Supersize vs Superskinny

Last updated

Supersize vs Superskinny
Supersize vs Superskinny.png
Title card from most recent episode of Series 4
Presented by Dr Christian Jessen (2008–2014)
Starring Anna Richardson (2008–2010)
Narrated by Daisy Donovan
Liza Tarbuck (2008–2014)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series7
No. of episodes63
Production
Executive producers
  • Colette Foster
  • Oliver Wright
Running time60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company Remarkable Television
Original release
Network Channel 4
Release22 January 2008 (2008-01-22) 
6 March 2014 (2014-03-06)

Supersize vs Superskinny is a British television programme on Channel 4 that featured information about dieting and extreme eating lifestyles. One of the main show features was a weekly comparison between an overweight person, and an underweight person. The two were taken to a feeding clinic, and lived together for five days (later on two days), swapping diets while supervised by Dr Christian Jessen.

Contents

Overview

The overweight person swapped diets with the underweight person. While the underweight person was suddenly given more food than they would usually eat in a few days at one meal, the overweight person was usually given tea, coffee, a small snack, or nothing sometimes. Most of the underweight people were unable to finish their meal, though occasionally the overweight people also refused or struggled to eat their meals, usually after having been in the feeding clinic for a few days. Occasionally both were allowed to leave the feeding clinic for a meal swap, if it was part of both of the participants' diets.

In earlier series, the show featured a food tube for each person. The tube contained what each person ate and drank in the span of one week.

Usually Dr Jessen used shock tactics to demonstrate how poor someone's diet was. Both participants were occasionally shown the extent of their poor diet - for example, through bags of sugar. The "superskinny" would usually be shown pictures of their body and be told about the drastic long-term health effects. In the second series, the "supersizer" was sent to meet a woman named Lisa, whose obesity had meant that she could no longer care for herself and was receiving an operation because of her weight. In later series, the "supersizer" was sent to the United States to visit someone that was heavier than they were. It was used as a shock tactic to show the "supersizer" what they could become if they did not stop their unhealthy lifestyles.

The show also featured Anna Richardson in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd series, who in the first series examined new methods to lose weight by trying diets she found on the Internet, some of which had shocking side effects. For example, Anna attempted Laser lipolysis , which went drastically wrong and resulted in severe bruising. Also, she discovered Diabulimia and spoke to Isabelle Caro, a French actress, renowned for her underweight figure and anorexia campaign. In the second series, Anna recruited a group of "flab-fighters" - women who wanted to lose weight and whose weight was tracked weekly - and she visited Los Angeles to discover ways A-listers would lose weight. The same series also saw a group of four anorexic women attempt to overcome their eating disorder through eating and preparing foods they would usually avoid with the help of a leading eating disorder specialist. In later series, formerly anorexic journalist Emma Woolf interviewed a number of people who had experienced the effects of eating disorders.

The second, third and fourth series also introduced a section whereby a group of people recovering from eating disorders (the second and third series featured people exclusively suffering from anorexia nervosa, while the fourth included a mixture of eating disorders) were overwatched by a specialist psychiatrist and dietician Ursula Philpot who co-presented Supersize vs Superskinny and who worked to challenge their issues with food.

During the first series in 2008, one feature involved Gillian McKeith, who tried to find a way to "ban big bums" in the UK. She tested out different exercises to tone the buttocks of different groups of ladies, and made a leader board for the most effective.

Criticism

The programme has been the subject of criticism and debate, surrounding its portrayal of eating disorders to a potentially vulnerable audience, and its influence towards public attitudes on eating disorders. Then-chief executive of Norfolk based eating disorder charity Beat, Susan Ringwood, stated in a 2012 The Daily Mail article her belief that Supersize VS Superskinny, along with similar programmes, are "triggering" and "deadly [and] not entertainment" for eating disorder sufferers, adding that "they [Supersize and similar programmes] don’t educate or inform anyone, and they certainly don’t make life any better for someone who has an eating disorder. Eating disorders are complex mental illnesses". Natasha Devon, Director of positive body image campaign Body Gossip, expressed in a 2011 blog post her belief in the "reductive" manner in which eating disorders are portrayed in the programme. [1]

Clare Stephens, in an opinion piece written for MamaMia in 2022, expressed concern over the body shaming behaviours exhibited by the "Superskinny" subjects of the programme towards their "Supersize" counterparts, along with the behaviours of Christian Jessen, concluding that "at best, the show did a lot to confuse audiences about the relationships between eating and exercise and health and weight. At worst, it put its audience at risk of the vast manifestations of disordered eating that can emerge from distorted beliefs around eating, shape and weight. That impact, unfortunately, is impossible to measure". [2]

Niamh Langton of The Oxford Blue, speaking of the "subliminal damage" caused by Supersize vs Superskinny among similar programming, stated of the show in 2021: "in its new, easily consumed form, we see the unrelenting shame which makes the show so popular. Shame, humiliation and self-loathing are the active ingredients. Shows like Supersize vs Superskinny presume that weight is something we can totally control, but weight is a characteristic, and not a behaviour. It is too easy to be drawn into such an over-simplification of weight-loss; a narrative that is neither helpful nor accurate. Regardless of what its creators may argue in its defence, Supersize vs Superskinny, as it exists on YouTube, holds no positive, constructive message. In watching each short clip or full episode, we expose ourselves to harmful content. Such viewing habits become a guilty pleasure. You tell yourself – ‘I’m not like her, I could never eat that, I could never let myself get that way.’ Really, you’re indoctrinating yourself with a toxic teaching: ‘don’t eat that or you’ll look like her’ – ‘you’ll be ‘Super’ too’." [3]

Transmissions

SeriesEpisodesOriginally aired
Series premiereSeries finale
1822 January 200811 March 2008
21020 January 20098 March 2009
3923 March 201018 May 2010
4829 March 201117 May 2011
51028 February 20121 May 2012
6108 January 201312 March 2013
789 January 20146 March 2014

In 2011, a 4-episode children's version titled Supersize vs Superskinny Kids was produced and aired between 21 and 25 March 2011.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anorexia (symptom)</span> Loss of appetite

Anorexia is a medical term for a loss of appetite. While the term outside of the scientific literature is often used interchangeably with anorexia nervosa, many possible causes exist for a loss of appetite, some of which may be harmless, while others indicate a serious clinical condition or pose a significant risk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bulimia nervosa</span> Type of eating disorder

Bulimia nervosa, also known as simply bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging or fasting, and excessive concern with body shape and weight. This activity aims to expel the body of calories eaten from the binging phase of the process. Binge eating refers to eating a large amount of food in a short amount of time. Purging refers to the attempts to get rid of the food consumed. This may be done by vomiting or taking laxatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eating</span> Ingestion of food

Eating is the ingestion of food. In biology, this is typically done to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and nutrients and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive — carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, omnivores consume a mixture of both plant and animal matter, and detritivores eat detritus. Fungi digest organic matter outside their bodies as opposed to animals that digest their food inside their bodies.

Orthorexia nervosa is a proposed eating disorder characterized by an excessive preoccupation with eating healthy food. The term was introduced in 1997 by American physician Steven Bratman, who suggested that some people's dietary restrictions intended to promote health may paradoxically lead to unhealthy consequences, such as social isolation, anxiety, loss of ability to eat in a natural, intuitive manner, reduced interest in the full range of other healthy human activities, and, in rare cases, severe malnutrition or even death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appetite</span> Desire to eat food

Appetite is the desire to eat food items, usually due to hunger. Appealing foods can stimulate appetite even when hunger is absent, although appetite can be greatly reduced by satiety. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolic needs. It is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain. Appetite has a relationship with every individual's behavior. Appetitive behaviour also known as approach behaviour, and consummatory behaviour, are the only processes that involve energy intake, whereas all other behaviours affect the release of energy. When stressed, appetite levels may increase and result in an increase of food intake. Decreased desire to eat is termed anorexia, while polyphagia is increased eating. Dysregulation of appetite contributes to ARFID, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, cachexia, overeating, and binge eating disorder.

Promotion of anorexia is the promotion of behaviors related to the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. It is often referred to simply as pro-ana or ana. The lesser-used term pro-mia refers likewise to bulimia nervosa and is sometimes used interchangeably with pro-ana. Pro-ana groups differ widely in their stances. Most claim that they exist mainly as a non-judgmental environment for anorexics; a place to turn to, to discuss their illness, and to support those who choose to enter recovery. Others deny anorexia nervosa is a mental illness and claim instead that it is a lifestyle choice that should be respected by doctors and family.

Binge eating is a pattern of disordered eating which consists of episodes of uncontrollable eating. It is a common symptom of eating disorders such as binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa. During such binges, a person rapidly consumes an excessive quantity of food. A diagnosis of binge eating is associated with feelings of loss of control. Binge eating disorder is also linked with being overweight and obesity.

Emetophobia is a phobia that causes overwhelming, intense anxiety pertaining to vomit. This specific phobia can also include subcategories of what causes the anxiety, including a fear of vomiting or seeing others vomit. Emetophobes might also avoid the mentions of "barfing", vomiting, "throwing up", or "puking."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diet (nutrition)</span> Sum of food consumed by an organism

In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons. Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos. This may be due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy.

Tracey Gold is an American actress and former child star known for playing Carol Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillian McKeith</span> Scottish television presenter and writer

Gillian McKeith is a Scottish television personality and writer. She is known for her promotion of various pseudoscientific ideas about health and nutrition. She is the former host of Channel 4's You Are What You Eat (2004–2006), Granada Television's Dr Gillian McKeith's Feel Fab Forever (2009–2010), and W Network's Eat Yourself Sexy (2010). In 2008, McKeith regularly appeared on the E4 health show Supersize vs Superskinny, and in 2010, she was a contestant on the tenth series of the ITV show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underweight</span> Below a weight considered healthy

An underweight person is a person whose body weight is considered too low to be healthy. A person who is underweight is malnourished.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of the body</span> Branch of sociology studying the human body

Sociology of the body is a branch of sociology studying the representations and social uses of the human body in modern societies.

Some claim that the history of anorexia nervosa begins with descriptions of religious fasting dating from the Hellenistic era and continuing into the medieval period. A number of well known historical figures, including Catherine of Siena and Mary, Queen of Scots are believed to have suffered from the condition. Others link the emergence of anorexia to the distinctive presence of an extreme fear of being overweight despite being underweight which emerged in the second half of the 19th century and was first observed by Jean Martin Charcot and other French psychiatrists at the Salpetrière

Wannarexia, or anorexic yearning, is a label applied to someone who claims to have anorexia nervosa, or wishes they did, but does not. These individuals are also called wannarexic, "wanna-be ana" or "anorexic wannabe". The neologism wannarexia is a portmanteau of the latter two terms. It may be used as a pejorative term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabelle Caro</span> French actress and model (1982–2010)

Isabelle Caro Rosenbohm was a French model and actress from Marseille, France, who became well known after appearing in a controversial advertising campaign "No Anorexia" which showed Caro with vertebrae and facial bones showing under her skin in a picture by photographer Oliviero Toscani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overweight</span> Above a weight considered healthy

Being overweight is having more body fat than is optimally healthy. Being overweight is especially common where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are sedentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anorexia nervosa</span> Type of eating disorder

Anorexia nervosa (AN), often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin.

<i>Summers Dream</i> Book by Cathy Cassidy

Summer's Dream is a preteen/teen novel published in 2012 by Cathy Cassidy.

Atypical anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which individuals meet all the qualifications for anorexia nervosa, including a body image disturbance and a history of restrictive eating and weight loss, except that they are not currently underweight. Atypical anorexia qualifies as a mental health disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), under the category Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders (OSFED). The characteristics of people with atypical anorexia generally do not differ significantly from anorexia nervosa patients except for their current weight.

References

  1. "Are you guilty of gorging on diet show? Supersize vs Superskinny said to be a 'trigger' for eating disorder sufferers". The Daily Mail. 15 February 2012.
  2. "MammaMia Article". MammaMia. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  3. "Diet Show Damage – All Guilt No Pleasure". The Oxford Blue. 9 April 2021.