best for STRAIGHT TALK
'When I first heard about the Channel 4 show Around‘ The World In 80 Weighs, I instantly dismissed it as another programme that exploits vulnerable people whilst masquerading as “entertainment”.
As a result, I didn’t watch it, because I assumed, wrongly as it turns out, that it was nothing more than an exercise in parading obese people around the world – in other words, a series of endless fat-shaming.
So, before I wrote about it, I watched the final episode where the participants have returned to the UK after visiting Japan, Tonga, Texas and India, to see what conclusions they’d come to.
Well, I was so pleasantly surprised that I have to take my hat off to Channel 4 and all of those who took part. All six lost weight but they all realised they needed to change the way they thought about food, lifestyle and themselves.
Of course, not everyone can get a free trip around the world in order to sort themselves out, and it’s a shame it took something so huge (no pun intended) and on TV, to do it. But watching it would surely help anyone struggling with obesity? In the same way watching other TV shows can help reality to sink in, such as You Are What You Eat, and Supersize vs Superskinny, which I always praised.
