What vegetable do American and Japanese eat?

When I eat foods at a restaurant in the US, I feel vegetables are less in the restaurants in the US than the restaurants in Japan. When you go to grocery stores in the US, you can see many different types of vegetable that you don’t usually see in Japan. Type of vegetables I choose is somewhat different from my American wife chooses.

I examined what type and how much vegetable American and Japanese consume. The vegetable includes processed vegetable such as canned vegetable as well as fresh vegetables. I made rankings by vegetable type in the United States and Japan each below.

The statistics are from USDA Economic Research Service and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. All data used is for the year 2015.

Vegetable Consumption in the US

The first figure below shows the ranking of vegetable consumption in the US.









Potatoes and tomatoes are dominantly more consumed than other vegetables in the US. This outcome matches very well with my expectation. Potatoes are consumed in a variety of ways in the US such as mashed potato, baked potatoes, French fries, etc. When you go to an American cuisine restaurant, it is most likely that you see some kind of potato dish such as mashed potatoes on the side of your plate. Also, there are many Italian restaurants in the US and pizza is a very popular food in the US. No wonder tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables in the US. The vegetables that ranked between the third and the ninth place are onions, lettuce (head), carrots, sweet corn, lettuce (romaine and leaf), broccoli, bell peppers, cucumbers and cabbage.

Vegetable Consumption in Japan

The second figure below illustrates the ranking of vegetable consumption in Japan.









In order of the consumed amount, the ranking is onions, radish, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, spinach, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, and green peppers. Unlike the US vegetable consumption, onions are the most consumed vegetable in Japan. Onions are used for many Japanese dishes such as salad, gyudon, miso soup and so on. Japanese people eat radish as grated radish or simmered radish, etc. Cabbage is consumed in yakisoba, tonkatsu, and okonomiyaki. They are all one of the most popular Japanese foods.



Comparison of Vegetable Consumption between Japan and United States

Lastly, the figure below displays the comparison of vegetable consumption between Japan and the US.









Potatoes, tomatoes and bell peppers are more consumed in the US than in Japan while other vegetables in the figure are eaten more in Japan than in the US. Potatoes and tomatoes are very popular in the US, accounting for about half of US vegetable availability.

It was interesting to see the difference of vegetable consumption between the US and Japan this time. I believe eating a variety of vegetables is nutritionally good for your health. Luckily my wife chooses different vegetables from the vegetables that I would choose.

According to National Cancer Center Japan, eating vegetables and fruits reduces the risk of having esophageal cancer and stomach cancer. Further research is necessary to conclude that eating vegetables can prevent esophageal cancer and stomach cancer. However, their studies are based on actual experiments and statistics and their findings provide some evidences for the protective role of fruits and vegetables in the development of esophageal cancer and stomach cancer.

I hope my family can have a long healthy life with eating vegetables.

(If you are interested in whether organic food is actually healthier than non-organic food, please see the page below.)

(If you are interested in cancer frequency in the world such as in the United States or Japan, please see the page below).





