How Japan is preventing the fats wars

A bustling market in Tokyo and locals are minding their very own enterprise, searching stalls or speeding to work — till a bunch of overweight Brits stroll previous and cease them of their tracks. Suddenly, heads begin to flip, and the guests are struck by the sense they’re being gossiped about.

‘All the school kids — they pointed and laughed at us,’ says an aghast Tiffany, 24. ‘They are so open about being rude.’

Marisa, 32, is equally shocked. ‘I don’t really feel like I ought to be right here,’ she says. ‘It blows my mind that you’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. Here in Japan, nevertheless, 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 Around The World In 80 Weighs.

The group of six, whose mixed weight is 855 kg, or 134 st, journey the globe to study what different international locations are doing to sort out weight problems. They embody 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 at college after being bullied. ‘If anything bad happened, I would turn to food,’ she says.

Tiffany, an NHS waste co-ordinator, believed she was ‘this disgusting human being’ after being known as fats day by day as a toddler, and Therri-Jay, 32, a neighborhood officer from London, turned to meals to manage after her greatest pal was murdered when she was simply 14.

Then there’s 34-year-old Phil, a behaviour welfare coach from Leeds, who needs to shed some 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.

‘I’m a bit in limbo,’ she says. ‘The children don’t want me. Cooking is a pastime however that turns into consuming.’

While all members of the group — who’ve a mean 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 a lot to blame for me being overweight,’ claims Therri-Jay, who laments the hen and Chinese fast-food joints she sees ‘everywhere’, including: ‘It makes you really think — does my country even care about me?’

So what’s completely different in Japan, the place they dwell and eat like locals for 5 days? And might this nation’s perspective in direction of meals assist foster more healthy consuming habits within the UK?

Of course, the nationwide food regimen — often known as washoku — is a world other than our delicacies of sugary cereals, countless snacks and stodgy prepared meals. Largely contemporary and unprocessed, it centres on rice, fermented greens, soya and fish. Because Japan is a bunch of islands, its residents eat extra fish than different Asian international locations: 80g to 100g daily.

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 every week.

‘Vegetables that have been fermented, either by pickling with vinegar or with salt, have been broken down by bacteria and are increasingly shown to support gut health,’ says Laura Southern, nutritionist at London Food Therapy.

‘As fish is a primary source of protein for the Japanese, and they don’t eat the identical portions of purple meat because the West, their food regimen is decrease in saturated fats, which might result in hypertension and coronary heart illness.’

Soy — normally within the type of tofu, edamame or natto, which is historically eaten for breakfast — additionally supplies protein, whereas the Japanese eschew sugary lattes for inexperienced tea, which Southern says is filled with ‘stress-reducing plant compounds and high levels of antioxidants linked to improved brain health’.

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 surprise, then, that Japanese individuals eat on common 300 fewer energy a day than Brits, and 48.8g sugar per day in contrast with our 100.4g, in accordance with the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

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 relatively than utilizing one giant plate, the Japanese eat from a small bowl, rotating completely different dishes.

The slender Mrs Eats says: ‘We eat little by little so you don’t over eat.’

Russell, who needs to shed some pounds with Marisa in order that they’re wholesome sufficient to have youngsters, is keen on bread, egg fried rice and prawn crackers. He decides the technique ‘makes sense, because sometimes I leave the best bit till right at the end and that makes you finish everything on the plate even if you’re stuffed’.

Bingeing can be harder when you’re utilizing chopsticks. The Brits describe them as ‘torture’ to eat with, however analysis from Ohio State University has discovered they make consuming extra gratifying.

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 methods me into consuming much less.’

Then there’s the Japanese saying, hara hachi bu, which implies ‘to eat till you are 80 per cent full’, that youngsters are taught from a younger age.

But food regimen alone doesn’t clarify why Japan had the longest common life expectancy amongst G7 international locations in 2020. The island of Okinawa is dwelling to the very best variety of centenarians on this planet. Unlike our MPs who dither over banning fatty BOGOF merchandise, Japan’s politicians contemplate it their responsibility to regulate the nation’s well being.

In 2008, after Western quick meals had begun to overhaul conventional Japanese fare in recognition, 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 obligatory for firms to hold out annual well being checks on employees, with weight monitored.

Men with a waist circumference of over 33in and girls whose waists measured over 35in got train and food regimen plans — and companies that didn’t carry their employees’s weight beneath management confronted fines.

‘If it can prevent even a small number of people from developing cardiovascular diseases, it will be good news for them and their families,’ stated director of the Japan Society for the Study of Obesity, Yuji Matsuzawa, on the time.

All of which ‘might sound weird to you guys,’ says Mrs Eats, as she takes the group to perfume firm Kao to observe a well being test in motion, and marvel on the wholesome canteen lunch menu, created by firm dieticians, that prices employees simply £2.

But Therri-Jay is just too unsettled to eat, describing how feeling like a ‘second-class citizen’ at dwelling makes her attain for burgers, chocolate and popcorn. ‘We’ve not been advised learn how to cope,’ she cries.

Yet whether or not employees listed below are pleased 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 pleased of their jobs.

Tiffany, for her half, doesn’t see her weight problems as an issue, having labored onerous to beat the trauma of being despatched to a private coach aged 11 by her personal mom; and of being bullied at college for her weight. She now weightlifts, cheerleads and firmly believes ‘you can be healthy when you’re overweight. I’m unsure if I grew up on this surroundings I might be the identical particular person’.

Certainly, she could be uncomfortable with the fat-shaming that’s de rigueur in Japan. ‘It’s tremendous regular for [people] to only seize you and say: “What’s going on here, buddy, you’ve picked up a few pounds,” ’ 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.

Walking 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 pricey — 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 gear, and is broadcast to a backdrop of piano music a number of occasions a day on a Japanese public radio station.

Followed by everybody from youngsters to the aged, it contains 13 easy strikes, together with arm raises and star jumps.

Therri-Jay performs the routine in Kao’s places of work, mortified at exhibiting everybody her ‘underneath’ whereas touching her toes.

Yet she concludes: ‘If we had to do that every morning at work I think we’d be extra productive, extra pleased and I really feel like we’d get pleasure from motion extra.’ There are different, darker, points to Japan’s perspective in direction of the chubby. They embody train apps equivalent to Nenshou, launched in 2013, by which an on-screen animated character dishes out digital humiliation within the type of statements equivalent to: ‘Fat girl, do some more exercise, 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 properly within the UK,’ says Phil. ‘It’s blown my thoughts that that’s allowed.’

More doubtful nonetheless is an rising marketplace for renting overweight individuals, for round £11 an hour, by firms equivalent to Debucari, which launched in 2021.

Stressing that it isn’t an escort service, Debucari states its purpose is to advertise ‘progression away from an era where being fat had a negative image’ — but it additionally suggests the overweight could be employed to assist purchasers look slimmer.

In the Channel 4 documentary, one such ‘body’ for rent, recollects how she had been advised to shed some pounds in her earlier job in a café as a result of ‘in these places you must be thin’.

Tiffany is, not unreasonably, unconvinced by the observe: ‘I don’t fairly imagine there may be zero fetishness about it.’

On their ultimate day the group go to a neighborhood tub home, the place locals imagine submersing themselves in 42c water raises their metabolism and promotes weight reduction (though there may be little proof to again up their claims, and the baths apparently trigger cardiac issues and are reported to be accountable for 10 per cent of all sudden deaths in Japan).

So nonchalant are most Japanese about their our bodies that there are not any non-public altering rooms on the baths, a deal-breaker little doubt 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 ‘pretty emotive’, whereas spouse Marisa calls it ‘an eye-opener’. She admits: ‘In 15 years we might not be here if we don’t change.’

Before 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. We all agreed we’ll take the self-discipline with us.’

Of course, no quantity of chopsticks, exercises on nationwide radio or domineering bosses can alleviate emotional angst, and sniggering at overweight individuals in public is just not the reply.

But maybe incorporating a number of of Japan’s methods for weight management into our nationwide psyche would possibly lastly cease the behavior too many people have, of reaching for the biscuit jar each time we want a pick-me-up.

Around The World In 80 Weighs is subsequent on Channel 4 on Tuesday.