The Way of Eating for Japanese

Abstract

Health problems that are specific to modern times may be divided into the following three types: diseases derived from bad habits practiced by some people including the aged, loss of physical strength, visual acuity and reproductive power observed in young people, and an increased number of allergic diseases.
Many of these problems have emerged in the context of westernization of Japanese life-styles including diet. At the time of the civilization and enlightenment, Japanese people had a reputation for having exceptionally strong bodies, being greatly healthy and being clean although they were generally smaller than Westerners. This indicates that Japanese people's diet used to be quite good.
However, “the campaign to improve nutrition” aiming only at westernization increased intake of fat and animal proteins and decreased intake of carbohydrates such as starch, resulting in the destruction of not only the system of dietary habits, but also the health of Japanese people.
Humans are the animals that have specific food habit. However, as food culture became quite influential and dietary habits became diverse since their residence is surrounded by different kinds of natural environment, human food habit became obscure.
The author studied human food habit based on the common principle of the animal kingdom. “What can not be procured by men's own ability should be excluded from the food list.” High activities of amylase in humans indicated that humans are the animals that require a large amount of starch. However, as people except Westerners stop secreting the enzyme required to utilize dairy products after weaning, intake of dairy products becomes meaningless to these people. This study revealed that humans are the plant-eating animals, which require a great deal of starch and lack the ability to synthesize Vitamin C. These results indicated that humans require fruit and green vegetables other than carbohydrates.
To recover human health and life force, human biological yardstick as well as human food habit should be esteemed, the system of dietary habits should be restructured in harmony with modern lifestyles, and grains and soybeans should regain a pivotal role in diet.