Lessons from Okinawa: 10 Secrets of Happy and Healthy Longevity
[Adapted from Unseen Japan, posted November 29, 2018]
The concept of “hara hachi bunme” (translating roughly as “stomach 8 parts full”) gained a great deal of popularity in the United States with the publishing of the 1965 book “Three Pillars of Zen.” In this work is quoted a famous Zen priest, Hakuun Yasutani, whose teachings advise practitioners to eat only up to two-thirds of their stomach’s full capacity. He was quoted as repeating a Japanese proverb: “eight parts of a full stomach sustain the man; the other two sustain the doctor.” How can you tell when you are 80% full?
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