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25-year-old Pete lives in Maidenhead in the South of England. Right now, Pete seems to have it all, he's in a loving relationship with girlfriend Beth, and he's just landed his first proper job as a college lecturer. There's just one thing that stops him from living a happy life; Pete is addicted to meat. The reason his diet is so weird is that he's terrified of vegetables, and to make things worse, girlfriend Beth is a strict vegetarian. Unless he can change his culinary ways he risks serious relationship crisis.
Freaky Eaters is a series in which nutritionist Charlotte Watts and psychological coach Felix Economakis help people with strange eating habits and food phobias and addictions. While Charlotte encourages them to eat new foods, Felix attempts to get to the bottom of the psychological problems causing their food phobias, with the aim of getting them on the road to eating a healthy balanced diet in just four weeks.
Freaky Eaters is a series in which nutritionist Charlotte Watts and psychological coach Felix Economakis help people with strange eating habits and food phobias and addictions. While Charlotte encourages them to eat new foods, Felix attempts to get to the bottom of the psychological problems causing their food phobias, with the aim of getting them on the road to eating a healthy balanced diet in just four weeks.
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00:0025 year old Pete Turner lives in Maidenhead in the south of England.
00:07Right now Pete seems to have it all.
00:10He's in a loving relationship with girlfriend Beth.
00:13And he's just landed his first proper job as a college lecturer.
00:17I would say that I am a pretty normal 25 year old guy.
00:23There's just one thing that stops him leading a happy life.
00:26Pete is addicted to meat.
00:32Every day I eat gammon, sausages, bacon, beef burgers, chicken. That's about it.
00:38The reason his diet is so weird is because he's terrified of vegetables.
00:43And to make matters worse, girlfriend Beth is a strict vegetarian.
00:48He often reacts to my food in a bad way and thinks that it's gross.
00:51And so that makes me feel like I'm gross for eating it.
00:55Unless Pete can change his culinary ways, he risks serious relationship crisis.
01:01Getting him to beat his addictions will be the job of clinical psychologist Stephen Briers.
01:07And nutritionist Natalie Savona.
01:10While Natalie will encourage Pete to try new foods.
01:13See that's amazing to me that you don't know what cheese is.
01:16Stephen will guide Pete through a series of psychological obstacles.
01:20One puck, do your thing.
01:22Designed to help him score success with his diet.
01:32Pete Turner lives with girlfriend Beth, her mum Val and partner Brian in suburban Maidenhead.
01:38Pete works as a lecturer in film studies at nearby Bracknell College.
01:42When he's not teaching, he and Beth spend virtually all their time together.
01:48They've been in a relationship now for six years and there's just one thing that comes between them.
01:54Bacon. It's the love of my life. I just love it.
01:58The only thing that Pete eats is dry, crispy meat.
02:08It's very difficult because Pete hates vegetables with a passion and I don't eat meat which is all that he eats.
02:14Pete won't even kiss Beth until she brushes away the taste of veg.
02:19His fear of new foods is so strong that he can't stomach eating with other people.
02:28He gets anxious about sitting down and having a meal with people.
02:31I don't like it. It just reminds me of when I was younger and having to eat things I didn't like.
02:38Pete loves to travel, but won't visit any country unless there's fried chicken on the menu.
02:44Earlier this year I went travelling around Southeast Asia and Pete was unable to come with me
02:49because obviously there's not many fast food places in the middle of the jungles and stuff.
02:54So it really holds him back.
02:57Pete's freakishly one-track diet is not a new development.
03:01He's always only eaten certain things and avoided lots of other things.
03:07I know I ate baby food and I don't remember eating anything else after that. It's just been meat.
03:13He's not a faddy eater. It's not as if he's fussy. It's much more deep-seated than that.
03:20With the support of two families behind him, Pete is now determined to deal with his food phobia once and for all.
03:27I really want to change. I just want to be pretty normal. I like to be on my way to normal anyway.
03:32It's day one and Pete comes to London for his first meeting with the experts.
03:45Hello. Hi. Nice to meet you. Hi Pete. Good to meet you.
03:51Good to meet you too. What is your body language telling me about how you're feeling today?
03:59Yeah, anxious. It's not going to be that bad, I promise.
04:04Natalie and Stephen have a surprise in store for Pete which they hope will focus his mind before the hard work begins.
04:10All right, Pete. You are undertaking something quite difficult over the next few weeks and you need as many reasons to keep going as possible.
04:20And what we've got for you now is something that hopefully will give you a few more.
04:24So we're going to leave you to watch this and then we'll come back and talk about it.
04:28Hi Pete, it's your girlfriend, Beth. You worry a lot about food and you get so anxious and I don't, I hate seeing you that way.
04:43I really just wish you were free and to do whatever you want and travel the world and just not have to even think about eating.
04:50I know that deep down in her heart, Beth really wants you to change. She is very concerned for your health and doesn't want to be alone in later life.
05:05Hi Pete, it's your dad. Just wanted you to know that you've got the support of mum, myself, the rest of the family, Helen and Emma and good luck and go for it.
05:18Please do this. For you. Not for anyone else, for you because you are so important and I love you so much.
05:38So how was that watching all of those?
05:40Erm, I don't know, pretty horrible.
05:43I was quite shocked by the worry that seemed to be throughout the messages for your health.
05:51I just, yeah, I mean that's my main worry is my health. I want to change now. Before I didn't want to so I think hopefully, hopefully it's my own pressure.
06:01I want to do it. And I suppose mainly Beth. I want to do it for Beth as well.
06:06How did you feel about the message from your father?
06:08It's just good to know. That's what I expected. They're all behind me.
06:13And I was surprised not to see more members of your family there.
06:16We're not very open people, so, but I know they're behind me.
06:20In case Pete was in any doubt after hearing from his loved ones, Natalie and Stephen want to show him just how one dimensional his diet really is.
06:31This way.
06:33Pete's in the dark about exactly what lies ahead. First the experts want him to get to grips with what he eats.
06:39Pete, you are about to start negotiating a new relationship with food, all right? But to some extent, we're all going to be feeling our way over the next few weeks and this is where you start, okay?
06:52And I want you to just have a feel around and tell me what you think this object might be.
06:57It's fairly large.
07:00That's a horn.
07:02Is it a wooden cow?
07:05Wooden bull?
07:06Okay.
07:07You take your hands up and put them towards each other.
07:12Oh, what the hell's that?
07:15What the hell?
07:19The hell? Oh, no. Don't tell me that's a dead chicken.
07:24Mmm, spot on.
07:25Oh, right. Wow.
07:26Yeah.
07:27Jeez.
07:29Okay, we have one more friend for you to meet.
07:36Oh, no. This isn't a dead pig or something, is it?
07:43Oh, no.
07:45It's something that you eat pretty much every day, you're right.
07:49It's a dead pig.
07:51Oh, my God.
07:53Pete, if you like, you can take off your blindfold.
07:56Okay.
07:58Oh, my God, that is horrible.
08:01These are the things that you do eat.
08:04Oh, that's horrible.
08:06Jeez.
08:08It surprises me that you're quite so surprised and grossed out by this.
08:13I do love animals, so it's crazy what I eat, but I've never touched a dead body, as far as I know, apart from eating it.
08:19You've written up a food diary for us, and we've done some calculations, and just with the bacon alone, the hard facts are one and a half thousand rashers of bacon a year.
08:34Now, that's the equivalent of nine pigs' worth of bacon, and you can't bear looking at one.
08:41No.
08:43In addition to this, Pete consumes an incredible 600 sausages, 140 chickens, and munches through 240 beef burgers each and every year.
08:57What else do you eat other than meat?
09:02Biscuits, chocolate.
09:04So meat, meat, more meat, and then some biscuits and chocolate.
09:11I mean, your girlfriend's a vegetarian.
09:13Yeah.
09:15I'd love to be a vegetarian.
09:16Would you?
09:17I'd love it. I would love to be a vegetarian, I just don't think it's realistic for me.
09:22If I could just cut down dramatically, that would be good.
09:26Alright, so you're accepting that it is time to change your diet.
09:31Me and Beth have got the same birthday and stuff, so we'd like to be able to have a meal with the full family and stuff like that.
09:38Do you know what? I think we ought to aim for the stars.
09:41So our challenge to you, for that birthday celebration, you will sit down with Beth and the people you care about and have a vegetarian meal.
09:51Okay.
09:52You don't sound too sure.
09:53We can aim there.
09:54Yeah.
09:56With the gauntlet laid down, Stephen and Natalie hope that Pete will now start to see his meat feasting in a completely new light.
10:04Pete's diet is absolutely shocking.
10:07We've got a really huge challenge on our hands with Pete to eat anything different, let alone a full vegetarian meal.
10:15He clearly wants to change very much, but the difficulty I think psychologically is I don't think he really believes deep down at the moment he can.
10:23And unless we can change that, it's going to be very difficult to make headway with him.
10:27Pete now has just one month to overcome his unusual eating habits.
10:33Seeing all the meats just, it has really, really shocked me and it's just really made me a bit sickened by meat.
10:42Like meat.
10:44Back at home, Beth's keen to find out if there's been an early breakthrough.
10:48Yeah.
10:50So has it fit you off for chicken and bacon?
10:52Not quite.
10:54But it makes me think about the dead bodies when I eat them.
10:58Did you have lunch afterwards?
11:00I had chicken later that day and it was horrible.
11:03Was it?
11:04I didn't get through it all, which is not like me at all.
11:06Pete's quest to enter a new culinary world is about to begin and nutritionist Natalie's prepared a few healthy treats to get him on his way.
11:19Pete's diet is a mono diet, it's just meat.
11:24So I need to learn what it is that puts him off about these other foods and maybe look at baby steps that we can take to get him where he wants to be.
11:32Hello.
11:33You're looking quite uncomfortable, Pete.
11:35Mm-hmm.
11:36What's going on?
11:38Just, I don't know, just nervous.
11:40Just, I don't know.
11:41I can smell it kind of thing.
11:42I can smell something.
11:43It's freaking me out.
11:45So tell me about what it is about all of this stuff that, as you put it, is freaking you out.
11:50The smell's worrying me.
11:52I know that I don't like green and fresh looking sort of stuff.
11:57I don't know, juicy kind of thing.
12:00Now, when did you last try any of these foods?
12:02Um, I don't think I've ever tried that or that.
12:08You're saying that and that, you don't know what these are.
12:10I don't.
12:11I have a feeling that might be cheese and that might be radish.
12:15It's an aubergine.
12:16All right.
12:17But that's amazing to me that you don't know what cheese is.
12:20Natalie's plan is to get Pete interested by comparing vegetables to his beloved meat.
12:25Carrot.
12:26You like things that are crispy in here, don't you? Crispy meat.
12:30Yeah.
12:31Sort of.
12:32Yeah.
12:33Yeah.
12:34So, here's some carrot.
12:36What about a tiny piece of carrot?
12:41Why don't you smell it?
12:42Okay.
12:44I'd rather do a smaller bit, but that seems silly.
12:49Hmm.
12:50Ugh.
12:51Yuck.
12:52Okay.
12:53What happened there?
12:54I'm just...
12:55retched.
12:56Hmm.
12:57But why do you think that was?
12:58I just really didn't want to swallow it.
12:59And then when I went to it just...
13:00Hmm.
13:01But you got it down.
13:02Hmm.
13:03Mm.
13:04Pete's diet contains none of the recommended five fruit and veg a day.
13:06While bacon contains iron, which is good for the blood, it is also high in saturated fat,
13:10which is bad news for the heart.
13:11An alternative source of iron would be a meal of baked potatoes and potatoes.
13:14And then when I went to it just...
13:15Hmm.
13:16I don't care.
13:17I don't care.
13:18What happened there?
13:19I'm just...
13:20I'm just...
13:21I'm wretched.
13:22Hmm.
13:23But what...
13:24Why do you think that was?
13:25I just really didn't want to swallow it.
13:26And then when I went to it just...
13:27Hmm.
13:28But you got it down.
13:29Hmm.
13:30Pete's diet contains none of the recommended five fruit and veg a day.
13:32A meal of baked potato, spinach and watermelon.
13:36That's more than 12 milligrams of iron each day.
13:39And no fat.
13:42Okay, I think we should move on, Pete.
13:44For some reason the fruit doesn't worry me so much.
13:48The oranges and the apples and these things.
13:52Plums.
13:53Plums.
13:54Oh, wow.
13:55Yeah.
13:56They're huge.
13:57I thought they were small.
13:58They're different sizes and colours, plums.
14:00Oh.
14:01Do you want to cut yourself off a little sliver?
14:03Okay.
14:06It just looks like every other fruit comes from you.
14:10Hmm.
14:11It's a strong sight now.
14:17That's not that bad at all.
14:19So you didn't even know what this was two minutes ago.
14:22No.
14:23That you've eaten something is an amazing bonus.
14:24Mmm.
14:25Yeah.
14:26I'm really, really pleasantly stunned.
14:28Oh, cool.
14:29Good.
14:30Yeah.
14:31Yeah.
14:32Encouraged by the surprisingly good taste of plums, Pete goes on to sample a grape, some
14:38orange and even a bit of aubergine.
14:40Pete's done so well in just one day.
14:43My concern is for him to sustain that and to build on it is where the tough stuff really,
14:49really starts.
14:53Today, I think I made a lot of progress already.
14:56I'm shocked at myself.
14:58To me, it's amazing.
15:01To help Pete continue expanding his diet, Natalie has given him a hamper of healthy homework
15:06tasks, which he'll have to carry out every day.
15:09Oh, my gosh.
15:12Your first task is to clear your kitchen of all that frozen and processed meat.
15:17You're going cold turkey.
15:20Oh, golly.
15:21Oh, my God.
15:24I think it's way over the top.
15:28I think.
15:29Pete has his own freezer for his meat at Beth's house.
15:32And Natalie has asked him to clear its contents completely to ensure he continues trying
15:36new foods.
15:39Are you scared?
15:40Yes.
15:41It doesn't feel good to be thrown all the way.
15:46Are you sad to say goodbye to all your chicken?
15:48Yes.
15:49Extremely.
15:51It's painful.
15:52You can manage without becoming for a while.
15:53You can do it.
15:54Mm-hmm.
15:55Oh, I think this is going to be the hardest thing Pete's ever had to have done.
16:10You can tell that he's really anxious by it already.
16:13I'm guessing she's trying to push me as far as she can.
16:21I think, I think she's gone way over the top.
16:26I can't imagine what I'm going to eat for the next four weeks.
16:32Pete's next homework from Natalie is to build on his enjoyment of fruit and eat a bowl of
16:36fruit salad containing five different fruits of his choice.
16:40No way in hell I'm going to get through on this.
16:43It's going to take me hours.
16:45I'm pissed off.
16:47It's just a whole new ballgame.
16:50I don't know.
16:51It will be fun.
16:55I don't even know where to start.
16:58It's just going to make my life miserable.
17:03It's not.
17:10Yeah.
17:11Wow.
17:12I'm doing really well.
17:13Yeah.
17:14Just get it open down quicker.
17:16After an hour of determined struggle, Pete's nibbled through some strawberry and most of a plum.
17:22Feeling maybe slightly more comfortable.
17:27I'm hoping that after a day or two of not eating meat, I'm going to feel better.
17:30I'm hoping that maybe I'll realise that it's not so bad.
17:34I'm hoping.
17:36But I don't know.
17:37I'm probably going to just be even more miserable and probably getting some kind of withdrawal symptoms.
17:44I don't know.
17:45We'll see.
17:49Pete started life just a few miles down the road from where he now lives in Maidenhead.
17:54He was born the youngest of three children with two elder sisters, Emma and Helen.
17:59Pete's family first noticed his food problem when he was just a baby but found it puzzling.
18:04We've absolutely no idea why he eats like he does.
18:10We have tried to get him to eat different types of food but it's never resulted in anything.
18:17When Pete was 11 years old, his dad decided the family would emigrate to Australia but eldest sister Emma chose to stay in England.
18:25Pete found it tough without her but by the age of 13 he'd become a successful ice hockey player, although his diet showed no improvement.
18:32We've probably thought that there have been crucial times all along in that we thought well when he gets into his teens and he starts socialising with other people he'll come out of it.
18:42At 17, after six years abroad, Pete and his mum were so homesick that the family returned to the UK.
18:49Today Pete has his first session with clinical psychologist Stephen Briers. It's a chance for him to probe Pete's childhood for the origins of his food phobias.
19:08When did this first become a problem for you?
19:11As long as I remember it's been a problem. I don't remember not having a problem with food.
19:18How did everybody respond or manage your eating problems?
19:23My mum kind of gave up eventually on trying to make me eat new foods.
19:29What about your dad? How has he reacted to this over the years?
19:33It didn't go down very well. He always wanted me to eat. He always tried to make me eat kind of thing.
19:40Do you think your parents understood how difficult it was for you?
19:46I just think they were desperate.
19:49And were you made to feel bad when you were younger? At school?
19:55Yeah, oh yeah, at school and at home I think.
19:59Alright. In terms of significant events in the course of your growing up, has there been anything that's been particularly traumatic or difficult for you at any time?
20:10Yeah, going to Australia, it doesn't sound it, but it was to me.
20:15And what was the hardest aspect of that for you?
20:18Leaving my sister, because she'd just had a baby. That was just horrible.
20:24So was your sister the person in your family who you were closest to?
20:28Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so.
20:30And what was it like in Australia when you got there? Because it was a big change of culture.
20:35I was just miserable for a couple of years. Extremely miserable.
20:41Why?
20:42Because I just hated it. I hated the fact that we'd moved. I hated it. I just wanted to be in England. I had friends in England. I had my sister in England, my nephew.
20:53Okay.
20:54I remember crying every night. I hated it. I was just miserable. It was the worst, like the worst time of my life.
21:00Okay. It's powerful what you feel in relation to it, isn't it?
21:04Yeah. It's freaking annoying.
21:05Yeah. Okay. That's a good start, though. Thank you.
21:09Cool. Thanks.
21:10Given the amount of upheaval in his childhood, it's very understandable that Pete should be very inclined, when it comes to his diet, to hold on to the things that he knows and the things that he feels safe with.
21:22But, of course, in order for him to progress, he's going to have to relinquish some of those habits of old.
21:28And that, I think, is going to be difficult, but it's going to be absolutely essential that he does so if he's to start eating more normally.
21:43To make Pete's transition to a new diet smoother, on Natalie's menu tonight is a crispy meat-alike in the form of fish cakes.
21:51One potato for every fish cake.
21:54The big challenge for Pete will be to eat boiled potatoes, a food he's never encountered before.
22:01I don't know. I don't mind the fish. It looks all right, but...
22:05The potato's a bit scary.
22:07Mm-hmm. I've got to try and get one potato to one fish cake.
22:12Fish is good for you, generally, I think.
22:19Mm.
22:22Oh, ugh.
22:23Are you OK?
22:24I've got a taste of potato now.
22:26Mmm.
22:30Ugh.
22:32Are you OK?
22:33Mm-hmm.
22:35Just scared I'm going to get that taste of potato.
22:39With Pete making progress with his eating, Natalie wants to motivate a lasting change in his diet.
22:45And to do that, she's called in some help.
22:47Dr. Pixie McKenna is a GP with a special interest in eating problems.
22:59She's analysed Pete's blood tests, and today, we'll reveal the findings.
23:04Have you had a health check-up recently, or...?
23:06No.
23:07No.
23:08No.
23:09Not for a long time.
23:10OK.
23:11One of the things that worried me was that you have a high level of cholesterol in your bloodstream.
23:17Mm-hmm.
23:18The vast majority of it is LDL cholesterol, which is the bad form of cholesterol in the bloodstream.
23:24It leads to things like strokes, heart attacks, angina.
23:29You probably don't feel any different.
23:32Mm-hmm.
23:33You know, you don't, it doesn't make you feel any different now.
23:36It will do, ultimately, because it will cause damage.
23:39The next thing that you could get are kidney stones, because what you do have very high levels
23:46of in your blood is a product called uric acid.
23:51Uric acid is a breakdown product of these things called purines, and they're vital for the make-up of cells.
23:58Purines are natural substances contained in foods such as meat.
24:04When purines are digested, they produce a waste product called uric acid.
24:10The acid is difficult to dispose of and stays in the bloodstream.
24:14This can end up crystallizing in the kidneys to form a kidney stone.
24:19What I'm saying to you is you could have a kidney stone imminently, which is really...
24:27awfully painful.
24:30To illustrate the effects of Pete's diet on his health, Dr Pixie has prepared a demonstration
24:35in which this modified orange represents a kidney stone.
24:39You see those things that are sticking out of it?
24:41And that stone, with its irregular edges and its hardness, gets pushed out through what we call your urethra, the pipe through which you pee.
24:53This tube of plastic will stand in for Pete's urethra.
24:57And it tears the edges of it, and it causes it to go into spasm as it tries to squeeze it out.
25:03And then you get an infection, and then you get blood in your urethra, and then you get more pain.
25:09It's ripping, isn't it?
25:14I'm actually quite terrified of that.
25:17Yeah.
25:18It's awful.
25:19Mm.
25:20All for the sake of your diet.
25:21Mm.
25:22All for a bit of bacon.
25:23Mm.
25:24He could get a kidney stone tomorrow.
25:28And that eye-watering demonstration for Pete, I think, will have him wanting to change his diet in no time at all.
25:37It's definitely the most motivating thing I've had so far.
25:41It makes me really want to start having a balanced diet, that's for sure.
25:47Mm.
25:48Mm.
25:49Mm.
25:50Mm.
25:51Mm.
25:52Mm.
25:53Mm.
25:54While Pete becomes more motivated to change his diet in the present, Stephen wants to establish just how deep-rooted his food problems are in the past.
26:01Pete obviously has some difficult memories from his childhood, but while I've got no reason to doubt this version of events,
26:08I am conscious that we're talking about the situation as seen through the eyes of a child.
26:13I'm off now to meet Pete's dad to try and build up a slightly more comprehensive picture of what actually went on,
26:19and hopefully to try and work out just how much impact this period of his life had on his eating problems.
26:28You had a young child who wasn't eating fruit or veg.
26:32That must have been quite a worry for you at the time, wasn't it?
26:34I don't sort of consciously remember Peter having a real problem in that he wasn't eating.
26:41He looks healthy.
26:43He behaves like a healthy child.
26:45He doesn't appear to have any other, I say any other, he doesn't appear to have any neuroses at all.
26:53It does sound at times, according to Pete, that things may have got quite difficult.
26:58He has memories of sort of leaving the table to avoid...
27:02He was probably sent from the table.
27:04OK, so you're saying to me that there probably were times when you put Pete under a certain amount of pressure.
27:10What was motivating that?
27:12To help Peter grow up a healthy person.
27:15Do you think Peter understands that?
27:17Yes.
27:18Whether he did then or not, I've no idea.
27:21It's an interesting question.
27:23One assumes that he would have known why we were trying to.
27:30I'm sure at some stage we tried a certain amount of explanation rather than just saying you will eat that.
27:41Pete has mentioned that at the time where you moved to Australia that that was quite a time of stress for him.
27:48Do you remember that being a hard time?
27:50No, not really.
27:51I didn't perceive that when we first went over there.
27:56It was...
27:58He settled into school very well.
28:00I was very pleased with the way he coped with it.
28:02He seemed to cope with it very well.
28:04I mean, it sounds to me with Pete that sometimes, you know, sort of perhaps what you see on the surface
28:11doesn't necessarily reflect kind of what's going on underneath.
28:15It could be.
28:16I mean, is that something...
28:18It could be.
28:19Well, I don't know.
28:20If it's underneath, I can't see it either.
28:21No, that's true.
28:22Yeah, it could be.
28:24Well, interestingly, Pete and his father seem to have had rather different experiences around the dining room table.
28:31But what I do think is clear is that Pete actually developed his eating problems as a means of protesting his unhappiness at the time.
28:40The difficulty is that problems then have now become entrenched in his identity as an adult, with the result that his food issues are continuing to affect him in the present.
28:50What I need Pete to learn is that he needs to untangle the hold of the past if he's ever to set himself free to eat normally in future.
28:59It's ten days into Pete's new diet, designed to give his body a break from 100% meat, and already the effects are taking their toll.
29:14Well, it's been a bit of a stressful week because he's been very unhappy. He's not been eating a whole lot. I had to confiscate some cookies at one point because he kept eating them all the time. It's been very difficult for him.
29:30I've been really tired, really hungry all the time, really irritable, really depressed kind of thing most of the week, and I've been taken out on Beth quite a lot because I kind of see her as my enforcer at the moment.
29:46Tonight, Pete's taking his mind off mealtimes by going to see his mate's band play a local gig.
30:00Good times are quickly followed by bad as Pete breaks his no-meat rule and drops in at his favourite fast food joint.
30:22Hey man, how you doing?
30:24Yeah, I know. Had to happen sometime.
30:28Sweet.
30:29I think seeing as I've done so well this week, it's alright just to have it this once. Let's just hope I don't go back to it every day.
30:50So I went out last night and got very drunk, feeling a little bit dizzy today.
30:58And I just had a tiny little bit of cereal for breakfast and lunch in one go. And for lunch I had two bacon steak type things and six sausages.
31:12After two weeks of eating new foods, Pete's fallen off the meat wagon and into a major relapse.
31:26I'm okay as long as I can have a bit of meat. And I've kind of done that and generally always had something. Why did I do it? Why did I accept the challenge of going for a full vegetarian meal? I still always will want to eat meat.
31:42I do worry though about how much he hates everything. And the fact that he does need to have meat to try lots of different things. Because it just makes me think that maybe he will never, ever be able to eat everything. And it's just too big a thing in his life that, you know, maybe he won't ever eat like a normal person.
32:04Natalie's in Maidenhead and wants Pete's household to help motivate him to kick his meat habit for good.
32:16Right. What I'd like you to do is eat Pete's old diet for a whole week.
32:28Exactly like Pete would eat, but obviously as a vegetarian, Beth, you're going to have to make some amendments to that.
32:34So, do you think that you would be able to eat Pete's diet for a week?
32:38We'll give it a try really hard, but I can see why you want us to do it. So, yeah, we'll give it a try.
32:46Natalie hopes their reaction will convince Pete how unappealing eating only meat can be.
32:52You've never done this before.
32:54Meanwhile, on Pete's homewreck menu is his first ever taste of tuna.
32:59This is the worst smell in the world. My first reaction is that it's horrible to me. I think that's a bit selfish.
33:05But that is the first thing I think. I can't bear to be around all that meat all the time.
33:10For them, I'm starting to get the drift that it is going to be really, really horrible.
33:15I think it's going to be very boring and very unhealthy.
33:21Bon Appetit.
33:23You are kidding.
33:25It's amazing.
33:28This just is an explosion of overtaste.
33:31Yeah.
33:32Crispy, crunchy.
33:33Yeah.
33:36That's awesome.
33:37With Brian's disgust made clear, still Pete can't resist helping himself to some chicken.
33:43I'm not going to eat them though. I could just have one. One, one.
33:51It's not as good as I remember that.
33:53See?
33:54I'm just in a really difficult position at the moment because, on the one hand, I want to be really rewarding to Pete and encouraging and, you know, try and help him by giving him rewards.
34:04So I think maybe he doesn't eat as much of what he hates.
34:08So, um, I think I am going to have to get harder on him, which is really horrible because I don't want to.
34:15I don't want to see.
34:16I don't want to see.
34:17I don't want to see.
34:18With Pete finding it impossible to stay off the meat, Stephen wants to tackle the issues that are tying up his progress.
34:31What do you think it might be?
34:36A rope in a massive knot.
34:40Okay.
34:41It is an illustration, essentially, that you still have a lot of issues that are all tied up together.
34:47Mm.
34:48I think the childhood experiences are the thing that glues the rest of it together.
34:55Now, as you start to unpick this, we're going to try and identify what are the various strands in this kind of internal knot of yours.
35:04Okay.
35:05All right?
35:06Yeah.
35:07Okay, so what kind of story, Pete, did you tell yourself about your dad when you were sitting around that meal table?
35:12I just thought he was mean.
35:14I just thought he was sort of nasty.
35:17You probably won't be surprised to hear that his memories are not quite the same as your recollections.
35:24What may have been experienced as him being mean when you were little, in a possibly misguided way, may have been him doing his best to try and make sure that, you know, you ate properly.
35:37Yeah.
35:38All right.
35:39What sort of things do you think might help to change your perspective on those past events?
35:46I don't know.
35:47Positive experiences with eating with my dad and with my family.
35:51Yeah.
35:52Absolutely.
35:53I mean, if that's possible for you, I think that really will help.
35:55Mm.
35:56I think so too, yeah.
35:57Okay.
35:58The more you can separate out the different strands in this knot of yours, the easier it's going to be to untie.
36:05And hopefully, in time, we're going to get to a situation where both the eating problem and the impact of those childhood experiences can be put to one side.
36:15And then you're left with this, your adult identity, free of those to develop in whatever way you want.
36:22Yeah.
36:23Okay.
36:24Okay.
36:25Okay.
36:26Good.
36:27I think it would really help Pete to start changing slightly some of the narratives he's got about some of the events that took place in his childhood.
36:34But that's something he's going to have to work on at his own pace.
36:37In the meantime, the priority for me is to show Pete that he already has the resources and the skills he needs to really make a significant difference to his eating here and now in the present.
36:47The yellow rope, which signifies me now, my adult, sort of, who I want to be, I just want to be normal.
36:55Another person sitting at the dinner table, relaxing, having fun, socialising, like a normal person, that would be nice.
37:02Huh.
37:09In a bid to revive Pete's appetite for new food, Natalie has brought Pete to London's East End and plans to use his love of travelling as her secret weapon.
37:19Today, I really want to get him excited about what are strange foods to him.
37:25He's missed out on certain trips with Beth because of his fear of eating strange foods.
37:32This is it.
37:33Wow.
37:34I've been a bit mean because I've completely asked you to cut out meat entirely from your diet, which is your mainstay.
37:41The thing is that the idea of that was not so that you never eat meat again, but so that you're forced to eat other things and try other things.
37:49Yeah.
37:50Today, Natalie will allow Pete a taste of meat as a way to encourage him to try new flavours.
37:55Yeah, I know.
37:56It's like a stir fry barbecue thing with some sauce on it.
38:00Mmm.
38:01These powders.
38:02So those powders, look, are different spices.
38:05Cajun.
38:06I've had the Cajun chicken before.
38:08So it's not too weird.
38:10No.
38:11What?
38:12It's scary.
38:13Right.
38:14That'll do, isn't it?
38:17Now the bit you have been dying for, the sauces.
38:21Mmm.
38:22Wet food is Pete's worst nightmare and this mixture of spice and sauce is a far cry from Pete's old diet of dry and salty meat.
38:34It's not like a big thick curry or soup.
38:36Yeah.
38:37It's just a bit sticky.
38:38Yeah.
38:39I think you'll be able to do this.
38:40Mmm.
38:41I can try.
38:42It's just looking very scary.
38:45Yeah, see that one looks a bit better.
38:49You first?
38:50Excited?
38:51No.
38:52Well go on, just try a piece of meat straight up and that's easy.
38:54Okay.
38:55Just on its own.
38:59Why are you doing it like that?
39:01Okay.
39:02Now try eating a piece of meat but just look like you're eating normally.
39:06Like that.
39:07It's so difficult eating like normal people.
39:15You do look very funny.
39:17You're very ladylike.
39:19And then you're going...
39:23I can imagine, yeah, that's, yeah.
39:26I don't mean to.
39:27It's just quite funny.
39:28Yeah, it is.
39:29So I had to tease you about it.
39:30Do you have to have sauce on things?
39:33You can get through life without having sauce on things but given that you're up for travelling,
39:37this is an area where you could push yourself a bit more.
39:41Mmm.
39:43And get further towards your goal.
39:45Okay.
39:49I don't want to completely undermine his achievement of having eaten something with sauce on it,
39:53but he's still miles away from really having a full range of foods to choose from.
39:58I don't know.
39:59I get a little bit excited about trying things which I think helped but I don't know,
40:03it was pretty horrible and I don't think I'm...
40:06I think I'm...
40:07I'm not ready for sauces too much yet, I don't think.
40:11The problem for Pete remains in his mind and Stephen now wants him to learn how to approach new foods more positively.
40:26I want him now to focus on happier times from his childhood that are actually unrelated to food.
40:32I want him to draw upon skills that he already possesses to give him the confidence to really start tackling his eating problems.
40:39While living in Australia, Pete was a successful ice hockey player but gave up the sport on returning to the UK eight years ago.
40:51Aha.
40:52Hello.
40:53Welcome.
40:54Right.
40:55What attributes or what characteristics do you think a good ice hockey player needs?
41:02Confident.
41:03I think you need to know how to skate.
41:06Now Pete Turner, when you approach a plate of unfamiliar food, what goes through your head?
41:13I know I'm not going to like it, I know I'm going to hate it, I think I'm probably going to retch or something along those lines.
41:20That's what you are mentally rehearsing in your head.
41:23Out here on the ice rink you learnt that you had to see yourself succeeding.
41:29It's just the same with your food and I need you to sort of stop playing those tapes in which you fail
41:35and start to practice visualising yourself succeeding with food.
41:42While Stephen covers the goal making it harder to score, Pete psychs himself up to take on the challenge.
41:48All right, there we go.
41:50One puck.
41:51Do your thing.
41:52Do your thing.
41:53Okey doke.
41:54Yeah.
41:55Oh my God.
41:56I can't believe it.
41:57That's fantastic.
41:58Were you always able to shoot a puck into a goal like that?
42:15No.
42:16No.
42:17No.
42:18So how did you get there?
42:19I don't know, practice.
42:22Do you see the difference between what you did just now and what you do when you're presented
42:28with some food that currently you're frightened of?
42:31Yeah.
42:32Yeah?
42:33Practice in your head, rehearsing the possibility of it going well rather than badly.
42:39I think Pete did get the point in theory, but I think that in practice while his levels of anxiety and lack of confidence are so high,
42:49it's going to be quite hard for him to really believe that image of him eating successfully.
42:55There's just one week to go until Pete's final challenge to eat a whole meal of vegetarian food.
43:04Natalie wants him to get practising with a trial run of a vegetable stir fry.
43:09Something beyond hope when it comes to this one.
43:24I've heard of stir fry, but I've never had a, I don't know, I suppose maybe when I go travelling I might have to have something like this.
43:35So I guess I sort of see the point, but yeah, more than anything, I just don't want to, don't want to do it.
43:43This is probably the worst thing, but if I can get through like a quarter of it tonight, I'm going to be happy.
43:51The onion smells okay. So maybe, maybe it'll be all right. Maybe.
43:56I don't know.
44:06Feeling anxious about the task ahead, Pete summons a little Dutch courage to help him through.
44:12I'm really not used to colours.
44:14Okay.
44:15Going for a bit of onion.
44:17Yeah, I thought maybe that would do.
44:19It smells so good fried onion, doesn't it? Good, isn't it?
44:23Hmm. It's okay.
44:26Look, it's fiddling about. Just get it down.
44:29It's sloppy.
44:30Come on.
44:36Okay.
44:39I was impressed that you've even eaten.
44:41I can't believe I've eaten any of that. I really can't believe that.
44:46Okay.
44:55Despite Pete's efforts to conquer his fears, he still has doubts about eating a whole vegetarian meal.
45:01The thought of actually having a whole meal that's just vegetables is pretty horrific, really.
45:12Pete's final challenge is just days away and he's still scared about eating vegetables without any sign of meat on his plate.
45:21What Pete needs to do now is to learn how to counteract some of his automatic assumptions and really learn to distrust that part of himself which is just kind of going, no, you know, hold off. This just isn't safe for you to put in your mouth.
45:34Exposure. Yeah. To try and help you make a bit more progress, we have a challenge for you today.
45:40Okay.
45:41It's a little bit of a case of mind over matter.
45:43Because I still think what's going on in your head is what's preventing you from making the progress that you need to.
45:49Yeah.
45:50Let's go and do it.
45:51Okay.
45:59Okay.
46:01It's a walk in the park.
46:03You're not going to make me walk on broken glass, are you?
46:06Because that would be dangerous.
46:07Yeah.
46:08Yeah.
46:09That's what your senses are telling you.
46:11Yeah.
46:12And I want to prove to you that actually sometimes things that look dangerous don't have to be.
46:19Because that's precisely what you're going to have to tell yourself in relation to vegetables, sources and all these foods that at the moment seem so threatening.
46:26Okay.
46:27Stephen wants to smooth Pete's path to successfully eating a whole vegetarian meal.
46:38If he can shatter Pete's instinct to avoid things he fears, Stephen might help Pete take the final steps towards his goal.
46:46One of the things about doing the diaphragmatic breathing is that actually it's one of the most effective ways of telling your nervous system to come down from that state of red alert.
46:56You're actually giving your whole body and then your mind the signal things are okay.
47:01Yeah.
47:02That's fine.
47:03Just put some.
47:04Cool.
47:05So you shake it all out for me.
47:07If Pete can walk on glass, then eating veg really will be a walk in the park.
47:12Good.
47:13Inhale one more time.
47:15Exhale.
47:16Put it down.
47:17I want to hear you breathing.
47:18Look up.
47:20Still there for a second.
47:21Just feel that difference in you.
47:23Yeah.
47:24Take another step now.
47:25So breathe in.
47:26Lift that foot up and move across the glass.
47:30Yeah.
47:31And exhale.
47:32Let it go down.
47:33Its job is to make that sound.
47:36And then stationary.
47:38This is great, Pete.
47:39It actually looks controlled.
47:40You look composed.
47:41It's good.
47:42Okay.
47:43One more step to the edge of the glass.
47:45You can look where it is now because you've mastered this.
47:47Congratulations.
47:48Nice one.
47:49It really is something that potentially you can take away with you, all right?
47:50What made this possible for you was the state of mind in which you approached it.
47:54Keep saying to yourself that actually the danger you perceive isn't real.
47:55Mm.
47:56And you stand some chance.
47:57Okay.
47:58Of being able to cross the dietary divide, yeah?
47:59Okay.
48:00And join the rest of us on the other side.
48:01Okay.
48:02Okay.
48:03Yeah, I've got a huge sense of accomplishment from what I've done today.
48:06I can't believe it.
48:08is something that potentially you can take away with you all right what made this possible for
48:13you was the state of mind in which you approached it keep saying to yourself that actually the
48:17danger you perceive isn't real and you stand some chance of being able to cross the dietary divide
48:25yeah and join the rest of us on the other side yeah yeah i've got a huge sense of accomplishment
48:31for what i've done today i can't believe it this is perfect you know i've i know now that i can
48:36control anxiety it's the morning of pete's big day and he's taking some time out to contemplate
48:48the task ahead yeah i'm kind of worried about the fact that it's going to be a big sort of group
48:58of people that's going to be very scary um it's going to be the first time i've seen my parents and
49:03best parents in the same room kind of thing so that that will be weird for me um it's all just
49:10going to be very weird back at the house beth and val prepare the meal i think he's really ever so
49:19apprehensive um i think that this is going to be really hard for him because he's never done a whole
49:26meal he's done all sorts of bits and pieces very successfully but to sit down for a whole meal
49:32with all the family that's going to be quite something not only is it the final to us today
49:36but it's mine pete's birthday as well so um and it'll be nice if he can enjoy himself and enjoy the
49:42celebration really so if he gets really depressed then if he doesn't succeed then it will sort of put
49:48it down on everything really just if there was just a few bits of chicken i'd feel so much better
50:05i'd be able to do that and still that's huge for me so the fact that i've got to do it with no meat
50:11just sucks and just depresses me and i just just not looking forward to it at all it's just gonna be
50:17horrible as the dinner guests start to arrive so too does the food pete will be eating a meal of
50:25vegetable fajitas and mixed beans with a side of sweet corn and spinach oh not a lovely nose but before
50:33he sits down natalie and stephen drop by to offer pete some last minute words of advice the same rules
50:40apply okay use the techniques that we've taught you you know remember how what resources you've
50:46got inside you to do this and really go for it and do yourself proud we'll be rooting for you okay
50:52i'm really confident that you can do this yeah really i am you've you've come a hugely long way
50:57try and enjoy it if you can we'll try but at the very least just you know put into action what you've
51:04worked on over the last few weeks and you'll be absolutely fine so we'll leave you to it okay we're
51:09going to leave you and then come back and have a little chat with you at the end okay so go and
51:13enjoy it have fun bye pete dreaded family meals as a boy so will you be able to stomach this one
51:31do you want to try any of the sauces are you sure just a little bit
51:59mm-hmm do you really well pete yeah actually have a theory that you're eating it that way because
52:07every time you take a mouthful you squeeze and more of the filling goes up it's all down
52:12yeah have you had any spinach yet yes three leaves
52:26right moment of truth how's he done
52:52very well i suppose the real question though is when you eat your meat in future are there
52:58going to be other things on your plate as well yes yeah fantastic happy birthday all right and well
53:05well done all right
53:10what difference is this going to make no i think it's going to be a huge huge difference i think
53:20um yeah you've done so well i'm so proud of you good good birthday present for you oh yeah the best
53:29present never who needs diamonds though a few red peppers and peas
53:36just don't want to you then raise your glasses arrive for a toast
53:43to the man who's no longer pete the meat
53:49it's a really good result really good result i mean four weeks ago this guy you know really was
53:55it was a meat only diet and you know today he sat down and eating vegetarian meal absolutely amazing
54:01i wasn't sure he'd really really get a whole plate of vegetarian food down because he never has to have
54:06transformed to that degree was absolutely amazing and he did it yeah i don't know i mean i'm not going
54:11to be a vegetarian in the future and if i am then i'm going to still have those meat substitutes
54:17but i don't know you know i know i'm going to keep eating vegetables and fruit and stuff so
54:21it's everything i wanted to achieve and beth's obviously just like i don't know ecstatic i guess
54:30um i think we're going to be able to do anything now and everything really uh go traveling and just
54:36do anything we want to i think it's changed everything
54:45one month on and pete's dietary revolution is still in place over the last month i've tried um
54:51all sorts of things i never thought i would try like mushrooms and onions i love throwing herbs
54:55on food and stuff i really enjoy it i feel like jamie oliver so and it's affected more than just
55:01his attitude to food i really think that pete has grown a lot through this process he's a little
55:06more confident and seems more happy in himself and also just seems to care about himself a bit
55:11more like care about his appearance his skin's clearer and he just looks healthier in fact it's opened
55:17up a whole new world of possibilities i'm not scared to go to any other country now you know i'll know
55:22i'll find something to eat we can do lots more stuff sort of together so it's awesome
55:38it's awesome
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56:08so
56:13you
56:13you
56:13you