Re: Japanese go bananas for new diet

[Guest guest]

Mmmm... interesting!

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http://www.smh.com.au/news/lifeandstyle/diet/japans-bananas-for-new-diet\

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> /2008/10/20/1224351139324.html

>

> October 20, 2008

>

> A new diet said to result in fast, stress-free weight loss has taken

> Japan by storm.

>

> The Morning Banana Diet is possibly the world's easist diet to follow

-

> except in Japan where its intense popularity has led to the nation's

> worst-ever banana shortage.

>

> Banana importer, Dole Japan Company, has increased supplies by 25 per

> cent over the corresponding period last year but is still struggling

to

> meet demand. Consequently, banana prices are soaring but with the

> celebrity endorsements and more than 600,000 copies of the diet books

> sold, demand for the fruit shows no signs of slowing.

>

> Adherents of the diet love it for its simplicity and reported success.

>

> Essentially, the regimen requires dieters to start the day with a raw

> banana and a glass of room-temperature water. After that, they're free

> to eat whatever they want for the rest of the day - except for sweets.

> Desserts with meals are banned and just one sweet snack in the

> mid-afternoon is allowed. Alcohol consumption is discouraged and early

> dinners (before 8pm) and taking to bed before midnight are the diet's

> only other strictures.

>

> But perhaps the diet's greatest appeal lies in its laissez-faire

> approach to exercise. It counsels weight-watchers to work out only if

> they want to and then to exert themselves in the least stressful way

> possible.

>

> The craze reached a new zenith last month when the Tokyo Broadcasting

> System aired a television program in which the very hefty former

> Japanese opera singer Kumiko Mori attributed a sudden seven-kilo

weight

> loss to the diet. Bananas have been in scarce supply on Japanese

> supermarket shelves ever since.

>

> The Morning Banana Diet was developed by an Osaka pharmacist with a

keen

> interest in Chinese herbal medicine. Sumiko Watanabe devised the

dietary

> regime for her husband, who had become exasperated by his inability to

> lose weight by more orthodox means. Mr Watanabe is now a lean 59 kilos

> at 175 centimetres and attributes the diet's magic to its stress-free

> approach.

>

> Nutritionists are divided on the efficacy of the diet but bananas are

a

> rich source of resistant starch, a type of fibre found in

> carbohydrate-dense foods such as potatoes, corn, barley and bananas -

> especially slightly unripe fruit. The indigestible starch is being

> touted as a wonder diet food by advocates as it is said to help induce

> feelings of saiety and increase the body's fat-burning capacity.

>