Tag Archives: japanese food

Work it Off: Burn Off the 508 Calories in a Shrimp Tempura Roll

I love sushi. Which is good news because I’m in Japan! One of my favorite dinners is sushi rolls and pieces of nigiri (raw fish with a little rice) and sashimi (raw fish without any rice). I love how fresh it tastes, how flavorful it is, and how healthy it feels. (Fish is, after all, a part of a balanced and healthy diet!) But I can’t help but recall a recent magazine article I read, which said that eating a few sushi rolls was equivalent to eating half a loaf of bread in terms of sugar, carbs, and so forth.

sushi

I try to cut down on the rice, sticking mainly to sashimi and nigiri, which really helps keep this meal helathy–you’re eating nothing but fish after all, plus a little soy sauce and wasabi. But sometimes I really want a tempura shrimp roll (and sort of forgo this advice from Fit Bottomed Girls’ Jennipher Walters). (more…)

10 Reasons Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat

By Delia Quigley for Care2.com

“A good, functional and healthy body is the ultimate fashion statement.” Kiyokazu Washida, fashion critic

Recently I came upon a small, but informative book by Naomi Moriyama entitled Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat. Intrigued and a bit skeptical, although I follow a very similar style of diet, I found some delicious recipes to add to my daily repertoire of meals and gleaned some useful tidbits of information. Such as, for the past 25 years Japanese women have held the world record for living the longest with an average of 86.4 years. Not just the women, Japanese men have the longest life expectancy among all men in the world’s 192 nations. Much of this distinction is attributed to eating a healthy diet.

In her book, Moriyama takes the reader into her mother’s kitchen in Japan and reveals her secrets for living a long and healthy life. Not much you haven’t heard before, and yet taken altogether and practiced over a lifetime, the results are impressive. Here’s the Japanese recipe for living to a ripe old age, while staying active and healthy.


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Your Game Plan for Eating Healthy at Any Sushi Restaurant

By Jennipher Walters for FitBottomedGirls.com

Sushi can be a fabulously healthy meal — if you stick to the right fare and have a game plan. (Key word there being “if.”) As a general rule, the authentic stuff is the best. So if it sounds like a frat boy named it (think: Santa Maria’s Suicide Roll, The Blur Roll or Acid Drops — all real names from real restaurants, mind you), you should probably stay away from it as they usually include more American ingredients such as mayo, cream cheese or something fried. Here are more tips for eating healthy at a sushi restaurant!

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How to Cook Healthy Japanese Food at Home

When someone says “Japanese food” does your mind automatically revert to a heaping platter of sushi? While there are plenty of healthy (and unhealthy) sushi options for anyone watching their diet, there is far more to the Japanese cuisine than sushi, which you can easily make from scratch at home.

Unlike the American diet, notorious for its “super-size” portions,  the Japanese diet is modest, with smaller portions. “Many Japanese people are taught to eat until they are just 80% full,” said Namiko Chen, author of the Japanese home cooking blog Just One Cookbook.

As with any cuisine, you can prepare lighter dishes at home than you would receive in a restaurant because you have complete control over how much salt, butter, cream or oil you add to your dish.

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Sushi Survival Guide: Healthiest and Unhealthiest Choices for Your Diet

If I had to pick one food that I go to as my favorite Friday night welcome-the-weekend treat, it would be sushi. Sure, I love pizza and any number of other diet-crashing foods, but when it comes down to it, sushi is my favorite.

The good news is that sushi happens to be a healthy option… usually. Even with a cuisine centered around lean fish, there are many ways that you can make your meal a caloric nightmare.

The general rule to making healthy choices at your favorite sushi restaurant is to keep it simple. As the sushi dish gets more ingredients, the likelihood that your meal will be high in calories is much greater.

Let’s take a look at some of the more popular sushi recipes and the corresponding nutritional values. Remember, these are estimates since every restaurant will prepare their sushi slightly different: (more…)