When I lived with a Japanese family for a year we ate rice mostly three times a day. The word for meal means cooked rice, gohan. And the word for everything else in a meal, okazu, mean side dishes or "dishes accompanying the rice." A bowl of cooked rice is about 140g to 200gms, so we had 420 gms to 600 gms per day. Japanese children are often told not to eat okazu only: Eat more rice! Don't be an okazukkui: okazu-eater.
In the morning we had rice, miso soup and pickles and leftovers. If we didn't have rice then we had mochi, which is made of rice. A few times a week we might have toast. At lunch, the bento I brought to school always had rice in it. It might be plain rice or it might be onigiri balls. At dinner the only times we didn’t have rice were when we had mochi or noodles. Mostly times the served is rice plain steamed rice. Fried rice or with butter or oil is unusual. A small bowl is served with almost every meal, including breakfast. Rice helps fill you up on fewer calories, leaving less room in your belly for fattening foods.
The average Japanese person eats about 25% fewer calories per day than the average American. The average Japanese women and men live longer and healthier than everyone else on Earth. They have the lowest obesity rate in the developed world 3%. This compares to 11% for the French and 32% for Americans.
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