The people of Okinawa, Japan are found to have the largest life expectancy in the world. This is attributed to their genetic inheritance, lifestyle, environmental factors, and most importantly, their healthy diet and attitude towards food. The Okinawans live by the concept of “Hara hachi bu,” which translates to- “Eat until you’re 80% full.”
Now, how exactly is that? How exactly do we know that we are already 80% full in your stomach? Is there a bell that alerts us and say, STOP!?
People eat not only with their mouth or their taste buds but with their brains, too. Our brain sends signals to tell us that we need to consume food. But there are also signals that stimulate our desire to eat continuously that could unfortunately, lead to over eating. When desire takes over the need, the problem of over eating steps in and over eating is the most likely reason of being overweight.
The brain takes 20 minutes to process and recognize that the stomach is already full. So if we spend the whole 20-minutes eating, it will definitely go beyond the 100% mark. If we apply the “Hara hachi bu” concept, then what we should do is stop eating before that 20-minute window is up. Though it may feel like we haven’t eaten, after 20 minutes, we will notice and feel that our stomach is actually already full.
How to make the “Hara hachi bu” even more effective?
Apart from the Okinawans following this concept, their overall eating habits and lifestyle contribute much to their healthier bodies and longer life expectancies.
- Choose the right kind of food. - The Japanese in general, eat food rich in protein such as fish and soy. These foods are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and isoflavones that are low in calories and fat. Fruits and vegetables also play an important role in their daily meal consumption. The daily recommended servings of food in a human body is met with these colorful variation of the fruits and veggies.
- Cook your food right. - Steam, stir-fry, pan-grill, and simmer are the usual techniques Japanese do to cook their dishes instead of deep frying the food using unhealthy cooking oil like we normally do. They also usually serve broth-based soups at the start of a meal, which can help make them full sooner.
- Be mindful of our eating – We like to multi-task whether it is eating while watching TV or eating while tending to other things, which all end in distracted eating habits, thoughtlessly stuffing more than enough food down to our stomach. We should chew our food slowly and and deliberately and take smaller portions of food instead.
- EXERCISE! – Japanese love casual exercise – in fact walking and biking are part of the Japanese lifestyle. They are exercising without even putting much thought to it. Let’s face it, we don’t exercise, or maybe we do like once in a blue moon. So we should try to move as often as possible and incorporate exercise even as little as 20 minutes a day.
Hara hachi bu! Isn’t that quite a fun and healthy mantra you can say to yourself just before you start your meal?
