The Morning Banana Diet is a
fad diet
A fad diet is a diet that becomes popular for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements. There is no single defini ...
that was popular in Japan in 2008 and had some practice in the
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
.
The diet plan allows consumption of unlimited bananas with room temperature water or a serving of milk for breakfast. Although technically the diet allows unlimited banana consumption, nutritionists suggest that "a healthy person can consume at least seven-and-half bananas before reaching the recommended level" of
potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosphe ...
, a
dietary mineral
In the context of nutrition, a mineral is a chemical element required as an essential nutrient by organisms to perform functions necessary for life. However, the four major structural elements in the human body by weight (oxygen, hydrogen, carbon ...
in bananas.
Lunch and dinner food choices are unrestricted. Users can have one or more bananas as a snack between meals, but no other
dessert
Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...
s are permitted. Nothing is eaten after 8 pm, and the dieter must go to bed by midnight.
The diet was created by Osaka pharmacist Sumiko Watanabe, for her husband Hitoshi Watanabe, who lost in weight. He popularized the diet when he wrote it on
Mixi
is an online Japanese social networking service. It was founded in 1999 and is owned by Mixi, Inc. (). As of September 2012, Mixi had about 14 million monthly active users, with about 8.6 million of those on smartphones. Mixi, Inc. was founded b ...
, one of Japan's largest social networking services. Over 730,000 ''Morning Banana Diet'' books were sold in 2008.
Possible problems with the diet include the misuse of the unregulated lunch and dinner. A spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association told the ''Daily News'': "There's nothing magical about a banana....It's not well-defined or scientifically based. Whenever you have a diet that says eat all you want, there's the possibility that people who are prone to overeating will have problems".
References
External links
Official website{{Fad diets, state=collapsed
Diets
Fad diets