You often hear about why Japanese people are so slim. And I’ve only just realised why..

I used to always get really frustrated at banquets in Japan as you have trays and trays of really nice food, but it was all “good stuff” like sushi and sashimi and gorgeous vegetables etc. etc. When I’m really hungry I’m always waiting for the “fill you up” things like rice or noodles. The thing is that they always come at the end of the meal – a very long time to wait! Some people have told me the reason is that you can’t mix similar food products. As you start a banquet with beer, you can’t enjoy the rice until the beer is gone. This always sounded a bit fishy to me, what happened before beer became popular?

The other reason given is that if you eat rice or noodles you’ll be too full to eat all the other foods. So they come at the end, just to fill up any space you have left. Now that makes a lot more sense. It’s basically the current low-carb idea, fill up on the good stuff then keep the carbs to the end. Hence why everyone’s so slim… but it still doesn’t help when you’re really hungry!