The Morning Banana Diet

Share |

Have you ever seen a fat monkey? They eat fruits, nuts and the occasional bug or two, but they do not seem to pick up the pudge. Oh wait, they also swing through trees and jump around wildly for much of the day. I have yet to see the diet plan advocating that. This particular diet plan comes to us from Japan after becoming the rage when a famous Japanese opera singer said that she lost weight by eating bananas and drinking water every morning. Seems simple enough, right?

Hitosi Watanabe studied preventive medicine in Tokyo. His wife, Sumiko is a pharmacist. They released their diet plan to the world which although, seems very easy to follow at first, does have some interesting rules and restrictions to consider. If you like the idea of eating the exact same thing morning after morning after morning, this may be the diet plan for you. If you like a little variety, especially for the first meal of the day, just walk away, Renee, because this one may make you go... ape.

The Premise
Your morning will start with two bananas washed down with a cup of room temperature water. During the rest of the day, you can eat whatever you want with some exceptions (no ice cream, dairy and no alcohol). The only beverage that you can have with your meals is room temperature water. You can have one sweet snack in mid afternoon but there is no dessert after your evening meal. And, you are not allowed to eat after eight pm at all.

Like all diets, there are good and bad points about this plan, none the least of which will be the odd sensation of wanting to pick things off of the people around you.

The Good Things About the Morning Banana Diet
Of all of the things that you could start your day with, bananas are not that bad of a choice. They are fairly tasty, portable if you need to eat them on the go, and no clean up (Big bonus)! Bananas are healthy food choices and have many of the nutrients that you need throughout the day, especially potassium. They also do offer a little bit of fiber.

The Stuff that is Bananas About the Morning Banana Diet
First of all, the theory that bananas have a special enzyme that allows them to speed digestion or that they contain resistant starch that does not digest and will then block some of the carbs that you eat is hooey. Or at least, it probably is hooey - there is not enough scientific evidence one way or the other. While bananas do have some fiber, they do not have enough to be considered a "good" source of it, and certainly not as much as some of the other breakfast choices that you are foregoing to follow this diet.

While it is great that the plan is getting people to drink more water, room temperature water is unappetizing at best and will be difficult to stomach, in the long run.

The plan offers far too little calories to be healthy or long term. Excess hunger will drive most people to skip healthy foods and make poor choices. The plan does not provide enough of many vital nutrients and does not offer any advice about supplementation at all.

The plan does not offer enough variety or choices and knowing what you are going to eat every morning can get very boring, very quickly. Not being allowed to eat after eight pm may be too difficult for many people to stick to, especially when they know that the first thing they get to look forward to is yet another banana.

Finally, the only mention the plan makes about exercise is to say that it should only be done if you feel like it and if it will not be too stressful to you. Look, I am as Zen (lazy) as the next person, but even I know that I need to haul myself over to the treadmill every now and again to get anything going on the weight loss front.

Still, if you are keen on knowing more about the Morning Banana Diet, check out their official website at: http://www.en.asabanana.net Other resources for the Morning Banana Diet: