At the Foundation of Japanese Eating: Rice

Welcome back to the second part of our Japanese Healthy Eating Series! If you missed our previous article, we talked about healthy Japanese eating habits.

We wanted to go to the foundation of Japanese meals: rice + miso soup. This comes with every traditional Japanese meal. So, is it healthy? There’s so much that we could talk about, that we’ve decided to split them up into two parts, starting with rice today. 

Your regular rice but better.

If you know me well enough I love rice and can’t live without it. Not just Japanese people but I think many Asians would say the same. I feel many fitness “experts” have turned white rice into an evil little calorie monster that shouldn’t be eaten if you’re trying to lose weight but apparently Japanese people eat 82.1 KG of rice a year and many of them are very slim! My obachan (grandma) ate mounds of rice piled high in her bowl till the day she passed!

Now, other than white rice, it’s been trendy for quite some time now to eat mixed rice and I’m currently hooked on eating a blend of brown and white rice ( 1 cup of each ). It still has the springy texture of white rice but the brown rice has bite and is of course healthier. Sometimes I like to sprinkle in some barley too, which was also a big trend in Japan a few years ago. 

Zakkoku-mai, a rice mixed with seeds, grains and beans is also great both in looks and for your digestion. If I’m making Japanese curry for example, I love to serve friends with Zakkoku-mai as it’s delicious and unusual so definitely give it a try. 

So if you are looking for those easy adjustments to your diet to make it that bit healthier, give it a try! You cook it just the same as white rice. 

In the Makes Miso Hungry team, our go to meal at the moment is Yuzu Miso Chicken Thighs with a salad and mixed blend rice.

I hope you found this article helpful! Please comment on what you’ll like to learn about in the next part of the healthy Japanese eating series! Love, Yoko x

Of course this doesn’t end here. We can't wait to share our next newsletter with you, where we’ll chat all about Miso, another food staple in every Japanese home! 

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