Volume 7　ダイエットの必要性


Diet and Fitness

Ann Slater: Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of Cultural Crossroads. This is the November show and we're very glad to be with you again. This is Ann.

Michael Rhys: And this is Mike.

Ann: Today, or this month, we're going to talk about the topic that is ever interesting I think, ha-ha, and popular: diet and fitness.

Michael: Right.

Ann: Right. A big topic, a very big topic. In England, Michael, I suppose, of course, dieting is common and popular everywhere, fitness maybe less so than in the States?

Michael: Not . . . I think less so than the States. People in America do seem to have this almost obsession with fitness and sports. The British, we are pretty much sports obsessed but we like to take our sports from the armchair.

Ann: Watching, ha-ha. 

Michael: Watch sports more than actually playing sport. I was never into sports. And I'm still not. I'm one of the world's, I wouldn't say laziest people but I'm certainly sports averse. Diet and exercise is over my head, ha-ha. It's not something I really give much thought about.

Ann: Well, it's interesting because, I think, too, there is a gender element here.

Michael: Well, let's be honest about this. In the UK and perhaps a little more so in the States, obesity is a problem, and being overweight is a very, very common issue in those countries. So I can understand to some extent this obsession with dieting.
But what is interesting is that in Japan, too, people are very obsessed with dieting. And yet for the most part it seems that people most certainly don't need it. So why is there this obsession?

Ann: Well, it's a good question and I think, of course, many people, many researchers spend a lot of time and effort trying to figure that out. And I think, probably one thing is that it has to do with your self-image is that your sel-your image of yourself doesn't match the reality of what you look like. So even if you're thin you don't think you're thin.

Michael: Right.

Ann: So you feel that you need to become thinner, you need to diet and so on. And I think that one of the big factors is supposed to be the media. Whether it's commercials or magazines. If you look, a lot of these women's magazines, the models, of course, many of them are really stick thin.

Michael: And people are seeing this and they're thinking, "OK, that is normal. That is what I need to be."