Japanese Foods That Heal: Using Traditional Ingredients to Promote Health, Longevity & Well-being [ペーパーバック]

I tend to be highly skeptical about this kind of book, mainly because they usually present some sort of idealized fantasy of a health-conscious and simple Japan where everyone is deeply in tune with the rhythms of nature, whilst I know from many years of experience living in Japan that your average Japanese person is much more likely to sit down to a steaming pile of fried chicken, reconstituted ramen and a few cans of beer rather than ocean-harvested kombu and mountain vegetables gently simmered followed by a sweet cup of amazake. However I was pleasantly surprised when the authors stated up front that "Japanese people don't eat this way", and acknowledged that many of these foods will be more readily available in an American health food store than in a Japanese supermarket.

With that fresh start, I was able to enjoy "Japanese Foods that Heal" for what it is, a brilliant guide to eighteen traditional Japanese ingredients that are powerhouses of health, with medicinal properties that strengthen the human body and provide resources and defenses against all manner of illnesses. Each ingredient is considered in-depth, talking about the traditional harvesting/creation methods, the known medicinal properties of that ingredient, and the traditional healing powers associated with it. The authors are careful to state what is a proven effect of the food and what is only a "potential" effect. Some of the foods, such as miso and green tea, are quite familiar and well-known for their health value. Others, such as soy sauce and the sweetener mirin, were more of a surprise, as I had not thought of them as having any particular value other than as a flavoring agent. Some of the ingredients I had never heard of, such as seitan and mizu ame, which the author admits you would need to either make yourself or find at a specialized store.

While there are recipes for each ingredient included, "Japaneses Foods that Heal" cannot really be considered a cookbook. About five or six simple recipes with no photographs are all you get for each item, and the bulk of the text is educating you about the food itself. While the recipes are easy to make and delicious, I was more intrigued by the concept put forward of using these foods in regular recipes replacing items of little nutritional value, such as refined salt or white sugar, with more nutritious substitutes like mirin or the salty picked-plum umeboshi. Definitely something to give a try.

The only drawback to this book is that the authors reinforce the stereotype that eating healthy means eating expensive. When they talk about soy sauce, they are quick to distinguish between the mass-produced condiment available anywhere, and the healthy, hand-processed variety only made in few places and only available at specialty stores for quite a bit more than you would expect to pay. The cheap stuff, they say, isn't worth your time. The same story is told for almost every food, with a lengthy description of its traditional, healthy processing method followed by a disclaimer saying how the majority is now chemically produced in factories, and you will have to search out and be prepared to pay for the good stuff.

This is a superb gem of a book, extremely valuable for the rare nutritional "food is medicine" information it provides concerning 18 different, "traditionally"-made, Japanese ingredients - I know of no other book, including Japanese cookbooks, which provides this unique nutritional information.

The appearance of a book containing this unique information is long overdue.

The authors are highly qualified to write this unique book, John being a research biologist with extensive (25 years) laboratory experience in medical research at two U.S. universities. Both John and Jan spent over a year in Japan living with a Japanese family and learning how to make miso in the "traditional" way.

Japanese medicinal foods produced by "traditional" methods include UNREFINED, FERMENTED, UNPASTEURIZED or MALTED foods, which means that one has to read the product labels or vendor websites VERY CAREFULLY, e.g., on Shoyru, Tamari, toasted sesame oil, brown rice MALT syrup, miso and tofu. Included at the end of the book (p. 221) is an indispensable "Shopping Resources" guide, in which vendor websites are listed. Unfortunately, South River Miso company is not listed: [...] - this company's traditionally-made and unpasteurized miso and tamari are rare and excellent, but this company DOES NOT SHIP ITS PERISHABLE PRODUCTS DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS!

Regular Japanese food stores in the U.S. DO NOT carry the "traditionally" made Japanese medicinal foods discussed in this book, but only carry products produced in Japan by modern, INDUSTRIALIZED methods.

Each chapter in the book uniformly and consistently follows a standardized analytical format. This book's contents must be read very carefully, particularly the information under each chapter's "Shopping For . . . " entry.

This book is not a traditional cookbook. However, some representative recipes are included. The few recipes provided in each chapter are very good ones.

These "traditionally"-made Japanese foods have nearly become extinct in post-WW II Japan. However, because of their unique "food is medicine" qualities, these rare foods deserve to make a major popular comeback. Oddly, this comeback is happening in U.S. health-food stores - which are a major export market for these rare Japanese-made foods - rather than in Japan (at least so far).

Wonderfully straightforward and informative, I learned much about the beneficial properties of the foods discussed in the book. Every recipe I've tried is concise and the results have been universally splendid.