Hara the stomach

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Stomach, hara 腹　はら

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Topic
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

The stomach is the part where all food ends up for digestion.

There are many sayings and proverbs about this important orgen of our human body.

I will try and find some here.


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hara hachibu 腹八分 to eat until your stomach is 80 percent full
hara hachibunme 腹八分目
hachibu means eight-tenths.

Eating 80 % of your stomach capacity (hara hachibu)

This is an old saying, originating most probably in Okinawa and one of the simple health advises of our elders.

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Hara Hachi Bu - eat until you are 80% full.

The traditional Okinawa diet, with its emphasis on vegetables, whole grains, fruits, legumes (soy foods) and fish with limited amounts of lean meats serves as a model for healthy eating and healthy aging that not only reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease but also helps to minimize free radical production. Free radicals are cell-damaging molecules that are generated mainly by our bodies' metabolism when we create energy from food.

The Okinawan cultural habit of calorie control called hara hachi bu, which means eat only until you are 80% full, plays a role as well as their habit of eating an antioxidant rich plant-based diet. Stopping at 80% capacity is actually a very good strategy to avoid obesity without going hungry because the stomach's stretch receptors take about 20 minutes to tell the body that how full it really is and 20 minutes after stopping you will really feel full.

In Okinawa, Heart Disease rates are 80% lower, and stroke rates lower than in the US. Cholesterol levels are typically under 180, homocystein levels are low and blood pressure at goal levels. Rates of cancer are 50-80% lower - especially breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer. Hip fractures are 20% lower than mainland Japanese and 40% lower than in the US. Dementia is rare.

However, Okinawans who adopt Western eating styles have similar rates of heart disease as in the US. Young Okinawans, eating more processed foods, have a higher risk of heart disease than their elderly relatives. A study of 100,000 Okinawans who moved to Brazil and adopted local eating habits, showed a life expectancy 17 years lower than in Okinawa.

In summary, the Okinawa approach is:
Consciously controled portion sizes through the practice of Hara Hachi Bu: eat until you are 80% full.
A low-calorie, mostly plant-based diet with plenty of fish and soy foods, a great variety of vegetables as well as moderate amounts of the monounsaturated fats and Omega 3’s. Include high fiber whole grains and starches.
Regular, life-long physical activity. Tai Chi, walking and gardening are common forms of exercise.
Staying lean and fit. The combination of diet and activity keeps body fat low (BMI 18-22).
source : okinawa-diet.com

sich nicht überessen

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betsubara べつばら (別腹) another stomach, extra stomach,
a place for desserts and other delicacies that do not count toward your calorie intake.


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haraguroi はらぐろい (腹黒い) "black stomach"
black-hearted, wicked, evil-minded; scheming
niederträchtig; schwarzherzig.



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Worldwide use



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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

腹八分にて立秋の墓地に居り　
harahachibu nite risshuu no bochi ni iri

eating only eighty percent
and now its beginning of autumn ..
I stand in a graveyard

Ishida Yoshihiro 石田よし宏


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腹八分二分はデザート用に空け
harahachibu nibu wa desaato yoo ni ake

eating eighty percent ...
twenty percent I leave
for desert

Eri- sama エリー様

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別腹がほんとにできたよ四段目　　
betsubara ga honto ni dekita yo yondanme

I really got
an extra stomach ...
with four rings

IＣ番号5001


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Related words

***** WASHOKU : General Information

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