From the time when their culture first developed, the Japanese have survived with very little desire or ability to raise animals for food. The island nation's lack of space for grazing animals has led to a food culture that depends heavily on sea-farmed plants, efficiently raised agricultural crops, and vegetable-based proteins - which makes Japan a fantastic source for well-balanced vegetarian cuisine - with many side effects that you might find surprising!
While most cultures base their diets on meat and other animal products such as cheese, milk, and thickeners made from bone, the Japanese have developed plant-based "substitutes". Soybeans provide tofu, soy milk, and sweets; seaweeds thicken and add a salty-meaty flavor to almost any dish, and variety is assured with different types of vegetables that we as outsiders view as almost frightening in their color and shape diversity! The advantages to this take on a balanced diet are many:
1. The lower fat content in Japanese vegetarian cookery means a quick and tasty way to lose weight.
The banes of our dietary existence in the modern world are cholesterol, saturated fat, and the hormones and antibiotics injected into food animals that lead to humans getting diseases and metabolic disorders we were never meant to be susceptible to. Considering that vegetation does not need medical acre, and cholesterol and saturated fats can really only be ingested by eating animal-based foods, rapid and healthy weight loss can be achieved with a balanced vegetarian diet containing tasty foods commonly found in Eastern cuisine, such as soy sauce, tofu, different root and leafy vegetables, and seaweed.
2. Avoiding meat and meat products means spending less per shopping trip than the average carnivore.
The next time you go to the supermarket or spend the day food shopping, sit down when you get home and analyze your receipts. It is almost guaranteed that the majority of your money went towards feeding, housing, fattening, doctoring, transporting, and processing animal-based foods like cheese and cheese products, milk, meat, dairy-based sweets, and eggs. These prices keep going up as the cost of land, feed, and medical care for the animals rise. A vegetarian diet allows you to cut these costs out of your food budget entirely - or helps you appreciate all the work that goes into these foods when you DO buy them.
3. The variety of foods simply and easily made from home with this style of cooking mean less money spent on eating out.
How many times has your family gone out to eat out of sheer boredom or impatience? Buy yourself a steamer and take your family on a shopping and cooking adventure- ask at your nearest health food store where the Asian markets are. The educational benefits (and entertainment value - watch as your kids or partner-in-crime grow wide-eyed!) will make dining in a new experience for everyone.
You don't have to change your entire lifestyle immediately, but incorporating a few Japanese vegetarian meals at a time will definitely improve your life.
Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author.
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