A bustling market in Tokyo and locals are minding their very own enterprise, searching stalls or dashing to work — till a bunch of overweight Brits stroll previous and cease them of their tracks. Out of the blue, heads begin to flip, and the guests are struck by the sense they’re being gossiped about.
‘All the college children — they pointed and laughed at us,’ says an aghast Tiffany, 24. ‘They’re so open about being impolite.’
Marisa, 32, is equally shocked. ‘I don’t really feel like I must be right here,’ she says. ‘It blows my thoughts that you just’re not allowed to be who you’re, and also you simply have to slot in.’
In Britain, the place greater than 25 per cent of adults are overweight — or have a physique mass index (BMI) of 30 or above — the group would barely elevate an eyebrow. Right here in Japan, nonetheless, the place the weight problems price is simply 4 per cent, they’re an anomaly; figures of disgrace in a society the place fats is scorned. And that’s exactly why they’ve come to the nation, as a part of Channel 4 documentary sequence Round The World In 80 Weighs.
A bunch of six Brits, together with (from left) Therri-Jay, Russell and Marisa, are travelling the globe to be taught what different international locations are doing to sort out weight problems
Japanese YouTubers Mr and Mrs Eats chaperone the group round Tokyo as a part of Channel 4 documentary sequence Round The World In 80 Weighs
The group of six, whose mixed weight is 855 kg, or 134 st, journey the globe to be taught what different international locations are doing to sort out weight problems. They embrace Russell, 36, a healthcare insurer from Kent — who developed diabetes after his weight topped 30 st — and his spouse Marisa, 31, an administrator, who began consolation consuming in school after being bullied. ‘If something unhealthy occurred, I might flip to meals,’ she says.
Tiffany, an NHS waste co-ordinator, believed she was ‘this disgusting human being’ after being referred to as fats each day as a toddler, and Therri-Jay, 32, a neighborhood officer from London, turned to meals to manage after her finest buddy was murdered when she was simply 14.
Then there’s 34-year-old Phil, a behaviour welfare coach from Leeds, who desires to drop pounds to be a greater father to his four-year-old son; whereas housewife Susan, 57, from Northamptonshire, blames her weight on grappling with boredom and loss.
In Japan, the place the weight problems price is simply 4 per cent, the group stands out from the group
‘I’m a bit in limbo,’ she says. ‘The kids don’t want me. Cooking is a interest however that turns into consuming.’
Whereas all members of the group — who’ve a median waist circumference of 54 in — have psychological triggers that gasoline their overeating, our British tradition of buy-one-get-one free junk-food offers, takeaways and whipped cream lattes additionally encourages them at each flip.
‘Society is lots accountable for me being chubby,’ claims Therri-Jay, who laments the hen and Chinese language fast-food joints she sees ‘in every single place’, including: ‘It makes you actually assume — does my nation even care about me?’
The group arrived with a mixed weight of 855 kg, however left Japan 17kg lighter after simply 5 days
So what’s totally different in Japan, the place they reside and eat like locals for 5 days? And will this nation’s angle in direction of meals assist foster more healthy consuming habits within the UK?
After all, the nationwide food plan — often called washoku — is a world other than our delicacies of sugary cereals, infinite snacks and stodgy prepared meals. Largely contemporary and unprocessed, it centres on rice, fermented greens, soya and fish. As a result of Japan is a bunch of islands, its residents eat extra fish than different Asian international locations: 80g to 100g on daily basis.
That’s fairly one thing in contrast with the two-thirds of Brits who don’t even eat the really useful two parts of fish per week.
‘Greens which were fermented, both by pickling with vinegar or with salt, have been damaged down by micro organism and are more and more proven to help intestine well being,’ says Laura Southern, nutritionist at London Meals Remedy.
‘As fish is a major supply of protein for the Japanese, they usually don’t eat the identical portions of purple meat because the West, their food plan is decrease in saturated fats, which may result in hypertension and coronary heart illness.’
Soy — often within the type of tofu, edamame or natto, which is historically eaten for breakfast — additionally gives protein, whereas the Japanese eschew sugary lattes for inexperienced tea, which Southern says is full of ‘stress-reducing plant compounds and excessive ranges of antioxidants linked to improved mind well being’.
Seaweed is one other staple — it incorporates alginate, which stops the physique absorbing fats — whereas meals finish with fruit, and puddings are a uncommon deal with. Little marvel, then, that Japanese individuals devour on common 300 fewer energy a day than Brits, and 48.8g sugar per day in contrast with our 100.4g, based on the Meals and Agriculture Organisation.
Russell is a healthcare insurer from Kent who developed diabetes after his weight topped 30 st
The presentation of meals is simply as vital because the content material.
Japanese YouTubers Mr and Mrs Eats (they by no means reveal their actual names), who chaperone the Brits round Tokyo within the present, clarify that somewhat than utilizing one massive plate, the Japanese eat from a small bowl, rotating totally different dishes.
The slender Mrs Eats says: ‘We eat little by little so that you don’t over eat.’
Russell, who desires to drop pounds with Marisa so that they’re wholesome sufficient to have youngsters, is keen on bread, egg fried rice and prawn crackers. He decides the technique ‘is smart, as a result of typically I depart the most effective bit until proper on the finish and that makes you end every thing on the plate even should you’re stuffed’.
Bingeing can be harder should you’re utilizing chopsticks. The Brits describe them as ‘torture’ to eat with, however analysis from Ohio State College has discovered they make consuming extra pleasing.
British mannequin Lisa Snowdon has attributed her phenomenal determine to them, saying: ‘If I’m hungry and use a fork, I shovel meals in. With chopsticks, it takes longer and tips me into consuming much less.’
Bingeing is tough should you’re utilizing chopsticks – and the Britons describe them as ‘torture’
Then there’s the Japanese saying, hara hachi bu, which implies ‘to eat until you’re 80 per cent full’, that youngsters are taught from a younger age.
However food plan alone doesn’t clarify why Japan had the longest common life expectancy amongst G7 international locations in 2020. The island of Okinawa is house to the best variety of centenarians on the planet. Not like our MPs who dither over banning fatty BOGOF merchandise, Japan’s politicians think about it their responsibility to manage the nation’s well being.
In 2008, after Western quick meals had begun to overhaul conventional Japanese fare in reputation, and the nation’s males have been discovered to be 10 per cent and girls 6 per cent heavier than a decade earlier, the authorities took the extraordinary step of constructing it necessary for firms to hold out annual well being checks on employees, with weight monitored.
Males with a waist circumference of over 33in and girls whose waists measured over 35in got train and food plan plans — and companies that didn’t deliver their employees’s weight beneath management confronted fines.
‘If it could stop even a small variety of individuals from growing cardiovascular ailments, it will likely be excellent news for them and their households,’ mentioned director of the Japan Society for the Examine of Weight problems, Yuji Matsuzawa, on the time.
All of which ‘may sound bizarre to you guys,’ says Mrs Eats, as she takes the group to perfume firm Kao to observe a well being examine in motion, and marvel on the wholesome canteen lunch menu, created by firm dieticians, that prices employees simply £2.
However Therri-Jay is simply too unsettled to eat, describing how feeling like a ‘second-class citizen’ at house makes her attain for burgers, chocolate and popcorn. ‘We’ve not been informed cope,’ she cries.
But whether or not employees listed here are completely happy in regards to the draconian measures enforced on them is one other matter — in 2023 Japan ranked final amongst 18 international locations surveyed for office wellbeing, with solely 49 per cent describing themselves as completely happy of their jobs.
Tiffany, for her half, doesn’t see her weight problems as an issue, having labored exhausting to beat the trauma of being despatched to a private coach aged 11 by her personal mom; and of being bullied in school for her weight. She now weightlifts, cheerleads and firmly believes ‘you might be wholesome if you’re overweight. I’m undecided if I grew up on this surroundings I might be the identical particular person’.
Actually, she could be uncomfortable with the fat-shaming that’s de rigueur in Japan. ‘It’s tremendous regular for [people] to simply seize you and say: “What’s happening right here, buddy, you’ve picked up a number of kilos,” ’ explains Mr Eats, who introduces the guests to an worker who failed his well being take a look at and was ordered to stroll 10,000 steps a day till he was slim once more.
Strolling is a nationwide pastime in Japan, with the typical Japanese particular person taking 6,500 steps a day, partly as a result of driving is dear — 69 per cent of households have entry to a automotive there, in contrast with 77 per cent within the UK.
Japan has one other weapon in its health armoury within the type of dai-ichi —an train routine that takes simply three minutes, requires no tools, and is broadcast to a backdrop of piano music a number of occasions a day on a Japanese public radio station.
Adopted by everybody from youngsters to the aged, it includes 13 easy strikes, together with arm raises and star jumps.
Therri-Jay performs the routine in Kao’s places of work, mortified at displaying everybody her ‘beneath’ whereas touching her toes.
But she concludes: ‘If we had to try this each morning at work I believe we’d be extra productive, extra completely happy and I really feel like we’d get pleasure from motion extra.’ There are different, darker, facets to Japan’s angle in direction of the chubby. They embrace train apps reminiscent of Nenshou, launched in 2013, wherein an on-screen animated character dishes out digital humiliation within the type of statements reminiscent of: ‘Fats lady, do some extra train, OK?’ Russell and Phil, greeted by a ‘good morning, tubby!’ by the avatar on the app they’re proven, seem appalled.
‘That wouldn’t go down nicely within the UK,’ says Phil. ‘It’s blown my thoughts that that’s allowed.’
Japan is made up of a bunch of islands, so its residents eat extra fish than different Asian international locations: 80g to 100g on daily basis
Extra doubtful nonetheless is an rising marketplace for renting overweight individuals, for round £11 an hour, by firms reminiscent of Debucari, which launched in 2021.
Stressing that it isn’t an escort service, Debucari states its objective is to advertise ‘development away from an period the place being fats had a unfavourable picture’ — but it additionally suggests the overweight might be employed to assist purchasers look slimmer.
Within the Channel 4 documentary, one such ‘physique’ for rent, remembers how she had been informed to drop pounds in her earlier job in a café as a result of ‘in these locations you should be skinny’.
Tiffany is, not unreasonably, unconvinced by the observe: ‘I don’t fairly imagine there’s zero fetishness about it.’
On their ultimate day the group go to a neighborhood bathtub home, the place locals imagine submersing themselves in 42c water raises their metabolism and promotes weight reduction (though there’s little proof to again up their claims, and the baths apparently trigger cardiac issues and are reported to be answerable for 10 per cent of all sudden deaths in Japan).
So nonchalant are most Japanese about their our bodies that there aren’t any personal altering rooms on the baths, a deal-breaker little question for a lot of prudish Brits.
Horrified on the prospect of adjusting publicly, Phil opts out — however Russell, regardless of ruing the stomach he describes as an ‘apron’, takes the plunge: ‘I’m right here to shock myself and create a brand new mindset.’
He describes his immersion into Japanese life-style as ‘fairly emotive’, whereas spouse Marisa calls it ‘an eye-opener’. She admits: ‘In 15 years we would not be right here if we don’t change.’
Earlier than they depart the group get on the scales — and uncover they’ve misplaced 17kg in complete in simply 5 days. They’re delighted.
‘We’re so fortunate to come back to Japan,’ says Susan. ‘They’re so disciplined as a rustic. All of us agreed we’ll take the self-discipline with us.’
After all, no quantity of chopsticks, exercises on nationwide radio or domineering bosses can alleviate emotional angst, and sniggering at overweight individuals in public isn’t the reply.
However maybe incorporating a number of of Japan’s methods for weight management into our nationwide psyche may lastly cease the behavior too many people have, of reaching for the biscuit jar each time we’d like a pick-me-up.
Round The World In 80 Weighs is subsequent on Channel 4 on Tuesday.
