TV review: Why Are We Fat?

Simon Gault in Why Are We Fat?

The stats on Simon Gault trickle in over the first hour-long episode of the new three-part series Why Are We Fat? and they show that he has 40 per cent body fat, a BMI of 31.0 ("obese") and a liver that is 33 per cent fat. They show that he weighs 92kg and is 175cm tall. They show that if he doesn't sort himself out soon, there's a good chance he will develop an illness and die earlier than he should. They show that he is fat.

Gault appears appropriately surprised by the multiple revelations of fatness that are sprinkled liberally throughout the first episode, although by the time of the final revelation about his liver, which he describes as "the most shocking news of my life", we no longer are.

He's got three months to fix himself up before returning for further tests that will no doubt show - possibly due to this "wake-up call", possibly due to the fact the viewing public will be holding him to account, possibly due to contractual obligations - that he has lost weight, become healthier, and that his insanely cute 2-year-old daughter, with whom he shares an adorable moment in episode one, no longer faces the possibility of imminent fatherlessness.

Gault's story provides the human interest element to the show's thorough presentation of the surprising science of obesity, in which he gathers a selection of sciencey talking heads from New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

We learn that a single 1960s study by American researcher Ancel Keys was in large part responsible for the long-held belief, now being steadily dismantled, that we should be eating a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, and we learn how that diet helped contribute to a massive rise in the amount of sugar we eat, which in turn drove a massive rise in obesity.

Sugar is the show's main target. It's making us diabetic, making us obese, making lab rats die - fat and diseased - far earlier than their wholefood-eating peers.

We find out that the dramatic increase in sugar consumption has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of insulin we produce, which blocks the messages telling our brains we're full.

We find out that the proportion of people with diabetes has grown from 1 in 10,000 in the 19th century to one in 11 today. Diabetes prevalence has increased 900 per cent in the last 50 years alone and obesity rates have risen 250 per cent since the early 1960s.

What the show doesn't mention, in its first episode at least, is that a growing pile of research, highlighted most recently here by Auckland Hospital's clinical director of general medicine Robyn Toomath in her book Fat Science, that the overwhelming majority of people who lose weight don't sustain that loss over the long term.

The issue is not a lack of desire or personal responsibility, she argues, but a combination of genetic factors and a terrible food environment. The onus should be on the system to change, because study after study shows that individuals can't.

Gault has three months to turn his life around, but a lifetime to keep it turned around.

Lowdown

Why Are We Fat?

Sunday, September 10, 8.30pm, Prime