You Are What You Eat — Ikuo Kaneko (Dean, Graduate School of Media and Governance)
October 18, 2007
The annual faculty health checkup will be held soon. Since last year, they started measuring our waistlines for metabolic syndrome, and the middle-aged male faculty, myself included, are filled with trepidation. It is said to be important to take preventive measures at the "mibyo" stage—a state that is not quite illness but not quite health—which is certainly something to be grateful for.
I have the type of constitution where I gain weight if I let my guard down, so I weigh myself every day and keep an eye on it. Tempted by late-night TV commercials, I have bought several pieces of diet equipment through mail order, only to stop using them within a few weeks. Since I turned 50, I have been running one full marathon each year, and while I lose a few kilograms during the training period, I have learned from this experience that losing weight through exercise alone is an incredibly difficult feat.
There is an English expression, "You are what you eat." It teaches us that while diet equipment and marathons have their place, it ultimately comes down to what you eat. Thinking back, the reason I tend to gain weight is likely because I spent more than ten years in the United States in my youth and picked up the habit of eating so-called "junk food" such as french fries, pizza, cheeseburgers, and TV dinners (frozen dinner packages).
Recently, instead of trying unsustainable diets, I have made a conscious effort to eat delicious and "healthy" foods like brown rice, vegetables, and lean meat, and to chew them slowly. About six months after I started doing this, various health metrics improved. Since becoming the Dean of the Graduate School, I feel the gravity of my important duties. However, my workload has increased dramatically, and I worry I won't have time to be mindful of my diet. Instead of my body getting leaner, the opposite seems more likely. This is my biggest concern. I want to do something about it, but I find that when I resist the high-calorie bento boxes served at meetings, I later catch myself buying ice cream at a convenience store. I wonder what my waistline will measure at this year's checkup.
(Date posted: October 18, 2007)