Hello all,
I have probably a different kind of question than normal and if it’s the wrong subreddit I’m sorry and please point me to the right one 🙂
With that being said, I have Gilbert’s syndrome, and long story short, I can’t eat anything too heavy, or too spicy or too salty and so on, and I’ve been wondering what kinds of foods I could eat (once I get there) that are on the lighter side.
Normally there shouldn’t be too much of an issue with this illness but for some reason it’s being kind of mean to me lol
Which ones are available on the go? And how healthy are they?
Thank you for reading and the info in advance 🙂
28 comments
Japanese people can’t do spicy. Heavy? Do you mean fatty? Lots of cream? Lots of carbs aka wheat noodles and white rice?
Salty can be an issue, miso and soy sauce are pretty high in sodium.
from what you describe, you should be careful with Ramen. I’d say most broth are salty and some like Tonkotsu are very oily. Other than that, avoid the soy sauce and you should be fine? Wasabi is not “chillies spicy” so that should be ok too.
Maybe ask someone here who might speak Japanese to write down “Not too salty please” for you?
Remember that many Japanese restaurants serve only one type of food. Seems like nigiri sushi, just fish and rice, would be good. I always liked tonkatsu although it is fried it is light. Yakitori and any other yakimono are just grilled skewers. If you are very sensitive, stick to ramen. It is also the cheapest option.
By heavy do you mean oily or high in carbohydrates?
Assuming it’s the former, it’s quite easy to have a non-oily diet in Japan and as
[RealArc](https://www.reddit.com/user/RealArc/) says, avoiding spice is not difficult. On the other hand, Japanese food is salty however, particularly if you eat anything with a soup (e.g. ramen) or something with a sauce or tare for dipping. If you don’t do much dipping, soba noodles might suit you and there are plenty of pasta restaurants that offer low fat meals. Sushi is another option and there’s no shortage of that. Shabu-shabu can be heavy if you go for the fatty meat, but if you mostly dip vegetables or leaner meat, it is relatively healthy.
If you’re looking for ideas of things to eat, I think that ochazuke fits your dietary restrictions well (from what I understand given your description). Ochazuke is a traditional dish of tea or more commonly broth over rice, usually supplemented with fish. It’s a very light and mild dish! If this dish sounds interesting to you, let me know and I can recommend some restaurants in Tokyo that serve it!
Onigiri, nigirizushi, soba & udon (with lighter soups), dimsum (Chinese).
since people have already hinted at sushi and others, I will add convenience stone sandwiches are too good and might be ok for snacking
Takoyaki should be fine too..
try [https://www.reddit.com/r/JapaneseFood/](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapaneseFood/) for more insights
Uh if you don’t want to eat out every day but also can’t be arsed to cook I’d recommend:
1. kombini food: every little (and big) supermarket in Japan has a ready to eat food section that actually tastes good. Onigiri from there are my top choice for snacks and/or breakfast when I’m in Japan, and they’re quite light. I also like those little dried packets of miso soup that you just put in a cup and dissolve with hot water (I think they’re freeze dried or something) – they’re surprisingly good and they have so many flavours (but generally light and veggie-based)
2. food halls of big department stores: you can find literally everything, you can see and pick and choose what looks good
I don’t have the same syndrome, but I’m pregnant and living in Japan, and in the recent months I’ve only been eating bland hospital foods because of the nausea hahaha. Examples are cold tofu, yuba, udon, somen, soba, grilled fish, okonomiyaki, sushi rolls, oden, nabe, shabu shabu, okonomiyaki, ochazuke, etc. You can get salads in the convenience stores, as well as yoghurt, cereal, so many kinds of bread, etc. I would recommend you rent an apartment with a kitchen or st least a fridge just in case, as most restaurants won’t accommodate any changes to their menus, even if they’re for dietary restrictions. They tend to be really strict on that.
From what you commented, as other said, I would personally not go to much toward ramen, especially tokotsu as the soup is pretty thick, but also in general the topping is fatty pork and egg. For noodles, you can go toward udon (wheat noodle) and soba (buckwheat noodle), there is still a bit of salt in the soup, but it’s way less fat than ramen.
If rice and seafood are not a problem, for sure things like kaisendon (rice bowl covered of seafood) as well as sushi can be an option.
Actually, there is probably a lot of things, like nabe, dish with tofu, oden, at least those thing don’t strike me as being overly salty or heavy.
For “on the go”, for sure convenience store have lot of things, like onigiri, salad and bento lunch box that usually have rice and some kind of meat or fish. There is also the less healthy stuff like fried chicken (actually even in restaurant there is quite a few fried things like tonkatsu and tempura).
Just eat sushi all day long!
You will enjoy food in Japan despite your food restrictions. Majority of Japanese food is not strongly flavored and usually comes in moderate size portions.
I can’t have strong flavored food that are too spicy, too sweet, too salty, too heavy (fried), etc. and can’t eat too much. I have no issues with going out to eat Japanese food.
I typically avoid western fast food places like McDonald’s, Mos Burger, etc. Only Japanese food that I avoid is mostly curry based, Rice Curry, Katsu Curry, Tonkatsu and Soup Curry. Sometime Miso Soup can also be too salty. Other than Shio Ramen, other Ramen are okay.
the milder shio ramen might work for you.
re spicy – wasabi (and its close cousin karashi) is a fun spice – it doesn’t go down your gut, it attacks your nasal passages like how say, mint or camphor. I don’t know if this means you can take it versus chilis that indeed go down the stomach.
Other than that… IDK, onigiri would work. Or look for vegan places. Dashi – whether by nature or quantity – might be too salty for you (I don’t think it is, but what do I know, right?)
Shabu shabu, is a very good meal. You still get meat but it is very thinly sliced and you cook it in a hot broth. Its meant to be very light. Im not to sure on the sodium level of the broth, however.
Teishoku/set meal restaurants usually have meals which consist of grilled fish, rice and miso soup.
Since you said you eat pasta, lots of places also sell pasta.
For the most part, a lot of meals I had in japan were smaller portions than I was used to. None were too heavy besides the bowls and bowls of ramen I had(lmao) but at the same time I also shopped at a bunch of grocery stores and just made my own meals. So you can eat whatever you need to if you’re willing to shop a little.
You should be able to find quite a lot of things on-the-go in convenience stores!
They sell rice balls and cooked edamame in pods, sandwiches, salads and even things like single cooked boiled eggs.
Just be careful of anything with a sauce, salt is going to be your main obstacle and a lot of sauces have big amounts of soy sauce and dashi in them.
For going out, you should be able to find something in a yakitori shop, lots of grilled chicken and raw cabbage!
Japan should be great for you! The default setting for Japanese food is less salty and fatty than Western cuisines. Most food goes heavy on umami instead (similar idea as Italian pastas, just with different MSG-rich ingredients). There are exceptions (many types of ramen, tonkatsu/tempura/fried stuff) but they will usually be pretty obvious.
Man I’m sorry… I cannot a lot of feel spicy food… I’m the total opposite.
To make people stop eating my stuff I put spicy stuff inside.
I think you can eat japanese food from what I remember, just pay attention to fried stuff and wasabi.
How strictly do you need to limit your salt intake based on your condition? What are the consequences of you go over that limit?
I ask this because my experience in Japan taught me that their food is very high sodium, much more so than what you’d expect from North America and Europe.
I saw elsewhere that you’re Italian and so I’ll throw this sentence out; il cibo è molto saporito.
Not sure how light it should be for you, but my mom gave me Okayu, Zosui or Udon when I was kid and when I caught cold. And I eat them still now when I am not well. Okayu/Zosui looks alike Ochazuke at a first sight (both are rice soup), but different. It’s much lighter and nicer to your stomach. I sometimes feel heartburn when I eat Ochazuke, but it never happens with Okayu. It’s like oat meal but we add a bit of salt instead of sugar. It’s usually home cocking and may be hard to find in a restaurant. Udon is another great choice and there are many Udon restaurants.
Soba (unless you have allergy), salt ramen or shoyu ramen (soy sauce) won’t hurt you either. I hope you enjoy there!
Hi! I am Japanese and I would highly recommend eating gyoza and idk how to say in English but the savory egg custard! Stay away from using too much shoyu and maybe fish eggs because those tend to be on the saltier side. I hope you have fun on your trip! 🙂
Don’t have any food recommendations but just wanted to say. I have Gilbert’s too!!!! I have never heard it mentioned by anyone else. Nice to not feel alone.
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I tried doing a quick read on Gilbert’s Syndrome on Wikipedia before responding, to get a better grip on food restrictions, but it didn’t seem to focus on that and I must confess I was discouraged, so I apologize forvbeingva bit ignorant on what might be ok..
When I was recently in Japan, I caught some kind of stomach bug (possibly from my previous locations on my Asia trip), so spent a couple days going very easy on food.
This may be basic and unexciting, but I really liked the basics from the supermarket. Maybe it’s the magic of being somewhere else, but the cheese, milk bread, and peanut butter seemed peculiarly tasty. Regarding milk bread… certainly milk is involved, but it’s also baked, so I’m not sure if that would be an issue for you.
I also had some Vietnamese chicken soup, pretty similar to chicken noodle soup, but with cilantro and other Vietnamese flavorings. The one I got was in a mall in Roppongi and it wasn’t great. The PB & bread was more enjoyable, TBH. However, I think I just had bad luck on the place I picked. The idea was sound: you can find pretty much any international cuisine if you’re in a larger city.
They also have some really delicious fruits. Don’t skip their apples, melons (cantaloupe and honeydew…”musk” melon?), and the jumbo grapes.
All the pastries I had in Japan were well above average. Also, If you are traveling on JR, seek out the meal box stores. They’re in ticketed passenger areas on/near the platforms. Larger stations can have pretty big shops with big selections. It has overlap with kombini, but feels fancier. They’re popular—look for the busiest shop in the station.
Soba is probably a safe bet, too, since there may be less salty broth options and regardless: you dip the noodles yourself, so you control intake.
(Edit per reply below: but there are many dishes where it’s served in the broth, so be sure to check/research the menu)
As others suggested, I’d probably avoid ramen. If you go, hopefully with a companion, just order whatever apps they have (salads, gyoza, etc..) for your main, then try a few bites of theirs to get the flavor and save yourself the after effects of a whole bowl of salty, fatty pork and broth. Note: some ramen styles serve broth on the side, similar to soba…that might require some advance research, though.
If you’re looking for fine dining, kaiseki can be amazing and anyplace that does it should be able to accommodate dietary needs.
Cold zaru udon, zaru soba, somen, and hiyamugi (dilute with water or hot water if you feel the soup is salty). Plain onigiri without salt, and Sushi (slightly add soy sauce)🍙🍣