Japanese Diet

[Runnswim@A]

There's an article today in the Wall Street Journal about how
the Japanese diet has changed. Formerly very low fat, based on
rice, fish, and tofu it is now heavy with red meat and dairy.
The average Japanese 26 year old is now 3 inches taller, with
wider hips and bigger breasts.

Formerly, the Japanese had the world's longest life
expectancy and low incidence of heart disease, breast, colon,
and prostate cancer (relatively high incidence of
hemorrhagic, though not ischemic stroke, because of the high
salt content, however).

Question: now that the Japanese are eating more "healthy" fat,
what is going to happen to (1) their longevity and (2) their
incidence of the above-mentioned disease states?

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntingon Beach, CA

[Jim Chinni]

"runnswim@aol.com (Larry Weisenthal)" <runnswim@aol.com>
wrote in part:

>There's an article today in the Wall Street Journal about how
>the Japanese diet has changed. Formerly very low fat, based
>on rice, fish, and tofu it is now heavy with red meat and
>dairy. The average Japanese 26 year old is now 3 inches
>taller, with wider hips and bigger breasts.
>
>Formerly, the Japanese had the world's longest life
>expectancy and low incidence of heart disease, breast, colon,
>and prostate cancer (relatively high incidence of
>hemorrhagic, though not ischemic stroke, because of the high
>salt content, however).
>
>Question: now that the Japanese are eating more "healthy"
>fat, what is going to happen to (1) their longevity and (2)
>their incidence of the above-mentioned disease states?
>
>- Larry Weisenthal/Huntingon Beach, CA

I dunno. What kind of red meat and dairy? If they are eating
beef from grass-pastured cattle and great smelly fermented
cheeses from naturally-raised cows, they may get even
healthier. If they are eating the kind of red meat that has
been studied in nutrition research (feed-lot, hormone packed,
corn-fed, from antibiotic-laden sick cattle) and drinking
glasses of milk from cows tethered to milking machines and
pumped with hormones, they will almost certainly see a decline
in health.

Just my guess, though.
--
Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA jchinnis@alum.mit.edu

[Susan]

x-no-archive: yes

Jim Chinnis wrote:

> I dunno. What kind of red meat and dairy? If they are eating
> beef from grass-pastured cattle and great smelly fermented
> cheeses from naturally-raised cows, they may get even
> healthier.

Like the Swiss and the Swiss paradox; lots of full fat dairy
from alpine grass fed cows, low CVD.

If they are eating the
> kind of red meat that has been studied in nutrition research
> (feed-lot, hormone packed, corn-fed, from antibiotic-laden
> sick cattle) and drinking glasses of milk from cows tethered
> to milking machines and pumped with hormones, they will
> almost certainly see a decline in health.

And portion size counts. Traditional Japanese meals were not
only full of vegetables and fish, they were small. If the
western influence extends to portion size, that's got a
deleterious effect.

The growth issues may also relect endocrine disruptors found
in food packaging and some cooking containers used in
microwaves.

Susan