Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40871740›Full record

ArticleNutrients2025

Traditional Wisdom for Modern Sustainability: A Dish-Level Analysis of Japanese Home Cooking in NHK Today's Cooking.

Rui Fu, Yasuhiro Yamanaka

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nutrients, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Rui FuGraduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido 060-0810, Japan.ORCID 0009-0007-8569-2569
Yasuhiro YamanakaFaculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido 060-0810, Japan.ORCID 0000-0003-3369-3248

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundBalancing nutrition security with environmental sustainability is a key priority in global food policy, with Sustainable Healthy Diets (SHDs) serving as a critical framework aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Traditional Japanese cuisine reflects SHD principles through its emphasis on plant-based, seasonal, and minimally processed dishes. However, modern, globalized dietary patterns increasingly feature ultra-processed foods, raising concerns about health risks such as high sodium intake.

methodsThis study adopts a novel dish-level content analysis of 120 contemporary recipes from NHK Today's Cooking between 2023 and 2025, a TV program by Japan's national public broadcaster that is widely regarded as reflecting the practices of Japanese home cooking, to examine how SHDs pillars-nutritional diversity (e.g., varied protein sources), environmental sustainability (e.g., low-carbon ingredients), and cultural continuity (e.g., traditional techniques)-are embedded in Japanese home cooking. Unlike macro-level consumption or nutrition data, this dish-level approach reveals how individual dishes embody sustainability through ingredient selection, preparation methods, and cultural logic.

resultsQuantitatively, pork (33.3%) and seafood (19.2%) together dominated main protein sources, with minimal beef (2.5%) and a notable presence of soy-based foods (12.5%), supporting lower reliance on environmentally intensive red meat; mean salt content per person in main dishes was 2.16 ± 1.09 g (28.9% for men, 33.3% for women of Japan's daily salt targets), while recipe patterns emphasizing fermentation and seasonal alignment highlight possible pathways through which Japanese dietary practices can be considered ecologically efficient. Simultaneously, the analysis identifies emerging challenges, encompassing environmental issues such as overfishing and public health concerns like excessive sodium consumption.

conclusionsBy centering dishes as culturally meaningful units, and using media recipes as reproducible, representative datasets for monitoring dietary change, this approach offers a reproducible framework for assessing dietary sustainability in evolving global food systems.

Indexed as

CookingDiet, HealthySustainable DevelopmentAnimalsEast Asian PeopleHumansJapanNutritive ValueSeafoodcultural continuitydietary transitionsdish-level analysisenvironmental sustainabilityJapanese cuisinenutritional diversitySustainable Healthy Diets (SHDs)

Identifiers

PMID40871740
PMCPMC12389300

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.