Daily Dosage: Whittle your waistline with kimchi and cream puffs

After five years of health journalism, I like to think I know a gimmick when I see one. Especially lame diets – cabbage soup, the Special K challenge, lemonade cleanse. All of them ineffective, pathetic money grabs by self-titled health honchos looking to capitalize on America’s fat phobia.

But as our obesity oozes across the globe like melted butter on Wonder Bread, that wonderful American love of all-things fad diet spreads too. Combine that with Japan’s affinity for – er – unconventional consumer goods, and you get this:

The Date Food Diet is the hottest lifestyle trend in the country – and no, it does not involve eating while on romantic dates. The dining regimen was conceived by Japanese mastermind Tomomi Date, author of 10 popular health books. According to Date, foods that would typically make you fat (translation: junk) will actually keep you svelte – so long as you combine them with their food soul mate at every meal. A few examples:

-Cream puffs and tomato juice

-Kimchi and barbeque

-Licorice and steamed broccoli

So if your American ego cringes at the bevy of ultra-dimwitted diet books at your local Barnes & Noble, take solace…Americans would never try anything that dumb! The lifestyle magazine touting the idea, Fytte, has yet to report any studies on the diet’s success rate. In fact, their website has already moved on, promoting a new plan of weight-loss brilliance: the Grated Kiwi Diet.