Farmers are putting water in their rice paddies now, preparing for rice planting.
Recently, there are a lot of books written by doctors recommending certain kinds of diet. While I find some of them very useful, I am often disappointed by them.
Why is that? That is what I am going to talk about, so stick around.
Hi, my name is Sachiaki Takamiya. I am in my late 50s but haven’t had any problems at my yearly checkups so far. I am the founder of Ikigai Diet. Ikigai Diet is a diet and an integrated lifestyle that will help you stay young and healthy so that you can enjoy your 100-year-life. It is based on the traditional Japanese diet and the modern understanding of health and wellness.
Many of these dietary books written by doctors are helpful because they are based on medical and nutritional facts. That is a great advantage of experts. On the other hand, those doctors are often too specialized in their fields and lack knowledge in other fields. They may be experts in medicine, but they may not be familiar with environmental issues, economics, farming, politics, education, and happiness.
Happiness? Why in the world do I have to be familiar with happiness? That is a philosopher’s job? Some doctors might say that.
And yet, I think happiness and health are very much related, and without having some understanding of happiness, you can’t give appropriate health advice. I mean one of the causes of cancer is stress, isn’t it?
That applies to all other fields I mentioned above such as environment and economics.
When I hear a doctor recommending canned mackerel, for instance, yes, in terms of omega-3 fatty acids it may be beneficial for us, but what about the problem of overfishing? I don’t blame the doctor; he simply didn’t know or didn’t even think it mattered. That is something outside of his field.
Or when I hear a doctor recommending avocados, and creating ravenous demand, resulting deforestation in Central America, again, he simply didn’t foresee that since it was outside of his field.
The Ikigai Diet is a holistic diet; we consider health from many different angles, not only medicine. It is a diet to help you become happy, and for your happiness, it is vital to protect our environment, foster win-win economy, encourage healthy farming, influence politics to build a social system enable us to be healthy, educate both children and adult about healthy living, and of course know how to be happy.