00:00:00 John Daub: So many people talk about the Japanese diet, the traditional diet being very healthy, very good for you. There's a lot of things that you might not realize about it. This article came just about two hours ago in Kyodo News. I love reading Kyodo News. I want to go over this a little bit with you. The chat's going to be really interesting as we discuss this topic. Japanese diet may help in fight against depression. Study shows it helps in fight against a lot of stuff, let's be honest with you. Because you're eating a lot of good foods and actually just avoiding a lot of the bad foods in many ways. So I want to go over this article with you and definitely read the chat on this one. It's going to be quite interesting. As well as the food that tourists eat. I'll talk about that in a second.

00:00:46 John Daub: The rate of depressive symptoms was lower among working age people who consume Japanese style diets including rice, miso soup (fermented soybean soup), fish. A study of its kind recently showed. Traditional Japanese style diet comprises rice, soy products, cooked vegetables, mushrooms, fish, seaweed, green tea along with a modified version added fruit, fresh vegetables and dairy products. While there are few studies on the Japanese diet's impact on mental health such as assessments of the Mediterranean diet which consists of vegetables, olive oil, fish. And there's a picture of what they say, the news says is a traditional Japanese diet. It's pretty basic. Further research is required, of course. But we hope the evidence shown among Japanese people can be used for public health measures in workplaces in areas concerning the prevention of depression, which Japan has a lot of.

00:01:34 John Daub: I believe the self-reported study was conducted among 12,499 employees from 5 companies of whom 88% were male with an average of 42.5 years old. A total of 30.9% of the cohort exhibit depressive symptoms. But those who followed a typical Japanese diet were found to be less likely to do so. Alright, we can stop the article there. Now, there's some really important things in this article. If you're reading it and you're not from Japan, you're probably not going to catch this. But traditional diet doesn't mean just because you're in Japan you're going to eat healthy. Trust me. This country is filled with crap, junk food, garbage, things that will put you in the ground sooner. Just like every other country, let's be honest with you.

00:02:23 John Daub: But the traditional, traditional Japanese food is something else. Now, I asked our friend, who is a Japanese, and the AI bot, please show a list, make a picture of all the Japanese foods that tourists eat when they're here. And a lot of them are healthy. But like taiyaki (fish-shaped waffle), deep-fried pork cutlets with curry rice there, katsu kare (cutlet curry), ice cream with a lot of sugar in there. I mean, it looks healthy, but these aren't exactly the healthiest foods. And when we talk about the average, there's a traditional Japanese diet, and then there's the average Japanese diet. The average Japanese person does not eat the traditional Japanese diet all the time, which is why there is cancer here, why there is a lot of health issues here, why people might not, not everybody lives to be 100 years old.

00:03:15 John Daub: But a lot of people do eat that traditional Japanese diet, especially out in the countryside where it's a lot easier, so much less distractions that make it easier to do. I made a video. I want to show this to you really quickly. This video was about the Japanese breakfast. And this was about, I don't know, about seven years ago. I ate at a Japanese ryokan (traditional inn) up in the countryside, and I showed you what I got for breakfast. For most people, when you come to Japan, and I want to know what you guys think. If you go to a hotel and you have the choice between a traditional Japanese breakfast and a Western breakfast, I'd say like nine out of ten people are going to eat the Western breakfast because this isn't very palatable for most foreigners.

00:03:57 John Daub: I didn't really have a choice. They didn't have a Western breakfast here. But it's like rice, natto (fermented soybeans), miso soup, pickles. They did have curry rice, which is interesting, but maybe not at 7 a.m., which is when we were eating here. Make your own udon (thick noodles). A lot of this stuff is super healthy. Even the lady here, she's showing us, this is the rice from, this is in Fukushima. This is the rice from Fukushima. All local stuff. There's okayu (rice porridge), which is great for the stomach. A lot of the foods are first-class. Fermented, and that fermentation offers it. It's good for your stomach as well as so many other properties.

00:04:38 John Daub: Tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), a lot of great things about Japanese cuisine that you can try when you're at the hotel. But there's so many other foods that you're going to ruin your health with. In particular, these stewed vegetables, they're so good for breakfast. You can put them on the side, eat that with rice. There's the fish roe, as well as lots of different things. There's different kinds of fish as well. And there's natto in little individual packs there with seaweed, which is also something that's really good for you. This one has a lot of salt in it, I think. It's been flavored, but the flavorless ones are pretty good for you.

00:05:20 John Daub: But I don't know, and I even added a little sausage link in there. So there's some things with the Japanese breakfast you can add in there that maybe is not so healthy. I mean, I'm eating katsudon (pork cutlet rice bowl), katsu-kare, a lot of deep-fried stuff as well here in Japan. But I mix it up, it's pretty balanced. I don't know if I eat that much better than I do in America. But my diet, I'll tell you this, I'll be honest with you. I eat a lot less sugar in Japan than I would if I was in the United States and I just got back from there. But the most important thing of them all is I eat a lot less portions. I mean, my portion size is much smaller than if I was in the United States.

00:05:56 John Daub: You could just see it if you go to the restaurant. Most of the restaurants in the United States, they have bigger platters. You don't get that in the Japanese restaurants. Even at the buffets in Japan, the buffets have smaller plates. Because then they know you can go more often. Take what you want. It's not going anywhere. You can always come back and get some more. Westerners will take the big platter and make some kind of a mountain on there. I would do that if I was in the U.S. because everybody would do that. Soy on starch, on carbs, on vegetables. It's all about choice, I think. And most Japanese, though, they're very modest with the portion sizes.

00:06:36 John Daub: And I think more so than just the traditional Japanese diet, I think a lot of it has to go with the portion sizes more than anything else. And I think it's just a lack of sugar and more fermented foods, which is really great. I don't eat a lot of fermented foods when I'm in the United States, I got to be honest with you. I can't think of much pickles, maybe. Dill pickles. I probably eat much better here in Japan, but I also know that I don't eat perfect here in Japan, too. Because, like what you see with the tourists that when they come here and eat, there's a lot of stuff. The melon pan (sweet bun) with whipped cream and sugar and ice cream. And you saw I went to the Costco and I found a croissant stuffed with red anko (sweet red bean paste) as well as a sweetened whipped cream.

00:07:39 John Daub: A lot of tourists are like, Boy, when I go to Japan, I put on a lot of weight. And I say, well, yeah, I mean, just because it's Japanese food doesn't mean it's going to be super healthy. I want to hear what you guys have to say here. We've got a live chat going, so a lot of comments coming in. I asked the ChatGPT as well to make a little guide about why this might help with depression as one of the targets of that article, which is really fascinating. Made me want to read it because I'm always learning about Japanese cuisine. Someone who lives here, breaking down the benefits of what we eat. Japan didn't make this diet based on all of these things here. It's just a natural diet that came. Just the same with the Mediterranean people who eat the Mediterranean diet. And slice the pizza every now and then.

00:08:28 John Daub: Rich in Omega-3s, which is very true. A lot of fish we eat here. High in fermented foods. I love the fermented foods in Japan. I'm a huge fan of this one. You guys know what this one is here? I'm a huge fan of natto, fermented sticky beans, when I first came here. But after a year, I really started to appreciate it. And then I moved to Mito, up north of Tokyo, in Ibaraki Prefecture, where this was invented. It's an interesting story and history behind it. But I started to really like it. I liked the flavor. And if it's fresh, I mean like out of the refrigerator, it doesn't stink that bad. I think it's like if it's been sitting in the sun, it really stinks. But comes packaged like this most of the time in styrofoam containers. Mix it in with a little bit of soy sauce to give it some saltiness and flavor. Some umami (savory taste). And maybe a little bit of mustard. A little bit more spice to it.

00:09:31 John Daub: Miso soup is another one that foreigners, tourists that are coming to visit here, like me, they're like, that's fermented. Miso is a fermented bean paste. You know, it's got some saltiness to it. I took you in an episode on the main channel in January showing you Nishio, which is a town that's very famous for their miso. And the soup there was incredible. If you ever get a chance to come to Japan and eat the miso soup here, it's so much better than if you were to get it outside of Japan. Miso soup is good. In general, I asked ChatGPT to put the diet up here based on what the article said, and it came up with this.

00:10:13 John Daub: Tofu is something I think Westerners don't know a lot about. And my wife, Kanae Daub, talked about this here. We both love tofu very much. And the problem with the American tofu is they make it too hard. It's almost like eating rubber. We went to the tofu. We got some tofu at Trader Joe's, and it just was not palatable as much. I mean, it's getting better. But we love that silky smooth tofu. If you eat it in mapo tofu or you just eat it with a little bit of soy sauce or a little dashi (broth), maybe some katsuobushi (bonito flakes) on top there, a little bit of nori (seaweed) on there for some texture, you know, it's quite good. But the tofu we get in the States, I think it's made to have a longer shelf life because it takes longer to sell it. So they get rid of most of the moisture, and it tastes basically like a rubber steak.

00:11:13 John Daub: And that's not always great. I think you don't have as much of an appreciation, especially for the taste. And also, tofu should be fresh. I don't know if you all have ever had the tofu in Japan, but we have where we live. There's actually a mom-and-pop shop. We live in central Tokyo. A mom-and-pop shop that they make the tofu every morning, and they sell it until they're sold out. And she scoops it out and puts it in a container. Or you could bring your own, and she'll put it into your own container, weighs it, and you can get the fresh tofu. But there is a markedly different, completely different taste between fresh tofu that was just done within the last 24 hours and tofu that's been sitting on a shelf for more than 24, just two days changes the flavor of it.

00:12:00 John Daub: So I think with the Japanese diet, one of the great things about it is the freshness of it. The things are not things that have been sitting in the refrigerator for a very long time. I'm talking about the traditional diet. The reality is that most Japanese don't eat the traditional Japanese diet, in particular in Tokyo, because we've got a lot of frozen foods now that you can get at the supermarket that sit in the freezer for a very long time. You can get a lot of processed foods in Japan that you've been, since maybe the bubble era, since the 1970s, since post-World War II, it's been really easy to buy those processed foods. And the traditional foods, which is taking a weight on the younger generation who eats too much of that, there's a lot of talk about that as well in the news here.

00:12:49 John Daub: I'm going to end with this here. I wanted to put this all together. So they say, I asked the AI bot, which often has incorrect answers. It's sort of just a guide, sort of like Google Translate. It's not going to be perfect, but it gives you kind of an idea of all of this stuff. So it broke it down for us as well about the Omega-3s. I'm sure I wouldn't be eating much fish if I was in the U.S. The fermented food, which is so good. The pickled, I've got to make an episode on pickled vegetables here. It's so good. And it's an acquired taste for sure. Stable blood sugar. I don't eat a lot of sugar here. And I eat a lot less carbs, believe it or not. Smaller rice portions I take. Lower in saturated fats. High in antioxidants. The seaweed. Wakame (seaweed). All that stuff.

00:13:38 John Daub: This one is, I think, the biggest point here. It's balanced. There are carbs here. There's also protein. There's also vegetables. So it is really balanced, the traditional diet. It's good for cardiovascular health, longevity, lower cancer rates among those who eat traditional Japanese foods. Health weight maintenance. Reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. And improved digestive health because of the freshness. Fermented foods. All of this is really good stuff. So it summarized it fairly well, pretty close to the article. Maybe it read the article too. So I was impressed by that.

00:14:14 John Daub: But look, most of the Japanese salarymen, the business people, and I did, I taught. I should say, okay, I did work for a Japanese corporation for a bit. But I did teach a lot of Japanese corporate types, especially executives. They eat very poorly. A lot of them chain-smoked. They drank too much alcohol. So when we talk about Japan, probably would have a much higher life expectancy if the habit of corporate workers was much better. And I think gradually we're starting to see people smoke less. Since the age where nobody could travel, we're seeing people drink less in Japan. Beer makers are reporting less sales. So perhaps this is going to translate into better health here in Japan.

00:15:00 John Daub: But those who are coming to Japan are eating and drinking those chu-hi (shochu highballs). Chu-hi, I don't drink it anymore. But the chu-hi with high alcohol contents getting wasted and stuff here, I get it. Not everybody is doing that. But you don't eat well if you're a tourist for the most part. You're going to the fast food. I think you should try it though. There's a lot of foods that you got to try though. You know, it's hard. But the longer you stay in Japan and the more you get it out of your system, the more you start to understand and feel better about it.

00:15:34 John Daub: The last thing I think I want to end is Strong Zero. Oh man. When I first came to Japan, Strong Zero was something. I believe they had it but the chu-hi were something. All the, no strong zeros for me. No alcohol really for me anymore. But when I came here in 98, chu-hi, a lot of the English teachers, we were drinking like you would for college students. Because everybody who comes here as an English teacher is like 24, 25 mostly. There's some older ones, more mature. I was not one of them. But the high balls. I didn't know what the heck a high ball is. That's something you drink in college in the US. And then they had the beer which is like, wow, this is way better than Milwaukee's Best Ice. Wow. Natural Light. It has nothing on Asahi Super Dry.

00:16:27 John Daub: So I don't drink as well. A lot of people are stopping. I think it's good once in a while. I will have one with friends. But I don't have the need for it anymore. And you know, this is the point I wanted to end you with, with the Japanese diet. Once you start to eat it, eat better and you start to feel better as a result of eating better and you get into habits, you do feel the benefits of it. So, I mean, I'm able to stay in much better shape here than I would if I lived in the United States. I think it would be twice as hard to eat better in the US. Because there's just so many, maybe it's because there's so many good foods. Trader Joe's is like the devil. All right, they put organic and good for you at Trader Joe's. But a lot of the stuff has a lot of sugar in it anyways. And it's just a lot of carbs. And I eat a lot less carbs here.

00:17:21 John Daub: Soy milk is also used in Filipino desserts, loved by kids. Yeah, soy milk is really good. Milk, all that stuff, you know, you need a certain amount of fat in your diet as well. You should eat a balanced diet. But the Japanese don't do that all the time though. So, people don't eat a traditional Japanese diet all the time. The point of the article was those that do eat a traditional Japanese diet had much better mental health. And I think that's something that's important, you know. This diet, eating well, does a lot of good stuff for you. And maybe if you're watching this, you do check yourself and you eat a little bit better today. You don't have to eat a Japanese diet. Just eat a little bit better today. Maybe that'll make you a little bit healthier and feel a little bit better.

00:18:15 John Daub: Because I know when I binge on Doritos, I feel like garbage for the next three hours. Although it tastes so darn good. I do feel like garbage. And you can't eat just one. And that's another thing. In America, cookies. Potato chip bags are double the size in America than they are in Japan. Which means if you go through a whole bag in Japan, it's not that bad. You go through one in the US, that's pretty bad. And cookies and confections are often individually wrapped. And a lot of people complain, well, that's not good for the environment. Yeah, well, it's also much better for you because every time you have to open up a cookie, one of those little teeny cookies, the kountry mamas, you see those wrappers. And as those wrappers build up into a mountain, you feel even more guilty and you stop.

00:19:15 John Daub: But if I didn't see those wrappers piling up as I tossed them to the side, I probably would eat a lot more cookies. Because cookies are good. Tasting good. Not good for you. But Japan has the individual wrapped stuff, so yeah. But just because it's Japanese does not make it healthy. What makes it healthy is that you're eating less portion, you're eating more balanced, you're adding in more fermented foods, more fish, more omega fatty acids into your diet. And green tea. And less sugar, less colas. And I think this is really what the article is about. Not so much the click, the catch, the depression, like a new wrapper for the Japanese diet to get you to look. I think it's more about just the moderation. And the consistency of what's inside the diet. And it does a lot more than just fight depression. But it's an interesting article. So, good job. I love Kyodo News. So you might want to bookmark that in your browser.

00:20:22 John Daub: Any questions before we end this live stream? I wanted to keep it short to about 20 minutes or so. Sushi... Sashimi is much better than sushi. And I think if you're eating all that rice... You know, rice is basically sugar. So despite the fact that it's rice and it's good for you, it's polished rice. And it doesn't have a lot of fiber. And it's got a lot of sugar in it. It does spike your glucose. Which is not the best. So sashimi might be better. And those 100 yen sushi places, not all of that is really good stuff either. Who does... I also get like a big dish of deep fried chicken karaage (fried chicken) at the kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi)... Why do sushi places also have deep fried stuff in Japan?

00:21:12 John Daub: Any other questions here? How much coffee should I drink in a day? I don't know. If you ask me, I have too much. I drink like maybe 3 or 4 cups. They're not so big. Maybe I drink like 700 ml of coffee a day. Which is probably a lot. You know what I mean? You know what I do? If I wake up before 8 o'clock, I don't have coffee first thing in the morning. I'll have green tea. Because it's just so much lighter. It's great for waking up in the morning. And then at around 2 hours later, I'll have a cup of coffee. So that's what I do.

00:22:01 John Daub: So I have green tea. And don't... The tea bag green tea is not that good because they say the microplastics get into it and you're drinking more than just the green tea. Microplastics... Probably you want to stay away from it now that we know more about it. Drink it the way you want. I'm not going to tell you how to drink it. But I stay away from the microplastics. I use the loose tea in the glass containers and you can just strain it. It's much better for you. And if you use... I would say 80 degrees Celsius water instead of 100. Don't use boiling water for green tea unless you really want the caffeine. I didn't realize that if you make green tea and use 70 to 80 degrees centigrade water instead of 100, which is boiling water, the tea tastes sweeter. So the temperature of the water changes the taste of the green tea. So if you want a little bit less caffeine... Because the caffeine gives the bitterness to the green tea. So when I make it at 70... Between 70 and 80 degrees centigrade, the water, the green tea is sweeter. And you don't need to put sugar in it. But if you do boiling water, the tea doesn't have that natural sweetness. So then you probably are adding honey to it, which is not good for you.

00:23:14 John Daub: Japanese do not add honey to their green tea. Don't ask for it either in Japan. People are going to look at you funny. You can ask for it, but... People are still going to look at you funny. And if they don't look at you funny, when you turn around and go back to your table, they're going to look at you funny. Or they're going to talk about it. Did you see that person who wanted to dump honey in their green tea? What's wrong with them? There's a natural sweetness to it. Just don't put boiling water in it. Let it cool a little bit. Get it to about... I'd say like 78 degrees centigrade might be a sweet point for me. Because you still want a little bit of the caffeine. And you'll have a natural sweetness to it. I know honey with green tea, it's like ruining it.

00:23:52 John Daub: My mom does that. Nothing against it. But she just likes sweet stuff because she's from India and we have chai in India. And they dump a lot of sugar in that chai. So... I asked for something one time. I got a look. And don't be embarrassed asking for a fork or a knife if you're not used to chopsticks. And if you're using chopsticks, don't choke up on the chopsticks. You want more leverage. So kind of practice not choking up on it where the point gets real small. I see people doing that. You have less control. Learn the proper way to hold it. And you get better grip by moving back away from it. But it just takes a little bit of time to get the muscles up on your hand. I got very strong hands like Ralph Macchio. I could catch flies with my chopsticks. I'm better with chopsticks than Kanae is. I'm telling you. Like we had to pick up beans and we had a contest. 30 seconds, how many rice grains could you pick up? I would win. I'm very laser focused. And my hand muscles for chopsticks in my right hand is so strong. I could squeeze an egg and crack it.

00:25:16 John Daub: Cobra Bebop's here. Hey, I've heard that the cancer rates are lower in Japan except for stomach cancer. That's true. The salty fermented foods, probably miso soup, probably not the greatest thing to drink all the time, every time, especially on an empty stomach. You kind of want to dilute it with a little bit of water. But stomach cancer is high. So I have to drink this barium and they have this machine that makes you, spins you around. And they say, don't swallow and the gas builds up so that they can expand the stomach and take x-rays of it. I'm not going to have stomach cancer. I don't eat that much salty stuff. But Japanese has a high rate of that. But as I said, like the Japanese diet is far from perfect. Not everybody drinks green tea. Cancer rates are higher than I thought they would be. But I don't know.

00:26:06 John Daub: Traditional Japanese, if people, everybody ate a traditional Japanese diet, then I don't know if we'd have much cancer at all in Japan. But there's still, it still does exist. And there's lots of other factors like your environment, external environment, the proximity to a factory that may be dumping into the rivers, et cetera, et cetera. Your drinking water, the air quality. There's lots of other issues that have to go beyond just food. So yeah, good question. Thank you. Could it be just genetics over, et cetera. Oh, where you could be probably just genetics as well. There's a lot of things here. Do you have a history of it? Heart disease for example. Do you have a history of it? You have to be a little bit more careful.

00:26:48 John Daub: Do you have a good place in Tokyo to buy good soy sauce? No but, I found like local factories where I travel and I will usually just try and buy it there. My wife gets it from this thing called, furusato nozei (hometown tax donation system). So this furusato nozei allows you to buy foods from like Tottori prefecture and have it sent to you and it's a tax write off. It just means like local tax deduction. So it encourages people to buy local stuff in other places in Japan and it's been pretty cool. They give you a tax break on it and I think you can do it up to like 700,000 yen with this stuff. So they get rice sent from different places in Japan and soy sauce sent from different places in Japan. My wife's been getting stuff from Toyama, the Sea of Japan side. And I thought Nishio had some pretty good soy sauce as well. I bought some when I was there. I think I still might have a bottle. I buy like 700ml bottles of soy sauce. And I make sure that it's not the stuff that's sitting on shelves in the supermarket. So we get really good soy sauce. And rice and meat from the furusato nozei.

00:28:15 John Daub: Yeah. Alright guys. That was a great question. Thanks guys. Take care. I'll see you in another livestream real soon. I'm in Kuramae by the way. Near Asakusa I was looking at furniture. I gotta buy a new sofa. They have a used furniture store here so I thought I would check it out but I couldn't find anything. I'm trying not to buy Ikea or Ikea but it's hard not to. Ikea is just so simple. Buying here in Japan is not very easy to buy furniture. It's not always as comfortable as in the West but I'm gonna keep looking. Any suggestions? Alright take a look at the comment section here. Leave me your two cents. Make sure you hit the like button and yeah. Share with me what do you think is the most healthy food in Japan that foreigners, visitors here neglect to try besides like natto. Maybe umeboshi (pickled plums). Love to hear from you guys. Matane (see you later).