Tag Archives: health

health

From dollhouses to…meat houses!

Since mom wanted another post, here goes!  😀

Came across this site earlier today – and (disturbingly enough) it looks real: a “Build it Yourself Meat House Kit”!  Dollhouses?  Boring.  Lincoln Logs? Utterly passé.  What you need these days is something that combines creativity with fun – and is good enough to eat!  With this kit, you get over 10lbs of meat that you can use to sculpt the mansion of your dreams!

Now, who wants one?? 😀

My very own meat house!
My very own meat house!

What’s extra disturbing is that they state that the meat will remain edible for up to THREE weeks without refrigeration – can you imagine the amount of preservatives in this thing?

health

Would you eat this?

Deep fried Mars Bar
Deep fried Mars Bar

When I’m on early shifts I usually have time in the morning to browse the news briefly and today came across an article on how the swine flu appears to be affecting the overweight in particular.  That article mentioned a dish called the “deep fried Mars bar“, offered as an example of unhealthy food, and I went on to read up on it at Wikipedia.

This…sounds rather gross to be honest.  Deep friend chocolate candy bars?  Who thought about this in the first place??  Not only that, but I read that there’s also deep fried Twix, deep friend Snickers, deep fried pizza, deep friend Skittles… the list goes on.

To be honest, I have a somewhat morbid curiosity as to how it tastes, but… it’s somewhat worrisome to read that this is a popular item with young children.  It’s probably no worse than a lot of the other junk food out there these days, but seriously…people just keep on finding more and more ways to eat unhealthily…

health

And here we go again.. HAKUCHON*!

As the days lengthen and signs of spring start showing themselves in the form of the odd flower bud here, and the less lovely occasional mosquito there, it’s also time for that bane of millions of Japanese – kafunshou or “hay fever”.

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Simply put kafunsho (kafun=pollen, sho=disease/ailment) refers to the apparently bountiful cedar pollen floating about, triggering allergic reactions in roughly 20% of the Japanese population.  I have less than joyously joined the ranks of the sufferers.

I’m not sure exactly why or when I started suffering from an allergic reaction to pollen (heck, I’m not even sure if it is pollen-related!), but I do know that I seriously started feeling it about 2 years back and  it’s gotten progressively worse since.  In my case, it’s characterized by itchiness/wateriness in the eyes throughout the day, random and agressive bursts of sneezing, and overall miserableness.  Last year was the worst period to date (I would wake up in the morning with eyes watering furiously and the whites of my eyes completely red), but though I had a blood test in an effort to isolate whatever was triggering my allergic reactions, nothing in particular came up save a small reaction to house dust mites – apparently I had no reaction to sugi (Japanese cedar, traditionally blamed for the majority of allergic reactions in Japan).  This makes no sense because if this were purely due to house dust, then I would suffer all year-round.  My theory at the moment is that somehow cedar pollen combines with house dust, transforming into a super powerful mutant allergen whose sole purpose is to make Jeff feel wretched.

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There are plenty of items available on the Japanese market for sufferers, primarily face masks and medicines.  However, a) I’m not fond of drugs and avoid them whenever I can, and b) masks are an especial PITA to wear if one has glasses.  Though there are some masks that are supposedly made especially for glasses wearers, another factor is that my nose constantly runs (thanks to all the sneezing) and there’s no point wearing a mask if I’ll be constantly be taking it off to blow my nose. (apologies for any gross imagery)

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Last year I started taking flaxseed oil and that did seem to ease the symptoms quite a bit.  The primary downside to taking them is that they are huge honking capsules – and recommended dosage is 3 capsules 3 times daily!  However, I’ve already started taking them, and we’ll see how it goes – so far at least my eyes are watering less, but then again, the kafunshou season has just started…

Mom has also mentioned that she will be sending some eyebright – I’ll try taking that in conjunction with the flaxseed oil and see how it goes.

At the moment, I’m fighting a double battle with a full-blown head cold as well as the onset of kafunshou season and I’m definitely not at my best… thank goodness tomorrow is a holiday…

 

 * “Hakuchon” or “Hakushon” is apparently the onomatopoeic word for a sneeze in Japanese (ie, the equivalent of “achoo!” in English)

Food & drinks

Bacon explosion…

Despite being American-Japanese, I have never really felt a need to live in the US.  Certainly, there are things I love about America; primarily the amount of space (anyone who’s lived in Tokyo for any length of time will understand),  English is spoken (sometimes it is simply frustrating not being able to express oneself, and for important matters such as looking for a home, lack of language is a major obstacle), and…food.

Yes, America doesn’t have the best of reputations when it comes to food – roughly 142,000,000 Americans over the age of 20 are considered to be either overweight or obese.  There is just so much food available, and when it tastes good… we eat.  It’s normal and a very natural survival mechanism.  So, I can sympathize.  However, for my own health, it’s just as well that I’m not living there!  (^^;

One of the foods that I LOVE but cannot readily get in Tokyo is bacon.  Real bacon, not the miserly little soggy scraps of paper-thin meat the Japanese call “bacon”.  Real bacon is thick, crunchy, and substantial.  See below for the difference between Japanese bacon, and real bacon.

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Costco is the only place I know of that sells real bacon in Japan, but they are so far away and with individual packs costing over 800 yen, it can get a tad pricey if you want to stock up.

The reason I started this post is because I came across a recipe for what has got to be one of the most artery-clogging dishes ever – but still looks so wrongly good (vegetarians will probably go comatose after reading how to make the bacon explosion).

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I know that this is extremely unhealthy, I KNOW it.  But… I can’t help but want to take one bite of that.  Just one.  Just to see what it’s like… *big sigh*  But I can’t.  I can’t even get a quarter of the amount of bacon needed to create that monstrosity, and living by myself, I wouldn’t do it, even if I could.  But it sure does make me hungry for some real bacon.
I leave you with a link to a place that is unashamedly promoting their extremely unhealthy meals – at least they’re honest about what you’re going to get when you go in there! (and no, these dishes don’t appeal to me – too much beef there.  Just give me a rasher of real bacon and I’ll be happy 🙂

http://www.heartattackgrill.com/