Shadowing Practice: How Japan escaped Obesity while America got Fat - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
B2
15 years ago, I moved from Texas to Japan.
313 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
15 years ago, I moved from Texas to Japan.
2
I quickly had this weird feeling that something was off about the people here.
3
I couldn't quite put my finger on it at first,
4
but the more I looked around,
5
eventually I realized what it was.
6
Nobody's fat.
7
Since 1960, the obesity rate in America has skyrocketed from 12% to over 40% today.
8
That means America's obesity rate is almost 10 times Japan's obesity rate of just 4.5%.
9
The average American would be considered fat in Japan.
10
You're like an even American medium level fat,
11
you are completely fat here.
12
I didn't realize it because I was fitting in like Australian people.
13
But then when I came back to Japan,
14
I noticed that I was fat.
15
It's way easier to lose weight in Japan than in the States.
16
But why?
17
What's Japan's big secret?
18
KWAHI JAPANESE PEOPLE!
19
There's a million things it could be.
20
Maybe it's green tea.
21
Or maybe it's lower smoking rates in Japan.
22
Actually, no. Smoking rates are higher in Japan.
23
25% of Japanese men smoke,
24
but only 13% of Americans do.
25
Maybe more people go to the gym here.
26
Actually, no. Only 3.3% of people have a gym membership here,
27
while 21% of Americans do.
28
Maybe it's because everyone eats fermented soybeans for breakfast.
29
Actually, it's way simpler than that.
30
The whole food environment is just different in certain key ways.
31
In Japan, you actually cannot make excuses getting weight.
32
But maybe in the States,
33
maybe it's not the case because you're surrounded by lots of food traps.
34
When I came to Japan all those years ago,
35
I basically just ate whatever looked good and I was losing weight.
36
So let's say you wake up,
37
you get ready for the day,
38
and you're off to get a good breakfast.
39
What are your options?
40
Well, per person, there are 15 times as many fast food establishments in America compared to Japan.
41
So the average American's breakfast options might look like...
42
Hotcakes and sausage, our own egg McMuffin, the breakfast burrito.
43
For breakfast at Denny's, the Super Slam.
44
Single-handedly.
45
The worst croissant I've ever put in my mouth.
46
McGrittle.
47
Ooh, it's sweet.
48
What the f***?
49
All of our favorite foods.
50
So there's plenty of McDonald's you can go to here in Japan,
51
but Japan also has over 4,000 rice bowl establishments.
52
At places like Yoshinoya, for just $4,
53
you can get what is actually a quite traditional Japanese breakfast.
54
A small bowl of rice,
55
fermented soybeans, roasted fish, and miso soup.
56
Well, let's say you don't have much time and so you just want to grab something quick and go.
57
The answer?
58
Convenience stores.
59
7-Eleven.
60
Wow, this is so grossy.
61
Do I come to Japan just for the 7-Eleven?
62
More and more people are posting online about how in love they are with Japanese konbinis,
63
convenience stores, and for good reason.
64
They actually have a huge selection of pretty decent food.
65
So here's what you can get for about $9 USD.
66
Fish simmered in miso, ramen style eggs,
67
a rice ball, roasted chicken,
68
a salad, and a green tea.
69
And they have many other things like a decent selection of roasted fish,
70
fruits, salads, and even low calorie stuff like these noodles made of tofu.
71
The pre-prepared foods are also quite decent like fish with mushrooms and radish,
72
chicken gizzards with green onion,
73
shrimp and squid with broccoli,
74
boiled eggs, and steamed chicken with pickled veggies.
75
The bendos are a little bit more junky but they're much better than American options.
76
So the first key difference is convenience.
77
Convenience doesn't always mean junk.
78
However, the average American convenience store doesn't have many options of reasonably healthy things to eat.
79
You might be able to get some nuts or a protein bar,
80
but other than that, it's just chips,
81
candy, processed food, and some fried stuff sitting under a heat lamp.
82
So yeah, of course, super health-conscious Japanese people don't get all their meals from a convenience store.
83
Only if I'm too busy and I have no time to cook.
84
The thing is that the overall standard for food in Japan is much higher in general,
85
so even the convenience stores have reasonably healthy choices.
86
Japan has about 55,000 convenience stores,
87
meaning Japan has almost 10 times as many convenience stores per square kilometer than America,
88
which is great because from what I've seen,
89
Japanese people, or at least Tokyo people, are extremely busy.
90
Japanese people in general sleep way less than Americans,
91
which is actually very unhealthy,
92
yet they're still much thinner.
93
So yeah, there are healthy restaurants and supermarkets in the US.
94
But when it comes to cheap,
95
quick and convenient food, it's often very unhealthy.
96
In Japan for lunch, I have the option to buy some fried junk or go to McDonald's for lunch,
97
but it's often just as easy to say walk into Matsuya
98
and get something like a bowl of rice with some stewed beef,
99
a half boiled egg, some kimchi,
100
and a bowl of miso soup with plenty of pickled ginger of course.
101
Even if you're getting some actual sweets here,
102
they're just not as sweet as America's.
103
If you go to any one of these cake places around here,
104
an American would be like,
105
wow, why is it not sweet enough?
106
Whereas a Japanese person would go to America and go,
107
why is it so sweet?
108
It's going to be a disease.
109
Everyone is eating this stuff.
110
It's sweet!
111
When I first got to Japan,
112
I thought most things weren't sweet enough.
113
Now, after living in Japan for more than a decade,
114
when I visit America, most things taste way too sweet.
115
A lot of things are sweeter,
116
a lot sweeter than in Japan.
117
For example, yogurt is very sweet.
118
Too sweet.
119
It was like a dessert level.
120
According to 2021 statistics, the average Japanese person eats half the sugar of Americans.
121
Americans eat 33.7 kilograms of sugar per year,
122
but Japanese people only eat 17.7 kilograms.
123
The thing with sugar is that the reason people eat too much sugar is
124
that they want a lot of sugar because they eat too much sugar.
125
This 2016 study found that after just two months of people doing a low-sugar diet,
126
cutting their simple sugar intake by 40%,
127
they started to rate sweet foods as significantly sweeter,
128
as much as 40% sweeter than before.
129
That's exactly what happened to me.
130
At first, Japanese sweets didn't taste sweet enough,
131
then I got used to it,
132
and now they taste plenty sweet.
133
So I think the Japanese just eat less sweet,
134
less caloric things, and they eat less of it.
135
The soda cups are just smaller here in Japan.
136
This is a large cup at McDonald's in Japan.
137
This is an American Small.
138
The American Small is actually slightly larger than the Japanese Large.
139
And of course the American Large is about twice as big as the Japanese Large.
140
Even the milk is way smaller.
141
This is the standard size of milk here.
142
Next take a look at this.
143
The selling point of this sweet drink is actually that it's small.
144
It says Nomikiri Saizu, meaning a size you can finish.
145
and these half-sized drinks are in most of the vending machines.
146
Hey, why'd you get this small one?
147
I think this size is too much for me,
148
so I can finish this.
149
But this one's only 10 yen more.
150
You could've gotten like… Yeah.
151
This one's like twice as big.
152
It's too much and I don't want to waste it.
153
You don't want like a giant drink?
154
You don't want to get like as much drink for your money?
155
No. No one in Japan drinks a big gold.
156
You can't even get it anywhere.
157
Now that's what I call a large.
158
I couldn't find any big gulps in Tokyo,
159
but I could find these tiny cans of soda.
160
Who the f**k drinks this s**t?
161
If you go to a restaurant in Japan,
162
what percentage of the people would you say are drinking soda?
163
Oh, I think less than 10%.
164
Only water and tea?
165
Yeah, I think so.
166
Ah, that's better.
167
So Japanese people just don't drink that much soda.
168
The average person here drinks 30 liters of soda a year,
169
but the average American drinks five times that much, 154 liters per year.
170
So for example, with this vending machine,
171
if you didn't want anything sweet,
172
five different types of unsweetened tea,
173
you can get water, and then there's black coffee.
174
By the way, these vending machines are everywhere.
175
Japan has the most vending machines per person on the planet,
176
around 4 million, or one for every 30 people.
177
Next is key number three, school lunch the Japanese approach to feeding their school kids is completely different from America.
178
Do the teachers even eat this stuff?
179
They don't eat this one.
180
They don't, they don't touch it.
181
So I'm half American.
182
Well, I went to elementary school in both Japan and the United States.
183
In the United States, the food was just junk food.
184
We had tater tots, we had sloppy joes.
185
It was like everything bad for you.
186
Chocolate milk.
187
In middle school, we would get chocolate milk.
188
Chocolate milk for what?
189
Just like, if you want chocolate milk, go ahead.
190
Serve for lunch at a high school.
191
Students in Woodbridge, New Jersey say the food is inedible.
192
Some high school students who are so sick of their school food,
193
they've started a protest movement against it.
194
In 1970, the law changed.
195
Schools could now turn to private,
196
for-profit companies to feed their students.
197
In American schools, it's common to have plenty of processed foods on the menu.
198
You cut back on everything.
199
Salary supplies, the food.
200
But if we go over and take a look at Japan,
201
school lunches are planned out by the school's designated nutritionist.
202
And they are made from scratch every single day.
203
If you're in Japan, every meal is meant to be healthy.
204
Vegetables, rice, some fish, some meats,
205
and a little bit of pickled vegetables.
206
So that by the time you're 16,
207
17, 18, you're not going to be fat.
208
It would be very rare that you're going to see a child that's fat in Japan.
209
I think that carries you your whole life.
210
It sets your diet.
211
You got like a nutrition education that actually worked.
212
Yeah.
213
The fourth key is portion sizes.
214
The portion sizes are generally just a little smaller wherever you go.
215
Normal size, like meal size in Australia is usually big.
216
I couldn't finish eating them,
217
but then I got used to it.
218
And I actually gained 12 kg there.
219
So that's like 25 pounds.
220
I think there's two big reasons why Japan doesn't take the
221
American approach of giving you huge portions to make you feel like you got your money's worth.
222
First off, don't do this in Japan.
223
A big concept here is motta inai, or wasteful.
224
I remember some of my friends couldn't finish eating and then like crying and eating.
225
The idea came from like,
226
you cannot waste the food because that's the life of plants and animals.
227
Yeah, leaving food is considered bad.
228
It's kind of bad manners to leave unfinished food and especially rice scattered about on your plate.
229
Next, it's not really a thing here to get a container to take leftovers home.
230
You're expected to finish your meal at the restaurant.
231
So the average restaurant serves people reasonably sized,
232
not too big portions that most people should be able to finish in one sitting.
233
Most packages of snacks here are sized so that you can comfortably finish them without feeling stuffed.
234
Like, look how small all these little packages of chocolates are.
235
If you eat the normal American diet, you'll get fat.
236
In Japan, if you just eat whatever else eats, then you get thin.
237
Yeah.
238
Do you think that's pretty accurate?
239
Yeah, I think it's accurate.
240
There are some people who are maybe starting to get a little bit overweight,
241
and I suspect they're just eating too much junk food.
242
So the fifth point is variety.
243
It's easy to eat and drink healthy when you have plenty of options
244
and when you're not getting bored eating the same handful of healthy meals over and over again.
245
People can eat big portions of junk if they want,
246
but it's usually just as easy to get a variety of reasonably priced, relatively healthy food.
247
What I like about drinking culture in Japan is that even if you keep drinking at the izakaya,
248
but you see so many menus,
249
the healthy food on menu.
250
If you go to America,
251
fried chicken, fried potato, french fries.
252
Most of the places to go to drink have decent food options.
253
You can expect to get some really solid food that's actually quite healthy at a classic Japanese pub in Izakaya.
254
There are about 7,500 izakayas in Japan,
255
more than the total number of fast food burger chains like McDonald's or Burger King.
256
Now, I'm not necessarily saying you should replace fast food with alcohol,
257
but even if you're walking in somewhere planning to get drunk,
258
there's all kinds of simple, healthy, and delicious dishes.
259
There's one other quick point I want to touch on,
260
but first let me make it clear that there are better quality food options than convenience stores,
261
rice bowl chains, or izakai's, of course.
262
Most Japanese people wouldn't even think of these places as healthy.
263
But this isn't about optimal health.
264
It's about how you can be reasonably healthy with not that much effort.
265
Did you make this with vegetable oil?
266
Oh, yes.
267
Thanks, but I gotta watch what I eat.
268
Lately, the word has been getting out about how bad vegetable oils,
269
or seed oils, are for health.
270
It's kind of impressive how clever marketing got us to think
271
that we need to crush
272
and heavily refine thousands of seeds with a long industrial process to get the oil
273
that we need to cook with to be healthy.
274
With high pressure, forcing out the oil to a second extraction.
275
70-minute wash with a solvent.
276
They wash the oil with sodium hydroxide.
277
They bleach it, then use a steam injection heating process to remove the canola odor.
278
Sure, you can buy vegetable oil in Japan and people do cook with it.
279
But it's very interesting to note that Japanese people consume about one half of the seed oils of Americans.
280
The ironic thing about seed oils is that they become more unhealthy when you cook with them,
281
especially if you fry with them.
282
That's because the fats are very fragile and easily break down when heated,
283
which is not the case for saturated fats like,
284
say, beef tallow, which are very resilient to heat.
285
This brings us to the sponsor of this video,
286
the seed oil-free masa chips.
287
More than four years ago,
288
I started investigating how in the world we got tricked into thinking that we should be eating vegetable oils to be healthy.
289
Corn and sunflower oil.
290
Today, seed oils or vegetable oils make up 20% of the average American's daily calories.
291
And recent studies suggest that seed oils are linked to metabolic issues and inflammation in the body.
292
So I've been avoiding chips for about four years now,
293
ever since I learned about all the negative health effects of seed oils.
294
You probably saw my two different videos on the topic.
295
This is why I'm personally really excited about Monsa chips.
296
They've made a delicious tortilla chip out of just organic,
297
nixtamalized corn, sea salt, and 100% grass-fed beef tallow.
298
Zero seed oils.
299
Now, I don't know how they got the chips so crispy and crunchy,
300
but these are the most solid chips I've ever eaten.
301
I can pile pretty much an entire avocado on one chip.
302
Personally, something about these chips feels totally different for me.
303
I actually feel satisfied, and I don't have the urge to binge them.
304
And I don't feel sluggish or bloated after eating them.
305
After all, think about it.
306
Don't you feel better eating,
307
say, corn on the cob with plenty of saturated fat-rich butter rather than some french fries
308
or onion rings fried in seed oils?
309
The best part is it's just a really good chip.
310
You don't have to sacrifice any taste for health.
311
If you're ready to join the tens of thousands of people and join Masa,
312
go to masachips.com slash josephwil and enter code josephwil for 25% off your first order.
313
That's masachips.com slash J-O-S-E-P-H-W-I-L and code J-O-S-E-P-H-W-I-L for 25% off your first order.
Download App
AI scoring for every sentence you speak
TRENDING
Popular
About This Lesson
In this lesson, we will explore the fascinating differences between the dietary and lifestyle habits of Japan and America, particularly in regard to obesity rates. You will practice your English speaking skills by analyzing a YouTube video that discusses how Japan maintains a low obesity rate compared to the United States. By engaging with the content, you'll enhance your vocabulary and improve your speaking abilities, making this an excellent exercise for IELTS speaking practice and general english speaking practice. This lesson is tailored for those looking to learn English with YouTube as a dynamic study tool.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Obesity - The condition of being overweight or having an excess of body fat.
- Food environment - The various factors that influence our food choices and dietary habits.
- Breakfast - The first meal of the day, often considered the most important meal.
- Fast food establishments - Restaurants that serve quick meals, often with unhealthy options.
- Weight loss - The process of losing body weight, especially body fat.
- Fermented soybeans - A common food in Japan known for its health benefits.
- Excuses - Reasons or explanations used to justify a lack of action or failure.
- Food traps - Environmental factors that make it easy to overeat or choose unhealthy food options.
Practice Tips
To get the most out of this lesson, consider using shadowspeak techniques while watching the video. Shadowing is a method where you listen to a speaker and try to mimic their speech in real-time. Here's how to effectively shadow this video:
- Start by watching the video once without any interruptions. Try to grasp the main ideas and themes presented.
- On your second viewing, repeat key phrases along with the speaker, paying attention to their intonation and pace. This will help you develop a natural rhythm in your speaking.
- Focus on the specific vocabulary mentioned above. Try to create sentences using these words in your own context.
- To enhance your english speaking practice, record your shadowing practice and listen to yourself. Compare your speech to the original to identify areas for improvement.
- Practice regularly, as consistency is key in language learning. Engage with more videos on subjects that interest you to keep the practice enjoyable.
By using these suggestions, you'll improve your proficiency and confidence while communicating in English, making your learning experience both effective and enjoyable.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
☕ Buy us a coffee
ShadowingEnglish remains 100% free thanks to your support. Server and AI costs are high — your coffee keeps us going! 🙏