ダイエット (Diet) madness!

Japanese has tons of words and phrases imported from other languages; these are called 外来語　がいらいご　(gairaigo). But when words get imported, the meaning often changes quite a lot from the original.

Take ダイエット　- diet, which in English means a food regimen, usually for weight loss. But in Japan ダイエット means anything related to weight loss, at all. So that includes everything from getting　massages to reduce cellulite, to fad diets like the currently popular Morning Banana Diet, to exercise systems like Billy Banks' Tae Bo, a craze for which swept the country last year. A more traditional way of describing these things may be more accurate - 痩身法 そうしんほう　soushinhou, which literally means 'slim body methods'.

One weird ダイエット　method that has remained popular for white a time even though it sounds pretty fishy scientifically is 骨盤矯正　こつばんきょうせい　kotsuban kyousei, which means 'pelvic bone correction'. Women in particular are supposed to do various exercises to correct and tighten up the pelvic bones so that they turn inward. This is supposed to change your body to one that is slim naturally, as well as cure constipation, irregular periods, and bad skin conditions! Also, the 'western way' of walking with the toes turned outwards, as opposed to the 'traditional Japanese way' of walking with the toes turned inwards, is supposed to encourage weight gain, thus explaining all those toes-turned outward, waddling 'fat Americans'. I don't know how this theory explains the ultra-thinness of ballet dancers who must be able to point their toes totally outwards though.

Comments

[BigFreaky]

Well I am a fat American, but I am pigeon toed!? Whats that about, I point my feet inwards, but I am still fat! Thats no good! Well I am doing ダイエット things, so I am on the way down, but I will by no means ever be small. I am still 192cm!!! 大きいな外人Ｄａ！

[Tsuko]

Well, as a ballet dancer myself, I'd have to say that most of us stay slim because dancing professionally is a lot harder than it looks ^_^. Regarding this 骨盤矯正 thing, though, it seems like turning your toes inward all the time would be hard on your knees and hips. Ugh, it feels really unnatural to me...I'll stick to walking like an American, haha!

[Myron Tay]

Am trying out the banana diet. Basically I blend a juice consisting of apples, pears, bananas, celery and cucumbers (It tastes better than it sounds) either for breakfast or before I go to sleep. Not really working on the weight front but I wake up really refreshed ever since I started on this.

[sarah]

This explains all the pigeon-toed girls I used to see in Japan... that really baffled me up until now! I knew it had to be something perceived to be girly/stylish/etc but beyond that I had no clue why they were doing it!

[Ai yi]

That's Hilarious! I am pigeon toed and pretty tiny but thats just from genetic's. My sister is the exact same size as me but she is a ballet dancer with great turnout. She better hope that 'style' never comes to Taiwan.