Balance is Everything

Healthy eating in a nutshell...

Want to wake up feeling refreshed and be bursting with energy all day long?

First, you're going to need a healthy body! It’s simple — just eat healthy, and find an exercise routine that suits you.

On this blog I am sharing what I know about healthy eating — my own field of expertise — from the point of view of nutritional science as it is practiced in Japan.

Is your diet balanced?

Everyone knows it. The body you have tomorrow depends on the food you eat today.

We all have our own eating habits. You probably know all too well what you are eating too much of — and what you aren’t getting enough of.

Some of us are addicted to sugar, while others overindulge on alcohol, junk food, fatty foods or meat.

And many of us go to drastic extremes to lose weight — such as completely cutting out carbs or fats.

The first step to a healthier lifestyle is to become aware of where your diet is imbalanced.

Three essential components of a healthy diet

Try asking yourself this: are you getting a good balance of these 3 essential dietary components?

1. Carbohydrates: Such as potatoes, rice and wheat. Carbs give us energy, strength, and nourish the brain.

2. Protein: Such as fish, meat, eggs, and soy products. Proteins are the building blocks of our muscles and blood.

3. Vegetables: All vegetables contain vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber, which support the work of carbs and proteins and keeps our body working well.

Many of us aren’t eating enough of No. 3, vegetables. Do you know how much you should be eating every day?

Cup your two hands together in front of you, palm-side up. At each meal, you should be eating the quantity of vegetables that, when raw, would fill both your hands. It doesn’t matter if you eat them cooked or raw, as long as you are getting enough.

And don’t forget to shake it up! Try incorporating different vegetables at each meal — and fit as many varieties as you can into each day.

One way to add more variety to your diet is to aim for an array of colors. Include something green and something orange, and you’ll be well on your way to meeting your daily requirements.

The Japanese way to radiant health

One hallmark of the Japanese way of eating is that we tend to eat a wide variety of ingredients at each meal, making our diet superbly well balanced.

Keep eating this way, and you’ll be radiantly healthy and avoid that lackluster state that we Japanese call mibyou (literally “not yet sick”).

Mibyou refers to the state where you aren't sick, but you aren't healthy either, and the seeds to future disease are lurking dormant in your body.

To eat the Japanese way, don’t stress out too much about the nutritional value of everything that crosses your lips.

Just focus on eating as wide a variety of foods as you can, without going overboard on the calories.