried chicken, fried mashed potatoes, fried everything. The only thing I could make out for why they were skinny was insane levels of portion control. Since they definitely didn't have time to do sports.

Also a tremendous amount of walking. Japanese urban planning is much more pedestrian friendly than say, almost anywhere in the US.

US has a problem with activity. No sidewalks, go everywhere by car except in a few big cities.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#176

Post by mensetmanusman »

lhjn wrote: post #147
gillesjacobs wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goes to show how important culture and religion can be in diet. Eating seafood instead of meat once a week, usually on Friday, is a widespread Christian practice called the Friday Fast. [1] In Europe, I know a lot of people that still stick to this practice even without practicing Christianity. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Fast

Oh, there was some people following the Friday thing, but I've only heard about it during lent and not everyone is following it - it's quite going out of fashion esp with younger generations.

Younger people make up a smaller and smaller percentage of the total population every year though.

Ironically though, the young that do practice Friday fasting are much more likely, demographically, to have children. So I imagine the practice will continue for many centuries.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#177

Post by mensetmanusman »

CraneWorm wrote: post #166
gillesjacobs wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goes to show how important culture and religion can be in diet. Eating seafood instead of meat once a week, usually on Friday, is a widespread Christian practice called the Friday Fast. [1] In Europe, I know a lot of people that still stick to this practice even without practicing Christianity. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Fast

> seafood instead of meat most of that's still meat though?

Fish have lots of selenium that meat lacks.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#178

Post by wjnc »

sneak wrote: post #128
woutr_be wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I beg to differ. What is considered as normal in some cultures, can be considered offensive in other cultures. It's not because those people lack empathy.

What matters is who is doing the considering. Each friendship between people is its own "culture" in that sense; I don't generally do things that my friend would consider offensive, if they are actually my friend. It's nothing to do with the wider culture or ethnic environment, or what third parties may or may not be offended by: I don't do things that I know would hurt my friends.

An interesting thing I experience in making friends later in life is mapping expectations about 'what friends do' (I guess I pester and expect to be pestered about a lot of personal things, the closer the friendship the more personal the teasing should be) to expectation 'new' friends have about the relationship.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#179

Post by caskstrength »

inglor_cz wrote: post #171
ynfnehf wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason Sweden doesn't do regular health checks of the population is because there is no good scientific evidence that it has any effect. And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are. I think the similar reasoning is used in other countries. If you can read swedish/use Google translate, this page explains it very clearly: https://www.1177.se/fragor--svar/nationellt/behandling--hjal...

"And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are." Uh, high blood pressure is a typical "silent" disease with major effect on health later.

You don't need a blood test to measure your blood pressure though.

Re: Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets

#180

Post by yowlingcat »

sneak wrote: post #115
woutr_be wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had those experiences in China, my friends would often comment on my weight. They never meant it in a offensive way, but it’s still hurtful.

Empathy isn't a cultural thing, it's a human thing. If people are doing things that are hurtful and they don't care to notice, they aren't your friends, they're just people you know.

Even so, that's contextual. What may be thought of as hurtful in one culture could be considered merely honest in another. Ignoring the things could get lost in cultural translation is an unfortunate way to miss the forest for the trees.
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