I found this article on the Japan Times website, detailing the nutritional information of wagashi (Japanese sweets) and yogashi (Western sweets).
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20110120wh.html
It confirms everything I knew to be true when I lived in Japan and made semi-weekly pilgrimages to a wagashi store about two miles away from my regular subway stop.
About once a week I would buy a container with five reasonably large wagashi balls ~ generally some sort of daifuku, ohagi or dango, while on one noteworthy week it was fruit-flavored paste covered with a translucent coat of kudzu jelly.
Each time, I would head home with the intention of eating two or three that night, and the rest the next day. The only times I ever ate fewer than all five on one day were those occasions when someone stopped over for tea and conversation. Basically, wagashi were dinner.
But I justified this by reminding myself of the ingredients list. For most basic wagashi, there are pretty much just three basic ingredients: glutenous rice, red beans and sugar. Sure, sugar isn't the best, but beans and rice are definite dinner material! It's not like I was eating cake and ice cream for dinner. (I make no effort to justify that one; I just own the unhealthiness.)
Pssst, don't tell my mom any of this! ^_^
No comments:
Post a Comment