Prescott tells of bulimia battle

[Happyolddog]

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott has confessed to suffering from the eating disorder bulimia.
He writes in the Sunday Times that he used to gorge on food and then vomit.
He explains how he could "sup a whole tin of condensed milk", eat trifles "for ever" and eat his way through his favourite Chinese restaurant's menu.
Mr Prescott said he had not previously spoken of the disorder "out of shame", partly because it was associated with women. One cause was stress, he added. "I've never confessed it before," the 69-year-old explains.

Hard to tell from this picture of the overweight oaf.

[Amethyst]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

"Out of shame, I suppose, or embarrassment or just because it's such a strange thing for someone like me to confess to.
"People normally associate it with young women - anorexic girls, models trying to keep their weight down - or women in stressful situations, like Princess Diana."
Health experts have praised Mr Prescott for his confession.
Susan Ringwood, chief executive of the eating disorders charity Beat, told Radio 5 Live that bulimia was not only suffered by young women.
She said: "We do know that an eating disorder can affect anyone at any age, it isn't just young girls, it's boys and men as well, so in that sense it wasn't a surprise.
"And neither was it a surprise that someone felt they really needed to keep this a secret, and even say they felt ashamed of themselves.

It's hard enough for a young girl to confess to, but for a high-profile male politician approaching 70, it's especially impressive


Dr Ty Glover

"And that feeling can stop people getting help."
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Ty Glover, an eating disorders specialist at Cheadle Royal Hospital in Cheshire, said: "It's hard enough for a young girl to confess to, but for a high-profile male politician approaching 70, it's especially impressive.
"It's believed that one in 10 bulimia sufferers are men but I have never in all my years as a consultant specialising in eating disorders come across a man this old suffering from bulimia.
"It seriously makes me think that maybe we're completely missing a whole audience of middle-aged men who are too scared to admit they have a problem."
Dr Glover said Mr Prescott's brave admission should encourage other men to stop suffering in silence and seek help.
Mr Prescott, who stepped down from Labour's front bench last year after ten years as deputy PM, said people would never suspect he suffered from the disorder and that some could accuse him of not being "a very successful bulimic" because his weight did not drop.
He said he began binging and vomiting during his years in the shadow cabinet in the 1980s, but the condition got worse when Labour came to power in 1997.
"So what I did was stuff my face with anything around, any old rubbish, burgers, chocolate, crisps, fish and chips, loads of it, till I felt sick - but at least I'd had the pleasure of stuffing my face and feeling really full.
"Then there would be a weird kind of pleasure in vomiting and feeling relieved."
Secret eating
He continued: "I could sup a whole tin of Carnation condensed milk, just for the taste, stupid things like that. Marks & Spencer trifles, I still love them, one of my favourites. I can eat them for ever.


Archive footage of John Prescott

"Whenever I go to Mr Chu's in Hull, my favourite Chinese restaurant in the whole world . . . I could eat my way through the entire menu."
He speaks of trying to hide his bulimia from colleagues and his wife, Pauline.
"I thought, of course, I was being clever, and no-one would ever know, but Pauline realised in the end. The signs in the toilet gave it away, and all the missing food."
Seventeen years ago Mrs Prescott persuaded her husband to get help from the House of Commons doctor and he was sent on to a consultant.

My weight, though, is still over 15 stone - as I do love my food - but I try not to snack between meals and to eat at sensible times


John Prescott

"I turned up and found his waiting room full of young women. I was the only man there. I felt a right twerp. Luckily none of them shopped me to the press.
"Perhaps they thought I was on a fact-finding mission, never for one moment thinking that a man of my age and build could be suffering from bulimia nervosa, but that's what the consultant said I had."
He received treatment, but he continued to be bulimic when he became deputy prime minister in 1997.
But now he says he has not suffered from the disorder for a year and exercises in the gym for 45 minutes a day.
"My weight, though, is still over 15 stone - as I do love my food - but I try not to snack between meals and to eat at sensible times."
Mr Prescott, who also has diabetes, is now supporting the National Health Service's awareness campaign on food disorders.
"I hope that it will encourage people to come out and discuss these matters and not suffer in silence," he says.

[Amethyst]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

I think that its very brave of him to come out and admit this problem, and he should be commended for it. I hope people refrain from taking the **** because its attitudes like that that stop people asking for help when they desperately need it.

[Guest]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

I think that its very brave of him to come out and admit this problem, and he should be commended for it. I hope people refrain from taking the **** because its attitudes like that that stop people asking for help when they desperately need it.

Even you cannot seriously believe he is telling the truth.

For a kick off, he's a politician and not only that, he's a little on the hefty side to claim he has ever suffered from that kind of eating disorder.

Of course, it could not possibly have anything to do with the reports that he is in talks over writing his memoirs...

[Amethyst]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

oi less of the ''even you'' !

Stop being so cynical it'll eat you up.

If he has written his memoirs and this illness is mentioned within the memoirs then yes it may be a marketing ploy by announcing it to the press to create interest in his book, but that doesn't mean he has made anything up does it.

[Froggy]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

If I ate the contents of my local chinese menu I think I would vomit as well.

[Amy]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

I hope people refrain from taking the **** because its attitudes like that that stop people asking for help when they desperately need it.

He is the one taking the **** (as usual) he has never so much as even been within 10 feet of a bulimic sufferer yet he seriously expects us to swallow (no pun intended) this utter crap!

It's a bit like when he preaches about how "we" must use public transport yet he gets himself a chauffeur driven Jag to go just 1 mile down the road and then preaches about greenhouse gases.

He sure as hell doesn't look to me like he needs educating on the "lack of eating." Quite the opposite in fact, Rosemary Conley could do a lot with him.

John Prescott "admitting" to this disorder has done nothing to increase awareness of bulimia, but instead has done the exact opposite and he should be ashamed, except he won't be because he doesn't give a ****.

[Amethyst]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

He is the one taking the **** (as usual) he has never so much as even been within 10 feet of a bulimic sufferer yet he seriously expects us to swallow (no pun intended) this utter crap!

How the **** do you know that ?

[Amy]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

Are you seriously telling me you have fallen for this?

Does he even look slightly undernourished?

[Amethyst]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

It is common for bullimic sufferers to gain wait because the food that they tend to eat is high in calorie content. The pressure he was under in his job plus the fact he is diabetic won't have helped.

[Amy]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

It is also common for politicians to lie through their teeth.

[Amethyst]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

This kind of attitude is precisely why so many people suffer eating disorders in silence.

[Amy]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

This kind of attitude?

Forgive me for not swallowing everyone one of his lying words. I thought a good debate was to be encouraged.

[Amethyst]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

You are hardly debating the issues. You have decided because of who he happens to be means he is lying and thats all that matters to you.

BMI/Numbers/Weight Triggers - Bulimia in the News: John Prescott admits to suffering Bulimia - RecoverYourLife.com Forums

[Amy]

Re: Prescott tells of bulimia battle

Correct.