You are in: Home / Meals / Can You Pick the Healthy Bento Box?

Can You Pick the Healthy Bento Box?

Bento is a popular form of Japanese food. It is typically a boxed meal made up rice, fish, or other meat. Available at sushi outlets and other Japanese restaurants bento is typically seen as a low-calorie food.

The Just Bento blog has a great feature that compares two bento boxes.
Below are two bento. The two containers on the left form the first bento, the remaining containers on the right form the second bento.

One totals 940 Calories, the other 445 Calories.

Which is which?

The bento on the right is 940 Calories. With the skin on the chicken, the fried rice, and the sauteed sprouts - around 500 Calories is added onto the plainer fare on the left.

Print This Page

Weight Watchers Smart Ones Satisfying Selections: Smart or Not? (Diet Blog)
Campbell's Low Calorie Soup: Be Warned (Diet Blog)
Meet Greg, 155 Pounds Down! (DailySpark)
Brad Pitt Gives His Kids Coke for Breakfast! (Diets in Review)

25 Comments

Mark

Making me hungry just looking at that I think just looking at that would make most people want to eat it. I know I would mmmm never mind the calories.

Laura

See, I think that's kind of a trick question when you don't know exactly what the foods are. The one on the right looked like fried rice to me, while the left looked like steamed white rice. And of course, there was the psychological factor of seeing lots of green in the left box :) Just shows you have to really know what you're eating and not just go by looks alone!

lola

see i think that was pretty easy

fried chicken with the skin, fried rice... its quite obviously got more cals

staci

i think portion must have something to do with the calories, what are the dimensions of the "bentos"? but i agree with lola, whether its in a box or not, obviously the fried foods would yeild a higher calorie count than their steamed counter parts... no?

Katie

The skin on the chicken isn't really important, since both actually have it still on. And another problem with the fried rice is that it's packed in the larger of the two tiers. It wouldn't be so much a problem if it were packed as the steamed rice is.

But obviously, the one on the left is much more balanced.

Ali from The Office Diet

Laura, I think you did get it right, if I understand Jim correctly! The one on the right is fried rice and the one on the left, with the green stuff, is the "good" bento.

For me, this illustrates how fairly small actions, such as choosing one meal over another at a fast-food place, can add up to a big impact on your diet...

Ali

Red

But what if you poured all natural Pepsi RAW over the right Bento box. I'm not sure it'd even out the calories, but it'd sure be delicious.

Fitness_Fanatic

I'd take real bento boxes made by Japanese housewives over some imitation crap. Alas, I don't have a Japanese housewife.

eric

Red said:
But what if you poured all natural Pepsi RAW over the right Bento box. I'm not sure it'd even out the calories, but it'd sure be delicious.[...]

LOL, exactly :-) all natural!

lisa

jen hunter did not win 'make me a supermodel', so before you go trying to prove your point, get your facts right

Jim

It wasn't a trick. The two boxes on the right (which form a single bento) have both fried rice and skin on the chicken - contributing an extra 500 cals to their steamed skinless counterparts.

Chubby Mommy

Well, I had been planning on a nice, plain broiled chicken breast with a small salad for dinner. Now I'm in the mood for fried chicken.

Thanks. Thanks so much.

Jen

OH MY GOD! No wonder I'm still stuck at this plateau!!! The bento box on the right is practically my calories for the whole day!!! Thanks. I'll share this with my co workers who worship bento boxes. =)

Fitness_Fanatic

Jen said:
OH MY GOD! No wonder I'm still stuck at this plateau!!! The bento box on the right is practically my calories for the whole day!!! Thanks. I'll share this with my co workers who worship bento boxes. =)[...]

You eat 940 calories for a whole day?

Spectra

I picked the one on the right to have more calories...I figured the fried skin on the chicken and the fried rice would add quite a few extra calories. Still, it looks like both of those have a lot of rice in them. Rice has a lot of calories per cup...you could reduce the calories in both by replacing some of the rice with some steamed veggies.

More comments: 1 2