Not all Japanese trends are worth following… um, ew.Kickin’ it old (as in grade) school style, today is opposite day here at GFE. And what is the exact opposite of me, a high-strung neurotic cynical young (I can still say that right?) American mom? How about a mellow, cheerful Okinawan centenarian!
This month, my Great Fitness Experiment is my first dietary Experiment since my therapist banned me from food Experiments after my spectacular meltdown on The Primal Blueprint*, round 2. But my therapist went to prison – to work, not to be incarcerated – and I have poundage to lose so I’m bringing it back. Actually the real reason I picked this Experiment was because this diet/lifestyle best approximates how I prefer to eat on my own. So rather than try to completely overhaul my entire dietary personality like I did when I went Paleo, I’m trying to work with my natural inclinations. And if I get to live to be a wise-cracking yoga-practicing centenarian then even better!
A couple of months ago I read The Okinawa Program by Bradley J. Willcox, M.D., D. Craig Willcox, Ph.D., and Makoto Suzuki, M.D. It was life changing for me. Well it was mind changing and I’m hoping it will be life changing. Drs. Willcox and Suzuki went to the Japanese island of Okinawa and conducted the longest study of the world’s longest lived people to try and discover the secrets to their health and happiness – emphasis on the latter because these elders are no addled wheelchair-bound retirement home-sitting oldsters. Unlike most aging populations, these guys and gals stay spry – and hilarious – well past 100 years old.
This is Not a Diet
Every diet these days starts out by telling you it is not a diet. “Lifestyle” is the new word for “diet” because it isn’t cool to diet these days, which is a bummer since thin is still definitely in. But the Okinawa Program really isn’t a diet. For a book that purports to be about food, about 3/4 of it talks about other lifestyle factors like managing stress, the importance of gardening, building loving relationships, meditation, optimism and exercise among other things. Even their “diet plan” comes with weekly prescriptions to improve your whole person and not just your waistline. For the sake of condensing a very dense 500-ish page book into a 500 word blog post, I am just going to talk about the food. Although I do highly recommend reading the whole book (and no FTC, I was not given this book for free to review. I have no relationship with the authors or any company or anything about anything.).
Nuchi Gusui
One of the benefits of living past the century mark is how much time you have to make up pithy sayings, of which there are many in this book. The first – nuchi gusui – embodies the Okinawan philosophy about food and means to eat your food as if it is a source of healing power. I love this. I spend so much time in my life worrying about food, hating food, feeling guilty about food, loving food too much and just generally thinking about food that if the only thing I accomplish this month is this paradigm shift to thinking of food in terms of its healing powers, then I will consider this month’s Experiment a success.
The basic principles of elder eating (that would be eating like the elders, not eating your elders all you Donner Party smart alecks) focus on vegetables, whole grains and fish. (Give it up for the vegaquarians!) With at least 50% of your recommended calories coming from whole grains, low carb this is not. They also recommend only eating 10-20% of your calories from protein, pointing out that every gram of protein you eat forces your body to excrete 1-2 mg of calcium. Fats are capped at about 30% of your daily calories with an emphasis on healthy Omega-3 fats. There is lots of super cool research to back up these ratios that I’m dying to tell you about but, again, brevity is a virtue.
The book lists 9 principles of how to eat like an Okinawan**. They are, briefly:
1. Eat ten vegetables and fruits a day
2. Eat ten whole grains a day
3. Eat three calcium foods a day (note: Okinawans don’t really eat dairy which works out well for me as I can’t have dairy thanks to the Jelly Bean – who is doing MUCH better on her dairy free milk (oh the irony!) diet, thank the stars. Rather calcium-rich foods like leafy greens, soy, seaweed and calcium fortified juices and non-dairy milks are recommended.)
4. Eat three flavonoid foods daily. (note: The book provides a very long list of flavonoid rich foods but the top winners are all kinds of soy foods, vegetables, fruits, tea, beans and lentils.)
5. Eat two Omega-3 foods daily (pretty much just fish, here.)
6. Drink fresh water and tea daily. (note: Per my LDS religion, I will not be drinking tea but will be sticking to just herbals teas and water.)
7. Hara Hachi Bu. Another little Japanese saying that gets thrown around a lot in this book, hara hachi bu means to “eat until you are 80% full.” So watch your portion sizes and numbers. The doctors recommend minimizing your animal food consumption, limiting meat (although it should be noted that the Okinawans are not true vegetarians as they will eat meat, although just 1 serving a week) and eggs (7 or less/week). Sweets are recommended to 1-3 servings/week.
8. Drink alcohol in moderation or not at all. Thanks to my religion, I’ve got this one nailed! True story: I’ve never had so much as a taste of alcohol my entire life. And I don’t feel one bit bad about that.
9. Consider taking vitamins and minerals as a supplement.
The book includes a 4-week “get started” plan that includes menus, recipes and weekly homework assignments designed to get you to leave your Western hurryhurryrushrush mentality behind and bring a little zen into your life. This is what I will be working from this month. I plan to do the mental components as well as the physical!
As I explained yesterday, for the exercise portion of this Experiment we will be doing the second phase of the P90X program.
My Worries
Despite my initial enthusiasm for this plan – you should see the research on this baby! – I do have a few concerns. First, that’s a lot of fish to be eating. Do Okinawans not worry about mercury contamination? Second, I don’t do well with processed soy (i.e. you don’t want to Turbo next to me if I had a soy burger for lunch) and since my thyroid has been hinky in the past I am a little worried about all that soy. Third, only 1-3 sweets a WEEK? Riiiight.
Any of you tried this program? Anyone in on this Experiment with me? (For the record, I don’t think I’ve managed to convince any of the Gym Buddies to try this one with me so I might be reviewing this one solo!)
*Again, I would like to make it clear that I am in no way knocking the Primal Blueprint or the Paleo diet. These work well for many people and I have lots of good friends who are Neanderthals;)
**There has been some confusion about “how can they eat that much food?!” – the answer is in the serving sizes. They eat leeetle servings. Check out the comments below for more elaboration on this.
10 servings of whole grains per day?! as is 10 slices of bread or 10 cups of oatmeal? i love carbs, but that sounds like a lot. maybe eating that many grains would help with chocolate/ other sweet cravings though…
good luck! i won't be doing this with you, but i can't wait to her how it goes!
Here is a good video on meat: http://meat.org
YES YES YES. I am TOTALLY doing this with you. This is what I need. Thanks, Charlotte.
Like Tyler, I'm a little confused about the "whole grains". Does that mean a single serving? Because I know that most slices of bread tend to be two servings and all that, in which case ten servings of whole grains seems a very realistic and reasonable amount- so I'm going to guess that by "ten whole grains", that means REAL portion sizes, not our Americanized jumbo serving sizes, heh.
Hara hachi bu is going to become my new mantra. I've heard it being said for years but I still struggle with adopting that philosophy. This seems like the perfect time to do it. Love this month's Great Fitness Experiment!
OH GIRL! let me get my morning started and come back as I might be in, too!
Im obsessed with the bluezones as my dads side of the family (women) live to be OLDOLD (100) and my moms? not so much.
dragonmamma/naomi
I would flunk this diet big time. Every once in a while I get on a roll with tuna fish or salmon burgers, but if I had to eat fish twice a day I'd be gagging by the third day and dreaming about hamburgers.
I am too old to eat this much food. How can they eat so much?
In regards to the "how can they eat that much food" questions – Sagan is correct, they're talking about standardized serving sizes. So for the fish Naomi, it's actually only a couple of ounces at a time. A single can of tuna has 2.5 servings in it so you're eating the equivalent of less than 1 can of tuna a day. And 10 "grains" ends up being about 5 American servings – so a little bit more servings than most people eat but if you think of it as 3 meals and 2 snacks then there you go. Quite often the portions of grains Westerners eat with their meals constitute 2-3 servings.
According to the book though Okinawans eat 30% more calories proportionally than Americans and yet weigh 30% less proportionally. (I say proportionally because Asian people are typically shorter and smaller than most Caucasians.)
sounds like a pretty solid eating program. except i don't really like that they recommend taking a supplement. isn't a "healthy" / well balanced diet supposed to provide all that making a supplement unnecessary?
Marathon Maiden – I had that same thought too!! Esp. since the research that came out last year showing that multivitamins may actually shorten your life instead of lengthen it. In the book, the Okinawans don't take supplements of any kind but the authors seem to assume that us Westerners are coming from a place of ill health and therefore need the extra boost or something. Which I found disconcerting.
Sagan & Miz – I'd LOVE to have you guys on board! Like I said, I haven't talked any of the Gym Buddies into this one so the more experiences on this the better!!
I have the book. I started reading it quite a while back but I didn't finish. I'll have to dig it out again. Lindsey is telling me that with the workouts I'm doing I should be losing weight. If I'm not, I should be looking at my diet (tell me something I don't know). So it wouldn't hurt to take another look and see if the Okinawa program might be doable.
Did you write about your meltdown on paleo-primal? I'm curious because I'm trying it right now and struggling a bit. I love that you're doing this as an experiment, but I worry that you'll want results too fast – please consider doing it for longer than a month, and tell us to do our own experiments!
My sister and I have noted the similarities between our Swedish family's diet and Japanese – raw or mostly raw fish at the center of many dishes. And they live forever, these old Swedes. Hmmm.
Charlotte, sorry, not a taker here! I need my protein! I do eat the veggies & stuff but not a fish lover either.. I take supplements to make up for what I don't get in food. I don't thik I would survive on this & like you, I have to watch the soy too with my age…
Good luck! 🙂
Julia – Oh I sure did!! I've tried primal twice (you can click on the "primal blueprint" link on the left to see all my posts on the subject) or read the Experiment setup, then about my Primal problems and then my results
I'm on board! However I'm also cooking for a picky guy who doesn't like fish and needs his meat and cheese at all costs. I don't want to be making 2 different meals, but I'll try my best!
This actually sounds quite a bit like the diet I've been forced to follow ever since I started having gall bladder issues during my pregnancy. (Except I'm eating mostly chicken instead of mostly fish.) To keep my gall bladder under control until after the baby comes, my doctor has recommended that I eat no more than 45g of fat a day. Add in all the other pregnancy eating restrictions, plus red meat & sweets (fat + sugar, like cookies, brownies, etc.) seeming to especially aggravate my gb, and you've basically got the diet you've described. I have noticed that I feel sooo much better than I used to (like, I never feel groggy or stuffed after a meal) that I think I will probably attempt to follow this way of eating even after the baby comes.
I'm interested to see how this turns out for you, Charlotte. I definitely can see how it would work very well and be very healthy. I'm a veg, so I wouldn't eat the fish, but the ten servings of veggies and ten servings of grain would probably work…a serving is only a half cup of cooked grain, normally, so I already have two right at breakfast with one cup of cooked oatmeal. I do like tofu and tempeh, and beans, too. Three sweets a week would probably not work for me!
I wish fish were as cheap as chicken or beef. I’d make it much more often if it didn’t cost a ton and require a shopping trip that day or the day before. I get most of my fish servings from tuna because of that. Still, I worry about mercury. We can’t win! Is there less of a risk of mercury in Japanese waters?
Tracey – there are actually lots of cheap ways to buy fish. Canned sardines are a great source of Omega 3s! There are also canned crab, oysters, salmon, mackerel etc. for way cheaper than the fresh or frozen kind. Of course they don't taste quite as good… sigh. But summer's around the corner – you live by a lake?? 😉
Mmmm…I could totally go on this full time. Lots of whole grains and fish and veg? I'd be in heaven. Unfortunately my huband *hates* fish (even the smell)…so I'm trying this sort of thing…only modified to include other lean meats instead…this is kind of what we're going for in our diet this month – "operation whole food". All grains, rice, veg and some chicken and such. No processed stuff like pastas…just healthy goodness. All breads from scratch…that kind of thing.
I'm very curious to know how your diet goes…
As for the mercury issue- my understanding is that if you eat small fish, it's not so bad. It's the big fish like tuna, who eat lots of little fish that each have a little bit of mercury that end up containing lots of mercury because the effect is cumulative. I think shellfish, salmon, sardines, etc…aren't so bad.
I think I would love the Okinawa "lifestyle" because I am all about the whole grains. (I seriously could not stop eating barley risotto last night!)On the other hand, I would probably miss dairy after a while.
I read the book about a month ago and while I thought it was very interesting, there was a bit I didn't agree with. Like all the soy the authors suggest eating. And that they suggest using butter alternatives just because they have fewer calories per gram, never mind the fact that it's like eating plastic. I'm just not going to eat something because the numbers are "right" I'm interested to see how it works out for you though 😉
Charlotte, as always I have concerns when you focus on food for a month, but I'll reserve it for the time being.
Charlotte, I've been lurking around your blog for a few weeks now. Catching up on your posts and whatnot. I love your blog and I am so excited to be caught up! This month's GFE is exactly what I needed. I have a great exercise regimen going because I am training for my first tri, but I'm not losing any weight like I had hoped. Clearly my diet is not where it should be. I haven't read the book, but I am going to look for it today while I am out. My husband will like it since he is a big fish fan, I am still trying to learn. I look forward to participating in this experiment!
I stopped eating tuna when the gubbermint decided that 'an acceptable percentage of dolphins' could be killed using dolphin-killing nets. I'll have to check to see if this has been changed. Then I'll join you on this diet 🙂
This definitely sparked my curiosity. Yay for carbs and sushi!
Shelly – Barley risotto?? That sounds divine! You have a recipe? (It's probably not dairy free but I can always try to tweak it!)
Seabreeze – Thanks for worrying about me! Truth to be told, I'm a little worried about myself:) I'm a little more crazy than usual these days but hey, at least I can admit it right?? And never be afraid to call me out for bad choices – that's one of hte reasons I blog about this. To stay transparent and accountable!
All diets are better with cool key phrases in foreign languages. But as I've already pointed out to Smoothie Girl, Hara Hachi Bu actually means, "Please pass me another round of sake and tempura." Just FYI.
A note about the protein – protein is acidic and so yes, the body will excrete calcium to keep acid/alkaline homeostasis in the body UNLESS you're also eating alkaline foods, such as calcium or green vegetables. I eat quite a bit of protein, but more veggies than your average vegetarian.
Processed soy is not Okinawan, in fact, they eat less soy than Americans, since it's in everything, even TVP mixed with the burgers and the soy feed the cattle were fed.
Let us know how this diet works for you! I'd love to live off fish, seaweed salad, buckwheat ramen bowls and tea! Yummmmmmmm.
Allie – is there such a thing as buckwheat ramen?? I'm intrigued! And thanks for the info. on soy. I avoid the processed stuff (mostly because it gives me terrible gas) but do enjoy tempeh/miso/tofu etc.
So glad to hear Jelly Bean is doing better!
I would get kicked off the island on this one. The only fish I (kind of) like is tuna, and I don't eat it for the same dolphin-killing-byproduct reasons that Merry does.
Plus there is no way I am switching out semolina pasta for whole wheat pasta. 😉
I can't wait to see how this turns out. I don't want to mess around with my diet until April (after I run my first half), but if you like the results I may try it. Thanks for being the guinea pig!
cammi99
These japanese are some of the healthiest in the world. What's unusual is that even though many of them eat more fat and carbs than here in America hardly any of them are overweight. I think it would be difficult to trasition into this way of eating, but once you got used to it I think it would help any person become healthier. As far as the grains go, 10 servings seems like a lot, but if you think about the way the japanese eat, they may have 10 different dishes on the table at every meal. They eat a variety of things, but in small amounts. I would love to try this diet as well.
Love it all, except the sweet rationing… the whole post made me feel more relaxed so imagine how I'd feel if I could follow the plan!
This sounds fantastic. I'm going to try and find the book and join you in a week or so. I hope that's ok.
I've also bought PX90 so will be starting that when I can get my act together
Charlotte,
Just when I think I've got things figured out, I wonder if I truly do. So confusing…anyway, I look forward to following your experiment this month. Do you think you do really well on a high carb diet b/c of your intense workouts? I love my grains, but I always wonder if the only reason I can handle them is b/c of all the walking and intense yoga I do…which I'm not doing so much at the moment. 🙁
I would love to read this book! Seriously! It sounds very interesting! I do not want a lady leg pillow though… Awkward… love ya! Anna
Having just moved back to the U.S. from Japan, I can tell you their portions are very small. A rice ball is smaller than the palm of your hand (and cutely wrapped in seaweed!). The funny thing is…I NEVER saw whole grains there. 99% of the bread and rice is white, white and white! I thought I would die the first 3 weeks I was living there from no fiber. Alas, I lived…but it was hard 🙂 And yes, vegetable portions there are tiny. I would say 3 portions equal one of ours.
I think the best part about this diet is eating until you are 80% full. Because our dishes [literally] are bigger than they were years ago, and so are our portion sizes, eating 80% is like eating what we did back in the 70s. Since there wasn't such a problem with obesity back then, I'd say doing that would put you ahead of the game. Of course people didn't exercise or watch cholesterol back then, so bring back a little bit of the 70s and use what you know from today. Good luck. BTW, I just found your blog and love the way you write.
Hi Charlotte,
Is it too late for me to do it this with you.
But i'm not as fit and healthy as you all seem to be. In fact i'm 5 stones overweight and have just registered with a gym. I'm no runner in the fast lane. I've been told to do small impact exercises, walking and a lot of swimming to burn more calories.
This way of eating will help me focus on eating everyday as opose to what i'm used to. May be this is my kick up the backside to start looking after myself better.
I live in england what do i do and where can i get the book plaese. i cant find it on ebay. There are a few at amazon.
Can you tell me which one i need and also would i need to do a lot of cooking as i haven't done much for years.
There seem to be support on your blog so i could join in if i knew what to do
Many thanks
Anon – It is NEVER to late to join us! I'm sorry you couldn't find the book on eBay. When I checked, Amazon had plenty of paperback copies left for 12$ US. If you don't want to buy it, have you tried requesting it thru your local library? Often if they don't have it they will order it for you!
Congratulations on resolving to get in shape! This will be a great experience for you. Stick around and hang with us – you'll make it!
Only 20 days down and I'm joining the convo :-/ This is what happens with Reader when it piles up. I wouldn't have been with you anyway as I think the teeeny bit of protein wouldn't work for me. It sounds almost Ornish-like. Hope it's working for you!
I Totally guffawed over this line:
"…Blueprint or the Paleo diet. These work well for many people and I have lots of good friends who are Neanderthals"
And every time you write (hee) in a post, I totally LOL. 😀
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