what seems too good to be true...

...probably is! I imagine many women can attest to that one after a hilarious media blooper! About two weeks ago a show lauded benefits of natto, claiming it could lead up to 2 or more kilograms of weight loss in just two weeks. Thanks to new reports debunking the miraculous 'natto' diet, I can now find a regular supply of natto on supermarket shelves. That's right - don't mess with my natto stash you temporary natto lovers...like I said before, go get on a treadmill and leave my precious natto alone. Okay, one knows they have turned fanatic about a particular food when they start getting nasty to people who rob them of their pleasure. At this point, it is hard to deny that I am not a big natto fan.

How people even believed the report in the first place is beyond me. Hey people, there is NO MIRACLE DIET and if there is, the rebound weight is SURE TO EXCEED the benefits in the long run. Superfast weight loss also leads to cellulite buildup, saggy skin, and wrinkles! Dieter beware. The only way to surefire successful weight loss is a change in food lifestyle, and exercise! Anyone saying otherwise is just outright lying, if you ask me. There are plenty other TV shows which feature some 'miracle' food each week...at first, I used to give them some credit but later on, I realized they were practically randomly taking a stab at any supermarket product. One week it was soy powder (kinako)...another week it was raw white beans, which incidentally got many dieters sick when they attempted to eat many raw beans in one sitting. Um, common sense goes out the window when one mentions the word diet here. Oh, I almost forgot to mention - my two friends tried the natto diet...one ironically gained weight and the other remained the same.

You know SlimFast shakes? Well, they are all the rage in Japan...instead they are sold under names like, microdiet (ohhh, not a REAL diet, just a wee little diet) ...health shakes (see pic above), meal replacements...and so on. They cost a fortune - about 200USD for two weeks worth, and are not guaranteed to last. There are magazines filled with success stories and 'before' and 'after' photos - but what I REALLY wanna see are the photos of them, 2 years down the road.

One of my students (a very intelligent one, at that) is particularly susceptible to diets and such flash fads. She is by no means chubby or overweight - in fact, I think she looks healthy and curves in all the right places. But this is Japan and thin will always be in...that is, until the day pigs fly! That is too bad because I think women look good with a little meat - bigger bust and behind makes a figure curvy and attractive. Stick thin reminds me of the andrygenous (sp?) look...ewwww.

ps: the tv show whose false claims sent women and natto companies into an uproar is now on the verge of cancellation due to sponsorship withdrawal from its number one sponsor