Oranges, the foreswarn enemy of the Banana clan, have cleverly engineered the demise of their foe. By publishing false reports of the great benefits of excessive Banana consumption, Oranges have set off a global chain of events that may once and for all herald a Banana holocaust. . .

Banana diet craze sweeps Japan

Bananas are selling out in supermarkets across Japan following the latest food fad: the banana diet.

A string of television programmes and diet books hailing the fruit as a new superfood that assists weight loss is fuelling a boom in banana sales.

The soaring popularity of the banana has resulted in sales rising by as much as 70 per cent in the past week in some supermarkets, prompting prices to increase and importers to purchase more of the fruit.

"It's the first time bananas have been quite so scarce," a spokesman for Dole Japan Company, the largest banana importer in the country, told Japanese media.

The banana craze started in March this year with the publication of Morning Banana Diet, which claimed that consuming only bananas and room temperature water for breakfast fuelled weight loss, regardless of what was eaten during the rest of the day.

The trend for eating bananas recently gathered pace following a string of television programmes proclaiming the success of the banana diet.

As a result, sales of bananas at Life Corp, a major supermarket chain, reportedly increased 70 per cent last week while a department store in central Osaka also reported August sales up 50 per cent from last year and regularly selling out by early afternoon.

Japan has long been a home to a nation that enthusiastically embraces faddish health fixes. Last year, sales of natto fermented soybeans and a distinctly acquired taste for non-Japanese due to its pungent aroma boomed following similar media hype surrounding its apparent virtues as a weight loss food.

After dieters across the country reportedly emptied supermarket shelves of natto, scientists later disproved the claims, stating that it would not help consumers lose weight.