In theory, over the many meetings that lead to television concepts coming to screen, a series about how the rest of the world consumes and relates to food should have had plenty of meat on its bones, so to speak. But you can probably tell from the punning title that Around the World in 80 Weighs is not that kind of documentary. It’s a shame, as the age of weight-loss television seemed to be behind us. After years of TV shows about what you should and shouldn’t eat, what your poo should and shouldn’t look like, whether you should get liposuction or not and here’s how to cinch your waist to look thinner, it felt as if this sort of television was over.
Yet here it is again, refashioned but not quite enough to disguise it completely. Six “larger than life” participants – the show’s words, not mine – are sent off on a 30,000-mile trip around the world, across four continents, where they are tasked with undertaking a “fact-finding mission”. The idea is that they will find out how food factors into the daily lives of people raised in nations with different attitudes to body image and appetite, when compared with the cultural norms of the UK.
The first episode sees the six tourists visit Japan, which has an obesity rate of about 4%, compared with 25% in Britain. (Next week, they go to Tonga, where we’re informed that about 93% of adults are considered to be overweight.) In Japan, they are accompanied by the foodie YouTubers Mr and Mrs Eats, as they eat in a more “Japanese” style: multiple smaller dishes, using chopsticks to eat more slowly, and consuming about 400 fewer calories than the average Briton each day. There are some diversions into cultural differences: mandated exercise and waist measurement in the workplace, for one, which go down surprisingly well with the Britons. I suspect this would be less popular if it was a legal requirement they had to endure, rather than a novelty to witness.
It should be pointed out that the six people taking part in this round-the-world trip seem lovely and open and eager, if not desperate, for something in their lives to change. They share their deepest vulnerabilities, to the camera and to each other. The tales they tell about why they are so unhappy with their bodies are tough and should illustrate the complexities of the problems they face in their lives. Some, though not all, of the stories here come from grief and trauma, and anyone with an ounce of compassion should recognise that the idea of a simple solution or a quick fix for something so complicated is a myth.
The problem with Around the World in 80 Weighs is that it tries to peddle the idea that a simple solution might be just around the corner, if we can only make it entertaining enough. “Can the plus-sized pilgrims be shocked into shedding some pounds?” it asks. A hint of shame is allowed to linger throughout. They feel stared at and laughed at in Japan. They blame themselves for being unable to say no to a takeaway, or for putting on weight in the first place. “It’s the discipline,” says one woman. “I’m too nice to myself, really.” (Seemingly in a different programme entirely is 24-year-old Tiffany, who says she wants to empower people. She is strong, she loves fitness, and she disagrees profoundly with the idea that being overweight equates to being unhealthy. Why she is in a programme geared towards weight loss is not quite certain, but her voice offers a welcome balance.)
I am not a psychologist, but I do understand that shame is unhelpful when it comes to a having a healthy relationship with one’s body. One of the tourists here says that when strangers make her “feel like a second-class citizen” because of her weight, it makes her want to go home and eat a burger. Each episode ends with a collective weigh-in, to see if the brief adoption of new habits has led to weight loss. At least this puts the onus on the collective for a moment, rather than the individual. “Has the low-cal life paid off?” asks the narrator, cheerfully.
The psychology of food and nutrition, the economics of food and the systemic factors surrounding obesity are all complex issues, as are the beauty standards marketed to us as ideals every single day. The production and sale of unhealthy food is a vastly profitable industry, and, unsurprisingly, the government is unwilling to do anything serious to regulate it. Around the World in 80 Weighs wades in jauntily, but this is too tricky a subject for TV so light.
• Around the World in 80 Weighs is on Channel 4 now
