Hara hachi bu (腹八分 ), or hara hachi bunme (and sometimes spelled hari hachi bu), is a Confucian[1] teaching that instructs people to eat until they are 80 percent full.[2] Roughly, in English the Japanese phrase translates to, "Eat until you are eight parts (out of ten) full".[2] or "belly 80 percent full".[3]
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As of the early 21st century, Okinawans in Japan, through practicing hara hachi bu, are the only human population to have a self-imposed habit of calorie restriction.[2] Almost 29% of Okinawans live to be 100, about four times the average in western countries.[4] They consume about 1,800[3] to 1,900 calories per day.[5] Their typical body mass index (BMI) is about 18 to 22, compared to a typical BMI of 26 or 27 for adults over 60 in the United States.[4]
While a professor at Cornell University in the 1930s, biochemist Clive McCay found that significant calorie restriction prolonged life in laboratory animals.[6][7] Authors Bradley and Craig Wilcox and Makoto Suzuke believe that hara hachi bu may act as a form of calorie restriction, thus extending practitioners' life expectancy. They believe hara hachi bu assists in keeping the average Okinawan BMI low due to the delay in stomach stretch receptors indicating satiety results in a constant stretching of the stomach which in turn increases the amount of food needed to feel full.[2]
Hara hachi bu was popularized in the United States by a variety of books on diet and longevity.[8][9][10]