CITER 1

Diet terbaru di Jepun diasaskan ahli farmasi untuk suami

TOKYO: Satu cara diet baru yang dikatakan dapat menurunkan berat badan dengan pantas dan tidak mendatangkan tekanan kini melanda Jepun dinamakan 'Diet Pisang Waktu Pagi', lapor akhbar Sydney Morning Herald.Kaedah itu berkemungkinan cara pemakanan paling mudah diikuti di dunia.

Malah, populariti diet itu menyebabkan masalah kekurangan pisang paling teruk teruk dihadapi di negara Matahari Terbit. Akibatnya, harga pisang meningkat, namun permintaan untuk buah itu tidak menunjukkan tanda menurun dan lebih 600,000 salinan buku mengenai diet berkenaan terjual.Kegilaan itu mencapai tahap baru bulan lalu apabila Sistem Penyiaran Tokyo menyiarkan program televisyen menunjukkan bekas penyanyi opera Jepun yang gemuk, Kumiko Mori, kehilangan tujuh kilogram berat badan selepas ikut diet itu.

Diet itu diasaskan ahli farmasi Osaka yang begitu berminat dengan perubatan herba China.Sumiko Watanabe mulanya memikirkan diet untuk suaminya, Hitoshi.Selepas enam bulan, Hitoshi makin langsing dengan berat 59 kilogram daripada 72 kilogram. - Agensi

CITER 2

Ni ada satu trend diet baru di Jepun. Penduduk-penduduk Jepun kini sudah berebut-rebut untuk membeli pisang untuk dijadikan sebagai makanan diet mereka setiap hari. Malah perkara ini bertambah serius sehingga Jepun kini dilanda masalah kekurangan bekalan pisang.
Pasaraya-pasaraya besar seperti Ito Yokado kehabisan stok sebelum pukul 3 petang. Semua ini bermula apabila buku ‘Morning Banana Diet’ dijual sejak bulan Mac lalu, berjaya dijual sebanyak 730,000 naskah. Diet ini juga bertambah popular apabila wujud sebuah rancangan TV realiti menampilkan seorang penyanyi terkenal di sana. Di dalam rancangan tersebut,beliau berjaya mengurangkan berat sehingga 15 pound dalam masa 6 minggu sahaja.

Diet pisang ni simple jer mengikut buku ‘Morning Banana Diet’. Satu pisang (atau sebanyak mana yang korang mahu) dan segelas air suam untuk sarapan. Makan apa saja makanan yang kita suka untuk makan tengahari dan makan malam (sebelum 8 malam). Snack pada pukul 3 petang dibolehkan namun pastikan tiada dessert selepas makan.
Buku ‘Morning Banana Diet’ ni ditulis oleh seorang ahli farmasi bernama Sumiko Watanabe. Diet ini pada asalnya digunakan untuk menaikkan tahap metabolisma suaminya, Hitoshi Watanabe yang mengalami masalah overweight.

Di Malaysia pula, FAMA telah menggalakkan para petani seluruh Negara untuk meningkatkan pengeluaran pisang berikutan permintaannya yang semakin meningkat dari hari ke hari. Mungkin ini ada kena mengena dengan permintaan yang tinggi di Jepun buat masa ini.

CITER 3

Diet fad sparks banana shortage JAPANESE people seem to have gone bananas over bananas. So much so that there is a shortage of the fruit in the country. Madam Fumiko Satake, a 29-year-old Tokyo wife, picked up one bunch of green bananas at a supermarket in downtown Tokyo - not because she preferred unripe bananas, but because that was all she could get her hands on.'I came to the store early today so that I could get bananas,' Madam Satake told ABC News.

A new diet has swept across the nation and become the culprit for the sudden spike in banana consumption, and a shortage at grocery stores.'My husband has lost about six pounds (2.7kg) since he started the morning banana diet a few months ago,' Madam Satake said.'I am not sure how much the fruit did for me, but my husband has been following this diet and he needs his bananas. 'The craze traces its roots to the morning banana diet introduced in 2006 on mixi, a popular social networking website by Mr Hitoshi Watanabe, who studied preventive medicine in Tokyo, and by his pharmacist wife, Sumiko.According to their official website, the trick is to eat bananas along with room-temperature water for breakfast. Anything can be eaten at lunch and dinner, and afternoon snacks are fine. Just avoid dairy products and dessert after dinner, and dine before 8 pm, reported The Japan Times.

'I did not know losing weight could be this easy,' Mr Watanabe told ABC News. 'So, I just wanted to share this with other people.'That was when he put the banana diet information on the website.'I did not know so many people would show an interest. The response was just overwhelming.'Mr Watanabe certainly did not mean to create a banana shortage all over Japan, but that is exactly what the nation experienced.Mr Akihiro Takenaka, a produce manager of a Tokyo supermarket, Ozeki, said the demand for bananas is still high and the supply simply cannot catch up.'I have been in the produce business for almost 20 years and I have never seen this kind of phenomenon,' said MrTakenaka.But not everyone is buying into the banana craze.

A 40-year-old Japanese language instructor who only gave her last name, Ms Yanagihara, also tried the banana diet for a month and lost 2kg, but she thinks it is not effective.'I tried many kinds of diet methods. I usually lost 2 kg (with these diet methods), but I could easily gain the weight back.'Ms Sayoko Ikeda, associate professor of the faculty of nutrition at Kobe Gakuin University, said eating bananas does not directly trigger weight loss.'Eating only one kind of food in the long term is not healthy because you cannot get the necessary nutrition,' she said, noting bananas may work for people who tend to overeat because the fruit is quite filling.