A case study on a retired yokozuna wrestler Sumo wrestling is by no means an easy sport, and perhaps hardest of all is afterwards, when a wrestler decides to retire. When a sumo wrestler decides to retire, a return to a normal lifestyle means a return to a normal weight — no easy feat when […]
weightloss
The Biggest Reason Why the Okinawan Diet Works
Okinawa, an island prefecture in southern Japan, stands out among a country that is already well known for longevity. They have a much lower rate of coronary heart disease compared to mainland Japan. A separate study on Japanese centennials living in Okinawa, where the researcher went back and analyzed at what age these individuals were […]
Add Any One of These Ingredients to Punch Up Flavor
The secret of soy sauce, dashi, sake, and miso The seasonings for traditional Japanese food are usually quite simple: soy sauce with a bit of grated ginger, or soup with miso paste and a bit of wakame in it. In recipes, the ingredient list tends to only be a few lines long and the directions […]
How Ordering Tea is Different in Japan
Don’t let a seemingly healthy habit feed a sugar addiction Can we have two iced teas?” Before Covid, we were at an American diner somewhere in Connecticut, in the middle of one of the hottest days in August. My dad and I had just finished moving me into my new apartment, and we were both […]
Japanese Food and Why Everything Comes With Ginger
A healthful spice, that makes everything nice We forgot to go grocery shopping and our fridge was looking sparse. We didn’t have many vegetables at home, besides some eggplants and a nub of ginger. Can you even cook anything good with just that? But turns out my mom had a plan — she took the […]
To Eat Healthfully for Life, Eat with Your Principles
If you’ve ever looked up a dieting trend, you’ve probably fallen into an endless black hole back-and-forth discussion of robot questions and robot answers, on how to best adopt a healthy lifestyle. Frequently, discussions that look like this: What time is the best time for us to eat? — You should eat when your body […]
Why You Should Love a Japanese Breakfast
What is breakfast food? I was born in the U.S. and spent my formative years there, so, naturally, I developed the sense that a normal breakfast should look something like pancakes, cereal, buttered toast, bacon, or sausages. It’s what was served to me when I went to friends’ houses for sleepovers and it’s what was […]
A Japanese Style of Snacking That Diverts Cravings for Oreos
Prevent mindless munching with sanji no oyatsu It seems that time at home has led to more people purchasing unhealthy processed foods: Mondelez, the maker of Oreos, announced that cookie and cracker sales shot up nearly 30% in the first quarter of 2020. And lots of people are concerned about the repercussions of easier access to a junk-stocked […]
