JAPAN

Deb and I recently spent 18 days in Japan, visiting different parts of the country. Japan has the greatest longevity of any large country, five years more than the United States. The well accepted reason for this longevity is diet; processed foods and animal products are eaten much less than rice, vegetables and soy products like tofu. The mortality, heart disease and cancer rates of Japanese people who have westernized their diets in Japan, the USA or Europe are similar to those of European heritage who eat standard western diets. Stroke due to high blood pressure is common because of the high salt content of many popular dishes.

The Japanese spend 26% of their income on food compared to 6% in the United States. Cities and towns are filled with specialty shops and restaurants for different foods; some sell only tofu products, others a specific noodle. When we watched the local people eating they usually chose meals including few animal products with fish popular. Shops had a beautiful choice of seasonal produce with many items we had not seen before. The mushroom varieties were particularly interesting and tasty with some popular ones very expensive, more than meat or fish. Unesco has named Japanese cuisine a world cultural heritage, important to be preserved for future generations.

As we traveled through the countryside we were amazed at the number of homes which had well tended vegetable gardens on their small lots. The cities had fast food options but much fewer than in the states. Smaller towns had none; people there eat at home consuming their own produce, other local garden products and lots of rice. Several people we talked to prefer brown rice, but all we ever saw was white, several times bragged about as "new," from the harvest in the last few months. Although white rice has few nutrients it seems to allow a healthy diet when a variety of fruits and vegetables are plentiful with little meat, dairy and moderate fish. City dwellers typically work long hours, have small apartments and eat many meals out, usually choosing a noodle house (ramen (thin, wheat), udon (thick, wheat), soba (buckwheat) or sushi. Noodle dishes usually have a meat broth, but the bulk of calories are from the noodles with the meat (or fish) as flavoring. Most are also filled with a variety of mushrooms and vegetables. Delicious vegan options were offered in every noodle house we tried.