Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat by Naomi Moriyama and William Doyle

"Japanese Women Don't Get Old Or Fat," by Naomi Moriyama and William Doyle, is about how Japanese Cuisine is the healthiest in the world. It describes the main ingredients and spices that distinguish Japanese cuisine, which can be found in most ethnic sections of supermarkets, specialty Asian shops or online. Moriyama and Doyle state scientific evidence that support the health benefits of adopting a Japanese diet.

Woven into the text are recipes and Naomi's memories of her mother. This is not a diet book, for the word "diet" conjures up images of starvation and deprivation. It's about how to eat like a Japanese person and how to have a healthy relationship with food, which if adopted, will effortlessly result in lasting weight loss.

Japan has the lowest obesity rate (3%) and highest life expectancy at birth in the developed world (Men: 78, Women: 85). Japanese people reached this statistic phenomenon by centering their diets on what Doyle and Moriyama call the seven pillars of Japanese cooking. They are fish, vegetables, soy, rice, noodles, tea and fruit, all of which are eaten as fresh and unprocessed as possible. Vegetables and fruits are practically eaten right off the earth and trees.

Japanese people eat four times more fish than the rest of the world. Fish lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke because of their high content in omega 3 fatty acid. It is also lower in fat than meat. The market that Naomi's mother always went to took fish from the sea and put it at the stand that same morning.

Though the obvious health benefits of eating vegetables is so clear it needs not be mentioned, the authors devote pages to this point. These pages made me realize how much there is to love about vegetables and how people take their existence for granted.

After reading them, I suddenly craved red peppers and carrots! This rekindling was partially ignited by her memory of the singing "sweet potato man," who pulled his wagon full of hot cooked sweet potatoes through the streets. Naomi and her sister always begged their mother to buy some as soon as they heard him singing through the alley. This is instead of our "ice-cream man" in America, and significantly healthier.

One of the most popular vegetables in Japan is Daikon, which is a large juicy white radish. Also mentioned in the section on vegetables, is Japan's high consumption of seaweed, which have nutritional benefits special to their own. The three types of seaweed are Hijiki, Kombu and Nori.

Rice is the third pillar, which is full of complex carbohydrates and hardly has any sodium, bad fats or cholesterol. Brown rice is even healthier than white rice.

The fourth pillar is soy. Soy products, such as tofu and edamame, have little or no saturated fat. Miso, fermented soybean paste, is used to flavor vegetables and soup. Growing up in Tokyo, her mother bought tofu at a tofu store that made it fresh on the premises.

Noodles are the fifth pillar. Two most popular types are Udon and Soba. They are not made with creamy and fatty sauces, rather with low fat fish, soy and herb based sauces.

The sixth pillar is tea. Green tea is not only the choice of tea but the choice of beverage as well. Hardly any Japanese people sugar loaded soda and fruit juice. Besides the fact that green tea is loaded with anti-oxidants (cancer preventing agents) it is also sugar free.

The final pillar is fruit, which is usually the only dessert ever served. People who eat more fruit are less likely to suffer strokes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Even typical Japanese desserts are healthier than western desserts. Examples of such treats are dumplings in sweet red bean soup and baked wheat buns filled with bean paste. My only complaint about this book is that those recipes are not mentioned!

The way in which the seven pillars are prepared also shows how healthy Japanese cuisine is. Japanese people steam or stir fry foods over high heat. This preserves the texture and nutrients of food. They fry with canola and rice bran oil. Canola oil has a high concentrations of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats and the lowest of saturated fat. Rice bran oil is high in good fats as well. The Japanese also cook with dashi, a fat free fish and seaweed stock. The main ingredient in dashi is bonito flakes, which are dried fish flakes.

There is still another factor that contributes to the low obesity rate and rampant thinness in Japan. Naomi's mother always told her to, "Eat until you are 80% full." This ideology is predominant in Japanese eating habits. Portions are smaller than they are in the rest of the world. Instead of one main dish, such as a big steak, they eat several smaller ones. A typical meal consists of miso soup, grilled salmon, rice and stir fried mixed vegetables.

Japanese people are healthy, thin and have a good relationship with food. They do not work hard to be thin. It naturally results from their healthy eating. Food is celebrated and taken seriously. When Naomi was a school girl, her principal held a meeting where he told all mothers that at school, children should be taught to be caring. He said to achieve this mothers must prepare lunch for their children every day. Naomi's mother did exactly that, and if Naomi ever left the house without eating, her mother chased her down the street with a piece of toast.