Banana Diet: Japan Goes Bananas For New Weight-Loss Craze

Keiko Akai is very annoyed. The attractive 21-year-old university student has been planning to do a banana diet for some time now, but she can't get started - and not for lack of trying. "I keep going to OK Store, my local supermarket every single day," she says. "In fact, I've just been there. There are no bananas on the shelves, and it's been like that for a month."

Akai has never weighed more than 100 pounds, and is so slim that her waist is swimming in Zara's smallest size XS skirt. She doesn't need to lose any weight. But Japanese girls obsessed with diets tend to jump at any trendy new ones, so, when Akai heard about a popular actress who'd lost 26 pounds through the Morning Banana Diet, she had to try it. And the dearth of bananas as her local supermarket, and many others, is testimony to the popularity of the new dieting fad.

...

The Morning Banana Diet regime is simple: A banana (or as many as you want) and room temperature water for breakfast; eat anything you like for lunch and dinner (by 8 p.m.). A three o'clock snack is okay, but no desserts after meals, and you have to go to bed before midnight.

Keep reading...

Comments

[mamacat]

06:31 AM on 10/21/2008

Back in the '60s Donovan put one over on people, making them think that banana peels were hallucinogenic. He even had a top selling song about it, "Mellow Yellow." It was all one big farce, but what is it about bananas that people keep attributing super powers to them?

[clsmithj]

11:07 AM on 10/20/2008

I use to love bananas until I realized I was allergic to them, every time I would eat one my throw would swell up sore.

I've been banana free for a year now.

[MyThought]

01:55 PM on 10/19/2008

This banana diet is not new. It first came out about 35 years ago. I know, because my sister-in-law ended up in the hospital doing this diet. They thought it was a heart attack, but realized it related to this diet.

Fads are fads and they keep renewing them to make money - think about it.

[eatmypress]

02:22 PM on 10/19/2008

what? your sister-in-law ended up in the hospital from eating a banana for breakfast followed by lunch and dinner? i'm confused.

[instarx]

11:07 AM on 10/20/2008

Probably came from eating too many bananas rather than just one or two a day. Bananas are very high in potassium, which in excess can cause cardo-vascular effects.

[Leedox]

12:14 AM on 10/19/2008

The Japanese love a crazy new diet. I have never seen so many diet obsessed young women as in Japan. Next month it will be something else. My fav diet advice does come from the Japanese though. Eat until you are 80% full and then stop. Stuffing yourself is definitely not the Japanese way. Personally I love Japanese food and eat sushi and sashimi at least twice a week. The Japanese are very active and continue to work and cycle well into their 80's. I saw so many elderly Japanese at the gym - swimming, running, lifting weights and doing aerobics classes. They were an inspiration. The women were also remarkably cellulite and wrinkle free. It amazed me.

[Luca]

11:54 PM on 10/17/2008

I'm peeling with laughter.

[zizyphus]

03:09 PM on 10/17/2008

Hahaha! This is great. I have about a hundred banana plants, and eat bananas a lot. I have noticed they have different effects depending on what time of day you eat them.

If you eat only bananas in the morning, your blood sugar crashes soon, like eating donuts for breakfast. You are better off eating a handful nuts first for breakfast – this gives you sustained energy, and keep going until you get hungry, then start eating bananas, and eat all you want. You won't get fat on them. Eat what you want for dinner. That is how I stay slender. That and working like a slave in my yard. And coffee. Lots of coffee.

[tablogloid]

10:26 PM on 10/17/2008

That is not correct.
Bananas are natural fruit and do not contain refined sugar. More mass of refined sugar is absorbed faster than natural sugars. Natural sugar in a banana does not get completely absorbed and becomes body waste. There is no blood sugar crash. Food
s containing refined sugar, like your donut example, build up rapidly in the body and creating fat This is one of the main causes of obesity.

[ElleDriver]

12:28 PM on 10/18/2008

I work at a yoga studio, so I've had to give a lot of advice to my students.

Bananas ARE fattening, if you eat too many of them and aren't physically active, as they are very heavy in carbohydrates.

Eating the fruit also does not make your blood sugar level drop - they actually have the opposite effect. Due to its high carb-content, bananas are an ideal snack choice for "endurance athletes" or for those who just need an energy boost.

Drinking to much coffee is also very detrimental, as it is a harsh laxative. You lose a lot of water from your system (which is vital to maintaining good health and weight) and the body loses the ability to have natural bowel movements on its own, and you soon become dependent on (or addicted to) harsh diuretics like coffee, to keep yourself "regular".

[vmonter]

12:59 PM on 10/17/2008

stupid people do stupid things.

[Tamoomoo]

09:49 PM on 10/18/2008

I would say it's more desperate than stupid.