After living for Japan without really paying attention for what I ate for about a year, I realized that my blood pressure had gone up about 20 points since before I moved. That realization was a few months ago, and I started going to the gym which reduced it by 10, but I figure the rest is due to the increase in salt intake.

I think the big cause of the problem is stuff like gyudon, ramen, oyakodon, nabe, yakisoba, yakitori, etc. that are just full of sodium. Even curry roux and pasta sauces contain more than 1/2 of one's recommended allowance in a single serving. Of course preprepared products (inc. anything from the combini) and fast food are right out (end up overshooting one's RDA in a single meal then...). I never really paid attention to the sodium levels on packets when I was living in the west so I'm not sure if it's worse here or not, but it feels pretty bad here, especially since I have to eat a lot to get full compared to the average Japan portion, particularly because I'm going to the gym a lot now.

Does anyone have any recommendations for healthy high calorie, high protein, low sodium recipes that won't cost a fortune here and won't take too much time to cook? I know I can just eat plain meat and plain vegetables and plain rice but I think my girlfriend will complain if I cooked that for dinner... thanks~

Isn't the stuff you mention pretty much restaurant-y food, with the exception of nabe? A lot of more regular home cooked meals in Japan aren't so ridiculous sodium wise, even though they're still a little high since soy sauce is so ubiquitous.

Cook pad is a great website for cooking in Japan:
http://cookpad.com/

Quote:Isn't the stuff you mention pretty much restaurant-y food

I think curry rice, yakisoba, nikujaga, cha-han, tempura, gyoza, teriyaki based dishes, etc. are all very ubiquitous in homes... and Japanese people (men anyway) are clearly eating gyudon all the time (whether at home or the gyuudonya). The university cafeteria is full of stuff like oyakodon and udon too. Except for ramen, I would never go out to eat any of the above at a real restaurant (not Yoshinoya) out of choice since they're so easy to make...

Most people are lazy so looking to the masses probably won't give much great inspiration. |: Single people who work full time here seem to live on bento.

Will look on cookpad for ideas...

Dinner for today: roast seasoned chicken with roast potatoes and courguettes

Discovery: brand name pasta sauce jars have half the sodium as the supermarket brand sachets.

Yes, yes, I should be making everything from scratch really...