Or not changed?
For me, I’ve been eating far less fast food (in part to a conscious effort), and eating rice a LOT more frequently. Also, I find I’m eating far less fruit because it’s generally more expensive than my home country
Oh, and sodium. My sodium intake must have skyrocketed. I wasn’t that hyped about ramen before Japan but since moving here I’ve had it like 2-3 times a month.
What have you guys noticed?
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I eat a lot more Japanese food here compared to when I lived in SoCal.
I eat way less veggies than I used to, to the point I have to drink the 野菜 ジュース every day to make it up, lol.
Changed for the worse, had to start taking supplements since fresh produce is so expensive here.
More vegetables than before, because they’re more abundant in Japan.
Less fruit than before, but more seasonal: citrus and apples in winter, etc.
More meat than before, since Japanese eat a lot of meat.
About the same amount of fish, since I also come from a seaside country.
Less bread, obviously because there isn’t much bread in Japan to start with.
Way more eggs…
I avoid rice and ramen because I don’t like them that much, so these things didn’t affect anything.
Basically just adapted to the local tastes.
I eat more fish, plain white rice, and plain white bread. I eat less beef, brown/mixed rice, and whole wheat bread.
Not a change in diet, but food related – I freeze less vegetables and meat as there’s generally no benefit to buying in bulk in Japan.
I have oddly become more polar.
In America, I would eat a lot more unhealthier, but consistently.
Since coming to Japan, I would eat healthy consistently, and only drink water and tea. But then have days where I just super don’t and just drink alcohol. So it feels like one day I am on one end and the next is completely different at times.
Here I am able to maintain a healthy weight, and while most of the year I have got a bit of chub around the belly, it only takes a few weeks to get my abs out for summer.
I reckon if I was back home I would currently be a chubby chubster like everyone else. I wouldn’t be able to see my feet, let alone my abs. Always put on a few kgs when visiting home. A single meal often has the same calories as my daily intake in Japan. My friends back home are sometimes double my weight.
There’s much more access to processed foods, confectionary, baked goods, decent beer etc in Europe – which I actively have to seek out in Japan. And I can’t resist the ease and tastiness of that junk when home.
I eat less meat and got used to smaller portions. Also cut soda out of my life entirely.
Most things stayed the same, I never ate so much unhealthy food (except ice cream) back home, so that balance didn’t change much. But my health improved quite a bit overall because I didn’t eat so much cheese. My digestion definitely got better and I have a lot fewer stomach aches. I have since reintroduced cheese, but not nearly as much as I ate in America.
I never eat a meal without white rice now. I had never had real ramen before Japan and now it’s a once or twice a week thing.
After did months in Japan I noticed I felt healthier and stronger, back in the states I super rarely ate anything green so I was probably unintentionally malnourished g myself. Now I can’t get enough salad, salads in the us suck compared to Japan. The food quality out here is superb.
Basically just switched out my go to USA breakfast for natto gohan. Lunch and dinner is still mostly the same. Unless I go out to eat in which case it’s usually Japanese food seldom found/copied well in the US.
More rice, fish, noodle, still drinks, more vegetarian meals, less beer.
from 62kg to 78kg in the span of 5 years… gained most during lockdowns
My noodle, rice, and beer intake has significantly increased.
> Oh, and sodium. My sodium intake must have skyrocketed. I wasn’t that hyped about ramen before Japan but since moving here I’ve had it like 2-3 times a month.
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I was expecting you would say 2-3 times a week, lol.
Pretty much just eat mostly Japanese food now. Still eat out too much, still don’t have the greatest diet. My weight has not changed.
Stopped drinking soda/soft drinks, started drinking too much alcohol. Continued drinking too much coffee lol
Not much since back in the states all my mom made was Japanese food.
More rice
More vegetables
More fruit
Roughly same intake of meat but higher quality
Less pasta
More ramen
Ice cream almost every night
At first I indulged in strong zeros daily now I drink maybe a 3% one a week.
Not a very drastic change from Taiwan, but I really miss soybean drinks. There is only 豆乳 here, which is you know…… different.
Stress eating, I dislike it.
Well, I get food depression during the holidays if that counts…
I feel like I’ve been eating like crazy, food here is so good and so cheap compared to the UK.
I keep weighing myself but I don’t seem to be gaining or losing any weight so at least it seems sustainable.
Every two days or so we sort of wig out and realise we’ve not eaten any vegetables, I find it quite stressful to cook at home basically which is trouble.
I got out of the daily famichiki hobby though, I try to avoid the hot food warm section of conbini!
I don’t really eat salty snacks as often. I think it probably started with the fact that Cheetos and Doritos taste different than in the US and come in different quantities.
I also stopped buying soda and juice, first to save money but then I felt like I didn’t miss having it.
I probably have been eating more eggs because they’re so cheap.
I used to not eat pasta, much bread or wheat products in the US ( but would have some in sweets).
My husband likes pasta and ramen a lot so I started eating that much more often. Lately we are trying to cut out wheat to see if it helps our health, so we have been doing noodles made from rice flour.
I used to full day fast 2-3 times a week. I currently shifted to eating one meal a day (dinner) so we can eat together more. I also eat later to accommodate his schedule.
I used to use oven for a lot of meals at US. Now we make more Japanese stove top things here.
I think we tend to go to grocery store more often.
I use microwave more often here. So many recipes on cookpad are for microwave. I started microwaving more plastics in Japan, though when I can I use glass with paper towels.
I got rly fat from eating so much carbs and sugar and not enough meat and veg.
More Strong Zeros.
When I first moved here and wasn’t doing anything to lose weight, I dropped from 63kg to 56kg over 6 months mostly through having better portion control and not having pints of heavy beer or late take-aways.
When I decided to be proactive about healthy eating, I went down to 47kg. All I did was picked the “healthy” main at the cafeteria each day (usually chicken or fish) and add salad and a small size rice. I didn’t outright ban by foods.
Due to the covid situation, I’ve gone back up to around 50-52kg because I really don’t know how to do portioning myself and I know that I’m doing way more snacking/comfort eating.
I did make some changes that led to a better diet but access to work cafeterias that have a decent menus and reasonable sizes made it much easier.
I eat more carbs than I used to. Other than that, it hasn’t really changed.
I eat more in general. Used to only eat once a day, rarely twice. But I’ve been eating more fast food. Drinking more coffee. Drinking less alcohol.
Probably worse. I hate Japanese food and a lot of the healthier things I like are way more expensive here. I’m also constantly exhausted thanks to my shitty job so I eat takeout more often.
Much healthier. The good quality in Japan is way higher than in America. I think when I eat food from America, chicken, eggs, bread, etc, it makes me sick. The food quality over there is so low I feel it’s borderline poison.
I fixed some gastrointestinal problems since coming here.
I eat more rice and probably too much sodium now compared to before, but less sugar.
Less fruits and the veggies are less variety, because of the price. But it’s probably more seasonal now, which is nice.
Fish is probably a bit more thanks to sushi, less red meat, more chicken. Probably eat more fat here as well.
Good healthy bread is so much less than back home, but also less pastry and sweets.
It general I think all the positives and negatives of before and after pretty much cancel eachother out.
I’ve dropped almost 50 lbs so far by going all in on the local vegetables. Hokkaido’s produce is amazing so I eat a ton of it. I love the purple potatoes I can get at my michi no eki!
I’m eating a lot of sweets. I’ve gained weight because of it which I’m sad about. Everyone says japanese food is really healthy which is true of home cooking but I honestly feel “junk” food is almost more accessible here because of convenience stores. I never felt compelled to go get a pastry everyday in the us cause it’s a pain in the ass to go the super market, and pastries at US convenience stores are shit. Working on emotional eating is hard 😅
A lot more rice. I only ate rice a few times in my life before moving here.
More varieties of bread (there are fancy bread shops everywhere here, whereas in my hometown in the US we only ever bought sandwich bread at the supermarket).
More fish, since it doesn’t taste like crap (I’m from a landlocked area and we never had fresh fish growing up).
Less beef because of the price.
A lot more pork, also because of price.
More fresh vegetables rather than canned, but that’s because I’m not poor anymore, not because they’re more available.
Grew up in Hawaii so daily rice was a thing. But Okinawan sweet potatoes are the bomb.
not particularly. perhaps more efficient though since now I’m dedicated to the fitness life lol
Eat less veggies here (more expensive and less choices than my home country)
Eat less fruits here (more expensive and less choices than my home country)
Eat more sweets, although now I’m improving 🥲 (so many sweets/pastry/snacks here)
Eat less tofu here (tofu here is too… Soft, i know there are ways to make it firmer, but it takes another step and effort y’know)
Eat less Chili 🌶️ (very rare to find one raw sold on super market, found once on Tokyu store fresh from Aomori) raw chili imported from abroad is so expensive 🥲
Eat more south Asian foods (i need food with spices and can barely find south Asian Restaurant back home)
Eat more kebabs (same reason as Indian food)
Stopped eating rice (the rice consistency is just too sticky…)
Start making my DIY sour cream and eat it more than back at home
Eat less noodles (somehow for some reason, just don’t eat it anymore, dunno why)
Eat more chips (so many chips with so many flavors!) Now currently reducing a lot tho
Gained 15 kg 🥲
I guess that’s pretty much sum up the past 8 years of my life in Kanto 😱
Edit: forgot about noodle
I’ve started eating a lot more protein and little to no fat/carbs. I love that conbinis and super markets are selling ready to eat chicken breasts, greek yogurt, and hard boiled eggs so I can eat healthy even when I’m pressed for time and can only stop at the nearest conbini.
Less white and red meat (almost none except for an occasional karaage or ham), less bread, more seafood, more rice, more vegetables. Almost no alcohol, less sweets (more anko which I am not really sure how much healthier that is), but also less fruit since it is unbelievably expensive here.
Got fat.
Eat WAY too many carbs here since it’s the only thing affordable. I used to eat 40% protein, 40% veggies, and 10% fruits/carbs/nuts in America since it was a lot more affordable to eat healthy there. But here it’s difficult with the lack of crop diversity. Plus the lack of affordable healthy nuts/seeds, protein powders and other health powders.. it’s been rough. Some veggies are alright here, but do not make up a large portion of my diet anymore unfortunately.
There is actually an special project to make your food taste more salty as an way to make people reduce there salt intake. But it’s still only in prototype.
https://www.wsj.com/story/these-electric-chopsticks-are-designed-to-make-food-taste-saltier-a5a92663
I poop 3 times a day now and feel great.
A lot less fruit… that can’t be good…
I’ve cut down on sugar, juice, snacks significantly. I cut calories by a solid 300-400 calories a day, so I’m sitting around 1500-1600 a day now. I walk 5,000 steps a day more than I used to in the states. I haven’t lost any damn weight. Got the genes of a peasant from the 1500s who thinks I gotta outrun wild animals and keep warm for winter using my blubber.
Meanwhile some people come here and eat shit and still lose like 10-20 kgs… it’s not fair.
I definitely eat a lot more fruits and vegetables because my wife and mother-in-law’s companies’ clients are always giving them a fairly large haul (sometimes we get meat too). We recently got ¥20,000 worth of grape, and my mother-in-law just got a 2 kg block of pork belly that she’ll be handing over to us. I remember we got two 20 kg bags of rice that was like ¥7,000 each.
I’m really grateful, as all that really adds up to a lot of money. We probably get at least ¥50,000 worth of produce and meat every year
I eat a lot more nabe and oden in the winter than when I was living in the US
Don’t know what happened, rarely ate ice cream back home but seem to somehow eat it every night here! And I really miss a wide variety of cheap fruit, I eat way less fruit here. My arteries prob hate my sodium levels too.
But the huge increase in pickles I eat has certainly helped my gut health. Tofu and konjac are now always in my fridge. And I have somehow managed to lose weight despite not restricting myself or consciously eating healthy/healthier.
So swings and roundabouts.
I eat a bit better than before because my dad was broke and not super into cooking…he cooked but nothing spectacular. Then at 16, I moved out of home and lived by myself while going to high school, so I didn’t cook a lot…I had lots of digestion issues now that I think about it.
These days I try to eat more balanced, but I could definitely increase my veggie intake. I don’t cook though because I’m lazy and I get home late (I also couldn’t get on board with meal prep), but in general I eat better. I’m also more active in terms of daily energy expenditure with the walking to work etc. Food is generally cheaper here compared to home (except fruits), so it’s not hard to buy things that are on the healthier side!
Less fruit, less lamb, less kebabs, less spices, less flavour. Sticky white rice instead of sexy thin basmati rice, no humous or tzatziki, worse bread, worse milk/yoghurt, worse cheese. I was eating like a mediterranean king back in the UK 🙁
Karaage, yakitori, yakiniku, gyudon, sushi are bomb though.