Monday, April 19, 2010

Is your diet healthy by Japanese standards?

According to Japan Health Handbook, a copy of which I picked up in Takadanobaba today, here is what a typical questionnaire used by Japanese nutritionists to determine if you are eating a healthy and balanced diet.  If you total 80 points or more, you're eating healthily.

1. Do you eat a little of everything on the dinner table with no strong likes or dislikes? 6
2. Do you usually eat dinner with your family, happily conversing? 6
3. Do you not let between-meal snacks affect your appetite? 6
4. Is at least half of your meal homemade, with a wide variety of vegetables? 6
5. Do you eat at least thirty different kinds of food a day? 6
6. Do you eat carrots, winter squash, spinach, nira, green pepper, komatsuna and shungiku? 6
7. Do you eat various root vegetables like potatoes and taro satoimo? 6
8. Do you eat konbu, wakame, and shiitake every day?  4
9. Do you eat meat and vegetable stew (nikujaga) regularly? 4
10. Do you clean out, disinfect, and adjust your refrigerator temperature monthly? 3
11. Do you take care not to add too much sugar to coffee and tea and to reduce your intake of sweetened drinks? 4
12. Do you eat some kind of soybean product (about 100g) daily? 6
13. Do you read labels when buying food products? 6
14. Do you have miso soup every day? 6
15. Do you alternate meat and fish dishes? 6
16. Do you have an egg a day and at least 200 cc of milk? 6
17. Do you eat sardines, mackerel and pacific saury frequently? 4
18. Do you eat an appropriate amount (about 200g) of fruit daily? 3
19. Do you eat seasonal foods (fresh fruit and vegetables)? 2
20. Are you careful not to overeat salty foods? 4

1 comment:

  1. The real question is does the sumo wrestler pictured below this entry eat a healthy diet? Hmmmmm . . . .

    ReplyDelete