I’m not talking about the “typical” junk food (like KFC or McDonalds), instead it’s more on certain aspects of Japanese cuisine being carb heavy or features fried items such as: ramen, agepan, karage, tempura, gyudon, tonkatsu, yakitori, etc. I mean, can ramen or gyudon bowls still be deemed “fast food” even though they appear ‘healthier’ than American fast food.
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I’m confused about why you would include yakitori in your examples. It’s mostly just grilled meat.
Fast food is inexpensive food that is prepared and served quickly. Nothing else is relevant.
Personally, when I talk about “fast food” I’m almost always talking about those industrial corporate types, not like a regular sandwich, pizza, or even “fast casual” burger shop.
I’m not sure if that’s the only thing for me? I would feel strange saying I got “fast food” if I got a falafel from the halal food truck, or papusas from the stall at the farmers’ market, even though they are inexpensive and served quickly? I could imagine a fast food karage or tempura place, but a noodle soup can’t easily be carried out and eats slow enough that it would be strange in my dialect to refer to as “fast food.”
That’s “street food,” which is just fast food without a permanent location.
I think this is probably true, though I’ll have to poke at my dialect a bit to make sure, but when someone says we’re getting fast food, I assume they mean fast food with a permanent location, and probably a drive thru. If you say this at an event we drove to with food trucks, I’ll start walking to our car, not the food trucks.
I think McDonald’s kicked off term “fast food”. Street vendors selling hotdogs and other stuff predated them, so your definition is also what I’ve gone by.
Yeah that tracks.
As someone who’s studied and regularly thought about nutrition for years, I definitely see junk food being a significant problem in East Asia, just as with other parts of the world.
- Noodles are usually made from the starchy part of the grain, and are therefore low in fibre, vitamins & minerals, plus high in salt.
- White rice is similar, just less processed. Both of those are glycemic aggregators, and I understand diabetes is sadly common in white-rice eating cultures.
- Tofu has that healthy reputation, but not only is it a processed food retaining a lot less of just about everything desirable in soy beans, it also tends to be fried, with high-salt, high-fat, high-sugar sauces added for flavor.
- Most bread everywhere is a lot like the noodles problem.
Bread in East Asia also tends to be sweet, and this is coming form someone who grew up in the US.
[tofu] also tends to be fried
I think I see it fried less in Japanese cuisine, though agedashidofu is certainly one of the more famous ones. Especially this time of year (hot), silken tofu with a splash of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil is quite common. It’s also in some miso soups and dishes like mabodofu (mapo tofu) and not all recipes (if any?) have it fried… though that’s not to say those are super healthy foods, either.
Good points. I’ve heard borderline horror-stories from expats trying to find Euro-style or authentic whole-grain bread in Japan, in particular.
And yeah, here in the States it seems a lot more common to deep-fry tofu, which is health-wise arguably a much worse way to consume it than it’s usually made in EA. Actually one of the reasons I love air-fryers is that they offer something of a healthier compromise, with much less oil typically required.
Bread isn’t really a staple in Japan, even in it’s white form. It’s not something that you just have in the house all the time. They won’t make a sandwich at home, they may purchase and use it for toast but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Japanese person eat more than one slice at breakfast before. Even the bread at most stores is sold as 4-6 slices only rather than a full loaf. https://mel.jfconline.com.au/cdn/shop/files/37170.png?v=1748918723&width=900
It’s not something that you just have in the house all the time.
This is just plain wrong. A lot of Japanese have a slice of toast at home for breakfast. They make sandwiches for the kids or themselves as well.
https://www.cross-m.co.jp/report/trend-eye/20260325breakfast More people eating bread for breakfast than rice (~60% v ~40%)
Even the bread at most stores is sold as 4-6 slices only rather than a full loaf.
Kinda, but there are multiple reasons for this. Japanese shop way more frequently, have less storage space, have housing without always-on central AC, and they don’t necessarily need more.
There are plenty of stores that sell loaves with 10-12 slices, though, or whole baguettes, etc. I mean regular grocery stores, not fancy ones.
Carbs generally are not a dietary problem. It’s excess sugar and excess calories that are getting most people (at least in the west) fat, more than carbs. Yes, excessive carbs can contribute to excessive calories, like eating fries with every meal is definitely going to get you there, though your body needs carbs far more than it needs sugar!
Hence why when most people cut out even just sugar filled drinks and desserts, they can often exercise past how many carbs they eat.
Carbs are sugars. Just more complex than simple sugars. That’s why carb-rich diets can still be terrible on health over time, regularly messing with glycemic load and constituting ‘empty calories.’ So, even worse than a pre-diabetic source, as I mentioned.
I’d recommend you do a modern nutrition course to catch up on this stuff, because science & nutrition is way past the simple idea of calories-in / calories-out. The fact is that the FORM of the calories matter hugely, with processed foods in general being pretty bad on health, long-term. These are what the studies collectively say.
If I’m not mistaken, ramen is kind of considered fast food in Japan. By American standards, I consider it kind of healthy.
Ya but ramen is pretty unhealthy overall, it’s a fatty broth and lots of carbs. Usually Chashu which is pork belly, very fatty. Sometimes add karage to share, or add rice to the broth at the end. Lack of fiber or veggies, etc.
It’s by most accounts, pretty unhealthy. Lack of fiber, high calorie, high carb, high fat meal. I’d put them at around the same as a lot of fast food.
I mean there is a big difference between ramen in general and things like “cup noodle”.
One serving of cup noodle has about 50% of your daily sodium and very little nutrional value. I think the issue is that most people don’t think of things like cup noodle as the “fast” form of ramen.
Good point. Funny, I was completely forgetting about the instant ramen, even tho I used to live on that stuff in college.
You are not mistaken.
Fast food gets bad press, like soda. The speed with which my order arrives doesn’t make it good or bad and carbonated water isn’t a problem.
What do you mean like soda? Unless you’re talking about soda water and diet sodas. Soda is absolutely bad for you and deserves all the bad press. I get what you’re saying about fast food. You can get healthy fast food, but as for soda, it’s really only been more recently with brands like olipop and culture pop can you even start to make an argument that soda isnt explicitly bad for you .
I work in schools. About 20 years ago they banned soda sales at school, so they removed all of the carbonated beverages from the vending machine and replaced them with non-carbonated beverages with as much or more sugar.
I dont think thats an issue of soda getting to much bad press though, its more that other highly processed and sugary drinks didn’t get the bad press as well.
not really fast, but they are indeed quite unhealthy as typical fast foods (like burgers) imo
Totally depends on how long it takes to make and serve. If a place could somehow deliver beef Wellington to you in 2 minutes at a drive-thru window, I would call it fast food, but this would not redefine all beef Wellington as fast food. You’re conflating “fast” and “junk”.
Kind of, but I think a lot of people might view them more as take out as opposed to fast food.
You’ve been duped. It’s the macros and quantity that matter, that’s it.
Heavily processed carbs are bad for you, that includes ramen. Simple as.
The ideal number of ingredients on a package is one. The more ingredients, the farther away from healthy you’re moving (with one obvious exception being sugar, that’s one ingredient, and still bad for you, I expect you to be able to parse this on your own without being pedantic.)
What’s in the bag? Blueberries, broccoli, milk, chicken, spinach, brussel sprouts, olive oil, etc. One thing only. Process the food yourself, that is cook it. That’s how you know you’re eating healthfully, that’s the only way.
Here’s the thing, capitalism demands profit, the more processing goes into food, the more people standing between you and your meal, the higher the cost, and the lower the quality. They all need to get paid, and the people at the top still demand a profit. That needs to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is, in large part, from the quality of the food, plus poor working conditions.
The ideal number of ingredients on a package is one.
Awesome, these sugar packets are superfoods!
Something can still be junk and not fast food. Fast simply means serving time is quick IMHO.
They can be. IMO it being fast food or not depends more on the restaurant and their methods of preparation rather than the specific dish. You can have ramen that’s fast food and you can also have a burger that isn’t.
We call those foods you mentioned as “junky foods” as that’s still a concept in Japan too. It’s usually pretty clear based on nutritional content, but the main reason is how sick you feel afterwards.
There can be healthier options in fast food as well as better ways to prepare karage and tempura to be less unhealthy. And no, none of that appears more or less healthier than American fast food to us, but fast food also includes chipotle and subway which are not quite as greasy as what you have in mind.
What are the stakes here? What do we gain or lose by answering either way?
Conversation is it’s own reward.
Not everything needs gamified.
Yes - as long as it’s served quickly after ordering.
I think the distinction you’re looking for is between fast food and junk food.
Fast good imo is food you can get in (or drive to), order and get out - fast-like. As opposed to sitting down, having your order taken and food prepared after order, and have a chill meal out.
Most fast food is junk food, though it’s gotten slightly better with bowls and sushi and stuff that is fast but not junk. I think you’re talking about junk food that is not fast food, but I’m not quite sure of my or the official definition of “junk food”, so I’m not gonna speak out of turn.
