Vitamin D deficiency and bone density

Middle-aged and older women are more likely to develop osteoporosis due to a rapid bone density decline in female hormones. And even the younger generation tends to have less bone density buffer due to lifestyle changes. Here I like to talk about the vitamin D deficiency and bone density.

Bones not only support the body but are also closely related to the functions of internal organs, such as the flexibility of blood vessels, the ability to lower blood sugar, and the work of the kidneys. From the beauty viewpoint, the bones in the face decrease, and it causes “sagging and wrinkles” and affects the “appearance impression.” Keeping your bones healthy is good for your body and appearance.

Calcium has a strong image of nutrients that are good for bones, but I recommend (1) vitamin D, (2) calcium, and (3) vitamin K in that order. Vitamin D deficiency and bone density have a strong relation. Calcium cannot be absorbed sufficiently into the bones with low vitamin D.

What foods contain vitamin D? Rich in fish and mushrooms. Cloud ear mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, and sun-dried shiitake mushrooms contain it richly. However, eating fish is overwhelmingly efficient. You should eat one piece of fish a day. It also helps prevent arteriosclerosis.

Vitamin D strengthens the bones and the immune system, strengthening muscles and preventing falls. I continue to take vitamin D and live with an awareness of “bone activity” and “immunity enhancement.”

I often make steamed salmon and mushrooms in foil. Sprinkle some soy sauce and sake on the raw salmon, put your favorite mushrooms and butter on top, cover with foil, and steam in a walnut frying pan for about 15 minutes. Add ponzu sauce if you like. It’s so easy and helpful!

You can also take vitamin D through supplements. Juveriente’s Bone Strength Complex will provide you vitamin D among its vitamin set for bone health while it also helps your bone health from the cellular level. (Learn about it more here.)

 

Health Benefits Of Eating Fish

 

Japan is one of the countries where people eat a lot of fish. Tokyo fish market handles over 600 varieties of fish and other sea animals. Even common Japanese people recognize about 10 – 20 kinds of edible fish varieties for their tables. It is one of the major secrets to support their famous healthy lives. We introduce you the health benefits of eating fish.

Fish has good protein as well as meat

“Many people think meat has more protein than fish, but this is wrong. It’s about the same.” Both meat and fish contain about 20% protein on average, but the amount used in the body is higher in fish than in meat. In addition, fish contains more easily digestible protein, so even babies to elders can eat it without difficulty.

Calcium in fish as good as in milk

Milk is famous as a calcium supplement, but small fish, such as dried sardines, are even richer. In addition, by eating whole fish, vitamin D (contained in the internal organs), which improves calcium absorption, can be replenished simultaneously. (Dried small fish is a popular food in Japan. You can find it in the USA as dried fish and almonds.

Seaweed, shellfish, octopus, and squid are full of taurine

One of the known health benefits of eating fish is taurine.

Nori (Japanese dried seaweed sheet) contains a lot of taurines. In the case of fish, it is held more in blueback meat than in standard fish meat. Shellfish, octopus, and squid are also excellent sources of taurine.
The primary function of taurine is
(1) Maintain normal blood pressure and prevent thrombosis and myocardial infarction.
2) Reduces bad cholesterol (LDL) in the blood and increases good cholesterol (HDL).
(3) Reduce neutral fat in the blood.
(4) Prevents deterioration of eyesight.
(5) Promotes brain development in newborns.

EPA’s job is to clean your body

The well-known benefits of eating fish are EPA and DHA. There are a lot of supplements for them, but needless to say, it is better to take them through natural foods like fish.
EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), a highly unsaturated fatty acid that works wonderfully, is attracting attention. It is a nutrient found only in seafood and works to prevent adult diseases such as cerebral thrombosis and myocardial infarction.

Nutrients that purify the blood and create brain cells

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) works to prevent blood clots from forming and to reduce bad cholesterol (LDL). DHA activates brain cells and also works to improve brain rotation, so they say eating fish makes you smarter. It is also said to be effective in treating dementia in the elderly.

Benefits of Eating Seaweed

Many skin problems, such as sunburn and dryness due to ultraviolet rays, and acne due to excessive secretion of sebum, tend to occur in summer. In such a case, I would like to take care of my daily diet, eat a lot of foods that are good for the skin, and take care of my skin from the inside. We will see the benefits of eating seaweed here.

Low-calorie and skin-friendly “seaweed.”

When it comes to foods that are good for the skin, many people think of citrus fruits rich in vitamin C. Still, seaweed, which Japanese people eat casually daily, is also a food that improves the skin’s condition. Seaweed is low in calories, so even people on a diet can safely eat it. In addition, you can expect a beautiful skin effect. It is just what we want to take into our daily diet.

What are “alginic acid” and “fucoidan” contained in seaweed?

As other benefits of eating seaweed, it contains ingredients such as vitamins and minerals that help maintain skin health.
In addition, attention is also increasing to ingredients such as “alginic acid,” which has the effect of lowering blood pressure, and “fucoidan,” which activates natural killer cells (NK cells).

Alginic acid is a natural dietary fiber, a component of the stickiness peculiar to seaweed. Alginic acid is good at moisturizing the skin, and people say that it leads to trouble-free skin by protecting it from dryness and the skin from friction.
In addition, you can expect alginic acid to bind with salt (sodium) in the body and excrete it outside the body. You can also expect it to slow the absorption of sugar. It supports people concerned about lifestyle-related diseases.

Fucoidan has an antioxidant effect and is said to prevent oxidation of the body and prevent aging of the skin.

(Find seaweed recipes here!)

Why are Japanese fermented foods good for your health?

Three benefits of Japanese fermented foods

The action of microorganisms (lactic acid bacteria, koji mold, yeast, etc.) changes foods. It turns them into fermented foods that are good for your health. Fermentation offers three main benefits. (We focus on Japanese fermented foods as a Japanese health product supplier, but they are also applied to other fermented foods in the world.)

1.Improves food preservation

There are methods to preserve foods, such as “drying,” “salting,” and “smoking.”  “fermentation” is another course to improve preservation. Increasing the number of microorganisms that promote fermentation keeps spoilage bacteria at bay. In the world of microorganisms, if there are more than a certain number of specific organisms in an environment, other microorganisms cannot reproduce.
In addition, the lactic acid, acetic acid, and alcohol produced by fermentation also have a bactericidal effect, suppressing the growth of bacteria and preserving food taste.

2.Enhances flavor and aroma

Japanese fermented foods change their taste and aroma, making them more delicious and easier to eat. One of the tastes a Japanese scientist found and defined is umami, and the fermentation brings you this umami. The process of decomposition and fermentation of raw materials by the power of microorganisms produces components such as amino acids, inosinic acid, and guanylic acid. They are the source of umami.
The unique aroma of fermented foods is also due to the aroma components produced by the action of microorganisms during the fermentation process.

3.Increased nutritional value and health regulation

Fermenting food significantly increases nutritional value and health regulation function. Microorganisms produce various nutrients, such as vitamins, during the fermentation process. For example, Natto, made by fermenting soybeans, contains about ten times more vitamin B2 than boiled soybeans and almost three times more folic acid. Natto is rich in vitamin K2. Soybeans, the source of Natto, don’t have it. The fermentation added new nutritional components.
In addition, fermentation makes substances with health-regulating functions like anti-oxidant action more easily absorbed into the body. With the shape of Natto and miso, the body is easy to absorb the isoflavone, as it is already disolved through the fermentation.

Why Japanese fermented foods are good for you?

Now that we’ve discussed the benefits that fermentation brings to food. Let’s consider the help we receive from eating them from a health standpoint.
(However, the nutrients in each fermented food differ, and the same is not necessarily for all.)

1.Easily absorbed into the body

During the fermentation process, microorganisms break down the starch and protein, the raw material nutrients, so there is no need to break them down in the body, reducing the burden on the body.

2.Boosts immunity

Lactic acid bacteria and natto bacteria contained in fermented foods have the function of adjusting the intestinal environment. Incorporating fermented foods will increase your immunity and help you maintain your health.

3.Supports youthfulness

They say that aging causes active oxygen in the body. The intake of antioxidants is effective in suppressing its occurrence. Fermented foods such as miso, red wine, and chocolate are rich in polyphenols as antioxidants.
In addition, they say that the amino acids and enzymes produced in the fermentation process promote the formation of new cells, which is said to have a beautiful skin effect.
Improves metabolism and prevents lifestyle-related diseases

B vitamins, found in many fermented foods, help boost metabolism.

In addition, isoflavones in fermented soybean foods such as miso, soy sauce, and Natto reduce bad cholesterol in the blood and contribute to the prevention of arteriosclerosis.

4.Helps reduce stress

Fermented foods such as miso, Natto, bran pickles, kimchi, and yogurt contain a substance called GABA, a type of natural amino acid. As a neurotransmitter, GABA is said to have an anti-stress effect that calms the excitement of the brain, suppresses irritability, and relaxes.

The Natural menopause supplement from fermented soybean

Some clinical researches have reported that Japanese women have far lighter menopause experience. One of its key is Miso, fermented soy paste. (It is a commonsense in Japan.) Juveriente®’s Effisoy, launched in 2016, brings you the essence of it to you.

Fermented foods are often hard to eat for people of other dietary cultures. But you can take the essence easily through the supplement. Effisoy is the only supplement brand to bring you fermented soy extract outside Japan. This is only natural food, and we don’t call it “therapy,” but it may be your answer to how to treat menopause depression naturally.

Here are some of the real product reviews in our Amazon shop.

“Restful sleep finally!!”, “I Am Now Free of Hot Flashes!!”, “Lifesaver”

LEARN MORE About Effisoy, made of fermented soy bean germ
The only supplement to contain fermented soy isoflavone beside Japan.

How can I restrict eating at Hara-Hachibunme (by 80% full)?

Benefits of “Hara-Hachibunme” (restricted eating)

As I explained in “Restricted eating lengthens your life?”, restricted eating only up to 80% or so helps your health in addition to weight management.

While it prevents obesity and disease by suppressing dietary calorie intake, it is also helpful as an anti-aging.

There is something called the “sirtuin gene” in our body.
Another name for the sirtuin gene is the “longevity gene” because it works to suppress cell aging, and a certain amount of calorie restriction activates it. In other words, you can expect the effect of preserving youthfulness by eating the eighth half of your stomach.

Tips for stopping your eating at “Hara-Hachibunme” (80% full)

If you are overeating and always fall feeling full, try incorporating the following into your diet.

Increase chewing frequency

It is very effective to chew food well and eat it to suppress it at 80% of the stomach.
A longer time to savor and eat will stimulate the satiety center and prevent overeating.

Also, by chewing well, a large amount of the digestive enzyme called amylase is secreted, which improves digestion and reduces the burden on the stomach and intestines.

Put down your knife, fork, and spoon after each bite.

To increase the number of chewing times, try to put your tableware down after each bite.

Fast eaters keep their tableware on from the beginning to the end of their meal.
Carrying food to your mouth one after another leads to overeating.

Once you are used to putting your tableware down after each bite, you will naturally become conscious of chewing well, and your eating pace will slow down.
As a result, the signal of the satiety center will be transmitted well, and it will be suppressed with only 80% of your stomach.

Cut the material hard and large.

Cutting food materials such as vegetables hard and large creates a chewy texture in your cooking. You can naturally increase the number of chews and prevent overeating.

We also recommend adding chewy nuts, beans, sesame seeds, etc., to accent your dishes.

Anyway, chewing well and eating are effective in keeping your stomach full.

Increase vegetables, seaweed, and mushrooms

Vegetables, seaweed, and mushrooms contain a lot of dietary fiber, so it’s hard to swallow them if you don’t chew them well.
Taking advantage of this feature, you can naturally increase the number of chews by increasing the amount of these in your meal.

Most of them are healthy, so let’s use them in your meals and connect them to your beauty and health.

Drink Soup, water or tea

Liquid will pass your stomach shortly, but your restricted eating. It will swell your stomach temporarily and mitigate your hunger until your satiety center begins to woks.

Serving for one person will also restrict your eating

First, it is effective to prevent overeating by arranging an amount of food that does not cause overeating and deciding “I will not eat anymore”.

Dishes on a platter tend to overeat while picking up this and that.
There are also people who force themselves to eat, saying things like, “It would be a waste if I leave it behind,” or “It’s rude to the person who made it.”

If you decide “only this” from the beginning, such as serving this on a single plate or dividing it into portions for one person instead of serving it on a large plate, you should not end up eating too much.

It is especially effective for those whose satiety center signals are dull.
Let’s prevent overeating by serving the amount that will make you 80% full from the plating.

Let’s finish the meal at the timing of “Hara-Hachibunme” (80% full).

 

The best time to finish your meal is when you feel like you can eat a little more.

In order to go on a diet without overdoing it, and to maintain beauty and health, let’s make it your everyday habit.

Restricted eating lengthens your life?

Japanese health wisdom: Restricted Eating by 20%

The idiom “Hara-Hachibunme” in Japan means “80% full” as a healthy eating habit. They say You don’t need a doctor if you keep “Hara-Hachibunme.” A similar saying in English will be, “Light suppers make long life.”
Since the 1980s, many countries have been scientifically investigating why “Hara-Hachibunme” is good for your health. This study compares the life expectancy of small animals such as rats between a group that eats a limited amount of food and a group that eats as much as it pleases.
For example, in one study conducted in Japan, the average lifespan of mice fed all-you-can-eat was 74 weeks, while that of mice restricted to 80% of their diet was 122 weeks, more than 1.6 times longer. (*1).

(*1) Research by Professor Kazuo Hashimoto and Lecturer Masayoshi Tazume of Tokai University School of Medicine, published in 1990. The study also points out that calorie restriction boosts immunity.

Slowed Cellular Aging

Since then, various studies have confirmed that the “Hara-Hachibunme,” constant restricted eating, can slow cellular aging. They point out that 80% of the stomach is effective in preventing cancer caused by dysfunction of cells, vascular disorders caused by arteriosclerosis (high blood pressure, stroke, myocardial infarction, etc.), and many lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes.
An American study on monkeys, which are more similar to humans, reported that a 30% calorie restriction (at the 7th minute of the abdomen) improved body fat, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, triglyceride levels, etc.

The same benefit for human

So, does the benefit of “Hara-Hachibunme” apply to humans? There is an interesting report about this.
Since 1991, in the United States, a survival experiment has been carried out in which eight researchers live a self-sufficient life in a dome called Biosphere 2. Initially, it was an investigation related to space development, premised on living in an artificial environment called a dome when humans migrate to a planet other than Earth.
This experiment failed in its original purpose, but on the other hand, there was an unexpected by-product, regarding restricted eating.
The low harvesting yield in the dome limited the researchers’ diet by 25% less than their planned meals. The daily energy intake was about 1800kcal. As a result, not only did they lose weight, but almost all values ​​related to lifestyle-related diseases, such as blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure, also decreased.

Restricted eating extend your life expectancy as well as your healthy life expectancy.

In this way, they found from monkey studies and reports in Biosphere 2 that “Hara-Hachibunme” (restricted eating) may extend not only life expectancy but also healthy life expectancy (healthy period without disease). (*2).

(*2) Professor Emeritus Roy Walford of the University of California, who participated in the Biosphere 2 project, later focused on the relationship between calorie restriction and health and proposed a diet menu that would prevent malnutrition even with calorie restriction, etc.

(from https://www.healthcare.omron.co.jp/resource/column/life/35.html)

What is Umami? The key to reduce your calories

Reduce your calories by utilizing umami

Do you know the term “Umami“? It is from a Japanese term, meaning the taste element to add or deepen tastefulness in foods. If you know it from brand names like “Umami burger”, you may not have a healthy impression about it. Apart from such a commercial utilization, though, it is actually a key to reduce your calories. It adds thickness and tastefulness to your dishes without oil, sugar nor salt.

Umami is an independent basic taste

Umami is one of the five basic tastes.
Umami is one of the five basic tastes.

We have traditionally known 4 basic tastes, sweetness, saltiness, bitterness and sourness.

Japanese people have traditionally used “dashi”, some food extracts to add or amplify tastefulness in their cooking. The essence of dashi is Umami and it is actually the 5th basic element.

How Japanese people use “dashi”?

3 major dashi (umami extract) bases in Japan are konbu seaweed, dried bonito shavings and dried shiitake mushroom. The usage is simple. For example; They put some dried bonito shavings in to boiled water for a minute or two. Then they take out the residue after the extraction. They cook miso soup with this hot water. Miso, fermented soy paste, has nice taste and flavor on it’s own. But the dashi will deepen and organize the whole taste of the miso soup.

How scientists found it as actual substances and an independent basic taste?

Japanese scientists found umami as actual substances in the major dashi bases in the early 20th century. Glutamic acid from konbu seaweed, isonic acid from dried bonito shavings and gualynic acid from konbu seaweed.

They considered it as an independent taste element beside other basic ones like saltiness, sweetness, etc. But Western scholars didn’t believe it. According to their thought then, it was merely the tastefulness by the complex of other basic taste elements.

In 2002, they found the receptor of umami on human tong. It is a common recognition now that umami is the fifth basic taste element after saltiness, sweetness, sourness and bitterness.

How can you reduce your calories with umami?

They found it from the Japanese “dashi” culture. But Western foods also has their own umami bases, like fond or broth.

It may be hard for you to try new tastes from a foreign dietary culture. It will be easy for you to utilize vegetable broth and reduce sugar, salt and oil.

Japanese dietary habits are natural appetite suppressants

When you input “natural appetite suppressants” in a search engine, you will be seeking for some special supplements or food materials. It will be mostly for your weight management.

But it’s difficult to cook a delicious dish based on bad food materials. In like manner, you can’t establish your good health only with such special agents if without healthy dietary habits.

Japanese foods are famously healthy and support the good health of Japanese people.

But not only the foods, they traditionally have healthy dietary habits and tips. The following tips work as natural appetite suppressants and you can take them into your life easily. Try them from today!

  1. Hara-Hachibunme
    This Japanese term means that you stop eating when your appetite is satisfied by 80%. Stop eating when your appetite is eased before you feel full and wait for a while. It will take about 20 minutes before the taken food satisfies your satiety center. If you still need more food after that, take a little more. If you habitually always take food up to the maximum, you will learn that you can be satisfied with less food. As an extra benefit of such a new habit, you can be more active without suffering from the glut.

  2. Take more water as a beverage or soup to fill your stomach with less food. It will provide you the same effect as Hara-Hachibunme without the intensional patience. Is water a natural appetite suppressant? Yes!

  3. Take various dishes on small plates, and take them alternately, little by little. It Take various dishes on small plates, and take them alternately, little by little. It will satisfy your satiety center with less food by taking time, dietary fiber, and water in the middle. It will also help your health by taking balanced nutrients from the various foods.

  4. Take foods containing much dietary fiber at first. It will slow your digestion and moderate appetite and blood sugar spike. Vegetables, mushrooms, beans, etc., will be good.

  5. Use less cooking oil and sugar. Dashi will help your dish taste better and satisfy the eaters with less cooking oil and sugar. Dashi is an “Umami” extract. Umami is already an English term for elements of taste like bitterness, sweetness, or sourness, which makes you feel tasty.

All these dietary habits are easy for you to take into your life and work as natural appetite suppressants. I like to stress here that you should do them gradually to the extent you can try without stress. The most important thing is to make them your natural habit instead of chasing the benefits in the short term.

Take Best Fermented Foods In An Easy Way

Skin healing with fermented foods

I watched a TV program in Japan for health, where a researcher of fermented food advised a woman to take a bit of fermented food every meal for one week. She had a problem with her bowel movement, and it led to her skin problems. After the week of the trial, she got a significant improvement. She was excited about the excellent condition of her skin.
The fermented food she tried in that trial were yogurt, wed kimchi, miso soup, natto, fermented rice, onion, etc.

Umami is global, flavor is local

Maybe you can try. They are some of the best options. But there is a problem. Dr. Fushiki of the University of Kyoto, a famous scholar for fermented food, says, “Umami (savoriness) is global, but the flavor is local.”
Fermentation generates rich umami in food in most cases, but it usually accompanies a specific flavor, which often smells and tastes odd to people from other dietary cultures.

For example, as an ultimate example, most Japanese love natto (fermented soy with bacillus natto), but most people other than the Japanese will think of is “rotten” by its gooey outlooking and probably stinky smell.
Even such Japanese people can’t eat the “surstromming” of Sweden. (It’s a fermented canned fish called “the world’s most stinking canned food.”)

Those 2 are ultimate examples, but any fermented food presents the same challenge more or less to people from different dietary cultures.

Start with your familiar flavor

But, it will be better that you keep a healthy diet with less challenge than trying something too special and can’t continue. It will be good for you to take your familiar fermented food every day, even by a little.

Yogurt is already popular in the USA.
You may not see wine as a fermented food, but it’s a fermented grape extract. Wine has rich polyphenols as the following;
(1) From the skin: Anthocyanin, Resveratrol, Tannin
(2) From the pulp: Anthocyanin
(3) From the seed: proanthocyanin, tannin, quercetin, catechin
Some people may be happy to find that wine makes you healthy as well as feeling good!
But, you can have too much of a good thing. Be careful to drink it just for your health, and never drink too much.

Clinical Study of the Natural Treatment for Osteoporosis with β-Cryptoxanthin

Happy Voices from the natural bone therapy seekers

Juveriente® Bone Strength Complex has helped many people for their bone health as a natural treatment for osteoporosis. Many of them sent us happy reviews.

The following is one of them;

“I am at my fourth month of trial. I suffered a fracture of the femur last year, had a hip replacement and am still monitored with x-rays every few months. There appears to be new bone growth according to my doctor. I am happy and will continue using it.”

What makes it unique?

LEARN MORE BSC
Find more product reviews in Amazon!

What makes this product unique is β-Cryptoxanthin. It’s a kind of carotenoid richly contained in Satsuma Mandarin Orange. Satsuma mandarin orange is one of the most popular table fruits in Japan.  This is never be a medicine but only a natural treatment for osteoporosis with a natural fruit. It’s only a fruits extract. But clinical reports back its solid support for your bone health.

Clinical Report

Osteoporosis Clinical Study
Click the image for the whole report.

This report shows the way how β-Cryptoxanthin works as a natural treatment for osteoporosis. It activates the osteoblast and restrains the osteoclast’s work. Then it boosts your bone metabolism. This is the system how these functions happen and researchers found it through in-vitro studies. They also conducted human studies. They saw the actual improvement of human’s bone metabolism depending on the intake of this vitamin. 

This is only a natural food and helps your bone.

You may not have heard of β-Cryptoxanthin and may be wary about it. But, as a matter of fact, it is only one kind of carotenoid. The actually used ingredient in the supplement is only an extract of Satsuma mandarin orange. It is rich in β-Cryptoxanthin. Satsuma mandarin orange is called “Mikan” in Japanese. Mikan is one of the most popular fruits in Japan. Most Japanese people eat a lot of Mikan in winter.

People in the region to plant a lot of Mikan eat even larger volume of it. A Japanese agriculture institute found the apparent correlation between the blood β-Cryptoxanthin concentration and the onset risk of osteoporosis there by a cohort study to track 700 women for 4 years there.

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