The new CELL PHONE DIET

Although labelling on many food products now states calorie content here in Spain, you’d be hard pressed to find a restaurant that could give you the calorie count for any of the dishes on their menu. I doubt either that the majority of households have an exact idea of the calorie content at the traditional family lunch. So it’s interesting to note that the Japanese have come up with a unique way to combat their own expanding waistlines. The battle of the bulge is a growing obsession in Japan, a country that is slowly losing its reputation for low-fat fish-and-rice diets and slim waistlines as the Japanese adopt western style food and western size potions. Of course the result of their fast food lifestyle is pretty much the same as the results of our own raging obesity problems, brought on by decades of bad eating habits. Their Health Ministry estimated last year that more than half of Japanese men and about one in five women between 40 and 70 years of age - nearly 20 million people - were at risk of metabolic syndrome, a term for a cluster of conditions associated with obesity, high cholesterol and increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Now something the Japanese love even more than their ‘Macudonarudos’ (Mcdonalds) are their telephones, so health care workers have put two and two together to develop a cell phone program where the weight conscious can send photos of their meals to nutritionists for a complete analysis. At the moment the concept is on a test run and unfortunately the dieters have to wait up to three days to find out just how much damage they have done by consuming the meal photographed. However the concept seems to be much more successful than having dieters maintain food logs or diaries. With the Health Ministry hoping to reduce by 25 percent the number of people at risk of metabolic syndrome by 2015, Osaka officials hope the cell phone program will help. Cell phones are a way of life for the Japanese, so perhaps they’re on to something, the new ‘Cell Phone Diet’ could be the next big thing.

On the other hand if you're NOT one of the weight concious, and you love your food, perhaps you should consider another innovative Japanese invention.... FOOD CELL PHONE STRAPS available as Bread, Burgers, Sandwiches, Pasta and of course Sushi. Available from http://www.ramenramenramen.net/.