Health and Wealth Nagoya Features Society and Customs

Very Health Conscious Nagoya, Under the Universal Health Care System in Japan

Under the universal health care system in Japan, many Japanese companies require their employees to take annual or bi-annual health checkups.  The self-employed are also health conscious that they have regular checkups through local governments.  

This surely contributes to early-stage diagnoses and treatments of illness, and longevity in Japan.  Preventive medicine must be a key concept in this Japanese health care system.

Nana Chan, Nagoya's Symbol Figure

A one-step further "preventive" system, "Healthy Lab", was launched in Nagoya in January, 2018.  Holistic management of health and well-being can be done through this Lab.

Three domains, which are food, exercise, and preventive medicine, are closely affiliated to promote people's well-beings there.  Namely, under the guidance of Nagoya Station Clinic (located at Nagoya Station), which provides medical checkups, counselling, and treatment, a fitness gym provides exercise opportunities, while a restaurant serves very healthy food (a calorie-controlled daily menu supervised by their dietitians, as below).

the inside of the restaurant

When getting health checkups, people usually have to fast until getting their stomach X-rayed and blood drawn (to check irregularities of the stomach and blood, which is a standard procedure).  So, it is pretty common that clinics have some affiliated restaurants, where checkup-goers can have a light meal for discounted price (or sometimes "FREE" because the meal is included in the fee) after the checkups.

However, this "Healthy Lab" has its own restaurant, where they can eat very healthy lunch for "FEEE" (as shown in the picture below) and educate themselves about nutritionally-balanced diet and the portion they should take in for one meal.  Of course, this restaurant serves this healthy meal to regular customers for 850 yen as well.

   

 Today's Lunch 

This is a really nutritionally-balanced menu, as the numbers of calories and nutritional facts are shown in the previous picture: hamburger steak with mushroom sauce, soup, white radish simmered in broth, boiled vegetable salad with wood ear mushrooms,  and rice.

Can you believe this has 619 calories, which is almost one-third of 2000 calories, given that the number 2000 is conventionally suggested for adult women to take in during the three meals a day?  Isn't it shocking that this seemingly small portion meal has that calories?  We cannot help wondering how many calories we usually take in for our "regular" meals, which are much bigger than this, without thinking much.

We strongly believe that this kind of visualization of the food amount would educate and motivate ourselves to be more mindful of food intake, and further our health.  What do you think?

If you are interested in health- conscious-related social scheme, called School Lunch, please check this out!