JJapanese

Japanese diet

Hello, I live in America and have a small passion for cooking. I’m getting a bit overweight and was thinking instead of going on a traditional diet I was hoping to switch to eating traditional Japanese meals and recipes. I know thats hard to replicate in America but like I said I have a passion for cooking. Please, post some recipes that you know of. If you live in Japan please post or tell me what your weekly diet is and if possible how do you prepare it.

10 comments

  2. I (an American) just started cooking Japanese food out of interest and passion for the culture this year and let me tell you, it might not be as hard as you think to cook traditional Japanese food, depending on where you live. Look up Asian grocery stores near you for ingredients like miso and tofu. Also check health food stores, they’re more likely to have some of those kinds of things.

    What I did was go to my favorite used bookstore and got myself about 10 Japanese cookbooks. I am cooking my way through them and if don’t understand a recipe in one, I can look it up in another and see it explained differently. Helps a lot when navigating a new cuisine!

    I wish you luck!

  5. In Japan everybody posts recipes on cookpad.com. The site is originally Japanese and many Japanese expats post on the English version.

  6. Staple ingredients in Japanese cuisine are dashi, sake, mirin, soy sauce, rice, and garlic/ginger/green onions. You might be able to find them in your local grocery store depending on where you live, but check out a local Asian store if you can. If you can’t find sake it’s not a big deal, but it definitely adds a lot of flavor.

    Also, in Japan they teach kids from a young age to eat in a [triangle method](https://soranews24.com/2020/08/21/japanese-wife-berates-husband-for-eating-rice-and-side-dishes-together/) (三角食べ), meaning

    > rice->soup->protein-> repeat

    It’s thought to help pace yourself while eating which helps prevent overeating. I’m pretty bad at eating too much too fast 😅

    Another thing to keep in mind is portion sizes. Japanese people tend to eat less than Americans overall. Also, the urban lifestyles enjoyed by most Japanese people gives them to ability to *passively* exercise, since they walk to most places. Don’t be afraid to start taking the stairs more or even try and walk to more places (which is pretty much impossible in most of the US ☹️ but you can still try! )

  7. It’s not just what you eat, it’s also how much. Consider some form of the Keto diet, at first you can eat as much as you want, but once you settle into the diet properly, you just stop craving to eat as much.

    You can keep japanese cuisine if you give up the rice and noodles and just eat the veg and proteins.

  8. I grew up in Japan! It’s not hard if you have access to an Asian supermarket, but possible without.

    I recommend either making your own dashi (traditional Japanese stock) from scratch or a mix, or finding a powdered equivalent. It’s the basis of basically 80% of Japanese cooking, traditionally. It makes a WORLD of difference for soups. My favorite dashi is definitely kombu+katsuoboshi but any type is great.

  9. I’m Korean and I’m not sure about Japanese diets, but you should consider eating smaller portions. Over in Korea we would have 2/3 of American portions, possibly even smaller (combined with daily walking is why everyone is so fit.)

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