5 Japanese Diet Plan Secret Ingredients to Lose Weight

5 Japanese Diet Plan Secret Ingredients to Lose Weight - One of the most interesting thing from Japan is its diet. A typical Japanese diet plan requires a lot of healthy foods. A health-based food from Japanese diet plan is also believed as the reason why do people from Okinawa have a longer life. So, some people may recognize it as the Okinawa diet.

For your information, in spite of Japanese diet plan consists of nutritious foods, Japanese people have a good lifestyle that promotes their diet. They will eat in small portion with fewer carbs and have more protein and fiber for their menu. That's how to eat like a Japanese person.

1. Japanese Diet Plan Primarily Requires Fishes

If you are familiar with some Japanese diet food, you may realize that fishes are the main part of some famous foods like sushi, takoyaki, and etc. Fish consumption in Japan is high. They love eating fish as the main menu for daily needs. Also, fish is famous to be included in Japanese diet plan.

There, fishes usually served with soybeans, a bowl of rice, miso soup, vegetables, and a slice of fruit. That is the classic menu. Despite fishes are popular there, some Japanese says that eating fishes prevents them to be fat.

Is that true?

Surprisingly, fishes have so many benefits for you who are struggling in losing weight. You can add fish when you are on Japanese diet plan. Some recent studies show that fishes are included in healthy food for weight loss because of the EPA inside it.

Thus, in this case, we are going to discuss EPA for weight loss. EPA is a kind of fatty acid which is contained in fishes. This good fat is well known as the main component of fish oils in supplements industry since 1775. It has been believed that EPA is good for weight loss.

But, the question is why?

EPA can reduce your appetite. Some preliminaries research involving overweight and obese subjects generally show that consuming fish oils can control subjects fullness after eating.

The general result comes from the using of fish oil which is created from EPA purely and the compounds are something’s similar.

However, you have to remember that this is just a preliminary research. A further research is needed especially for overweight and obesity.

EPA is a good combination of your exercise. There was a research involving 75 overweight or obese subjects who were divided into four groups. The two groups took fish oils and the other two groups took sunflower oil as the comparison because the sunflower oil did not contain any Omega 3.

Then, one of those each two groups did exercise regularly. It was running 3 times for 45 minutes every week. After three weeks, the only group that achieved significant result was the group that took fish oils and did exercise regularly. They achieved weight loss of 4.5 lbs in average.

EPA has positive effects on insulin resistance. A research of energy-restricted diets has been held involving 324 subjects for the duration of 8 weeks to see whether fish oil had a role in body’s sensitivity to insulin.

There were four groups there:

The first group had no seafood or fish oil to eat.
The second group had 150 g of codfish to eat three times each week.
The third group had to eat three times each week 150 g of salmon which was more fatty fish.
The fourth group had to take fish oil every day.

The result showed that fish oil had positive effects on insulin resistance. It depended on how much you consumed it.

Comparing to another method, those studies show that EPA may not that powerful in fat burning. Therefore fish oil and other EPA supplements are not considered as a diet pill.

In fact, if you consume those in high doses, they may cause weight gain. My suggestion is, please combine them with exercise.

Back to the topic. Japanese people may do not take fish oil regularly, but they eat fishes in a regular for the daily meal. They even eat more squid and octopus. So, it makes sense that they got more EPA. A natural EPA from fresh fishes I think.

2. Japanese Diet Plan Requires White Rice, not White Bread

Rice is an important ingredient in Japanese diet plan. Believe it or not, Japanese people would prefer white rice to bread. Surprisingly, white rice can be eaten for any meal. If you find it out, eating rice will always be included in Japanese diet plan for breakfast.

I believe that you know white rice has more calories than bread, but they have their own reason. They believe eating white bread or any other kind of bread means they also have to eat butter, jam, jelly, and etc. as the addition. Those extras have more calories, including fat, sugar, and etc.

In fact:

100 g white bread contains about 264 calories
100 g white rice contains about 130 calories.

Then, what about butter or jam?

1 tablespoon butter contains about 102 calories
1 tablespoon jam contains about 30-55 calories.
1 tablespoon jelly contains about 30-55 calories

Thus, is it enough for you just to eat one slice of bread without any butter, jam, or jelly? Or, how many slices of white bread do you usually need for one single meal? and how much butter, jam, or jelly do you need?

The answer can be relatively various, but the point is white bread + its additions can have much more calories. It depends on how much you eat. Next, for your information, the survey in 2015 showed that modern Japanese people just ate averagely 199-gram rice per day.

It means that they only take about 260 calories from rice per day which is as equal as one slice of bread calories. It also means they do not have to consume sweetener or fats that are contained in butter, jelly, or jam. So, they do not worry about gaining weight quickly.

Honestly, that sounds genius!

3. Foods in Japanese Diet Plan Are Cooked by Using Less Oil

It is quite surprising when I know that Japanese people are aware of healthiness and have more hopes for a healthier life. They are also selective in choosing ingredients and have more interests in premium ingredients. I am not going to say they are all "rich" to buy best foods every day, but they do have health awareness and expectation.

If it is so, you may wonder: Do they have fried or grilled cuisines?

Yes, they do have but they will choose the best cooking technique and oil to keep nutrition inside the food. They will use less oil in cooking. That is one of the essential matters in Japanese meal plan recipes.

By the way, 1 tablespoon oil contains averagely 110 calories (however, it depends on kind of oils) and if you consume too much, there may some problems you get.

However, I will not discuss all the problems caused by oil since there are so many kinds of oils and it is believed that each kind of oils has its own pros and cons.

The things I notice here are some general bad effects when you consume oil in exaggerated ways:

LDL or Low-Density Lipoprotein is the kind of fat that people hate the most and it is believed that consuming oil too much will increase LDL level in your body. The increasing of LDL will make your fat accumulate under your skin and your weight will be increased. It can lead you to obesity.

If you use oil to fry more than one time, the quality will be decreased. Unfortunately, not only the quality is decreased, but also re-used oil will become carcinogens.

Then, when you are in obesity, some bad diseases will come to you such as diabetes, rheumatic, stroke disease, and etc. Therefore, Japanese people love cooking by boiling foods.

For breakfast, lunch, and dinner...

....there is a legendary boiled food for every meal.

They call it miso soup.

It is healthy fermented soy powder with some veggies and tofu inside it. Usually, you can find it as breakfast menu but sometimes people there will eat it at lunch or dinner too.

4. Japanese Diet Plan Requires More Vegetables

I believe you know that vegetables are so healthy and so on, so on, so on, and so on. Then, would you mind to eat them in your every single meal? For your breakfast, or lunch, or even dinner?

I don't know what you are going to say. But I know that Japanese people would cook and eat vegetables every day. They love eating vegetables and will choose the best ingredients for their meal.

Here are some examples of leafy vegetables that are popular there.

1. Kyabetsu. Kyabetsu or cabbage is a popular ingredient that can be added to any dish in Japanese cuisine.

2. Hakusai. It has another name such as Chinese cabbage or Napa cabbage. If you familiar with kimchi from Korea, this is the main ingredient.

3. Horenso. Horenso or spinach is usually mixed with soya sauce to create horenso no goma-ae (spinach salad).

4. Komatsuna. This mustard spinach is not as bitter as spinach. So usually it can be cooked as salads, soups, or pickle.

5. Mizuna. This spider mustard is well known as the ingredient for salad, hot pot, or garnish in dishes.

6. Shiso. This perilla leaf has two varieties. The green one or aojiso is used in sashimi, stews, salad, or soup. Meanwhile, the red one or akajiso is used in the pickle.

Actually, there are more and more vegetables that usually Japanese eat from various kind of vegetables such as mushrooms, seaweed, and even bamboo shoot!

For your information, seaweed will always be a popular ingredient to be included in Japanese vegetarian diet plan.

Those vegetables can be cooked in a various way and there they are mostly cooked as soups, stew, or pickled which are healthy...

...because they do not contain oil (or less oil).

For your information, they eat more vegetables than rice. It means they get more fibers than carbs that supports their health. Let me say to you, it is better than just doing Japanese enzyme diet. Real vegetables are natural and healthy.

5. Japanese Diet Plan Always Include Green Tea

Tea is one of some popular drinks in the world. You may find tea in any part of the world. But you will realize there are so many tea-races spread all over the world. Then, in this case, we are going to talk about green tea as a particular Japanese diet plan matter.

People may call it or recognize it as Japanese tea because it has been the part of Japanese culture for centuries. There, people drink green tea frequently for breakfast, lunch, or dinner as the part of their custom in daily life. Green tea will always be included in traditional Japanese meal plan.

Actually, green tea does not originally come from Japan. In Heian and Nara era, the tea was brought by some Japanese people from China. They were monks who studied Buddhism there. It happened over a thousand years ago and the tea was only consumed exclusively by religious people class till it spread to the Royals.

Nowadays, green tea can be enjoyed by all the people, but do you know that there is some kind of green tea?

It is quite surprising to realize that there are some types of Japanese green tea. To be honest, I only know that green tea is only just a green tea until I write this article.

What makes green tea different with other types of tea are how the tea leaf is being cultivated and being processed by farmers.

1. Sencha. This tea comes from youngest tea leaves that are picked, steamed, rolled, and dried. It is the most common green tea there.

2. Matcha. This tea comes from the high-quality leaves that are grown in the shade and is processed into powder. This bright green tea powder is usually used in traditional Japanese ceremonies.

3. Gyokuro. If matcha comes from high-quality tea leaves, then gyokuro comes from the best quality of green tea. Its dark green leaves and unique aroma make it distinguishable from the others.

4. Hojicha. This tea comes from toasted and chilled green tea leaves. This green tea has less caffeine and mild taste.

5. Genmaicha. This low caffeine green tea comes from the mix of sencha tea with toasted puffed brown rice. Some people say it tastes like popcorn.

See? That surprises me!

The customs of drinking green tea began in the 12th century. There was a popular book titled Kissayojoki that was written by Myouan Eisai, a Zen priest.

In that book, he wrote in detail about tea cultivation, preparation, and how beneficial it is for health and long life. That was a popular Japanese diet plan book because it showed how green tea took a role in Japanese diet plan.

Here are some potential health benefits of green tea that had been examined in the recent research studies.

1. Contains antioxidants. Since green tea is least processed, it contains high levels of antioxidants and other bioactive compounds that protecting cells and protect us from free radicals.

2. Protect heart health. Drinking green tea regularly can prevent heart-related diseases.

3. Promote brain health. One of the bioactive compounds called flavonoids helps protect neurons that can decrease the risk of Alzheimer and Parkinson.

4. Relaxation. Green tea has a meditative effect because L-theanine that is contained in green tea has a relaxing effect on the brain.

5.Decrease risk of diabetes. Flavonoids and anti-inflammatory compounds in green tea can help to control glycemic and decrease blood sugar levels. If you are in type 2 diabetes, drinking green tea is beneficial for you.

6. Promotes bone health. A study reveals that the three tea components; gallocatechin, epigallocatechin, and gallocatechin gallate slow bone breakdown and encourage bone development.

7. Weight loss? The question about the relation between drinking green tea and lose weight is the most asked question. Green tea help burning fat and boosting metabolism.

Those benefits will not be gotten when you do not know the best way to drink green tea. As we know that a perfect ingredient will not be perfect anymore when you do not know how to prepare it well.

Here is how to drink green tea for Japanese diet plan.

1. Ideal temperature. Do not pour the boiled water or it will destroy the bioactive compounds. Just wait for the water to be less hot till 160-180 ºF (70-82 ºC). That's the ideal one.

2. Steeping time. You may have your own preferences, but in my suggestion, it will be better to steep for three minutes.

3. Quality of water. Japanese believes that water will determine the taste. Choose the high quality one (you can go and find mountain spring water).

4. Do not use sugar. It is not English tea, so we do not need sugar (dairy and natural flavors too).

The last one, please buy from a high reputation producer or supplier who has a comprehensive understanding of green tea. It is recommended to drink 3-4 cups per day and you can start it by drinking one cup after breakfast and one cup after lunch.

To be concluded, after you read the 5 Japanese Diet Plan Secret Ingredients to Lose Weight above, you will realize that Japanese diet plan is highly nutritious and healthy. Every single ingredient in Japanese diet plan above has a great benefit to maintain health and weight. Therefore in any Japanese diet plan you want to do, please add those 5 Japanese diet secret ingredients.