WASHINGTON:
An American nutritionist says that the morning banana diet can be a recipe for
disaster for most people.

Kerri Glassman, a contributor
to the programme ‘The Early Show’, says that Japanese people are particularly
crazy about the morning diet of bananas.

According to her, people there
are suggested that they eat as many as bananas with worm water as they want for
breakfast. After that, they can have a basic lunch that can include pizza and
fries, and a mid-afternoon meal of snacks, which can even be a sweet.

And the dinner, which has to
be before 8 p.m., can include anything an individual wants.

People are asked not to have
anything after dinner, and to go to bed before midnight.

“(You can have) as many
bananas as you want (for breakfast)? Maybe the idea is you get so full, you
don’t want to eat a big lunch, or a big dinner?” said a sceptical Maggie
Rodriguez, co-anchor on the show.

Glassman, however, said:
“That’s part of it. Bananas do have fibre, and they’re gonna help fill you up to
some extent. But still, many people we know, no matter how many bananas you have
for breakfast, (if) they’re told you can have whatever you want for lunch and
dinner — you could be having a turkey sandwich, trying to lose weight, and then
all of a sudden, you switch to pizza and fries — you’re gonna gain weight.”

The nutritionist added: “It’s
a recipe for disaster for most people. However, for some people, if you’re
eating, let’s say, lots of sweets throughout the day, and now you’re told you
can’t have any sweets except for one small sweet at three (p.m.), you might lose
some weight. Also, for some people, if you’re an emotional eater and you
over-consume thousands of calories at night, you’re gonna cut calories (with
this diet). So, for some people, you may lose a little bit of weight, but for
most people, it’s a recipe for disaster.”

She agreed that it appeared to
be a good idea to have warm water with breakfast.

“Some people believe it helps
with digestion. And it’s common for some people to have the warm water in the
morning. You’re increasing your fluid intake in the morning, but this diet gives
no explanation why (the warm water helps),” she added.

She, however, insisted that
the morning banana diet could not be regarded as the stuff of a roadmap for
lifetime eating.

“For the most
people, bananas are not a magical food. They’re just not. They have fibre. They
have protein. They have potassium. They’re an excellent food that should be
incorporated into your diet but, just like the grapefruit diet or cabbage soup
diet, there’s no magical food,” she said.

Glassman further said that
bananas “have some resistant starch. That is a type of fibre that passes through
your system into your colon without being digested. There is some new research
that shows it might actually help burn fat. Now, even if that’s true and, let’s
say, it does help do that, there are other resistant starches out there, in
potatoes, in beans. You still can’t over-consume as many bananas as you want,
and you still can’t eat whatever you want, including steak and fries every day
for lunch.

“Incorporate
bananas into a healthy diet. That’s the way to go. But we still need whole
grains and vegetables,” among many other types of food, she added.