Why Japanese Home Cooking Makes Healthy Feel Effortless
The key is in the two-vegetable side dish
Advice From the 100 Year Old Neighborhood Lady
When I first decided I wanted to change the way I took care of my health, the idea of simple and small was counterintuitive to the popular dialogue I found online: my Google search results were filled with articles on sugar and fruit elimination, a diet of 90% fats and proteins, and why I should be eating within a 4-hour time frame. Sometimes I would feel exhausted and stressed just reading about it.
I eventually would end up ignoring the advice, and instead took inspiration from those around me: my active grandmother who often seemed like she had more energy than me, the lean Japanese neighbors who looked 40 but were actually in their 60s, or the neighborhood store lady who would casually mention that she had just turned 100 years old this month.
They were very normal people, but it seemed to me that they had found the miraculous fountain of youth — there must be something special there. But when I asked them how they ate, they would just tell me health advice as old as time: eat a variety of whole foods, and eat it in moderation.
