With the green mountains, blue sea, vibrant culture and its mouth-watering cuisine Japan has become a beautiful country.
You may question yourself when you met Japanese people, “Why Japanese women are so slim and look so young?”
They are healthy and young looking because of the cuisine and lifestyle of them. Their food is based on the principle of health and longevity. Japan is also known as the home to the world’s highest proportion of people who live more than 100 years.
Japanese people extract not only the taste of the food but also the health benefits from their foods.
Here are the top 10 reasons why Japanese women stay slim and don’t look old.
01 Drinking Green Tea
Japanese people are in love with green tea. The powdered green tea, which is also named as matcha is made from the highest quality leaves, which are dried and milled into a fine powder. Then this powder is mixed with hot water. In the tea ceremony, which is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, they use this green tea.
This green tea is delicious and also very beneficial. It is also one of the healthiest teas in the world which is rich in antioxidants. It helps to fight free radicals and delay the aging process, help in weight loss and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.
Adults in Japan who consumed higher amounts of green tea had a lower risk of death due to all causes and due to cardiovascular disease and Japanese citizens who drank 5 cups of green tea per day had 26 percent lower mortality rates revealed a study published in JAMA in 2006.
02 Consuming Fermented Foods
Fermented foods like kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, miso, tempeh, and kimchi are the foods they often eat.
The foods that have been through a process of lacto fermentation are fermented foods. Natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food and create lactic acid in this process. By this process, it preserves the natural nutrients in food and creates beneficial enzymes, B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids and various strains of probiotics.
This process also aids digestion and helps with weight loss, it also helps expel harmful toxins and heavy metals from cell tissue as it promotes friendly intestinal bacteria and breaks down food to a more digestible form.
According to a study published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology in 2014, there is a connection between fermented dairy products and the growth of beneficial intestinal microbes.
As there may be an influence on longer-term gut-brain communication, the importance of findings that non-dairy fermented foods and herbs can have a positive influence on intestinal microbiota.
03 Popularity of Seafood
Japanese people like to eat seafood, unlike the Americans. Americans eat red meat, which brings them many health issues such as obesity, high cholesterol, and inflammatory diseases.
Most commonly Japanese people eat rice or noodles with different types of seafood. Fish and shellfish like tuna, salmon, mackerel, and shrimp are extremely popular in Japanese cuisine as Japan is surrounded by sea.
Fish contains high-quality proteins, various essential nutrients, and omega-3 fatty acids, which are excellent for the brain, heart and organs.
Omega-3 fatty is very essential in reducing the body fat, abdominal fat and promoting smooth skin. On the other hand, seafood reduces inflammation in the body and benefits the nervous system.
Skin disorders such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, acne vulgaris, non-melanoma skin cancer, and melanoma can be prevented by these healthy fats.
If you eat healthier fish, it is better for you. So, Japanese people serve fish in many different ways, such as raw, poached, grilled, fried, baked or steamed.
04 Eating Smaller Portions
Another part of Japan’s Culture is serving small portions.
When you have smaller portions you can eat less and it lose weight. It also contributes to less eating when portions look larger on smaller plates. So, you can avoid unintentional overeating and high calorie intake.
Than the type of food you eat, the smaller portions are more important when considering weight management.
Some of the basic foundations of Japanese home-cooked food presentation include:
- Do not completely fill up the plates.
- Do not serve a big portion of any item.
- Fresh is best.
- Foods should be garnished and each item on the menu should be arranged properly to showcase its natural beauty.
05 Walking is a Ritual
Walking is a good exercise to stay slim and fit, in Japan, both men and women walk a lot.
Walking also helps in weight loss, improves cardiovascular health, boosts energy and mood and helps relieve stress.
Many people in Japan’s cities commute by train and subways as their population is heavily concentrated. So, they need to walk or bicycle to the station and back.
Even the children in Japan walk to school. Using a bicycle is also very popular there and it’s also a very good exercise.
06 Eating on the Go is a Big No-No
As there are no walking lunches, meal times in Japan are sacred periods of energizing. In Japan, eat while on the go is considered as impolite and acceptable.
While eating, no TV, no work and you do not do anything else. A form an essential part of Japanese food eating is cleanliness and presentation.
They give their stomach time to process food and signal the brain that it is full by eating slower. Chopsticks actually play a role of hindering the amount and speed at which people eat food.
07 Healthy Cooking Methods
Japanese people also use healthy cooking methods. In Japan, they avoid the use of excess oil raw by simmered and grilled techniques predominate. By that it aid in preserving the taste and nutrients of the ingredients.
They don’t deep frying the foods. They only enjoy a few pieces along with other dishes when fried food is served, such as tempura. So, they have the overall balance of the meal.
08 Practicing Martial Arts
In Japan, there are different kinds of martial arts and both men and women practice them.
With the help of Japanese martial arts styles such as karate, judo, aikido and others Japanese women improve fitness level and overall health.
These martial arts help to improve cardiovascular fitness and endurance, help build muscle strength and improve muscle flexibility and aid weight loss and slow the aging process.
A 2013 pilot study published in Clinical Medical Insights: “Women’s Health suggests that martial art exercise improves body composition, favors bone turnover biomarkers (increasing bone formation and decreasing bone resorption) and reduces inflammation in overweight or obese premenopausal women.”
09 Hot Spring Baths
A common practice in Japan is hot spring bath and it prolongs life.
Hot spring is called as ‘onsen’ in the local language. Japan has thousands of them throughout all of its major islands as it is a volcanically active country.
Due to the temperature of the water along with the mineral content, such as magnesium, calcium, silica, and niacin hot springs have healing powers and are beneficial for health.
Your skin soaks in these minerals and your hydrostatic pressure rises when you enjoy a bath in a hot spring and it aids a better blood circulation and oxygen flow throughout the body. It is beneficial for your heart as well as other vital organs and tissues and reduces stress and promoting better sleep which benefits your skin health.
Japanese women look young and stay slim as they take a hot spring bath at least twice a month.
10 Healthy Desserts
One of the secrets of staying slim is they eat sweet less often. Desserts are not an integral part of Japanese cuisine.
They eat a lot of fresh fruit at the end of their meal rather than sugar-laden desserts. In the United States, sugar is one of the main culprits behind the rise of obesity.
Also, Japanese sweets have a lot less caramel, refined flours and all of those other frightfully fattening ingredients commonly used in the U.S. Sweets are made from healthy ingredients, such as sweet potatoes, buckwheat flour, and fresh fruits.
They take small portion sizes even when Western-style sweet desserts are served