Why Are Some Foods So Healthy?
Celebrity trainer and nutritionist Harley Pasternak traveled to the healthiest countries around the world to learn more about what made their meals extra nourishing.
He noted that Japanese people eat a wonderful variety of seaweeds, and that Chinese people tried to incorporate at least five different colors in every meal. But Pasternak also came away with some valuable observations about how different the North American way of life was compared to many other countries.
For starters, we eat much bigger portions than people in other countries. We don’t prioritize eating seasonally or locally, and we also add lots of salt, sugar and thickening agents to our foods, explained Pasternak in a phone interview with HuffPost. Contrast that to the healthy Mediterranean, Nordic and Okinawan diets listed below. They all seem to hew closely to an ethos of regional, seasonal produce.
Most other healthy eating cultures also make meals an event — say, multiple courses around the family table, or a glass or two of red wine at a long lunch — as opposed to hastily scarfing fistfuls of cereal above the kitchen sink and calling it dinner (you know, just for example).
Each one has its own unique quirks (reindeer meat! green tea!), and it’s good to remember that because of the incredible diversity of lifestyles around the world, it’s clear there isn’t one single path to weight loss or health. But Pasternak did take note of one unifying factor in all of the healthy societies he observed.
“The only overlapping feature in most of these healthy countries around the world is that they all walk way more than the average American,” said Pasternak. “So really, regardless of what you’re eating, if someone’s walking four miles more than you each day, they’re going to be a lot thinner and live a lot longer than you.”
