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The total number of convenience stores in Japan is now about to reach 50,000. It is nowadays not rare to have 5 different convenience chain stores within a walking distance from your apartment in Tokyo. They offer a wide variety of meals, such as bento boxes with Hamburg, pork cutlet, Chinese dumplings, or different pasta dishes, sushi, rice balls, salads for your lunch or/and dinner. It does not sound healthy to get a dinner at a convenience store every day but many a business men and women especially if they are single actually grab a box for their dinner at one of their convenience stores on their way home almost every day. It also makes sense both cost-wise and time-wise.

Probably it would be unpractical and unrealistic today only to talk about how bad and unhealthy it is to get your food at a convenience store. Popping in a convenience store is something you do on a daily basis. So it makes more sense to talk about how wisely we can live with services offered by convenience stores in our busy life.

As mentioned above, the range of meals convenience stores offer is vast. So the key is what to buy. Prof. H. Kobayashi of Medical Department of Juntendo University explains in his book published recently.

“It is bad to buy only rice balls or only a cup noodle. It is crucial to eat a variety of food in order to lead a healthy life with convenience food. If you eat only carbohydrate the sympathetic nerves become activated and the sugar level goes up. After the meal, parasympathetic nerves get active and the sugar level makes a sharp drop and these cause drowsiness and lassitude. It is advisable to take meat or eggs which are full of protein which can adjust autonomic nerves. Fried chickens and seasoned boiled eggs which are prepared on site are recommendable. The other point to remember is that animal food has fat. In order to avoid oxidization of fat and oil, salad which is rich in antioxidant components should be taken together.”

According to Prof. Kobayashi, therefore, the problem lays not in the convenience store food but what to buy and how you compose your meal.

Prof. Kobayashi’s advice below is true to any food;

chew many times,

do not miss any meal. Have regularly 3 meals a day,

do not eat too much. Eat up to 70 to 80% of your stomach.

By following such rules, you can enjoy your convenience meals and lead a healthy dietary life without suffering from obesity.

"matsudon,giraffe" some rights reserved. flickr

Source: web R25

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