How has your relationship with food changed ?

41 comments

1. Now to be completely honest my relationship with food really changed over the past three years.. I don´t even want to kiss my food.. I honestly just feel like I wanna be single again.

2. On the opposite end, as someone who had a regular regimen of supplements to go along with my exercise routine, I find it is more difficult to keep that up here. There are gyms, but dietary supplements are harder to come by or just plainly expensive.

3. I eat significantly less meat. When I went to a Brazilian BBQ buffet in California on vacation, I could barely eat a half pound of steak. My friends were eating 1.5 to 2 pounds of meat. Worst 55 dollars spent. After that, I pretty much avoided buffets altogether. Also in general California fast food portions just seemed much larger, meatier, greasier and saltier and I am just not used to it anymore.

4. I was skinny and even tried hard to get fatter to no avail. But in last few years I gained weight.

5. I shove it up my ass instead of shoving it down my throat now.

6. Wer have similar in my home country, but maybe not saying the exact calorie count, but that it’s healthier. We also promote to take the stairs instead of elevators at work, if less than 3-4 floors.

   In general it’s good to remind about taking the stairs once in a whil if possible, not only for calories, but for health in general.

   I don’t really see a big difference in dieting in general between my home. But perhaps here it’s more focused on being slim rather than the health benefits of eating healthy and working out, especially for women.

   I haven’t really changed anything personally. I don’t go to gyms, but I walk a lot and in general try to eat a balanced diet, similar to before.

7. I try to buy local veggies as much as possible so I appreciate the seasonality of food much more than before.

8. I feel compelled to bellow *”UMAI!”* with every mouthful now.

   It was ok at first, but now none of the local restaurants will allow us to patronise them 🙁

9. I grow 90% of the vegetables we eat. I eat a lot of vegetables, and very few processed carbs.

10. In the States (and to the UK, to some extent), people buy in bulk. Lots of frozen / canned / processed food, stuff that will last 2-3 weeks or maybe more.

    Most Japanese houses don’t have big freezers etc. My wife shops maybe every other day or so. Which means everything is bought fresh. Fruits and vegetables, fish, meat etc. I definitely think the diet here is healthier. A bit high in salt content, perhaps, which we are aware of, but definitely lower in fats and sugars, and portions are actually human-sized. Vs the monstronsities in the US.

11. It has changed for the better. But I can’t say if that’s because of Japan in and of itself or because I’m away from family who love to buy takeaway often.

    I went from living in a house to living in the 4th floor of an apartment building. I always take the stairs because it’s more convenient. For the food the only consistent difference is consuming green tea daily.

    If I think about it. I exercise more often in Japan by virtue of walking everywhere and eat less because the green tea reduces appetite. Japan put me in the position to better my relationship with food, but Japan isn’t the reason. I would have gotten better under the same circumstances back home. 

12. I don’t know if anyone else experienced this, but my stomach seems to have become less tolerant towards sweets and greasy foods. I get an upset belly after eating greasy pizza (when Domino’s still had the potatoes with mayonnaise pizza, bad I know), if I eat a lot of sugar (a pack of cookies, or a bar of chocolate) I feel nauseous and uncomfortable and immediately regret it. Back at home I never had this issue 🥺

13. So I had no issue with my body but once I came here but as a student I was bullied for my weight for the first time in my life. A few months later, I was in the hospital for 6 days the first year I came here, no idea what happened but I got really really stick so I was only on an IV for half that time. I ended up losing 8 kilos once i was discharged and I developed a really bad eating disorder because I was so happy I could fit the “free size” clothes in Shibuya 109 so it developed because I didn’t want to gain the weight back. Lost 25 kilos total. Seeing everyone so thin and the bullying messed me up /:

    The ED lasted for 2 years and then a couple of relapses after but now I have an amazing relationship with food. I realize a lot of girls follow unhealthy diets here or have crazy weight goals.

    Now I’m careful with what I eat but I’m forgiving if I indulge and found a new love for weightlifting 🙂

14. I eat less fast food and eat less snacks. I eat more fish , rice and noodles. I swapped tim hortons coffee for for a much smaller amount of vending machine coffee. I stopped eating hemp seeds and almost stopped eating yogurt.

    I enjoy food all the same.

15. Yeah my ED came back living in Japan. My weight fluctuates a lot here

16. Here they call a spade a spade as far as weight is concerned – refreshing even if I’m the target

17. Eating out by myself stopped being a thing I knew some people looked down upon and became a necessity.

    Also, I am way more sensitive to artificially-manufactured seasonality. If I discover some new food I like, especially imported, I tend to buy a ton and horde it because I know it might disappear forever in a month.

18. One word: portion. Yes, I do eat pretty much everything including meat, fish etc but the portion of the food (and the overall calories) is significantly less compared to what I was eating back home. (Greeks eat a lot though)

    Overall, I feel that I am eating healthier compared to before moving to Japan.

19. I’ll start by saying that I’m a giant fatass. I’m sure I’m in the 99th percentile of BMI in Japan, and probably even in the USA I’d be in the 90th. That said, it’s way easier in Japan not to get worse than I already am.

    When I go home to Canada, and especially if I take a business trip to the USA, I’m gobsmacked at the portions in restaurants.

    Furthermore (and this is just because of where I live, not Japan is general), I can now walk to either of two supermarkets in 10 minutes here, which means it’s easier to get some fresh food to cook up for dinner, rather than doing a big grocery shop for a whole week, which would inevitably mean more frozen prepared meals.

20. This could be due to advanced age, but I’ve found my taste has changed and I’ve become less picky. Used to hate cabbage, now I eat it almost every day. Dark chocolate used to be the devil, now I’m a 70% cacao guy.

    My weight hasn’t changed all that much. I’ve been around 60kg since before I moved here and even back home I avoided escalators and elevators.

    The biggest difference is no one points out of I’m “too skinny” all the time, because I’m about average here.

    Edit: I should also mention that my appetite is much, much smaller. I can hardly finish anything when I go back home.

21. I hate my relationship with food while here. Cause I still have some of my baby weight, a very normal thing. But I am now an American size 8-10 which means I fit Medium clothes there…but finding pants or shorts my size is near impossible here. Which is ridiculous and my body dysmorphia is so bad.

    People keep saying GU or Uniqlo but most stuff that may fit me is online…but also not my style or what I need now my new part time job requires business casual.

    So I’m trying to diet or be mindful of what I eat while trying to walk a lot since at home workouts are still slightly difficult with a needy 10-month-old, but holy shit sweet breads, white rice, salt is EVERYWHERE and veggies and fruits are expensive. It’s ridiculous.

    While in USA for three months driving everywhere and having access to places like wingstop and taco trucks I actually lost weight while home cause I had more access to affordable veggies and fruit at the same time.

22. I think we miss that there are two similarities that may be common in peeps who come here. Your age when you immigrated was probably young and the sort of environment your food consumption was under before you arrived probably influences you even today.

    There are two aspects for me;

    Aging: I knew from before if I didn’t keep a healthy weight in my 30’s I would have trouble keeping it off later in life. As expected I don’t need to eat as much as I did in my teens or 20s to be full and subsequently to maintain weight. Getting used to aging was a part of adjusting to consumption of food here.

    Nurture: I grew up in a finish your plate household. I have difficulty going against this to this day whether it be in home or eating out. This led me to adopt smaller plates at home. Japanese food portions at some places are also relatively small and so are the portions supplied at some supermarkets. These two make it relatively affordable to keep portions manageable without feeling like you are wasting food, spending too much on food or leaving food on the plate.

    I don’t think there is anything uniquely Japanese about diet attitudes here.

23. My main takeaways:

    1. Portion size is much more reasonable in Japan
    2. Quality of ingredients tends to be better since their food safety laws are so strict
    3. I realized how unhealthy a lot of stuff is back in Canada by comparison

    It’s also so much easier keeping the weight off here.

24. Zero changes. I still eat like a pig and enjoy not being able to find clothes that fit me in Uniqlo

25. As an American I’ve more or less given up on sodas, and the idea that sodas/drinks should be free refill at restaurants. Pretty much only drink water and tea now.

    Also eat smaller portions, and I don’t feel the need to keep eating once I’m full.

26. For me it hasn’t changed in the sense you’re asking.

    But the quality of the food I eat in Japan is definitely higher than back in the US where I grew up. And I’m talking about the US in the 70s and 80s, not now with the super processed and sweetened stuff Americans apparently eat now.

    I mean to say that the food just tastes really good on average here. Back in the US it was either bland or over seasoned. It was really rare to find something genuinely delicious even in high class restaurants.

    Except for things like pizza and burgers.

27. Yes! I’ve completely cut out all carbs and have lost 10kgs over the last few months. Conversely, My drinking has greatly improved also.😁

28. Japanese food has always been my favorite cuisine and I ate it frequently growing up, but of course never to the extent I ate it once living there full time. I have to say, I gained more weight than I ever had before while living in Japan. I honestly think it’s the hidden and not so hidden salt in so many foods, as well as the carb heavy diet. My cholesterol went up after living there as well, even though my eating in versus eating out habits didn’t change much. I think the enkai/nomikai culture got the best of me lol.

29. Coming to Japan from the US after university, the biggest change has been my intake of soda. I still like to have a Coke now and then with a burger, but I’d say 95% of my soda drinking has been replaced by tea. If I buy a drink from a vending machine or a convenience store it’s probably 100% tea.

    I have also found my tolerance for super sweet sweets has gone down. I still love sweet things, but at a Japanese level of sweetness. Going back to the US I clearly taste the difference.

    Portion wise, I don’t know if it’s because of living in Japan, or just getting older, but I certainly can’t eat the gigantic sizes that are given to me in US restaurants. I seriously can’t comprehend how you can order an appetizer and a main dish in most restaurants back in the US and finish them.

30. >The poster was asking people to use the stairs rather than elevators

    I’m always baffled when I see HUUUGE lines of people queueing up infront of the escalator at big stations when the stairs are right next to it, much faster, barely in use and not even a lot of stairs.

    ​

    Even when doing over 25k steps a day I still always use the stairs

31. I was at Disney land, I’m by no means super skinny but I saw to fatty fat fuck Americans they looked grotesque like they could be an attraction at a carnival compared to all the Japanese it blew my mind.

32. Both for the better and worse. I had an ED in high school (like a huge number of teen girls unfortunately) and the psychological effects have never really gone away even though I’m at a healthy weight now. The general population here is way way skinnier than in my home country and it admittedly makes me pretty self-critical. That’s obviously nobody’s fault though, I’ve never been criticized for my weight or anything here.

    On the flip side, I enjoy the actual process of eating way more now. Eating out is relatively affordable and you can reliably get good food, plus I have always enjoyed Japanese and generally Asian cuisines. I also find cooking more fun now. People sometimes ask me if I miss any food from my home country and I literally can’t think of anything (besides affordable fruit).

33. I eat way more vegetables than I ever did back in the states and am genuinely repulsed by all of the sugary cereals they market to kids under the guise of a healthy breakfast. I also tend to like more lightly flavored foods instead of heavily flavored things now too. I will say that I’m still a sucker for cool ranch Doritos and smart food popcorn tho and will bathe in it if given the opportunity.

    While I gained weight living in Japan, I’m honestly glad that I don’t live in the states because I’d probably be as round as a marshmallow with the portion sizes over there.

34. I love it. Still. But I appreciate and want things differently.

    In the UK or the US, I craved good Japanese food, fresh seafood, etc. Never gave two shits about Wendys.

    But now, I want great burgers. Or British beer, proper sausages.

35. I started eating more and a much healthier varied diet. I also started going to the gym and put on some extra weight, growing up skinny and always being called scrawny this made me incredibly happy.

    Even though it was mainly muscle put on and from my wife and foreign friends I only heard good, my boss (skinny man with a beer belly) loved to make comments about how I had gotten bigger in a negative light lol…

36. My relationship with food has gotten better since I see the health effects of unhealthy eating patterns in my family, it’s long term effects and the need for assistance with daily life activities, or getting diabetes which I don’t want! I no longer bring junk in the house – chips, cookies (I make my own), or make and eat daily-fries, potato salad, mashed potatoes, garlic/parsley potatoes, fried potatoes, cheesy potatoes, baked potatoes! I mean I can eat it every day!

37. Unfortunately I have to supplement my protein because a normal Japanese portion doesn’t contain enough protein for the amount of exercise I do. Sometimes it can be a pain. However, overall, I would say I am wayyyy healthier than when I was back in my home country.

38. Tried eating a double whopper in Burger King and couldn’t finish it. It was just to big. Japan has defiantly changed me for the better, finally lost weight

39. As a vegetarian I discovered the wonders of tofu and seaweed, two things I wouldn’t have even touched back in the UK.

    The necessity of checking labels has increased too.

    I wonder if this vegetable soup has meat in it?
    Does this green salad have chicken in it?
    Etc

40. Nothing but I lost weight recently. I’m not sure if it was subconscious or I’m just dying from alcoholism.

    But now I’m getting free side dishes from places that knew me years ago.

41. Peer pressure. People commenting on my weight every single time that they see me. It made me adopt their tiny portions and more balanced meals. Now my weight is about 10kgs lighter than before.