I mean you can visit Tokyo and barely notice anyone being fat while in New York there’s about 30% people being obese, even though both countries have fast food. Although Japan has less of it tending to burn off that by walking or exercise (it also reflects their lifestyle) and portion sizes regarding food & calorie intake while in US there are literally multiple fast food joints next to each other along with huge portion sizes.
Tokyo’s obesity is rising, as is youth obesity in general. More shit food, less manual labor, shorter work hours, shorter work week (school and work used to be 6 days a week and work days in particular could be (and sometimes still are) quite long; this only changed recently, in the '90s IIRC). I suspect it will continue to grow.
The people who work desk jobs and stay fit move a lot, eat smaller portions, eat less bad food, and drink few calories. People are consuming more tea and coffee than sodas and other similar drinks. In urban areas, people are often easily hitting 10k+ steps a day just going to and from work/school/errands. Many of the fitter people who have time and money also do something like kickboxing, dance, etc. (though that tends to stop once they have kids).
A lot of this is anecdotal from someone over a decade in Japan.
Edit: Ah, also societal pressure to fit in, particularly worse for women as is often the case. People will not be shy to call you fat(ter), though it can also be because of a genuine worry about your health if they’re your friends.
I read a lot of manga, and the amount of references I see to going to school on a Saturday or leaving the school building at 7pm. It is unreal to think about.
Leaving later can be because of 部活 which is often translated as ‘clubs’ but I might call them extracurricular activities coming from the US. Dance, table tennis, soccer, baseball, chess, electronics, swimming, etc.
Growing up in the US, I did band, theater, sports, etc. and it wasn’t uncommon to be leaving school fairly late because of it (theater especially).
Japan has walkable cities
I know plenty of fat as fuck farmers
Farmers don’t walk lol they drive everything. It’s like an office job on wheels nowadays, especially in North america
Food and culture. Those countries have nothing in common for that.
portion sizes … and calories
It’s the only scientific way to lose weight.
It feels like lots of people here in the US have just given up.
It has been mentioned in the comments, but I’d like to highlight it in its own comments. The social pressure and bullying especially in middle and high school struck me as pretty high when I was there. So it is not only the food, but also the enforced perceived normal.
I find it hard to believe any US city has obesity rate as low as 30%. Maybe grossly obese at 30%
Yeah it’s bad out here in the midwest, people try to call me skinny and my bmi is literally 31 and i do not work out lol. But it’s also true im just about the least fat person in my building.
The average obesity rate in america is 40%. There are lots of cities that are sub-30. Apparently mine is 20%.
Hara hachi bu
For anyone wondering: Meaning stomach is 8 parts (out of 10 full) i.e. don’t eat until complete fullness.
When we were in Tokyo and SE Asia, we lost weight. The food is lighter, healthier, smaller proportions. The rice is not handed out like some sort of endless buffet. You get a cup of rice or whatever the measurement. That’s it. No additional servings of rice. Andrew Weil did a whole description of how cultures who’s staple foods (rice, corn, grains, taro…) have become more finely processed become more obese, across the board, as a culture. When it becomes fine powdery flour, it breaks down into sugar way faster. You’re not supposed to eat that shit for good reasons. Lifestyle plays a big part but cutting out all that junk food is critical.
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Bread, pasta, Potatoes, hIgh fructose corn syrup. versus Seafood, fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
Don’t throw potatoes in bad food example list, potatoes are the most satiating foods(boiled potatoes satiety index is 323%) and good source of carbs, vitamin c, b6, potassium, a little fiber, all of which support decent heart health and blood pressure and those are generally cheap as fuck and third most important food crop world wide.
Cooking method, drowned in oil, is what messes it all up, but boiled or even just oven cooked/air fried potatoes are a really good choice of carb source and should be included in a healthy diet and should be top choice when trying to lose weight due to high satiety index.
So don’t tarnish potatoes like that.
I don’t think many people eat like that most days anymore. Breakfast, for those who eat it, is toast for like 60% of people, almost any bento sold at supermarkets and konbini have pasta in them (along with multiple other carbs, sometimes including potatoes), etc. Lots of additives and such in cup noodles which a lot of people also eat way too regularly. Japanese do tend to eat more fresh fruit than Americans, anecdotally.
