[*StarDust*]

GONE BANANAS IN JAPAN - Diet fad sparks banana shortage
October 28, 2008

JAPANESE people seem to have gone bananas over bananas. So much so that there is a shortage of the fruit in the country.

Madam Fumiko Satake, a 29-year-old Tokyo wife, picked up one bunch of green bananas at a supermarket in downtown Tokyo - not because she preferred unripe bananas, but because that was all she could get her hands on.

'I came to the store early today so that I could get bananas,' Madam Satake told ABC News.

A new diet has swept across the nation and become the culprit for the sudden spike in banana consumption, and a shortage at grocery stores.

'My husband has lost about six pounds (2.7kg) since he started the morning banana diet a few months ago,' Madam Satake said.

'I am not sure how much the fruit did for me, but my husband has been following this diet and he needs his bananas.'

The craze traces its roots to the morning banana diet introduced in 2006 on mixi, a popular social networking website by Mr Hitoshi Watanabe, who studied preventive medicine in Tokyo, and by his pharmacist wife, Sumiko.

According to their official website, the trick is to eat bananas along with room-temperature water for breakfast. Anything can be eaten at lunch and dinner, and afternoon snacks are fine. Just avoid dairy products and dessert after dinner, and dine before 8 pm, reported The Japan Times.

'I did not know losing weight could be this easy,' Mr Watanabe told ABC News. 'So, I just wanted to share this with other people.'

That was when he put the banana diet information on the website.

'I did not know so many people would show an interest. The response was just overwhelming.'

Mr Watanabe certainly did not mean to create a banana shortage all over Japan, but that is exactly what the nation experienced.

Mr Akihiro Takenaka, a produce manager of a Tokyo supermarket, Ozeki, said the demand for bananas is still high and the supply simply cannot catch up.

'I have been in the produce business for almost 20 years and I have never seen this kind of phenomenon,' said MrTakenaka.

But not everyone is buying into the banana craze.

A 40-year-old Japanese language instructor who only gave her last name, Ms Yanagihara, also tried the banana diet for a month and lost 2kg, but she thinks it is not effective.

'I tried many kinds of diet methods. I usually lost 2 kg (with these diet methods), but I could easily gain the weight back.'

Ms Sayoko Ikeda, associate professor of the faculty of nutrition at Kobe Gakuin University, said eating bananas does not directly trigger weight loss.

'Eating only one kind of food in the long term is not healthy because you cannot get the necessary nutrition,' she said, noting bananas may work for people who tend to overeat because the fruit is quite filling.

Source: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...81557,00.html?

[DestinyAthrun]

wow~~ haha i like the title of this one haha

[Voodoo Vince]

Banana is good for as energy food.