food/nutrition general health questions

[kotatsuneko]

well as you've figured out by now i'm pretty f*cking stupid , and know a good few of you know a thing or two about food and health so please excuse these questions, but i am curious about them..

kay,,,,

carton coffee - i drink 2 or 3 cartons of the morinaga one , cafe au lait a week, it tastes kinda sweet, is this f*cking with my health as in sugar/caffeine levels or shouldnt i worry?

cc lemon, i drink maybe 2 large bottles of this a week, along with a vitamin c sachet a day to ward of getting ill , it tastes almost as sweet as coke, does it really help get vit c in the body or is it really the same as sprite or something?

those vitamin/vegetable drinks like itoen you see on the telly/in the supermarkets , are they any good? apart from onions , potatoes and the occasional bit of lettuce i really dont eat vegetables, never have as i hate the taste/texture, if i drink these drinks will it help my nutrition any or would i just be pissing money away?

bottled water, i read here a while back about some dodgy stuff going around, any idea what brands are safe, or should i indeed just keep drinking tap water like i have been? the wife drinks bottled hokkaido or suntory water

vita c bottles, well they taste sweet and i do get a boost when i drink one if i feel tired but is there lots of evil shit in it also? i read some energy drinks contain nicotine etc..

walking, i try to walk for 2 hours or more whenever i can, as i have given up riding a bike , the pavement is too much hassle and the drivers are too crazy, is 2 hours long enough to start burning off fat or should i aim for longer? i mean, i have lost weight since the sun came out, but want to lose more..

ramen, well i eat it reguarly i guess, sapporo being justifably famous for it, but saw some disturbing lard cans outside a joint in susukino, do they really put pork lard inside ramen soup cos if so thats so gross i`d give it up..

bento lunches, i seem to remember reading somewhere they contain a lot of chemicals, preservatives or something, is this true?

well thats enough for now, basically, i want to get healthy and stay that way so any info/advice anyone could give would, as always be very helpful, CHEERS!

[Taro Toporific]

carton coffee - i drink 2 or 3 cartons of the morinaga one , cafe au lait a week, it tastes kinda sweet, is this f*cking with my health as in sugar/caffeine levels or shouldnt i worry?

Out in Shikoku on the farm sometimes I cover the graveyard shift at the coop dairy. We use past-dated and returned milk to make this "carton coffee".... The coffee covers up any "off' taste on week-old milk that just little old but still reasonably healthly nutrition. These a HELL of a lot of sugar in it: the dairy's uses 18kg of sugar/15 l of corn syrup for every 100 l of milk.

cc lemon, i drink maybe 2 large bottles of this a week, along with a vitamin c sachet a day to ward of getting ill , it tastes almost as sweet as coke, does it really help get vit c in the body or is it really the same as sprite or something?

Oh it's got the listed vitamin c in it but it's less than usefull in terms of health. Basically it's the same crap as Sprite or 7-Up. It won't kill ya but it's empty calories.

[American Oyaji]

Kotatsu,
Eat more veggies.

Drink more water.

Walk as much as you can. Then move up to jogging once your body can stand it.

The veggied drinks are decent, but you still need veggies for fiber to clean out your intestinal tract so you can crap properly instead of crapping mud and have to wipe for a day and a half.

Now I need to take my own advice.

[ramchop]

Just noticed that this sucker has about 0% of absolutely nothing in it that's beneficial for me (ingredients: water, green tea, and ascorbic acid).

Isn't green tea meant to be wonderfully good for you?

[cstaylor]

If your wife wants you to save money, why don't you make mugicha? It's very inexpensive to make.

As for bottled water, get one of those Brita water filters... then you can just use tap water.

[GomiGirl]

ramen tastes great but it is over 30% fat.. that's why it tastes great.

Get over your fruit and veggie phobia as it is the best way to absorb the good stuff. Make stirfry's for god sake and don't over cook the vegies.

Most of the "genki" drinks contain huge amounts of caffeine and nicotine.

Tap water is fine but agree with CS with the mugi-cha. It is much better to drink than the CC lemon (full of sugar and artificial stuff).

Bento lunches are packed in plastic that have a heap of chemicals (like oestrogen) that leach into your food when they nuke them. Make your own bento and take it to work..

You are better of eating soba noodles then ramen.

[Steve Bildermann]

[ramchop]

What you should be drinking is:

Japanese miso soup cuts breast cancer risk-study

kots, You're worried about getting cancer, wouldn't want you to lose a titty or two.

[GomiGirl]

p.s. using a mobile phone makes you smarter and is not a carcinogen. I think you are in more danger of cancer with combini bentos than with a mobile phone.

[groovewonder]

jeez, are you guys all health freaks? you guys remind me of my friends back in the states that would give me a lecture just for eating a hotdog or a bowl of popcorn! oh well, i guess the questions were asked, so I'm the misfit in this topic. i was just surprised with how informed you all are... :P

[kotatsuneko]

i could almost cry.

thank you all, i mean, life is pretty amazing isnt it? i want to live a long one , hence the questions ..

really, thanks for taking the time/trouble to post..

i'm sure we have a box of that mugi cha stuff around somewhere, and it does indeed taste good, we used it back in london too.. bottled tea is far more addictive and indeed tasty than most soft drinks.. i drink it as i would water, is that a bad thing?

gonna quit that coffee/cc lemon habit like yesterday... and i had no idea just how bad ramen is for me.. no wonder i piled on weight in our bitter winter!! looks like those bento lunches are out too. i never microwave them as i hate the idea of microwave food... and seicomart is just around the corner.. i love soba , and hiyashi (spelling* ramen, i wonder if thats a bit healthier?

i'll have to look out for that food store, i havent noticed one, tho i'm sure the wife or her friends will know where one is... most of the time, she will cook things from 0, in london it was necessary as the packaged j foods simply cost too much, really, apart from a little italian place near where we lived in tufnell park, she can put restaurants to shame with her culinary skills, and attended a nutrition/dietary course in london , so she always trys to get me to eat well, but she is out a lot, teaching privately, she cant work full time due to an accident she had, her back can't take office work any longer, so when shes out i tend to be lazy and take the bento option..

cooking lessons sound like a good idea, if i cant find that shop, maybe i'll offer language in exchange for cooking lessons or something..

i love tofu, but must admit i ususally eat it as age dofu which i suspect isnt too tasty.. hmm genmai rice, i dont think ive tried that, normally we eat koshiki something or other..

as i only work like 2-4 hours a day, my day is pretty split up, so i eat weird meals a lot, how about onigiri? are the conveni ones so bad?

i must admit, that using a phone here doesnt seem to screw with my mind like in london, i remember throwing mine on the floor after using it as it felt like my mind was cooking once.. and gomigrrl is dead right about battery life , i only charge mine twice a month..

that info about the coffee is enough to make me never touch that crap ever again..

miso , havent tried that for ages, i simply got bored of it.. is the instant packet stuff terribly bad for you?

oh, on the sugar thread question, ignorant as i am, i thought sugar was naturally brown and they refined it into white sugar, so why is brown sugar so hard to find? it sure tastes a lot better, but also it tastes different then when i was a kid but maybe thats just my taste buds..

thanks again, youre a great bunch of people..

[GomiGirl]

Homemade miso soup is dead easy to cook. Plus you can add whatever you like - put those vegies in so they don't taste like vegies. I put onions, carrot, cabbage - all sorts of stuff in. Make sure you don't add the miso paste until just before you eat it as it tastes best that way.

Microwaving food is fine, just don't do it in plastic as the chemicals leach out. But I am addicted to my toaster oven as there is so much you can do. My fave snack is home-made mini pizza's on split English muffins.

Combini-onigiris are fine but again they are dead easy to make yourself. Stay away from the fried ones and the ones with heaps of mayonaise if you are worried about fat intake. My faves are the plain salmon (shake or sometimes sake ? ?

Language exchange for cooking lessons is a fair swap - make sure you get all the right tools as well - all from the 100yen shop.

[gkanai]

Most conbini foods are pretty heavy with preservatives. One of the chains (I forget which) is piloting a new kind of conbini with more healthy food items, so that should give you a feel for the fact that the current conbini foods are pretty unhealthy. even the onigiri have more preservatives than if you made them yourself.

g

[Big Booger]

I love conbini dinners Eat them once daily! Bring on the preservatives Oestrogen, radiation hell I don't give a rats ass..

I tell ya, the 7/11 ebi bento is sweet! As is the gyudon, and oyakodon

Their sandwiches are ok. Some suck, but some are decent. They have a new one called the American Sando, it rocks!

ITems I shy away from are the american dogs, karaage, sasegi, and so on..

I swash those ill-begotten calories down with Lipton's new Peach Tea, 100 yen per 500ml, X2 per day.. Excellent way to perk up the day.

Why eat healthy when much of it tastes crappy.. ??? Eat to live, and live to eat!

bring it on. Best to have a high metabolism when eating like that though

[katakori]

to keep it simple, don't become a health freak if that adds to your stress and make your body frustrated. 1. eat better, 2. make your body work and 3. shit well. if you keep this balance working, you'll be better with yourself.

1. you can eat ramen because it's good, but don't eat instant ramen everyday. yes, fat and sugar are not your best friends... so what? their is fat and sugar in many dishes. their is fat and sugar in you. there is fat and sugar in everything that has taste. but then burn these fat and sugar! i guarantee you that if you eat ramen and chocolate everyday, and jog and swim for 2 hours each everyday, you will not put on weight...
and there are so much healty stuff in japan, you should be glad there's available here for so cheap. such as miso, tofu, genmai rice (and tea!!)...

2. walk AS MUCH as you can, jog, take the stairs, push ups/pull ups morning (free) etc.

3. eat a lot of fibers. no need to go overboard but you HAVE to have fruits and veggies every day. if you don't like the texture, try changing the way you cook them. or don't cook them and have orgies of veggies salads! (as for the taste, i don't believe you. there are so many different tastes available, no one can group the veggies this way... )

shit everyday. until you achieve this, there is a problem in your balance. and it won't be solved by eating more, or less, or more or less fat/sugar. it is the result of a healthy balance, and lots of fibers.

lastly, favor variety. if you eat the same things everyday, however healthy they are individually, it is NOT healthy. your body needs many different things, changing on a regular basis.

my point : enjoy life, try everything. know what's good and what's bad, and try to get a good balance. sometimes grilled fish and a salad, sometimes junk food. as long as you make your body work and use this food, it will be healthy, and will ask for more (energy and work).