Why is it so Easy to be Thin in Japan?
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters recommend it as an accurate account of everyday Japanese eating and of why the US food environment is so much worse.
What it is
Joseph Everett compares the food environment of the US, with roughly 30% obesity, to Japan's, around 3.5%. He argues that what is available and normal to eat explains much of the gap.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2018 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends mtgx · 2018-01 · on “Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds”
Speaking of Japan, I recently saw an interesting video about why Japanese people are so thin, compared to say the US: [this video]
Recommends novok · 2020-06 · on “Biohacking Lite”
Yup I agree. I call it the food gravity problem of america. Trying to eat healthy here is like trying to beat gravity: This youtube video goes into more detail about the US problem compared to japan: "Why is it so Easy to be Thin in Japan?" [this video]
Recommends presentation · 2021-01 · on “Japanese people may have gained longevity by balancing their diets”
Re diet: putting aside that alcohol-per-capita consumption here in Japan is less than the OECD average [1], and also how the article is actually about how the introduction of meat into the Japanese diet has caused a decrease in strokes (i.e. this is probably off-topic); it is true that if you are eating out cheaply, you'll likely find lots of rice and meat stuff like gyuudon (beef on rice), katsudon (breaded meat on rice) and what not. But a normal Japanese meal generally has a pretty good mix of stuff - some fermented side dishes (tsukemono), some veggies, miso soup, some rice or noodles, some fish, maybe some meat. Perhaps my wife is an outlier, but every meal she's cooked for our househol
Cites Mawr · 2022-12 · on “A day in the life of almost every vending machine”
> Are you saying these drinks machines only dispense water? Kind of? [this video] The healthy/unhealtly food availability ratio in the western world is like 10%/90% whereas in Japan it seems closer to 70%/30%. Personally, I have never seen a vending machine in the western world that had a healthy drink in it that wasn't plain water.
Cites Mawr · 2023-11 · on “U.S. Sugar consumption trend from 1970-2021”
I'd be surprised if the ratios matched up exactly. That'd mean the only factor dictating the level of obesity is food culture. Not likely. I'm sure Japan has a variety of unhealthy foods, I don't see how that matters. That unhealthy food exists in Japan doesn't tell us anything about how much of it people actually eat. That's why I linked the video, its author talks about the experience of the average person, here's an exact link: [this video] . I cannot stress this enough, the only thing that matters is what is readily available to the average person. That's the determining factor of most people's diets, not what's theoretically possible to purchase.