Itadakimasu

When I was 15, I experienced one of the most shocking events in my life. “The Great Hanshin earthquake.”
Kobe was hit by the strongest tremors and severely damaged. I was watching a workshop next to my house being completely crushed. When I saw the road got a big crack, and water pipes burst and flooded the floors in my school, I realized that something really bad was happening.
Fortunately, my family and my house were safe, although our dog Chaco was missing for a few days.

We had no utilities and water supplies. Everything had been normal before the earthquake wasn’t normal anymore. We experienced the situation for several months. I felt so insecure because of the continuous aftershocks, however, it was “food” that helped ease those fears and warmed the cockles of my heart.

Thanks to the volunteers, we never felt hungry since they always delivered relief aids and provided us warm meals.
I learned the importance of family and got along with someone we don’t know each other by sharing foods. It was “FOOD” that made me feel secured and cheered me up.

That was the moment I wanted to become “someone who can make people happy with foods”. So, I decided to study nutrition in university, and I became a national registered dietitian.

I started my job to make people feel happy by eating. But I don’t think I was able to do that at the beginning.

“Please eat less. Otherwise, you will get fat.”
“Don’t drink too much because it’s bad for your liver.”
These are what I had been telling my patients. I believed this was the best way for them to be healthy. However, they all seemed unhappy and became demotivated. After a while I began to think that something was wrong about my instruction.

＝＝

I also tried to have a good eating habit myself. I ate 3 times a day at the same time each day. I tried to avoid food additives because it could be a risk to health, and did not eat animal fat as much as possible. I tried to eat everything that could be good for my health. But it was hard to say that I was perfectly healthy.

I had been having a problem with my regularity.
Of course, I tried to have things that were supposed to solve the problem, such as having a lot of vegetables, water, and yogurt every day. But it didn’t work at all.

However, two years ago, this problem that I had been annoyed for years was dissolved.

I had a chance to visit Italy as a part of my job, and I joined an event to teach Japanese culture there. I showed Italian people how to cook Japanese foods.

By the way, speaking of Japanese foods, what came to their mind first were still Sushi and Tempura even though Japanese foods were already popular in Italy. So I had to tell them “Japanese don’t eat Sushi every day.”

After only 10 days of stay, I realized that I fixed my constipation. It was amazing!
At first, I thought it could be because of the foods and water there. But after I came back to Japan, I still don’t have any problem with my regularity.

I found out that the mental stress was the cause of my constipation.
This mental stress is what I call "mind constipation."
It is a state of having your thoughts and emotions stuck in your mind. So with this, you become thinking that “you should be like that” or “you have to do this and this, etc.” When I think about my eating habit, it was totally controlled by this mind.

For example, I told myself:
“I have to eat 3 times at a set time each day.”
I felt guilty when I had late dinner because I thought it would damage my health.

I also told myself:
“I must avoid food additives.”

When I went to a grocery store to buy seasonings or pickles, I carefully looked at the labels and checked ingredients of each product.

If you see someone like this at a store, you think she is nuts, don’t you?

I also checked vegetables if they were organic. If I found out they were not organic, they looked black to me and as if they were poisoned.

If you become like this, I can say that you are officially ill.

So for me, these “must do” minds caused my constipation.

Our brain have 10 billion nerve cells. And our intestines have about 100 million nerve cells, so it is called “Second Brain.” Since a dog has about 100 million nerve cells in its brain, human intestines are very sensitive and stressed easily just like a dog gets. Unfortunately, unlike brains, we can’t control this stress rationally. In fact, our intestines don’t lie, and they reflect our states of mind.
Due to my unhealthy mind, eating right became very stressful to me. And I realized this caused my intestine problems.

Most Italians live based on the idea of “what they want to do,” instead of “what they have to.”
So this trip to Italy had great impacts not only on my constipation but also my entire life.

I used to believe that “working in a same company as long as possible” was the best thing at work. However, I found this idea was causing my stress. I decided to leave the company and do what I really wanted to do as soon as I came back from Italy.

This is a true story.

===

I realized my advice was wrong, too. I had been following what’s in the book, and telling my patients “what they should do” and “what they shouldn’t eat.”

Now I never talk about calories and diet restrictions during discussions with my patients.
Why? Because even I don’t want to do it.

I hope them to enjoy their meals.
I advise them to eat without calorie controls.

In the first place, my patients are not overeating and they don’t have to control calories at all.
So I wondered...
“Why is he obese?”
“Why does she have diabetes?”

I wanted to find answers to my questions, so I started to listen their words carefully.
And again, the mental stress caused their problems.

“I shouldn’t eat rice.“
“I have to stop eating sweets.”

These are the causes of obesity or diabetes.

Even a recent study says the Japanese average calories have decreased, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
I am not surprised. We hear about diet on TV all the time, and 0-calorie and sugar-free products are everywhere in supermarkets. We have a misconception about obesity; as if eating too much were a bad thing.

So I ask you to make sure you don’t have this state of mind before thinking about overeating.

===

Japan has great food culture.
We value it and actively promote food education.

We have a culture to enjoy the changing of seasons, and to bring out natural flavors of various ingredients when cooking.
Among them, ”ITADAKIMASU” is the most beautiful.
“ITADAKIMASU” literally means “I am going to eat” in English, but this is not exactly what it means.

“ITADAKIMASU” is a word showing our appreciations.
Appreciation for producing.
Appreciation for harvesting.
Appreciation for cooking delicious foods.
Appreciation of being able to eat your meal.

“ITADAKIMASU” is a culture to thank all such things.

When we think about being healthy, staying in good shape, or not becoming sick, we tend to focus on “what we eat.” But more importantly, we need to think about ”how we eat.”

Having good foods does not always mean having a healthy life.
Free from your stress and keep a healthy mind, so that you will be able to make appropriate decisions on what you eat.

I would like to ask you to say “ITADAKIMASU” and appreciate our food culture more from today.

This year, I am going to Italy again, and will introduce this great food culture there.

I wish all of you good health and happiness.

Thank you.

栄養院ひふみ（The Nutrition Clinic hifumi）

栄養院ひふみ