[Sangetsu]

Traditional foods are healthy, but the long life expectancy of Japanese has less to do with the food than it does to the amount of food they eat. Most of the people in the current old generation (in their 70's and upwards) lived during a time when food was expensive and scarce. Obesity is not a problem in Japan as it is in other industrialized nations. This isn't due to the food; rice is no less fattening than potatoes or bread, and fish eaten in the same amounts as pork, beef, or chicken is no less fattening.

Your average Japanese nowadays earns a bit less than your average American, but food in Japan costs about 40% more than it does in America. For example, a Double Quarter Pounder meal in America is $5.99, while in Japan it is 780 yen. 780 yen is the equivalent of about $10 USD. How many Double Quarter Pounder meals would you eat if they were $10 a pop? A Double Whopper meal is more than 1000 yen, or about $15. A watermelon costs about $15 to $50 (depending on how pretty it is), while being only half the size of an American watermelon. A steak in a grocery store costs about 4 times as much as it would in America.

As for salt, there is not a good study which shows salt consumption in any way increases risk of heart disease. The study upon which this assumption is based consisted of feeding rats 500mg of salt per day. That is the human equivalent of eating 1000 McDonald's hamburgers per day. Japanese are among the highest consumers of salt in the world, yet they have the highest life expectancy, which is reason enough to suspect the salt/heart disease link.

If you want to live as long as the Japanese, the simplest way is just to eat less food.