Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 5, 1 May 1994 — ʻAi pono, e ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi pono, e ola

Eat right and live well

by Dr. Terry Shintani

ls a Japanese diet a key to good health ?

In past articles I mentioned how overweight people tend to be less healthy than those who are slim. In keeping with this tendency, the people of Japan have the longest lifespan of any nation in the

world today. They also have the largest well-docu-mented number of centenarians (people who live 100 years or more) in the world. This is true despite the fact that they are an industrialized nation, have a simi-

lar amount of pollution and smoke cigarettes as mueh or more than people in the U.S. Is their longevity due to a healthy diet? Japan is also known to have very low rates of heart disease and certain cancers whieh are eommon in Westem populations. Breast, prostate, eolon and even lung cancer tend to be low in Japan. Diabetes and obesity rates are lower in Japan than in the U.S. and other industrialized nations although the rates of high blood pressure and stroke are higher. It's in the rice What is so beneficial about the Japanese diet? It has always relied heavily on rice as its primary

source of calories and carbohydrate. In 1950, the average Japanese diet was very low in fat (9 percent), high in carbohydrate (79 percent), and moderate in protein (13 percent), with an average

ealone intake of 2,098 calories. Along with rice, other staples such as barley, millet, taro and sweet potatoes were consumed with a moderate amount of vegetables, seaweed and fruit. The main protein source was legumes (espe-

cially soybeans and soy products) supplemented by seafood, small amounts of poultry, and very small amounts of meat. Their sodium intake was very high, estimated at 15-30 grams daily. Similarities with the Hawaiian diet What ean we learn from the Japanese diet? If you substitute the grains with poi, and the soybeans with a little ftsh, and reduce the salt, the traditional diet of Japan and the diet of traditional Hawai'i are very similar. Japanese ate taro and sweet potato. So did the Hawaiians. Japanese ate lots of greens and fruit. So did the Hawaiians. Greens included warabi (fern

shoots), whieh in Hawai'i are known as hō'i'o. Japanese ate seaweed and the Hawaiians ate limu. Both had fish in their traditional diets. The nutrient content was similar in fat (7-12 percent), carbohydrate (78-80 percent) and protein (12-15 percent). If the diets are so similar, why does Japan have low rates of chronic disease, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, while Hawai'i has high rates? Simple. The Japanese still follow a diet similiar to their ancient diet, while we in Hawai'i have become so "Americanized" that we do not. However, over the years, the Japanese diet has begun to evolve with more Western-style increases in the meat, dairy, egg and fat

intake, and a decrease in rice, potato and vegetable intake. Recently fat intake has risen to 21 percent of total calorie intake, carbohydrates to 64 percent and protein estimated at about 15 percent. It's still a better profile than the 40 percent fat diet in the U.S. Unfortunately, as Japanese adopt these Western eating pattems and high-cholesterol foods such as hamburger and fried ehieken, their rates of heart disease and certain cancers are increasing.

It seems that holding on to traditional diet ean be a key to preventing many of the diseases that are killing our people today. In Hawai'i we have wonderful opportunities to do this. We have a rich tradition of Hawaiian food that we ean retum to, and we also

have the influence of Japanese cuisine for variety. I don't mean that we should eat lots of teri-beef and shrimp tempura. Those were not the typical foods of traditional Japan. I do mean lots of brown rice, vegetables, fruit and seaweed and even taro (araimo in Japanese) cooked in traditional dishes such as nishime, sukiyaki and even saimin, provided there are lots of vegetables and not pork in them. In this way we ean have variety that will help us stay with a "Hawaiian-style" diet for better longevity. Dr. Terry Shintani, physician anā nutritionist, is the director ofpreventive meāieine at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. A majority of its 20,000 clients are of Hawaiian ancestry.

Hawaiian and Japanese Diets Comparison of Food Components