Japan experienced a critical shortage of bananas in 2008, just as a simple diet went viral on the Internet and swept the country. The Morning Banana Diet emptied grocery store produce shelves for months and dieters breakfasted, and sometimes lunched, on bananas in an effort to lose pounds fast. The diet's low-stress guidelines remain popular although its value as a serious weight loss program is anecdotal.
The Diet
The simplicity of the Morning Banana Diet is part of its appeal. Breakfast is a banana -- or as many bananas as you like -- and room-temperature water. Lunch is whatever you want. Mid-afternoon you are allowed a snack and it can be sweet. Dinner is your choice but must be eaten before 8 p.m. and no dessert is allowed. Sumiko Watanabe, an Osaka pharmacist, created the diet for her husband who used it to lose 37 lbs. When he posted his results on the Internet, the diet caught on slowly. When a Japanese celebrity claimed to lose 15 lbs. in six weeks on the diet, Japan experienced an overnight banana shortage.
The Lifestyle Changes
The Morning Banana Diet encourages users to make changes in their daily habits that can contribute to weight loss, weight control and general improved health. Breakfast banana and water consumption avoids caffeine and substitutes a fruit carbohydrate for sweetened baked goods or sugary cereals. The diet suggests a limited number of meals and snacks to be eaten at regular intervals. Late night eating is out as is dessert after dinner. The evening meal is consumed well before bedtime, allowing the digestive process to conclude before you go to sleep. Dieters are supposed to go to bed by midnight and log their full eight hours. Correcting chronic sleep deprivation can help you succeed on a diet. Harvard Medical School says getting less sleep than your body needs can interfere with metabolism and cause weight gain.
The Nutrition
The Banana Diet, or the Morning Banana Diet, is a fad. The American Dietetic Association points out that fad diets based on a single food don't deliver lasting weight loss. Food restrictions can cause short term weight loss but the weight usually comes right back as soon as the diet ends. The food choices you make on the banana diet could be your downfall. Eat unhealthy fattening lunches and dinners and your weight could go up, not down. Columbia University Health Services notes that bananas themselves are healthy eating. They are high in fiber and potassium which are beneficial nutrients for the heart, blood pressure and entire digestive system. Bananas are low-fat and high-carb so they satisfy hunger cravings without excess calories and contribute to feeling fuller longer as the carbohydrates digest.
Healthy Weight Loss
Bananas can be part of a sensible weight loss diet but for lasting change you have to balance two elements that are not part of the Morning Banana Diet. The banana diet doesn't limit calories, which adds up to pounds. Cut down on calories and you lose weight. Exercise burns calories, but the banana diet recommends against strenuous exercise to avoid damaging knees or creating stress. Without restricting calories and adding a regular exercise program to tone and strengthen your body while you burn calories, any weight you lose eating bananas for breakfast can be gained back quickly.
References
- "Time Magazine"; Japan Goes Bananas for a New Diet; Michiko Toyama; October 17, 2008
- Every Diet: Banana Diet
- Asa-Banana: The Morning Banana Diet: How To
- Go Ask Alice!; Bananas + Fat?; October 20, 1995
- American Dietetic Association: Eat Right: What is the Morning Banana Diet?
- Harvard Medical School Health Publications; Importance of Sleep: Six Reasons Not to Skimp on Sleep; 2006
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