Gunma University Prof. Kuniko Takahashi, referring to the current banana boom. Sales are up 30% across the nation since TV programs and books claimed that eating them has weight-loss benefits. (Yomiuri Shimbun)

4 Comments

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  presto345 at 02:30 PM JST - 1st October

  Bananas have their good points: lots of fiber and vitamin C, but they are loaded with sugar, that's why sports people eat them for boosts. I don't believe for a second they will assist in weight loss. Nevertheless my supermarket, MaxValue, was all out of bananas yesterday. You could say this is bananas (sorry) :-)

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  LFRAgain at 03:14 PM JST - 1st October

  It's crazy. Can't get a single damned banana after 12 noon in my town. They're all being snapped up by customers who've bought into this banana diet nonsense that's gripped the hearts and minds of people looking for an alternative to a balanced diet and, well, exercise.

  Thanks to some "talento" named Kumiko Mori, who claims to have lost 7 kilos thanks to a banana diet, I haven't been able to buy any bananas since last Monday other than by heading to the local 24-hour market at 8AM and grabbing a bunch just as they're bringing the boxes out of storage onto the sales floor.

  News flash: If you limit your diet you just one type of ANY food, you're going to lose weight in the short term. Worked with the cabbage diet. Works with an all-meat diet. Hell, you could lose weight if you stuck to nothing but Snicker's bars for a month. Your heart might not thank you for it, but hey, weight's weight, right?

  But man cannot live on bread alone, or in this case, bananas. The minute these folks go back to a regular diet, the weight's just going to come right back. A lifestyle change is needed. Not 6 bananas a day. In the meantime, folk who eat bananas as a part of a balanced diet are screwed.

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  LFRAgain at 03:20 PM JST - 1st October

  Reminds me of that nonsense a couple of years ago with Mino Monta pushing natto on his program "Aru Aru Daijiten," with claims of fantastical health properties to be found in everyone's favorite rotten soy beans. People bought the natto up like there was no tomorrow, causing shortages nationwide and a dramatic price spike. Factories couldn't keep up at first, and had to work extra shifts to meet the demand, stockpiling natto for anticipated orders.

  THEN it came out that the data quoted by Monta and others on his show regarding natto's alleged healthiness had been fabricated (as had data been on other shows regarding other foods, like cabbage). Sales plummeted, factories were left with tons of unsold natto due to cancelled orders, and "Aru Aru Daijiten" was pulled off the air.

  Just makes you shake your head over how impressionable and easily manipulated people can be when watching TV. After all, Mino Monta would never lie to us, would he?

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  tmarie at 03:31 PM JST - 1st October

  Jesus, between the soup diet, the natto diet and those nasty CMs I see for "magic pills" and drinks the Japanese seriously will believe anything make syou lose weight. Want to lose weight? Get off your butts, excercise and eat better. Doesn't take a monkey to figure that out.

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