JapanNewbie

Healthy Fast Food

Posted on 15. Apr, 2006 @ 6:45 am by harvey in Food Views: 1,327

Most Americans have an extremely unhealthy diet.  Most Japanese are alright.  I’m not a nutritionist, but I think most will agree.

Want to know one of the reasons why?

Here it is.

This is an “ekiben” or, a obento you buy in the train station before going a long trip.  When on a business trip to Tokyo, I usually end up heading back to Osaka after the work day is over. The trip by Shinkansen (bullet train) is about 2.5~3 hours from Tokyo station to Shin-Osaka, and work is usually over at about 6:30~7:30pm.

So, if I plan to eat dinner at a reasonable time, I’ll have to rely on one of these ekiben’s.  Hundreds of salary-men everyday do the same.  When you’re on the run, you grab some fast food at the eki and eat it while traveling on the bullet train.

It’s fast food.

Look at the picture closely. We’ve got rice, shrimp, vegetables, carrots, mushrooms, can’t see it but under the “dango” there is fish, even some tempura up there, and other kinds of seafood I can’t identify.

This is probably more healthy than food I ate back in the US when I wasn’t in a rush at all…

Most restaurants in Japan also have decently healthy and well-balanced meals. Of course McDonald’s is here as well, and also a wide variety of Japanese fast-food restaurants such as MOS Burger, Fast Kitchen and Freshness Burger, but these options are generally not seen as regular “dinner substitute” as  often as we do (or at least I did) while living in the US. A few people in my office seem to rely on Cup Noodle too often… Anyway…

It’s just so much easier to be a slacker and eat healthy in Japan than it is in the US.  Personally I haven’t lost weight since moving here, but when I go back to the States it takes me a while to get adjusted to the new eating environment again. My guess is that I would gain a few pounds pretty quickly if I ever move back.

- Harvey