8 Asians

Sorry if my title is a little misleading. I thought more people would pay attention to this entry if I had the magical political keywords of the week.

Has anyone else caught on to the Japanese fad of the Banana Diet? You know it’s global when Time magazine devotes an entire article to it.

According to these people,

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.

Japanese people are so crazy about this diet that the country is facing a banana shortage. And it’s not the first time, either.

Last year’s fermented soybean (natto) diet emptied supermarket shelves. Based on experience, Horiuchi predicts that the banana boom will last only another month or so.

FYI, I need to go on a diet, especially since I realized very recently that I am considered “obese,” according to these new standards for yellow people. (Thanks, joz, for ruining the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday for me.) So please, feel free to share your Asian diet ideas with me because I need them. But bananas? I hate bananas!

And what is up with Japan and fads? I know it’s all part of the stereotype; with such a small, densely populated country with a pretty homogeneous culture, trends would always spread like wildfire. It’s old news. But does it have to keep happening?

Do they not realize that this banana diet is merely about restricting your calorie intake? Could it not become any more obvious when one of the rules explicitly states “no desserts after meals”? This is insane. I thought Asian people were supposed to be SMART. That’s why we’re so good at math and sneaking military secrets to the Chinese government.

Japan, you disappoint me.

PS. Bananas are disgusting.

(Flickr photo credit: .mands.)