health

Wagashi are not some sort of magic Japanese diet food

maki — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:42:56 +0200

Someone alerted me to this entry on the Health.com blog which quotes me. (Health.com is a Time Inc. property.) I just wanted to set some things straight, because a couple of the statements there are just not right.

The Time Inc. reporter contacted me with some questions, based on her premise that wagashi or Japanese sweets were healthier for you because they were low fat (or at least no added fat; there is some fat content in the beans used). She wanted to know if this was a reason why Japanese people were generally thin.

What I basically said to the reporter was this: no, I don’t think the lack of butter and cream in wagashi have anything to do with the general thinness of Japanese people. As I am quoted as saying, things like smaller portions, more movement and societal pressure are the main causes. I also said that a traditional Japanese meal does not include a dessert course.

So I was not misquoted as such. But the rest of the article goes on to say some rather misleading things, which I am rather surprised by since I gave the writer plenty of information which would have, I thought, logically lead her away from her preconception that wagashi are some magical diet snack.

First and most inaccurate: “The Japanese are not fond of cream, chocolate, butter, or the fattening ingredients that comprise the typical Western dessert.” - As anyone who has spent any time in Japan knows, this is absolutely not true. Japanese people love cakes and gateaus and puddings chocolates and choux buns. Beard Papa, anyone? Pocky? Purin? Cute Sanrio characters named after sweet sticky buns? I would venture to say that Tokyo may have more French-style patisseries per capita than almost any other city except for Paris and Vienna. Those skinny Japanese women love love love Western style pastries. Those pastries may not necessarily be eaten as part of a main meal as dessert, but are eaten between meals for sure.

The article also goes onto recommend giving wagashi a try. Of course, why not? You may like them, you may not. (I’ve noticed that non-Asian people have very mixed reactions to Asian sweets in general.) However if anyone thinks that wagashi will aid your weight loss efforts, please think again. They are loaded with highly refined white sugar and often use white rice or wheat flour. They are in that sense about on par with those infamous low-fat cookies, Snackwells. Surely we are beyond the point of thinking that eating low fat but high sugar snacks leads to weight loss?

A point in favor of wagashi is that many are partly made with some kind of bean - though almost always hulled beans, so with a lot less fiber than say, your average baked beans. Also, most wagashi are made in tiny little portions which, because they are so sweet, you can only eat slowly, usually with a cup of green tea. Finally, they may make you feel full simply because you’re not used to the texture and taste. But all this is simply speculation. I for one could probably eat more taiyaki or ichigo daifuku than I could a dense chocolate cake in one sitting.

Comparing apples to oranges, or rather wagashi to Western pastries

Here are some calories for some typical Japanese sweets. The source is the official food nutrient database (五訂食品標準成分表) which is published by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the standard reference for all dieticians and health professionals in Japan. Numbers are rounded off for simplicity.

1 daifuku (mochi (beaten white rice) dumpling filled with sweet azuki beans): 160 calories
1 piece of yohkan (a block of azuki bean paste): about 100 calories for a piece approx. 1 cm (less than half an inch) thick
1 dorayaki (two little pancakes with a mound of sweet azuki beans in the middle): 240 calories, most of which comes from refined sugar and white flour

Now here are the calories for single portion sizes of Western style sweets as they are typically sold, and eaten, in Japan:

1 individual serving of purin (caramel custard): 110 calories
1 small choux pastry filled with custard: 150 calories
1 piece strawberry ‘shortcake’ (actually a spongecake filled and frosted with whipped cream, with strawberries in the middle and on top): 350 calories

Not such a huge difference is there? Yes, those typical Japanese cake and pudding portions are quite small. The piece of strawberry shortcake for example is just about the size of the palm of my hand. A choux bun is about 3 inches in diameter.

So we come to same old boring conclusion

Anyway, why are Japanese women generally thin? I’ve addressed this subject in depth a little while ago, but to put it in a nutshell:

They eat less. Portions are much smaller.
They move more.
There’s a lot of societal pressure to remain skinny

Not very novel or cute answers I’m afraid. There is no magic pill, or little sweet.

(Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nutritionist or health professional. But I would challenge anyone to get a Japanese health professional to come up with the conclusion that eating wagashi in lieu of Western style sweets can help people lose weight.)

Zakkokumai: Rice with seeds and grains and bits

maki — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:19:29 +0100

[Update:] There seems to be some confusion about how zakkokumai is cooked and looks like, so I’ve added some more photos and such.

Rice is such an integral part of a Japanese meal, that the word for ‘meal’ (gohan, ご飯) also means rice. White rice is the norm, both for taste and for various cultural reasons. But as you probably know, white rice (hakumai, 白米） is rice that has been stripped of most of its nutrients, leaving just the starch.

Brown rice (genmai) is the obvious healthier alternative. But brown rice can take some time to cook, what with the soaking and so on that’s needed, and some people simply don’t like the taste or texture.

In recent years, something called zakkokumai (雑穀米）has become increasingly popular in Japan. Zakkoku just means “mixed grains”, and mai is rice. Another name for essentially the same thing is kokumotsu gohan （穀物ご飯）. It’s rice that has a small amount of various grains and seeds mixed into it prior to cooking. You can then cook the rice in a rice cooker in the normal way. The grains and seeds add a mix of nutrients and fiber, and a little flavor too.

Zakkoku or kokumotsu mixes are sold in convenient packets. Here are two kinds; each pack is meant to be used for 2 to 3 cups (rice cooker cups) of white rice. You simply throw in the contents after you’ve washed the rice and put in the water for cooking.

The light colored one contains sprouted brown rice, pressed barley, hatomugi (Job’s Tears), millet (uruchi hie), and white sesame seeds. The package touts the fact that the whiteness of the rice is maintained, even after you mix in the zakkoku.

The second one has black beans (kuromame), azuki beans, mung beans, pressed barley, black rice (kokumai), another kind of millet (mochikibi), yet another kind of millet (mochi hie) and amaranth. It colors the rice when cooked a slight reddish-purple.

The good news is, these zakkoku packs are now more available outside of Japan. I’ve seen one kind at my local Japanese grocery, Nishi’s, and and Japan Centre carries them too (link to the ‘white’ kind, and another kind here.) The bad news is that for those of us buying these kinds of things overseas, they are pretty expensive.

If you’re interested in trying out zakkoku-mai, look for these convenient packs at your favorite Japanese grocery store. If you can’t find them though, try making your own mix of various grains and seeds, and add about a tablespoon per cup of rice.

Here’s a mix that I can easily assemble with ingredients from a regular supermarket and health food store:

Black beans
Azuki beans (but beans may need to be pre-soaked)
Lentils
Millet
Quinoa
Barley
Sesame seeds
Steel cut oats
Amaranth

At the very least, it’s an interesting alternative to brown rice.

(A sidenote: I’m always reluctant to talk about Japanese ingredients unless it’s actually available outside of Japan. Zakkoku-mai mixes weren’t available until fairly recently, but now they are, so here they are.)

Update: Cooking zakkokumai, with photos

To clarify some confusion about exactly how a zakkoku-mai mix work, here are some photos of it being cooked.

After washing 2 rice-cooker cups of rice, I added a packet of zakkokumai mix (this is the one with beans and things in it, described above) to the rice cooker with the water. There are about 2 tablespoons of mix in a packet.

Here’s how it looks after it’s been cooked. I used the regular white rice setting, not brown rice or anything else! The mix is sort of clumped up in one corner, so I fluff up the rice to distribute things evenly.

Here’s how a bowl of cooked zakkokumai looks like. This mix puts a reddish color cast on the rice because it contains azuki beans and black rice, but the ‘white’ kind of mix puts no color on the rice.

You may not care what color your rice is. But it may matter a lot if you happen to have older Japanese people to feed, who may have an aversion to any kind of rice that isn’t white. (My stepfather is like that, and to a lesser extent my father too. It all has to do with the era in which they grew up, when white rice was highly desirable and any deviation from it brought back bad memories of rationing and food shortages during and after the war, when things like millet were used as rice substitutes. Ironic that now these formerly undesirable rice substitutes are seen as health foods!)

Here’s how the cooked rice looks close up.

It doesn’t taste significantly different from plain white rice, though there is some texture interest. There’s no need to devise special meals to eat it with either. We actually at this rice last night with curry.

In any case I hope the photos make the use of zakkokumai a bit clearer.

Hold the tuna and the food guilt, please

maki — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:38:29 +0100

This past week the New York Times published another in a series of dire warnings about how dangerous a certain food is, in this case tuna which is supposedly laden with mercury. One of the sources of this recent round is a conservation group called Oceana. There were, of course, rebuttals and counter-claims to this. The Japanese government isn’t all worried because of yet another food scare rash in the U.S.

It isn’t as though we haven’t heard this kind of thing before, whether it’s how dangerous soy is, or whatever.

A couple of thoughts came to mind as I read about this latest scare.

First of all, it’s odd that people are focusing on tuna in sushi. Despite the explosion of sushi popularity worldwide, I would bet anything that the consumption of canned tuna is far higher than as sushi or sashimi. And as that NY Times article itself notes, cooking does not affect the levels of mercury at all. (Most canned tuna is ‘light’ so has less mercury, but it does have a not-insignificant amount.)

But then, sushi is trendier, and a nice piece of raw tuna is much prettier than a boring beige can of the thing.

It also reminded me of a certain regular customer at Sushisay. He would come in at least once a week, sometimes more, sit down at the counter, and order a big plateful of toro sashimi, about 20 pieces, at (depending on market prices) $10 a piece or so. He’d follow that up with several tuna and yellowtail sushi pieces, around $7-$10 pp. (I don’t see yellowtail garnering as much attention; it’s not the star tuna is, and it’s also, you know, beige, but since it is also an oily fish that is higher up on the ocean food chain, I’ve no doubt it also comes with a generous serving of mercury.) Attempts to coax him to try other kinds of sashimi and sushi never amounted to much. He was a good customer of course, but his backside was taking up a precious chair at the counter unnecessarily - if you’re going to sit there you should be prepared to tackle some variety. (I am sure a lot of sushi dilettantes sit at the counter because they’ve heard somewhere that’s the ‘best spot’. It is, but if you’re just ordering a Cooked Sushi Set, go away to that corner table.)

I never talked to him directly, but I was really curious about this. Did he eat all that tuna because he loved it so? Did he do it because of its alleged health benefits? Was he just showing off? (His bill was always astronomical, as you can guess.)

It always annoys me when I see these food scares going around. It seems to reinforce this preoccupation that a lot of people have with the idea of food as medication, good or bad. There was an old science fiction short story by Japanese author Shinichi Hoshi, called “Flavor Radio” (Aji rajio 味ラジオ) about a society where people only ate bland, carefully nutritionally balanced and manufactured bread. Their urge for different flavors in the mouth, since humans are such oral animals, was met by a ‘flavor radio’ that was embedded in a tooth, with constantly changing programming. I think a lot of people would love to jump to a future where such a thing was possible. Many would probably just skip the flavor radio part right now and just eat nutritionally balanced manufactured food, period, right now. You know, those people who down a huge handful of vitamin pills and things every day, or subsist on protein powder drinks.

Of course I am not saying we should not be concerned about food safety. On the other hand people shouldn’t be rushing to wards the latest miracle nutrient either. And above all, moderation is a great idea, especially in eating. Why not try all the different kinds of sushi neta instead of safe old tuna?

But this may actually be good news for those of us who truly love sushi. The biggest danger connected to tuna, especially bluefin (the type that’s most popular for sushi and sashimi) may be that it’s being overfished. If enough half-believers start to stay away from tuna, there’ll be more left for us for a longer time.

So, if you’re eating sushi just because you think it’s ‘healthy’, stop! Go away. Go back to uhm, well what do you go back to these days? Spinach with e.coli? Sprayed apples? Organically produced green beans that aren’t politically correct because they’ve been shipped from a third world nation where people could use the work desperately but think of that long journey to get them to you and the C02 emissions OMG?

Bring on the flavor radio. In the meantime, I think I will stick to moderation and variety, and enjoying how my food actually tastes first and foremost.

Related, tuna porn! All about tuna, an article I wrote for the Sushisay web site back in the day.

Cold remedies

maki — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:53:49 +0200

I was hoping that I would avoid my usual bout with a cold/flu around this time of the year with healthier eating and regular exercise and all that, but no such luck. Once again I’m enduring the stuffed head, sore throat, and achy body. My favorite home remedy to combat a cold, besides Ricola tea, is lemon-honey water: the juice of one lemon in a big mug with hot water and a spoonful of honey. My grandmother’s favorite remedy was umeboshi, though I’m not sure why (she believed in umeboshi for a variety of ailments). What are your favorite homemade cold remedies?

Dashi stock granules, Ajinomoto, MSG and health considerations

maki — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:23:20 +0100

Seamaiden, who has a lovely gluten-free blog called Book of Yum, asked in the comments here whether Ajinomoto is gluten-free. Since I know that a lot of people become interested in rice-centric Asian cuisines, including Japanese, because of the wide variety of wheat-free dishes, I thought I’d post some of my findings here about Ajinomoto and dashi stock granules rather than bury them in the comments.

Monosodium glutamate or MSG is a concentrated and manufactured form of umami. It is a flavor enhancer with a lot of controversy. I won’t get into that at the moment, since reactions to MSG really vary widely depending on the individual. The reality is that MSG is present in many manufactured food products.

Now specifically about Ajinomoto, the white granulated product that is synonymous with MSG: According to the official Japanese Ajinomoto company site, it is currently made by “fermenting the sugar extracted from sugar canes or corn, tapioca starch and other ingredients”. That doesn’t mean of course that MSG manufactured by other companies are made the same way. They also state that when the company was founded, they used to make MSG from wheat gluten, and later moved on to extraction from soy beans.

Ajinomoto is also a major manufacturer of dashi stock granules (their product name is Hondashi). On the Hondashi page they emphasize that they make Hondashi from real bonito (this is why dashi stock granules are not vegetarian).

Food allergies are just as hot a topic in Japan as they are in the rest of the world, especially children with allergies. Unlike in the English speaking parts of the world where allergies seem to be defined more granularly, most environmentally caused allergies are called by the general name atopii (アトピー), which is derived from the term atopic syndrome. Generally the current commonly held belief amongst people affected by atopii, especially mothers with allergic children, is to avoid all food additives, including Ajinomoto/MSG (called kagaku choumiryou, meaning “chemical food flavoring”) and dashi stock granules. Whether this has concrete scientific backing is beyond the scope of this site, but it might be something to consider if you’re affected by food-related allergies. (Anyone who’s been to Japan knows that there are a positively staggering array of skillfully packaged and marketed manufactured/pre-packed products loaded with chemicals, additives, etc. there. Instant ramen is just one of millions of probably-bad-for-you products.)

As for myself, I haven’t had Ajinomoto in my kitchen for a very long time. I can’t even remember the last time I bought it. I do however use other flavor enhancers on occasion, such as dashi stock granules and soup stock cubes. Fortunately no one I have to cook for regularly (including myself) has a known intolerance for these foods. I do much prefer to make dashi stock from real bonito flakes and kombu seaweed, since it’s relatively easy to do so. (Compare the procedure for making a bonito-kombu stock to making say, a real beef stock from bones and such…the latter is considerably more complicated and messy.)

The good news as far as Japanese cooking is concerned is that many if not most, Japanese dishes rely on a boost of umami, but adding this is quite simple since many natural or naturally produced ingredients that are used in everyday Japanese cooking are loaded with umami: bonito flakes, kombu and other seaweeds, dried shiitake, dried fish (niboshi) or dried fish powder; miso; soy sauce; and so on. So, when in doubt you may want to rely on the natural umami ingredients.

Why is health quackery alive and well?

maki — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:15:41 +0100

Unless you live in the UK, you probably don’t know who Gillian McKeith is. I didn’t know much about her even though I do watch British television, since she has a show on Channel 4, which I don’t get here. Apparently she is famous as the host of a diet show called “You Are What You Eat”, bestselling author of diet books, and hawker of herbal pills. She puts a Doctor in front of her name, and she’s regarded as a Health Authority. Yet, she is not a medical doctor or even a properly trained and certified nutritionist. Her only health related degree may or may not come via a correspondence course from a non-accredited American college.

Yesterday, this very interesting article in the Guardian explained how Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority may be putting a stop to her use of the Doctor in front of her name since it is misleading.

The amazing thing is that “Doctor” Gillian McKeith (it brings to mind Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive saying “‘Doctor’ Richard Kimball”, voice dripping with irony…but I digress) is not at all alone. There are many pseudo-health authorities, in all countries, dispensing advice and information without much actual research to back them up…and they gain a often fanatically loyal following. From downing green algae to coffee colonics, taking tons of supplements to losing weight by ‘deep breathing’, oddball health claims abound. It’s all very reminiscent of the travelling medicine shows and peddlers of yore, that went around selling “miracle elixirs” and the like to a gullible audience. Even though we are all supposed to be literate and better educated than our great-grandparents, the urge to want to believe in quick and easy fixes for our bodies seems to be as strong as ever.

Sugar high, really

maki — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:45:12 +0100

Since I started my whole get fitter/lighter process last month, I haven’t ingested much sugar. I didn’t avoid it entirely, but was using quite small quantities - a spoonful of jam here, a bit of honey there, that sort of thing. (It’s also hard to avoid all sugar in Japanese cooking - a bit is often added to enhance the flavor.)

I never had a big sweet tooth to start with, so I didn’t really miss sugary snacks that much in a physical sense. But I did miss the whole idea and process of making something sweet, of the house filling up with those smells. Besides, Valentine’s Day is coming up this week and that means chocolate!

So an afternoon of experimentation followed, which resulted in the spiced chocolate cupcakes. The cupcakes were divine, and I overindulged and had three in a row.

What happened right afterwards was quite odd. I almost felt like I had smoked some pot or something. I felt lightheaded, the room was swimming slightly, I saw some odd flashes of color, and my speech got rather slurred. This all went away after flopping on the sofa for a good half hour or so. Still, it was a slightly scary sensation.

I suppose I’ve weaned myself away from sugar enough that it was causing this? Or was it the combination of sugar and the chocolate? Next time I talk to a doctor I’ll have to remember to ask about it.

Eat Food/Not too much/Mostly Plants in action

maki — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 23:26:33 +0100

I am at the moment in the 'buried in work' state, so I haven't had a chance to post much here for the last week or so. Hopefully I'll get out of the mire soon. In the meantime though, anyone who has any interest in food, nutrition, where our food comes from, and most importantly, how to eat at all, should read the massive (12 pages) article by Michael Pollan in the New York Times, Unhappy Meals (registration required). (I linked to it already yesterday in my daily links but in case you missed it!) I do highly recommend reading through the whole 12 pages, but if you are really impatient read page 1 then skip ahead to page 11; the salient 9 recommendation points start there. I agree with every one, and try to practice them too.

Coincidentally, or not, the basic premise of "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.", not to mention the 9 points, share a lot in common with the rules I set out for myself for trying to lose weight: eating fresh lots of vegetables and some fruit, not relying on artificial/manufactured products, and so on. I'm also relying a lot on Japanese-type food and cooking methods, with some injections of my other favorites, Italian and Provençal (plus some Swiss soups). While I have been keeping a food journal and watching the portions, I haven't really done a lot of in-depth caloric or nutritional analysis of what I've eaten (though I have noted some new, healthy recipes that were a hit.) Weight loss aside (to date I've lost a bit more than 3kg, or about 7 lb, since Jan. 1st) the major difference is that I feel pretty terrific. The first week was a bit tough - I was irritable as hell and made life for some people around me (cough) pretty miserable. I'm not sure if that was solely due to the food, but I know that I sorely missed eating sugary and salty snacks. While I don't think I over-relied on processed foods and snacks before, getting rid of them almost completely has done a lot for me already.

I still use small amounts of sugar (mostly brown/raw cane sugar), white flour and salt in my cooking, but the amount I used is controlled by me. That alone has made quite a difference. (I've made and eaten cookies and even cupcakes this past month; they were delicious and didn't affect the weight loss efforts much at all. Yes, I did do portion control!)

The main thing though is that I've been eating food: real fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, bread and grain, and so on. The only packaged foods I've been eating are canned tuna and tomatoes. And it all tastes terrific.

I have more thoughts about this...but for now, to go back to digging out of the (work) mire...

Related: The Omnivore's Dilemma.