Rice, fish, vegetables, and pickles — those are some of the staples of the Japanese diet.
Around the globe, Americans love meat, potatoes, cheese, and dairy products.
It's quite a contrast, so let's dig a little deeper into what makes up the traditional Japanese diet, why scientists believe it is so healthy — and just what makes it so different than what Americans eat.
SEE ALSO: 10 biggest differences between French and American diets
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Japanese food portions are smaller.
In America, we like our meals huge — and having leftovers to box up is even better.
But in Japan, a small bowl of rice is usually the main dish — most often accompanied by fish or a plant-based protein like tofu or beans, soup, pickles, and other vegetable-based side dishes.
Even the fast food chains have had to adapt. This video from a married couple named Rachel and Jun — an American woman and a Japanese man — clearly demonstrates how much larger American soda sizes are when compared to Japanese ones.
Those portions add up — Japanese people average 1,000 calories less than Americans on a daily basis.
Japanese people don't generally eat out as much as Americans.
According to CNBC, as of September 2017, as much as 90% of Americans said that they don't enjoy cooking. About 45% outright hate it, and 45% are ambivalent. Anyone not in the measly 10% of Americans who enjoys cooking is a frequent eater of food outside the home — fast food or otherwise.
Meanwhile, a 2016 study in the Journal of Environmental Public Health found links between frequent consumption of foods away from home and both lower fruit and vegetable intake and a higher body mass index.
Only 16% of Japanese people eat out once a week or more. Contrast that with 47% of Americans, which is a huge difference.
The traditional Japanese diet has more variety than the American one.
New research from February 2018 in the journal Nutrients outlines the importance of balance and variety in traditional Japanese meals. Besides rice, fish and vegetables are two staples of the Japanese diet — and what's available in both categories is constantly changing with the seasons.
Animal products — both meat and dairy — just don't play a very large role in traditional Japanese diets. Instead, it's all about fish and plant-based proteins, including tofu and various beans — which are much leaner and kinder to our cardiovascular systems.
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