Standardisation of the Japanese diet for use in animal experiments.

The aim of this study was to develop a purified diet that mimics the characteristics of the Japanese diet using readily available materials with a simpler composition and a focus on quality, with the goal of facilitating performance of studies on the Japanese diet worldwide. The utility of the new diet was examined as a mimic of the standard Japanese diet for use in animal experiments. We examined whether a key characteristic of the Japanese diet of being less likely to cause obesity could be reproduced.

Identification of Characteristic Components and Foodstuffs in Healthy Japanese Diet and the Health Effects of a Diet with Increased Use Frequency of these Foodstuffs.

Scope: Our recent study showed that the 1975 Japanese diet exhibited strong health benefits. In the current study, we aimed to develop a diet with even higher health benefits.

Methods: First, to determine the characteristic components in the 1975 diet, we used mass spectrometry for analysis of Japanese diets from several years and performed principal component analysis.

Intake of mulberry 1-deoxynojirimycin prevents colorectal cancer in mice.

The effect of 1-deoxynojirimycin, a caloric restriction mimetic, was examined in ICR mice with azoxymethane dextran sodium sulfate-induced colorectal cancer. Azoxymethane is a carcinogen (10 mg/kg body weight), and 2% dextran sodium sulfate (w/v) used as a colitis-inducing agent. Mice were separated into 5 groups: a group without colorectal cancer fed a normal diet (CO- group), and groups with colorectal cancer fed a normal diet (CO+ group), a calorie-restricted diet (caloric restriction group), and diets including 0.

Comparison of the Effects of the 1975 Japanese Diet and the Modern Mediterranean Diet on Lipid Metabolism in Mice.

The Japanese diet and the Mediterranean diet are both known to be good for health, but there had been no direct comparison of their health benefits. In this study, we compared the 1975 Japanese diet, which has been found to have high health benefits, with the 2010 Italian diet, which contributes to the longest life expectancy in Mediterranean countries. Diets were created using one-week menus of the two diets based on FAOSTAT Food Balance Sheets.