Can someone explain the Asian diet?

[Xami]

There's only one factor when considering weight gain/loss, and that is calorie balance. If you eat more than you spend, you gain weight. If you use more (exercise) than you eat, you lose weight. That's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if you get all your calories from fat or carbs or protein or whatever. The only thing that matters is the amount. (Although if you only ate fat you'd have other problems)

That said, as someone who's lived in both the U.S. and Japan, I'd say the main difference is the serving size and drinks, as many have pointed out. Americans eat larger servings and drink a lot of sugared drinks.

When I lived in the U.S., I didn't really gain weight. When I lived in Japan briefly with my parents, I gained weight because I didn't work out much. Now I live by myself and work out regularly, and I can eat anything and not gain a single lbs.

Just wanted to point out that the most important factor in a person's weight is how much food they consume.
Stop blaming genetics. They are not why a third of America is obese.

Also this.

[bouncyz]

quit eating so much, and go do some exercise.

[kronpas]

Hello, first off let me say that I LOVE Asian food. (Teryaki chicken, chow mein, spring rolls, sushi, pad thai, ect) Unfortunately, most of it has very high calories, fat, and above all sodium; So I eat it sparingly. I recently went to China and Japan on holiday and was surprised to see that there were literally NO overweight people in these countries. My first assumption was that the locals cook with no soy sauce and use brown rice ect, but I was wrong. I ate noodles with a friend who moved to Tokyo several months earlier, and he told me that this was the best place to get "authentic" Japanese noodles. The noodles I ate were drowned in so much soy sauce I literally had to drain some of the sauce into my empty soup bowl because it was so overpowering, But he ate every bite then slurped the soy sauce left over like milk from a cereal bowl! So my question is how do Asian people consume so much salt and fat yet none of them gain weight?

Note: not sure if this is the place to ask this question, but it is the only place I could think of.

Theres huge disparity between Asian countries regarding diet, so your question of "Asian diet" actually has little meaning. From top of my head, Japanese tends to have more sea food in their meal, Korean hot/spicy food, Chinese food literally drown in oil, Vietnamese salty, Thai hot...

Among them only Chinese food is oily and fat.

[Gyros]

handsdown

They do eat soy products, but not as often as you think. Tofu is usually a side part of a meal, some pieces in miso soup, etc. I don't think I've had Edamame without beer since I've been here. They use soybeans in some dishes too, but not anymore often than we eat peas. (in general)

As far as milk goes, you'd be surprised. Almost everyone drinks whole milk. If you go to a big supermarket there will be many brands of whole (3.3% milk), one kind of low fat, and maybe a skim milk. Soy milk is also hidden there somewhere. The smaller stores don't even carry anything other than whole.

[WaitingforSWTOR]

Most japanese food i ate tastes very insipid and boring. IMO we eat more because our food is more tasty (abuse of spices and fat i suppose)

Perhaps not and they are used to flavorless food, dunno

To me the best Asian food is Thai (i love curry & coconut)

[WaitingforSWTOR]

You're really not going to eat a 12 oz porterhouse steak in japan, nor a half-pound bacon cheeseburger with a shake on the side.

Damn u now im hungry!!!

[Geckomayhem]

They don't eat dairy. When was the last time you saw an asian dish with cheeze in it? Never. So, the lack of dairy balances things out.

Japanese love cheese and butter. Hokkaido has a big dairy exporting business. Japanese also love red meat and chicken as much as fish, but a lot of stuff has dashi (a fish-based solution) or other fish products in it. There is a broad range of foods that are consumed in Japan, from, as was mentioned in the OP, teriyaki chicken (soy, mirin and sesame); to ramen swimming in soy-based soup; to soft, fatty pork; to tofu-based meat or vegetarian dishes.

I think what it comes down to is part metabolism and part balance between healthier, omega-based food-groups over all. If you lived on rice, the starch alone would probably be enough to increase your carb intake to the point of gaining noticeable weight. But I think that, in Japan at least, there is a good balance between rice, fried foods, soy- or miso-based foods and various vegetable dishes.

Just as Chinese and Japanese food is incredibly different across the board, so are the most commonly eaten foods in each region and even sub-region of any given Asian country. And just as there are fat people everywhere in the world, there are indeed overweight people in Japan. You are probably just more likely to notice it outside of cities like Tokyo. Real Japan is full of old people working the rice and ginger fields and driving K-trucks. :/

[Draenox]

Them not being fat heavily lies with their amount of meat and vegetables consumed per year. In Denmark where I live it's I read that the average citizen eat around 80-85 kg of meat every year, whereas the Chinese people is rolling around a mere 25-30kg of meat per year, per citizen. The rest of that missing food the Chinese people have, they gain mainly through vegetables.

[Biggles1y3]

6420 :P I don't usually log on to do achievements

[Dekion]

I just wanted to add a little input. It's generally like this. Asian diets are low in sugart. But very high in carbs. Generally American meals are high in carbs, fat, and sugar. Folks who follow the low carb diets are generally skinnier. So what is the key factor with low carb dieters and Asian diets? I believe it's SUGAR as the biggest factor.

Also keep in mind that Asians probably walk alot more than Americans. Don't they bike and walk everywhere while we pretty much drive everywhere?

[Projali]

I just wanted to add a little input. It's generally like this. Asian diets are low in sugart. But very high in carbs. Generally American meals are high in carbs, fat, and sugar. Folks who follow the low carb diets are generally skinnier. So what is the key factor with low carb dieters and Asian diets? I believe it's SUGAR as the biggest factor.

Also keep in mind that Asians probably walk alot more than Americans. Don't they bike and walk everywhere while we pretty much drive everywhere?

You keep saying sugar and carbs like they're different. Common sugars are simple carbohydrates. There's 3 macronutrients: Fats, Proteins and Carbohydrates. I don't know how you can say Asian diets are low in sugar/carbohydrates when rice and vegetables are staples.

The Asian food you typically get in America (Panda Express is an abomination) is not what produces the statistics you hear about. Lower caloric intake combined with more daily physical activity are what make weight differences. I don't see what the mystery is.

[handsdown]

I was enrolled in a Nutrition/Dietetics program for two years - honestly, I questioned quite a few of the things my professors lectured me on. For the most part, I did not and still do not agree with the genetics bull crap except for it playing a role in where your fat is more likely to get stored in your body. Basically you are what you eat and moreover what you eat, eats

[WaitingforSWTOR]

6420 :P I don't usually log on to do achievements

As Darnell would said, what the f..?

lil offtopic, dont you think?

[StixRam]

well, you gotta consider the fact that in china, most of them walk/ride bikes everyday to work = slim. in america, most of them drive/train = no exercise which = fat

[jadakada]

It is not about the food they eat, When I visited Korea I probably ate more then I did in the USA(because I wanted to try everything) And ended up loosing weight still. Some of the food is healthier, as you eat a lot more vegetables and things tend to be more fresh, but I think the real reason why they are not as fat is because they walk ALL the time. I probably walked at least 3 miles a day just to get to places we wanted to eat. Add on anything else you want to do in the day and you are burning calories like nobodies business just doing daily things.

It is much more crowded in countries like japan and Korea because they don't have as much land as in America so driving isn't as appealing as it is in America with it's open roads. That leads to a situation where most people will use public transportation and that leads to a lot of walking. Also people tend to be outside more then the US. During the lunch hours parks are crowded with people walking outside or on the sidewalks to get some fresh air instead of being in the office or going to a restaurant. I hardly see anyone outside in the US at lunch, most people are usually in there cars going to a fast food chain or sitting in the office eating lunch they brought themselves.

So the food isn't really what makes them less fat, it is the amount of walking that is part of there daily routine.

[Rudolpho]

From using salted chicken broth to saute my veggies, to using hot sauce and taco sauce in my homemade dips/marinades, and using soy sauce (only soy product I allow in my diet) on some of my steamed or boiled greens - I probably consume almost, if not double the reccomended amount of salt a day easy. My blood pressure? 90/60 which is considered to be "borderline low blood pressure". Mind you, I do exercise regularly and salt does get lost through sweat.

As far as the cheese thing goes: you all know what (most cheese) is made from of course ... cows milk. The majority of countries consume milk from goats, and not cows. I'd say very few countries consume cheese in their diet.

Goat's milk can be used to make cheese as well...in fact the first cheese ever made was most likely accidentally made from goat milk. Most places in the world have cheese of some sort.

But on the subject of how asians stay so slim...I would say it is a combination of genetics and lower fat intake. I disagree somewhat with the serving size, as my fiancee is Taiwanese and every meal I eat with her family is HUGE. The difference is, they tend to eat a lot of different things and most of it is more healthy (at least weight wise...if you need to cut back on salt, then asian food is a bad idea...but salt only becomes a problem when you have other issues).

I went to her parents on Friday and we had rice, some fish basically soaked in soy sauce, shrimp with a tomato, sugar, and vinegar sauce and cooked with onions, steamed squash, some weird vegetable that I never got the name of (her mom just said it was "Good for healthy"), and steamed dumplings. I was completely stuffed after we ate, but nothing I ate was bad for me...in fact most of it was very good for me.

Then again, I'm not asian but I have an asian build. 5'10 and weigh about 140 lbs, sitting around 5% body fat. If I had problems with sodium or high blood pressure this would probably be bad for me to eat.

[handsdown]

Yes, I realized that after and I'm an idiot. I actually forgot I have tried goat's parmesean and now remember it was disgusting, haha.
I looked up goat's cheese, and I never knew the amount of variety there was. Shows what I know.
So yeah, ignore what I said about cheese. /facepalm

[Willeonge]

Most japanese food i ate tastes very insipid and boring. IMO we eat more because our food is more tasty (abuse of spices and fat i suppose)

Perhaps not and they are used to flavorless food, dunno

To me the best Asian food is Thai (i love curry & coconut)

Vietnamese pho = best mkay.

[Mammabones]

"American" Asian food is different than "real" Asian food. If you do a bit of research you'll be able to find what a typical diet is in some of the Asian countries-- and it is not what you'll find on the menu at your corner take out place.

Hello, first off let me say that I LOVE Asian food. (Teryaki chicken, chow mein, spring rolls, sushi, pad thai, ect) Unfortunately, most of it has very high calories, fat, and above all sodium; So I eat it sparingly. I recently went to China and Japan on holiday and was surprised to see that there were literally NO overweight people in these countries. My first assumption was that the locals cook with no soy sauce and use brown rice ect, but I was wrong. I ate noodles with a friend who moved to Tokyo several months earlier, and he told me that this was the best place to get "authentic" Japanese noodles. The noodles I ate were drowned in so much soy sauce I literally had to drain some of the sauce into my empty soup bowl because it was so overpowering, But he ate every bite then slurped the soy sauce left over like milk from a cereal bowl! So my question is how do Asian people consume so much salt and fat yet none of them gain weight?

Note: not sure if this is the place to ask this question, but it is the only place I could think of.

[Kubex]

they eat a diet high in low fat meat like seafood, fresh veggies, protein rich soy based products like tofu. traditionally they don't eat highly processed food like burgers. Yes they eat high carbs in the form of noodles and rice but it was way less refined then white bread which has no dietary benefit.