If you've ever been Japan, you may have noticed that it's really hard to find an obese Japanese person. In the United States, it's quite a different story.
The rate of obesity among adults in America is on average around 30% whereas the Japan obesity rate is only 3.5%. But what makes the weight of people in these two countries so different?
"Why Japanese people?" At first, I was thinking about things like… Japanese people drink a lot of green tea and they get a decent amount of fermented foods like kimuchi or nattou which is great for the gut microbiome.
But, in this video I want to focus on a very simple yet key point about Japan. The food environment is drastically different from the US.
As of 2017, there's over 243,000 Fast food establishments in America. There's only 6,169 establishments in Japan, meaning per person, there's about 15 times more fast-food restaurants in America.
"Why macudonarudo?" Then again, in Japan, fast food, fried food, chips, chocolate, candy, soda, and not so healthy things are still available wherever you go.
But there's a huge variety of equally convenient reasonably healthy food. Let's say I'm the average busy person in the states who would like to be healthy but doesn't have time to cook at home.
What's for breakfast? Most people's options are limited to things like a McGriddle with Hashbrowns and coffee, or maybe an Egg and processed Cheese sandwich with tater tots at Dunkin' Donuts, or some pancakes at Denny's if you have more time.
Surely, some people have more healthy options, but I'm trying to think of what most people are going to have access to. So, what's a quick breakfast in Japan?
While there's more than 6,000 fast food establishments in Japan, there's also 5,000 "rice bowl" establishments. The big ones are Yoshinoya, Sukiya and Matsuya.
