One only has to look around at the number of obese people struggling to walk normally to question the integrity of the industrialized food system. There is something wrong when the citizens of some of the wealthier global societies are dying from poor nutrition.

Food corporations have developed sophisticated marketing strategies that pressure parents into buying foods that are unhealthy for their children. The allure of brightly colored packaging attracts children so effectively that their parents simply give in to their cries to buy the product. Government subsidies make up part of the industrialized food system. They will financially support farming that has essentially become a large corporation that utilizes such farming practices as monocropping, genetically modified seeds and the spraying of insecticides. Society is paying a very high price for these non eco-friendly farming practices.

Monocropping means that there is very little rotation if any of crops. The soil eventually becomes depleted of valuable minerals that humans and animals need to maintain a healthy immune system.
These agribusinesses practice other non-eco-friendly farming strategies that are coming under more scrutiny by concerned consumers. Insecticides penetrate into the water table and eventually these toxins find their way into the intestinal tract of humans and animals. The toxic chemicals in the gut seep into the capillaries and compromise the human immune system. Humans, especially the elderly develop auto immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis where the body’s white blood cells will attack the joints in their wrists, hips and ankles.

Genetically modified foods have had their DNA altered to make the food more visually attractive to the consumer as well as to better resist herbicides.These foods have been consumed by humans for seventeen years and data is starting to emerge indicating increased risk of developing allergies. GMO foods also harm to other organisms as in the case of the Monarch butterfly caterpillar dying from the pollen of genetically modified corn pollen.

Many new food movements have been created to encourage organic farming and buying local produce. Concerned citizens want to take control of what they eat to ensure a healthier lifestyle for themselves and their children.

Every place has a different style in cooking the food that they eat. Some places are famous for pizza and pasta while other places are famous for their hamburgers. But one place that stands out most is how Japanese food is related to the long lives that people in Japan live.

It is no secret that Japanese people live very long lives and you rarely see Japanese people who are obese. When you walk the streets of Japan, you can simply count with your hands the number of people who are obese. Compare it to the number that you get when walking in other places and you will see that there is a huge difference.

One of the things that people speculate about Japan is that the food that they cook is much healthier than the food found in other places. Japan, China and Korea have similar style of cooking but what makes Japan stand out most is the fact that Japan has a lot more food that is eaten raw. China is used to steaming their food which is healthier than frying compared to what Korea does but Japan is able to preserve all the nutrients in the food that they eat by having it raw.

Examples of raw food that Japan has is the sashimi which can be any kind of fish cut into pieces which are then dipped to soy sauce and wasabi to add taste. Wasabi is a green substance that is used to add more spice to the food that a person is eating. Eating sushi and sashimi with wasabi is something that you must try if you have not tried it yet. It might taste a bit weird at first but it is a much healthier way of eating instead of frying them.

One other reason why Japanese stay so thin is because their diet consists mainly of seafood which has a lot of good fat that can help the body instead of meat that people in other places love to eat. Meat has fat that is not healthy for the body and eating too much can cause high cholesterol levels in the bloodstream which is not good.

Try out these Japanese meals and live a life where you can see the future generation grow.