January 11th, 2009
Lose Weight on Bananas for Breakfast… Huh? Bananas!
I have to say I’m super skeptical of this. In September 2008, there was an apparent shortage of bananas across Japan due to Japanese opera singer, Kumiko Mori, announcing on national television that she lost 15 lbs in 6 weeks by dieting as follows:
- Eat 1 or more raw bananas for breakfast, with room temperature water
- Eat whatever you want for lunch and dinner
- Dinner must be eaten by 8pm
- No dessert
- Eat until satisfied, not stuffed
- Drink only water
- An afternoon snack is fine by 3pm - chocolate or cookies is allowed (although donuts are frowned upon)
- Exercise is optional
Huh… You don’t say. Maybe the Japanese have super high metabolisms, but this is an absolutely terrible diet.
First the obvious - glad to see that donuts are frowned upon, but chocolate and cookies are not really ok mid-afternoon snacks. Then the whole banana concept. Bananas are nutritious - there’s no doubt of that as they’re loaded with vitamins and minerals. However, with an average banana containing over 27g of total carbohydrates, over 14g of sugar, and barely a notice of protein or fat, a bunch of bananas in the morning are hardly a good day starter for a weight loss diet.
The high sugar and low protein contents of the banana throw hormones around a bit, causing an insulin spike, potentially lending a hand to weight gain, rather than loss. The chocolate and donuts in the afternoon certainly don’t help and between those and the bananas, the whole diet would seem to keep insulin levels high throughout the day.
This is, of course, my opinion. I have never tried the morning banana diet and don’t intend to. However, I can’t imagine it being an effective way to lose weight.
Judge for yourself - visit the morningbanana.com to find out more.
