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Tag: Ethnic food

  • I’m a mom in Japan, home to the world’s healthiest kids—4 things Japanese parents do differently to raise successful eaters

    I’m a mom in Japan, home to the world’s healthiest kids—4 things Japanese parents do differently to raise successful eaters

    In 1896, pioneering doctor and pharmacist Sagen Ishizuka coined a Japanese philosophy called “shokuiku.” It is derived from two words that mean “eat” and “grow.” 

    Shokuiku encourages parents and schools to teach kids where their food comes from and how it affects our mind and body. This concept has been an integral part of Japan’s culture, and it’s a big reason why we’re home to some of the world’s healthiest children.

    According to UNICEF, among 41 developed countries in the European Union and the OECD, Japan is the only country where fewer than one in five children are overweight.

    As a mother raising a young daughter in Japan, here’s what Japanese parents do differently to raise happy and adventurous eaters:

    1. They implement shokuiku early.

    Japanese doctors often encourage expecting mothers to stick to a well-balanced meal style called “ichijū-sansai.” It is centered around a bowl of rice and miso soup, accompanied by a protein-focused dish, and two vegetable sides (like seaweed or mushroom) for adequate vitamins, minerals and fiber.

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    As kids get older, they start to learn about healthy eating habits. In 2005, the government passed the Basic Act on Shokuiku to promote shokuiku.

    Some preschools have kids harvest vegetables to eat for lunch, while in elementary schools, they learn about the farms that produce vegetables, fish and other foods.

    2. They encourage bento box conversations.

    Over 95% of Japanese elementary and junior high schools have a school lunch system. Meals are planned by nutritionists, and students take an active part in the lunch serving process. 

    While many preschools also provide lunches, homemade bento lunches can play an important role in promoting shokuiku.

    My daughter’s kindergarten teacher asks her students to talk about what’s in each other’s bento boxes. It makes lunchtime enjoyable, and children feel encouraged to try new foods — or even express dislike of certain foods — when they find them in their friends’ bento boxes.

    My daughter’s bento lunch: sweet potato rice balls, hamburger steaks, sausage, boiled broccoli, cherry tomato, omelet, pineapple and barley tea

    Photo: Yuko Tamura

    Opting for bento lunches over fast food also allows children to get consistent servings of seasonal vegetables and fruits, while avoiding high-fat foods and food additives. Meals are often made from local, fresh ingredients, such as baked cod with sweet corn and bok choy, served with minestrone soup and a carton of milk.

    3. They cook nutrient-rich foods in batches.

    I’ve found that preparing simple homemade pickles and freezing other nutritious vegetables and fruits in batches simplifies my everyday cooking.

    When my daughter started kindergarten, I struggled at first with some of the rules at the school — no snacks high in sugar or fat, like chips and cookies, or caffeine.

    But little tricks, like keeping a reserve of portioned meals, ensure that I can prepare nutrient-rich lunches for her, even when fresh produce is in short supply at home.

    4. They go for water or tea instead of soda.

    I don’t restrict my daughter’s access to fruit juices and occasional shakes. But in her words, soda is “yucky,” so I may have lucked out there.

    Early on, I introduced her to barley tea, which is mineral-rich without the caffeine. It’s a popular choice among Japanese people of all ages, and a great alternative to sugary teas and flavored store-bought beverages. It helps you cut down on daily calorie intake, too.

    Another way that I implement shokuiku at home is by making smoothies with fresh fruit and yogurt with my daughter. We talk about how the fruit grows and where it comes from. Experiences like this will carry her healthy eating habits today well into her future.

    Yuko Tamura is a cultural translator, editor-in-chief of Japonica, and frequent bilingual contributor to The Japan Times. She holds a master’s degree in International Business Administration. Follow her work on Medium and X at @yutranslates.

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  • UN, Russia hold talks on extending wartime grain deal

    UN, Russia hold talks on extending wartime grain deal

    GENEVA — Top Russian and U.N. officials held talks in Switzerland on Friday to try to iron out the extension of a deal allowing Ukrainian grain shipments and Russian food and fertilizer exports, with just over a week left before the wartime agreement meant to ease a global food crisis is set to expire.

    U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan, who has been in charge of the Russian side of the agreement, were meeting in Geneva with a Russian team led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin.

    “This discussion, it is hoped, should advance progress made in facilitating the unimpeded export of food and fertilizers originating from the Russian Federation to the global markets,” U.N. Geneva spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told reporters.

    The deal is critical because Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food, especially to parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia where many people are already going hungry and food prices have surged. A failure to renew the wartime agreement has raised fears that a global food crisis would get worse.

    U.N. officials say the meeting will focus on “full implementation” of two separate agreements signed with Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on July 22. Russia briefly suspended its participation in the deal two weeks ago, alleging a Ukrainian drone attack on its Black Sea fleet in Crimea.

    Russian authorities have said they are dissatisfied with the implementation of the accord and that they haven’t yet decided whether to extend the agreement brokered by the U.N. and Turkey after it is set to expire on Nov. 18.

    There are no U.S. or European Union sanctions on food and fertilizer shipments, but Russian diplomats have cited problems getting financing and insurance for ships and finding ports where Russian vessels can dock.

    “We need to resolve a number of issues related to the well-known part of the so-called grain deal that concerns us,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Here, there is a mutual understanding on the part of our counterparts in the UN. Therefore, work is underway in this direction.”

    Grynspan, who heads the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, told the Security Council last week that Ukraine and Russia provide around 30% of the world’s exported wheat and barley, 20% of its corn, and over 50% of its sunflower oil. Russia is also the world’s largest exporter of fertilizers, accounting for 15% share of global exports.

    Ukrainian grain shipments from the Black Sea ports have topped 10 million metric tons, the U.N. has said, and an end to the deal could have a ripple effect on food prices, availability and security in many parts of the world.

    “Nobody, I think, wants to see that there is a termination of the deal. I think the situation would be really difficult, and the implications would be very serious,” said Boubaker Ben Belhassen, who heads the trade and markets division of the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization.

    “In the short term, certainly prices will have to respond and they will increase, especially, for example, for wheat, for maize, and also for sunflower seed oil,” he told reporters during a U.N. briefing Friday.

    ———

    Follow all of AP’s coverage on the food crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/food-crisis and the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

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  • Ukrainian deminers remove deadly threats to civilians

    Ukrainian deminers remove deadly threats to civilians

    HRAKOVE, Ukraine — Beside an abandoned Russian military camp in eastern Ukraine, the body of a man lay decomposing in the grass — a civilian who had fallen victim to a tripwire land mine set by retreating Russian forces.

    Nearby, a group of Ukrainian deminers with the country’s territorial defense forces worked to clear the area of dozens of other deadly mines and unexploded ordnance — a push to restore a semblance of safety to the cities, towns and countryside in a region that spent months under Russian occupation.

    The deminers, part of the 113th Kharkiv Defense Brigade of Ukraine’s territorial defense forces, walked deep into fallow agricultural lands on Thursday along a muddy road between fields of dead sunflowers overgrown with high weeds.

    Two soldiers, each with a metal detector in hand, slowly advanced up the road, scanning the ground and waiting for the devices to give a signal. When one detector emitted a high tone, a soldier knelt to inspect the mud and grass, probing it with a metal rod to see what might be buried just below the surface.

    The detector’s hit could indicate a spent shell casing, a piece of rusting iron or a discarded aluminum can. Or, it could be an active land mine.

    Oleksii Dokuchaev, the commander of the demining brigade based in the eastern Kharkiv region, said that hundreds of mines have already been discharged in the area around the village of Hrakove where they were working, but that the danger of mines across Ukraine will persist for years to come.

    “One year of war equals 10 years of demining,” Dokuchaev said. “Even now we are still finding munitions from World War II, and in this war they’re being planted left and right.”

    Russian forces hastily fled the Kharkiv region in early September after a rapid counteroffensive by Ukraine’s military retook hundreds of square miles of territory following months of Russian occupation.

    While many settlements in the region have finally achieved some measure of safety after fierce battles reduced many of them to rubble, Russian land mines remain an ever-present threat in both urban and rural environments.

    Small red signs bearing a white skull and crossbones line many of the roads in the Kharkiv region, warning of the danger of mines just off the pavement. Yet sometimes, desperation drives local residents into the minefields.

    The local man whose body lay near the abandoned Russian camp was likely searching for food left behind by the invading soldiers, Dokuchaev said, an additional danger posed by the hunger experienced by many in Ukraine’s devastated regions.

    The use of the kind of tripwire land mines which killed him is prohibited under the 1997 Ottawa Treaty — of which Russia is not a signatory — which regulates the use of anti-personnel land mines, he said.

    “There are rules of war. The Ottawa Convention says that it’s forbidden to place mines or any other munitions with tripwires. But Russians ignore it,” he said.

    The deminers had cleared the road of anti-personnel mines the previous day, allowing them to search for anti-tank mines hidden beneath the ground that could destroy any vehicles driving over them.

    They hoped to bring vehicles deep enough into the area to retrieve an abandoned Russian armored personnel carrier, the engine of which they planned to salvage. A vehicle would also need to be brought in by local police to retrieve the body.

    The deminers reached the abandoned camp, set in a grove of trees and strewn with the remains of the months the Russian soldiers had spent there: rotting food rations in wooden ammunition boxes, strings of high-caliber bullets, a stack of yellowing Russian newspapers and trenches filled with refuse.

    After a thorough scan of the area, the servicemen recovered two Soviet-made TM-62 anti-tank mines and six pneumatically armed fuses and placed them in a depression on the edge of the camp, taped into a bundle along with 400 grams of TNT.

    Dokuchaev placed an electric detonator into the explosive charge and connected it to a long length of wire before taking cover with his men at a distance of more than 100 meters (yards).

    When the charge was detonated — something the servicemen laughingly called “bada-boom” — the immense blast ripped through the air, causing a cascade of autumn leaves to fall from the surrounding trees and emitting a tall plume of gray smoke.

    After the mines had been destroyed, Dokuchaev — a former photographer who enlisted with the territorial defense forces after the outbreak of war — said the work his brigade is doing is essential to keep civilians safe as they pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

    Despite the dangers, he said, he enjoys his work.

    “I don’t know what I’ll do after our victory,” Dokuchaev said. “Life is boring without explosions.”

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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