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23 November 2016

In Japan, the number of centenarians aged 100 years and older in 2015 for the first time exceeded 60 thousand people. In this article we describe in detail the three main components for the long life of the Japanese diet, local ecology and hygiene.

The Japanese diet

One of the secrets of longevity of Japanese is their food. Traditional diet in most cases is a recipe for a long life. What food and what combinations of ingredients allow people to live longer?

Traditional Japanese table, part of the national culture since ancient times, attracts more and more attention from abroad, especially from the West. Food in Japanese style is good for health, it provides people many substances that prevent the aging of cells. Due to its diet Japanese slow down the aging process stronger than the other people of the world. Many of them, despite their age, look remarkably young for his years.

The Japanese diet is based on what we call ichi Ju San SAI - three-dishes served with miso soup and a main dish, boiled rice. Three-part meals consist of one main and two small meals. This form was developed by the army in the Muromachi period (14th to 16th century) and has become the standard until the present day.

The main part of the meal - protein non-plant origin, usually fish. Fish can be served raw, as sashimi, or lightly cooked on one of the many recipes. One of the two small meals, usually boiled and seasoned, may include potatoes, Taro, radishes, daikon, carrots, burdock root or the seaweed kombu. The second small dish may contain natto (fermented soy beans), tofu, boiled beans, boiled vegetables soaked in soy broth, or ingredients, seasoned with sweet vinegar. The food is always served with pickled vegetables - vegetables in rice-branny pasta or pickled Japanese plums umeboshi.

Ingredients usually depend on the time of year. The Japanese love to eat seasonal food, because fresh food tastes better and because it's easier to transfer the taste of food without complicating the recipe. Fresh food doesn't need seasoning or long cooking, while preserving most of the vital vitamins and nutrients. Japanese cuisine is simple to prepare and full of natural nutrients.

Specially treated rice, unlike other cereals, does not contain gluten - vegetable protein that causes an allergic reaction in some people. Also rice is rich in B vitamins and complex carbohydrates, which, unlike light, don't show.

Japanese cuisine would not be what it is, without soybeans and soy products: this is the bean paste miso, tofu, abura-age (fried tofu), boiled soy beans, nimame and fermented natto.

Soy beans 35% are composed of protein, about the same as meat, so they are called "meat from the garden". They also contain certain types of polyphenol and isoflavone. This kind of products in Japan has received the most attention because they are similar to some female hormones, not only prevent loss, but even increase bone mass. This is good news for middle-aged women who worry about osteoporosis. It is also believed that soy beans slow down the aging of human cells. A sticky, gooey substance in fermented soybeans natto is useful for preventing the formation of blood clots in the blood vessels.

Traditional miso soup is prepared from fermented soybeans rich in amino acids. The ingredients added to the soup include vegetables, tofu and sea kelp - source of iodine and dietary fiber.

Red fish, so beloved by the Japanese, contains good for the heart and brain omega-3 fatty acids. It is proved that regular consumption of salmon or other red fish reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The Japanese, especially older generations, drink green tea many times a day. Catechin, an astringent ingredient in green tea, helps prevent cancer and age-related disease. Studies have shown that the death rate from cancer in Shizuoka Prefecture, where green tea is grown in huge quantities, is 20% lower than for the country as a whole.

Ecology in Japan

People with chronic respiratory diseases (e.g. bronchial asthma) are treated, simply having lived in Japan a couple of months. I think it has always been? And here's another example of the Japanese way to survive. In the 1990s, the Japanese abandoned the use of studded tires for ice. Despite the obvious, it would seem that the efficiency of the tire with iron bumps, the whole nation in the form of an order have returned to winter tires without studs and plain chains. And here's why.

The Ministry of health has submitted to Parliament a report about how much it costs the state coverage insurance for the treatment of asthma and bronchial diseases. One of the main reasons for their spread was the dust that rose from the studded tires on the road and hung over the fabric exactly on the level of the nose of drivers. And the Ministry of transport has prepared the estimate, which indicated how much it will save on road repairs if they are going to drive only cars with conventional tyres. All that remains to be done to Parliament, — to compare the figures of the losses and to save the state money. So people got your back clean air.

Hygiene Japanese

The Japanese love clean, every day they take unbearably hot, from our point of view, bathtub, their hands and teeth always clean. Such measures prevent the spread of infections.

In the XVIII century, take a hot bath every day regarded as a quite ordinary Japanese, even among the poor. The use of toilet paper already widespread. In Europe at that time was done with rags, hay or nothing at all. When Japanese want to say about someone that he is poor, he said, not even paper handkerchief, while the Europeans used the reusable, and therefore not too clean cloth handkerchiefs. Brushing your teeth with salt or salted tea, rinsing your mouth after eating, massage your gums — all these health standards were common.

During the meal the hands of the Japanese was always clean: the food was serviables so that her hands are not in contact. Europeans first met the Japanese, caused a cultural shock: the plugs they did not know and eat with your hands. And now, only in Japanese restaurant before the meal you will be served a wet towel, all the rest clean your hands remain on the conscience of the visitor.

The small spread of infectious diseases was facilitated by the fact that the Japanese did not consume raw water, drinking only boiled water or tea.

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