Cell phone helps Japanese stay fit

Worried that youre not getting enough exercise or that youve
eaten way too much garlic? A Japanese firm has come up with a phone that can
help. Japans largest cell phone carrier NTT DoCoMo unveiled a "Fitness
Phone", designed to help the user stay healthyand avoid bad breath,
leading news agency Reuters reported.

The handheld phone, equipped with various devices that can
measure your pulse or the amount of steps youve taken in a day, dispenses
heath advice after youve punched in statistics such as gender, age and
weight. And you can also exhale into the phone and it will tell you whether its
time to reach for the breath mints.

"Our primary target groups would be fat-fighting
middle-aged businessmen and young women on diets," Says Kentaro Endo, a
spokesperson for NTT DoCoMo.

A recent government survey found that on an average Japanese men
in their 40s were fatter than they were 12 years ago, mainly due to lack of
exercise, while women in the same age group were slimmer because they were more
health conscious.