The first time I went grocery shopping after returning from L.A. a couple weeks ago, I noticed the nattō shelves were absolutely bare, with only an apologetic-looking sign informing buyers of the situation. It turns out there was a mad run for nattō in Japan right around the time I posted about my own nattō battle because a popular TV program had done a show about the miraculously slimming effect of eating nattō twice a day. But wait! Don't go out and clear the supermarket shelves of all its smelly soybeans just yet! Because a couple weeks later it came out that the whole thing was just a crock (of beans?) and the weight loss results had all been fabricated. Oh, the shame.

This scandal has made the Nattō (Nonsense) Diet my second favorite Japanese fad diet, bested only by the Dark Chocolate Diet, which is still going strong, judging by all the new dark chocolate products popping up in the candy aisle every week. My favorite is the Meiji Chocolife Line, which seems like it should be eaten while wearing a velvet smoking jacket and sitting in a leather armchair somewhere. I aspire to live a chocolife....