[tomp]

There's just one thing I don't get... Too much carbohydrates are supposed to be bad. Too much soy is supposed to be bad. But the Japanese live the longest, so obviously they can't be that bad. So one of these assumptions must be false:

- Japanese eat a lot of rice and/or soy (or products made from them) - Japanese have different genetics that allows them to avoid the negative effects of carbs/soy.

We could probably throw fish (mercury) in the mix as well.

[dmm]

How much of the japanese diet is actually made up of soy? The numbers I've seen are <5%.

[lifeformed]

It seems like it'd be much more than the 100-200g/wk that they suggest. In China or Taiwan, every day you could drink a big bowl of soy milk for breakfast, and for lunch/dinner eat some mapo tofu, stir fried bean curd sticks, etc.

[ekianjo]

I confirm it should be more than that. Miso soup is a daily dish in Japan for about one or 2 meals, and it usually contains 20g of Tofu at least. Then there's soy beans, used in many delicacies, soy sauce used for sushi, a number of dressing using soy as a base...

100-200g/week actually seem a rather low estimate in Japan.

[noondip]

> Too much carbohydrates are supposed to be bad.

Carbohydrates are your body and brain's preferred energy source. What makes you think consuming too many is, "bad"? If derived from whole plant sources, carbs are fantastic and shouldn't be restricted.

[jp555]

by the time it hits the bloodstream the carbs in an apple and those in a bowl of lucky charms are identical. it's all broken down into identical fructose and glucose molecules.

[noondip]

The processes by which the two "hit the bloodstream" are quite different. For example, an apple has fiber and phytonutrients which slow the absorption of glucose. Whole fruits are so unlike processed breakfast cereals, I think it's a stretch to say their metabolization is identical.

[jp555]

yep, but 100i/h for 1h vs 10i/h for 10h is the same amount of energy in the end. I didn't mean to say the metabolization is the same at all, and absolutely fibre makes a huge difference, but that's a different macro nutrient from the sugar (fructose/glucose) content.

[SolaceQuantum]

Actually the Japanese and also many Chinese are running into problems with health because of high salt and such. Soy not as much, and I don't really believe the breast cancer stuff or east asian countries would be the no.1 place for those kinds of cancers.

[jp555]

You think it's salt and not increasing obesity rates?