Are Japanese diets really different from other ones?

Question:

Right so I'm not discriminating or anything it just that on the internet i saw several things that said japan has the least fat people and all that about their miracle diets so I'm just wondering are they really that different from other diets, could you give me an example? Or is because they walk more than other places.

Answer:

The main cause of obesity is lifestyle. This means it is NOT one single aspect of a culture that causes it or prevents it, but a combination. In the case of the Japanese, most of them are not fat because of both diet and exercise. The Japanese diet helps in that it is not so much what they eat, but how little of it they eat. If you compare serving portions in Japan to those in the US, you will see the typical size of a serving is smaller. What they do eat is not really that healthy except for the predominance of seafood.

Here is some example of what they eat and why it is not healthy:
1) pickles and pickled vegetables - high sodium, and pickling creates nitrosamine which is a carcinogen.
2) tempera (fried food) - high saturated fat and also creates nitrosamine
3) ramen (and other noodles) - very high sodium and saturated fat
4) white rice - refined starch, no fiber, and what vitamins and minerals it contains were all artificial added after bleaching.

Next time you are in a grocery store that sells Japanese food items, look at the sodium content of just one serving.

In terms of exercise, the vast majority of the Japanese walk instead of driving a car. Even with the very efficient mass transit system, you still have to walk to the stop or station and ride to the nearest dropoff point, and then walk to your final destination. A Japanese person would walk to school, grocery stores, shopping malls, visit friends, and going to work. They also usually take the stairs for anything under 3 floors instead of the elevators so not to be stuck in an elevator during an earthquake. You can live in Japan your whole life and never need to own a car. This means everyday of the week, the average Japanese gets more exercise just from the act of going somewhere, then the typical American. For the Japanese this way of life starts when they are old enough to walk to school and it is not unusual to see 70 and 80 year olds walking about in the course of their daily lives.