Under normal circumstances, Jemila Beeve would not travel six hours by train and cross an international border to buy a pair of slippers. But these are not normal slippers, and Beeve, a housewife from Negeri Sembilan in central Malaysia, is determined to get hold of a pair.

Despite being sold in the heart of Singapore's prostitute neighbourhood of Geylang, these slippers have nothing to do with sex, and everything to do - as their name, Slim Slippers, suggests - with slimming. "I read this article in the New Straits Times [newspaper] talking about these crazy slimming slippers in Singapore and immediately thought, 'I have to get a pair'," says Beeve. "Since starting to try and lose weight 10 years ago I've tried everything. I've drunk stuff, I've eaten stuff and I've rubbed my body with stuff. Most of it works until I stop the course and then I just gain weight again."

The slippers in question are rather odd-looking. They are deliberately made too short for the foot, so that the back third of the foot hangs over the rear edge. This, combined with a bulgy middle, is apparently designed to apply pressure to the arches and balls of the feet, effectively giving one a cross between a reflexology massage and acupuncture. In addition there are, according to the promotional material, "six powerful magnets located near the surface of the slippers [which], when walking, stimulate the nerve endings in the soles and increase blood circulation". The overall effect, the manufacturers claim, is gently accelerated metabolism and digestion. "The side-effect is you loosing [sic] weight!"

So Beeve, who is 67kg (10 stone 10 lbs) and wishes she was 9kg (one-and-a-half stone) lighter, hopped on a train, stayed overnight with a relative and then made her way to Headline Marketing, the sole distributor of these slippers in Singapore.

Headline Marketing is a one-room, three-person operation that specialises in hiring Renault cars to people holidaying in France. The managing director is Peter Dorney, a grey-haired overweight Mancunian in his 50s with verbal diarrhoea, a dry sense of humour and a habit of calling anyone he doesn't know Billy, regardless of their sex.

He insists that the slippers work, arguing that the 67,598 pairs sold in the United States with only a 0.0007% return rate (according to www.getslimslippers.com) should be proof enough, but stresses that wearers cannot expect overnight miracles.

"You won't find anything happens for the first two or three weeks," he says. "And when you do start losing weight it will only be two or three pounds a week."

Dorney, who has lived in Singapore for 16 years, says people should start off by wearing them for no more than about 15 minutes a day. "And even then some people notice a slight twinge in their lower back," he says. "But that should soon go and then you can build up to the recommended usage time of two to two-and-a-half hours a day."

Dorney says he read about the slippers in an American magazine and contacted the manufacturers, a Chinese-Israeli couple based in China. He started selling them in Singapore in June and after a couple of advertisements and some local media coverage has just ordered his second batch. "I am planning to open in Australia next month for the spring and then in the UK next spring," he says. "You may take them with a pinch of salt, but one of my customers, a Filipina called Mary, has lost 11 pounds in less than six weeks and now won't take them off."

Someone is clearly making a lot of money from these slippers. While they look as if they would be overpriced in a £1 discount shop, their retail price in Singapore is S$69 (£25).

But the slippers are only the tip of the iceberg in Singapore - and elsewhere in this part of the world - when it comes to unlikely, if not utterly bogus, slimming aids. Another big seller at the moment is the 925 Sterling Silver Fat Reducing Health Ring. This triple-spiral ring has a little magnet on each end which apparently send "impulses" into the finger. The brochure that comes with the ring, which costs S$29, says: "Hands are concentrated part of nerve ending, very sensible, stimulated the different acupuncture points of fingers to keep fit body, improve health and balance internal sucretion" (sic).

Having found the slippers too uncomfortable, I decide to try the ring. After a few days the only perceptible change to my physique is that I have sore fingers where the magnets, covered in diamond-looking sparkling gems, have dug into my skin.

Despite the sores, the ring and the slippers are, at least, one would hope, harmless - but not all slimming crazes here are. Six people died across Asia and scores were hospitalised earlier this year as a result of taking Slim 10, a Chinese slimming pill.

Not surprisingly, the government, doctors and obesity experts have little time for these fads. Dr Tim Gill, the regional coordinator of the international obesity task force, says: "If any of them were successful, there would not be a need for so many of them."

Dr Haridas Baladas, a consultant at the weight management programme at Alexandra Hospital in Singapore, is not quite so dismissive, but says more tests are needed before he would go and buy a pair of Slim Slippers. "I wouldn't bet you my bottom dollar that they don't work," he says. "But where are the results of the trials? Have any trials been done? It's asking a bit much to expect us to believe in them until we can see random trial results."

"People want quick fixes," says Leona Lo of the Health Promotion Board. "We're pushing more traditional [weight-loss] methods of healthy eating but it's sad to say that many Singaporeans still don't buy into that." The board has launched numerous programmes to slim down Singapore - including a national healthy lifestyle campaign, family active days, the trim and fit programme and the Ask For initiative at hawker food stalls. This last scheme is designed to get people to ask for healthier alternatives at the ubiquitous food stalls where the vast majority of working Singaporeans eat lunch.

There is undoubtedly a need for such a blitz as obesity is rising not just in Singapore but across Asia. While nowhere near American or European levels, adult obesity in Singapore and Malaysia is about 6% and the total percentage of the adult population considered overweight is about 25%. This is generally put down to cheaper frying oils, an invasion of western fast food and a more sedentary lifestyle.

Clearly something as silly as slimming slippers would never catch on in the UK ... would it? Last week these same slippers - and Dorney - were featured on Richard and Judy's television show. The programme has asked someone to test them out - which is bad luck for Dorney if they don't work, or worse still are harmful. Dorney is unruffled. "The most peril you are in with the slippers is if you fall off them," he says. "But that's really very unlikely unless you're wearing them while drunk, which most slimmers are not going to be doing.