Health
Slim chance
by Linley Boniface
Bulimia, anorexia and binge eating are not just “girls’ diseases”.
Former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is an unlikely poster boy for bulimia. An old-fashioned political battler most famous for punching a protester, accumulating speeding tickets and having an affair with his secretary, Prescott simply doesn’t seem to fit the demographic.
Reaction in the UK press to Prescott’s decision to out himself as bulimic has been largely satirical.
A columnist in the Daily Mail dismissed Prescott as frivolous, attention-seeking, self-victimising and, ultimately, greedy, whereas a Daily Telegraph blogger labelled him “a ghastly slob”. Most curiously of all, an editorial in the Sun criticised Prescott on the grounds that he “wasn’t a very successful bulimic”.
It’s hard to imagine a bulimic woman – even a woman politician – coping with this much flak. Psychiatrist Dr Charles Fishman, director of NZ Eating Disorder Specialists in Auckland, believes Prescott would have been given a very different reception if he had been a woman with an eating disorder.
“Bulimia is absolutely a hidden issue – it’s a private hell and a private shame,” he says. “Males who have bulimia are sometimes told they have a girls’ disease, which is an additional shame for them to bear.”
In an extract from his memoirs, Prescott says he began gorging and vomiting as a result of stress brought on by overwork in the 1980s. “The only break I ever took was to eat. That’s all I did. Work, and then quickly eat something. It became my main pleasure, having access to my comfort food.”
Prescott would eat entire tins of condensed milk, tuck into Marks & Spencer trifles or work his way through the menu at his favourite Chinese restaurant – “any old rubbish”, in fact. “Then there would be a weird kind of pleasure in vomiting and feeling relieved.”
Prescott’s wife persuaded him to seek help 17 years ago, but he was still bulimic when he became Deputy Prime Minister in 1997 – again, he says, as a result of work stress. He hid his bulimia out of embarrassment.
Although many female celebrities have openly discussed their problems with food, few well-known men have come out about their eating disorders. Exceptions include singer Elton John, spoon-bender Uri Geller, and actors Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Quaid, who battled what he called “manorexia” after losing weight for the 1994 movie Wyatt Earp.
The trio of serious eating disorders – bulimia, anorexia and binge eating – have long been considered women’s problems, but recent research suggests they are much more common in men than previously thought.
Last year, a Harvard University study of 3000 adults found that men made up a quarter of those with anorexia and bulimia, and 40% of binge eaters. Researchers say although there is increasing -pressure on men to achieve the perfect six-pack, the signs of an over-controlling relationship with food are less likely to be picked up in men.
A study conducted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health found that gay men had particularly high rates of eating disorders, possibly because of the extra pressure on them to achieve an ideal body image.
Although the causes of eating disorders remain controversial, Canadian research published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2001 suggests male and female sufferers report similar symptoms and have similar psychological issues. The one difference, however, is that men are more reluctant to seek help.
Fishman says perhaps one in 10 of his patients with anorexia are men. Their obsession with weight is more likely to be hidden because many exercise compulsively rather than controlling their eating.
He believes both male and female bulimics tend to avoid conflict, and often come from families in which food has a significant status. Fishman says the consequences of an eating disorder can be just as devastating for men as for women; one 19-year-old with bulimia had such low levels of potassium that his GP was surprised he was still alive.
Eating disorder services in New Zealand are widely considered to be woefully inadequate and underfunded, making it unlikely that much extra attention will be given to male sufferers. But eating disorders are reported to be on the rise among men in Western countries, and Fishman expects a similar increase in New Zealand as society becomes more obsessed with men’s physical appearance.
But there is good news, at least, for John Prescott. Since resigning as Deputy Prime Minister last year, he has been going to the gym most days, avoiding snacks and having regular mealtimes. He says he has been free of bulimia for over a year – not a bad achievement for a 69-year-old.
