Healthy Food Choices in Japanese Restaurants

Finding something healthy to eat at a Japanese restaurant shouldn’t be that hard for anyone since Japanese cuisine is one of the leanest around. All the same, there are some things you have to watch out for.

On top of the list is sodium, if you fancy dousing your Japanese food with soy sauce, as so many people usually do. Many places now offer low-sodium soy sauce on the table right beside the regular stuff, which would help you cut back. You could also request for some rice wine vinegar to use for flavoring your food. It gives a delightfully modest nutty flavor, and you can use it pure or mixed with soy sauce to perk up any dish.

The ideal way to begin your meal in a Japanese restaurant is with miso soup or a green salad. Even when the dressing served is ordinarily light, but ask for it on the side nevertheless. Some healthy appetizers you could choose from are skewered and grilled chicken, yakitori, and edamame (boiled soybeans). Skip the gyoza, fried dumplings, and tempura, which is vegetables and/or meat, poultry, or fish that are dipped into a batter and fried.

Sashimi (raw fish without the rice) and sushi (raw fish with rice) and are really lean entrees. Teriyaki dishes are similarly good choices, and so are teppan yaki (stir-fries) and sukiyaki (chicken in sauce). Stay off katsu dishes, since these are breaded and fried. A lot of places now offer Japanese noodle dishes with udon or soba noodles. They are usually lean and healthy dishes, but look out for the portion sizes, since they often come in huge bowls.

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© 2012 Athena Goodlight