America's obesity rate has gone from 12% to over 40% since 1960. Japan's remains at just 4.5%. Why? The latest episode of Joseph Everett's "What I've Learned" YouTube series examines why the Japanese population, as a whole, has remained significantly thinner than the American population.
The difference stems from Japan's food environment. America has 15 times more fast food establishments per person than Japan. Japan's 55,000 convenience stores (10 times more per square kilometer than in the US) stock fresh options, such as fish, salads, and low-calorie noodles, rather than just processed snacks.
And many snacks in the United States contain more sugar. The average Japanese person consumes 17.7 kilograms of sugar annually — less than half the 33.7 kilograms eaten by the typical American. A "large" soda at McDonald's Japan is smaller than an American "small."
Japanese schools promote healthy habits by serving nutritionist-planned lunches made from scratch daily, in contrast to the processed foods commonly found in US cafeterias.
"In Japan, if you just eat what everyone else eats, then you get thin," says one Japanese person interviewed in the video.
Previously:
• Why Japan's micro-shops create wonder missing in America
• Meet Mirumi: Japan's cutest interactive emotional support toy
