Kaki Okumura© Provided by INSIDER
I grew up overweight and stressed out by my body — these 4 Japanese principles
helped me find my health again Story by rkoh@insider.com (Reena Koh)
Kaki Okumura is a Japanese wellness writer and illustrator who lived
in the US until she was 12. Okumura struggled with being overweight
and tried numerous dieting tactics, but none of them worked. Her book
“Wa: The Art of Balance” focuses on four Japanese practices.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kaki Okumura, the author of
“Wa: The Art of Balance,” a book has been edited for length and clarity.
I remember looking down at a family photo and feeling my heart sink. I couldn’t help it.
I was clearly the only one who was overweight. I’m Japanese, but because I was raised in the US until I was 12, I had found myself facing a health challenge that a lot of other Americans faced: being overweight.
If my family had shared this trouble with me, I may not have felt so alone in my journey.
But my family just didn’t struggle in the way I did, perhaps because most of them lived in Japan — a country that’s a leader in longevity and has very low rates of obesity.
My parents were kind and never shamed me for my body, but I still couldn’t help but feel an intense amount of pressure to change the way I looked. So I embarked on a number of dieting tactics. I tried everything from calorie restriction and intermittent fasting to low-carb meals.
Some worked, with varying levels of success, but none were sustainable — at least, not until I moved to Japan. I always had an image in my mind that people in Japan ate very healthfully — that they didn’t eat fried foods, meat, or ice cream — and most of their meals were composed of rice, fish, and steamed vegetables.
Matcha desserts are one of the most popular treats in Japan. © Kaki Okumura
While living there, I started to realize that Japan was just like any other developed country: It had snacks and fast food, and its people certainly indulged in sweets.
It was clear that Japanese people enjoyed these foods regularly.
So what’s the secret? It’s in balance.
Since I’ve started following these four principles,
I haven’t struggled or worried about the way I eat.
1. Moderation
One of the first things that people who visit Japan will say about the food is how small the portions are. When you go out to eat in Japan, you’ll probably be able to finish your food in one sitting. In the US, you’re more likely to ask for a takeout box.
Portions served in Japanese restaurants are often just right. © Kaki Okumura
These moderate portions are one of the key reasons people in Japan
often eat whatever they want — many without rigorous exercise routines.
When you eat in moderation, nothing has to be off limits, and you can relax about eating cake at birthdays or steak to celebrate a job promotion. Consequently, we feel less stressed about food.
I came to realize that sustainable healthy eating was not about willpower or self-discipline but about being able to incorporate the foods we love, in moderation.
2. Variety
When you go to a Japanese restaurant in Japan, you often come across a meal composed of rice, miso soup, a protein dish, and a few vegetable side dishes. The dishes vary from grilled fish and steamed spinach to deep-fried chicken and a salad.
Eating a variety of dishes in a meal helps keep your diet balanced and your mind happy. © Kaki Okumura
The key is not so much the dish itself but that there is such a wide variety of dishes in one meal. This way, people can easily get several nutrients without having too much of any one thing.
We need carbohydrates, fats, fiber, and protein, but instead of overthinking how to incorporate them together, the Japanese style embeds balance into each meal by having various small dishes.
The variety also keeps meals interesting, so you don’t feel restricted or deprived of anything, while eating everything your body requires.
3. Simplicity
I’ve found that vegetables are often treated as a necessary evil in the US.
There is no shortage of recipes and articles that are worded like,
“How to make vegetables taste good,” or, “Vegetable dishes you’ll actually want to eat.”
With the assumption that vegetables don’t taste good, we end up with recipes
that will do anything to mask the flavor — often with heavy amounts of salt, oil, or sugar.
Contrary to that, in Japan, the narrative around vegetables is the opposite:
They are delicious.
Popular dishes often have a significant variety and number of vegetables.
Kaki Okumura© Kaki Okumura
It’s common for vegetable dishes to be seasoned lightly, often steamed or even raw,
like the shredded cabbage that often comes with tonkatsu, or Japanese pork cutlet.
Popular Japanese movies, for example Studio Ghibli’s “My Neighbor Totoro,”
have entire scenes of children eating plain, fresh vegetables with delight.
Vegetables are not ingredients that Japanese children dread. My Neighbor
© My Neighbor Totoro/Studio Ghibli
Once I started recognizing the deliciousness of ingredients,
I began focusing on how to enhance and complement these flavors, rather than mask them. Sometimes, the most important ingredient is the one you leave out.
4. Self-compassion
This was the most difficult principle for me to adopt, but it was the most important.
When I would overeat, I would end up feeling bad about myself.
Occasionally, I might feel guilty, ashamed, or weak-willed.
An idea that helped me during moments like this was the Japanese phrase “kuchisabishii.” It’s a commonly used phrase that directly translates to “lonely mouth,” but it refers to boredom snacking, or when we eat without intention.
But kuchisabishii is less critical in nature than phrases like binge eating, or compulsive overeating, because it recognizes that like loneliness, eating out of boredom is a natural emotion.
A simple home-cooked meal that comforts the stomach as well as the heart.
Instead of sitting in guilt and shame, by shaping experiences in which we may
have eaten a bit too much as forgivable, we can recognize and move on with kindness.
Living in Japan has shown me healthy eating is less about self-discipline or willpower,
which are not helpful in building lifelong habits, but more about finding a balance.
Food is not just fuel: It can be central to our culture, traditions, identity, and values.
My book, “Wa: The Art of Balance.” “Wa” — the Japanese word used to describe
Japanese things — also means harmony and also represents the value of seeking
balance to live a well-rounded life.
Living in Japan, the author learned that indulgent food doesn’t always need to be associated with unhealthy food. © Kaki Okumura
The idea of ‘indulgent food’ in Japan is different from what
you might expect in the US. It helped me finally become healthy.
Kaki Okumura is a Japanese wellness writer who grew up in the US and Japan. In the US, she associated indulgent food with things like chocolate cake and juicy burgers. Living in Japan, she learned that indulgent food doesn’t always need to be associated with unhealthy food.
These days, I write and educate on Japanese health practices, but growing up in the US,
I struggled with my weight. I think a big part of what contributed to my complicated relationship with food was how I understood indulgent food. I never even questioned it, believing that indulgence was viewed similarly worldwide — that is, until I moved to Japan.
What do you imagine when you think of indulgent food? For many people, we imagine thick slices of chocolate cake, juicy burgers, big sizzling steaks, or piles of fries. Ads for fast-food chains or ice cream brands often describe their products as indulgent, and a quick Google search for indulgent food will confirm that indulgence is often measured
in terms of calories and size.
But this began to change for me one day when my Japanese grandmother came home, excitedly telling my siblings and me that she had brought back something so delicious and that we were in for a treat. She didn’t let us see it until after dinner. In my anticipation,
I let myself imagine a strawberry shortcake, cream puffs, or perhaps it would be a box of luxury chocolates. Only once she opened the fridge and brought it out did I realize what she brought home was a melon. One fresh melon.
My disappointment didn’t last long, however, as my grandmother sliced open the fruit, and I caught a whiff of the melon’s sweet, almost perfumy smell. I watched in amazement as she handed us each a perfectly juicy and ripe piece. It melted in my mouth as soon as
I took a bite.
In Japan, fresh produce is often seen as an indulgence, Artisan Ally-grown grapes.
Grape: Ask Health Professionals (msn.com)
Living in Japan, I soon realized that indulgence was not simply viewed
through calories or how “unhealthy” something might be for us.
Instead, indulgence is often viewed through seasonality, freshness, locality,
or even the technique to how it was grown or produced. It was common to receive boxes of fruit, vegetables, and seafood as luxury food gifts. We would also celebrate holidays with a special cut of fresh sashimi from the market, or a particularly sweet variety of artisan ally-grown grapes for dessert.
I struggled with my weight when I lived in the US.
But when I moved to Japan, I picked up 5 simple habits that have turned my health around. Kaki Okumura is a Japanese wellness writer who grew up in the US and Japan.
She picked up daily habits while living in Japan that help her maintain a healthy weight.
Habits include walking everywhere, using cooking shortcuts, and focusing on quality.
Growing up in the US, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that in order to live healthfully, you must go to the gym, meal prep, cut out sugar, and otherwise be disciplined. America is the land of “go big or go home,” where taking half-measures is often considered pointless. But is such strictness really necessary?
At 4.3%, Japan has one of the lowest rates of obesity among high-income developed nations, according to the World Population Review. Comparatively, the US sits at 36.2% and has the 12th-highest obesity rate in the world. It’s not because Japanese people are somehow more disciplined than others. Rather, I believe it’s the simple, moderate Japanese daily habits that make it much more sustainable for the modern lifestyle.
Here are five habits for a healthy weight I picked up from life in Japan.
©Kaki Okumura
1. Walk everywhere
Japanese adults walk a lot. The 2019 National Health and Nutrition Survey, conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, found men averaged close to 7,000 steps, with women at just below 6,000 per day. Participants in the survey included 300,000 households in Japan, including 720,000 family members aged 1 and over. Mayo Clinic says the average American walks less than 4,000 steps a day.
As recently as the 1980s, Nagano had one of the highest stroke rates in the country.
Over the years, the Japanese prefecture has incorporated over 100 walking routes in its community and has been able to reverse this trend.
The prefecture boasts one of the highest longevity rates in Japan.
Japan tends to top global life-expectancy rankings, with a 2020 average of 85 years from birth. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t engage in high-intensity exercises as well, but we shouldn’t discount the value of walking. A walk around the block or a stroll in the park can do wonders for our health.
2. Eat in moderation
The modern Japanese diet isn’t just grilled fish, miso soup, and rice anymore.
There are people in Japan who sometimes choose to enjoy the same foods as the US,
such as hamburgers, ice cream, and French fries. But the key differences lie in frequency,
as well as portion size.
If you visit a McDonald’s in Japan, you’ll find their medium-size drink is still smaller than an American small. A large pizza from the Japanese Domino’s has a diameter of 13 inches, whereas in the US it’s 14. The 16-inch extra-large pizza in the US is not available in Japan. Visit a Japanese restaurant, and you’ll find that you can usually finish a meal without feeling overly stuffed at the end.
By practicing moderation, we can regularly eat what we want with no major repercussions for our health. There should be no need to give up sugar, carbs, or any of your favorite foods. And as vegetables, complex carbs, and fiber-rich foods are still better for you, adding healthy toppings can be a great way to create a more filling dish. For example,
load up a bowl of soba with broccoli, edamame, mushrooms, and carrots.
3. Take cooking shortcuts
Oftentimes, healthy home cooking is seen as an hours long endeavor, only reserved for those with lots of time to spare. After a busy day of work, the prospect of cooking is so tiring, that we often resort to takeout.
But while home cooking does take some time, I’ve learned from Japanese bento box-making that cooking shortcuts can still be healthy. Working parents in Japan with little time in the morning typically make healthy lunches for their kids. There are ways to get clever with the shortcuts available.
Instead of boiling water, people often poach eggs or steam broccoli in the microwave. It’s normal to rely on frozen peas or edamame to add a bit of green to a rice dish. I’ve learned to understand that there is nothing wrong with using a small portion of store-bought dressing on some chicken steamed in the microwave.
4. Prioritize joy when it comes to exercise
Many people consider exercise to be a necessary chore, rather than something they look forward to. This makes sense, considering exercise is often done to look a certain way or build a certain physique.
But in Japan, exercise is also often spoken about in terms of joy and quality of life, rather than calories burned. For example, the event “undoukai,” or Sports Day, in the Japanese public-school curriculum is an annual event when the entire school takes a day to participate in a variety of activities, ranging from track and field to tug-of-war.
It’s playful, collaborative, inclusive, and, most importantly, fun.
Sports Day isn’t just for students. It’s a national holiday celebrated on the second Monday of October every year. Many working adults get the day off to support their children and participate in games or are encouraged by the government to do something to celebrate physical activity.
Exercise as a necessary chore to burn calories or look a certain way can be
emotionally exhausting, but by reframing it for joy we receive immediate benefits:
It makes us feel good.
5. Decadence is defined in terms of quality, not quantity
If you look up decadent foods in the US, search results include Philly cheesesteaks, Chicago deep-dish pizzas, giant cheeseburgers, and ice-cream sundaes.
Decadence is often measured in terms of size and caloric value.
However, if you were to look up decadent foods in Japan, you might be surprised to discover a page that shows fruits, vegetables, and even seafood.
This isn’t to say decadence is seen as healthy in Japan, but instead of size or caloric value, it is often measured through quality.
The seasonality of something, how it was produced, where it was grown,
or how it was prepared are all factors contributing to the idea of decadence.
In this way, the idea of treating yourself to delicious food is not limited to large amounts of calorie-dense foods. While it can include those things, delicious foods can also take on an expanded meaning.
The Japanese approach to looking after my health has made it not just easy but joyful. Looking after our health does not need to feel like a chore but can instead be something integrated into our day-to-day life to make our well-being feel more meaningful and fulfilling.
Kaki Okumura is the author of “Wa – The Art of Balance: Live Healthier, Happier and Longer the Japanese Way.” To sign up for her weekly newsletter, Kakikata, go to kakikata.ck.page.
This difference in indulgence helped me embody an important understanding of what it means to eat well. While there is nothing inherently wrong about enjoying cakes, burgers, and fries, there seems to be a narrative in the US, and maybe other Western countries, that indulgent food is not just tasty food, but it’s often food we view as unhealthy.
When large amounts of calorie-dense foods become our idea of “treating ourselves,”
we see anything else as an act of deprivation. To eat fruit rather than cake, or to enjoy steamed fish rather than a steak, is restricting ourselves. I’ve found that depriving ourselves is not just unsustainable, but it can lead to stress and shame, making us believe that we did something wrong when we enjoy something else.
This doesn’t mean sugary or calorie-dense foods can’t be a part of our healthy lifestyle, but when we can view indulgence through the lens of quality and taste, it expands our view of what eating well means — indulgent food and healthy food aren’t mutually exclusive, and treating ourselves doesn’t need to be an act of shame.
It’s how we can go from feeling like we’re always on a diet, to just healthy living.
Kaki Okumura is the author of “Wa – The Art of Balance: Live Healthier, Happier and Longer the Japanese Way.”
To sign up for her weekly newsletter Kakikata, go to: kakikata.ck.page.
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