THE TOKYO DIET: Lose Weight the Japanese Way

A reasonable, healthful regimen based on a once--traditional Japanese diet--featuring foods that may be difficult for the average shopper to obtain. Such a diet, the authors note, has five positive attributes: the foods themselves (no bread, dairy products, or baked foods); preparation methods (steamed, broiled, stir-fried); ways of serving (attention to color combinations and eye-appeal); ways of eating (slowly, relaxed and with ceremony); and avoidance of harmful foods (e.g., high-calorie, high-sugar, and high-cholesterol items). These attributes coincide, moreover, with the US Dietary Guidelines. (Weight control is a big emphasis.) The plan here is complete with menus and recipes, all unusual and attractive: Japanese noodle soup with soba (buckwheat noodle), prawn and cucumber soup. But one of the author's main arguments for this diet is that the foods are naturally available, close at hand, which probably is beneficial (foods therefore require fewer perservatives and additives to maintain freshness, and don't lose as many nutrients between harvest and table); that obviously doesn't apply when the diet is used away from its native locale. Japanese food enthusiasts may be willing to make the effort of finding these ingredients; others will benefit equally from any of the numerous guides with the same goals.