The Morning Banana Diet is a diet

Dieting

Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in those who are overweight or obese. Some athletes, however, follow a diet to gain weight...

 intended to cause weight loss

Weight loss

Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health or physical fitness, is a reduction of the total body mass, due to a mean loss of fluid, body fat or adipose tissue and/or lean mass, namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon and other connective tissue...

. It gained popularity in Japan in 2008, causing shortages of banana

Banana

Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....

s in food stores. Some observers considered it to be a fad diet.

A follower of this diet plan eats as many bananas as they want with room temperature water or a glass of milk for breakfast. The dieter can choose what they want for lunch,and dinner. They can have one or more bananas as a snack between meals, but no other desserts are permitted. Nothing is eaten after 8 pm, and the dieter must go to bed by midnight.

Creation and promulgation

The diet was created by Osaka pharmacist Sumiko Watanabe, for her husband Hitoshi Watanabe, who lost 37 pounds (16.8 kg) in weight. He popularized the diet when he wrote about it on Mixi

Mixi

mixi, Inc. is one of several social networking websites in Japan, founded in 2004. As of May 2008, mixi had over 21.6 million users and an 80% share of the social networking market in Japan...

, one of Japan's largest social networking services. Over 730,000 Morning Banana Diet books have been sold since March.

Rules of Banana Diet

1. Eat a banana for breakfast (you may eat more than one, the original dieter had 4 small ones for breakfast)

2. Eat normal Lunch and Dinner

3. Sip water when ever you require

4. have a evening snack if you feel hungry

5. Take the dinner before 8 pm

6. Go early to bed

http://morningbanana.com/morning-banana-diet-rules

Scientific explanation

Possible problems with the diet include the misuse of the unregulated lunch and dinner. "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" reports the American Dietetic Association.

Bananas are an excellent source of Dietary Fiber

Dietary fiber

Dietary fiber, dietary fibre, or sometimes roughage is the indigestible portion of plant foods having two main components:* soluble fiber that is readily fermented in the colon into gases and physiologically active byproducts, and* insoluble fiber that is metabolically inert, absorbing water as it...

, both soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. The six grams of fiber in a two banana breakfast can reduce caloric intake in two ways. Fiber bulks up in the stomach, lengthening feelings of fullness, and pulls some calories through the digestive system before they can be absorbed. Resistant starch

Resistant starch

Resistant starch is starch and starch degradation products that escape digestion in the small intestine of healthy individuals. Resistant starch is considered the third type of dietary fiber, as it can deliver some of the benefits of insoluble fiber and some of the benefits of soluble fiber.Some...

, one of the fibers found in bananas, ferments in the digestive tract, creating by-products that increase fat-burning by 20%-25%. Increased resistant starch consumption can increase fat burning and decrease fat accumulation.

Effects on banana market in Japan

The diet caused bananas to become scarce in Japan for a short period, with retailers unable to meet the demand.