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Ed Gamble has spoken about his complicated relationship with food after his significant weight loss.
The comedian, 38, who was once 19 stone with a 42-inch waist, dropped seven stone in his early twenties and subsequently developed “obsessive” tendencies with “evil” bathroom scales.
Gamble – who has Type 1 diabetes – admitted he is still “constantly” thinking about what foods he should or shouldn’t be consuming and is “always ready to binge-eat”.
Speaking to The Times, Gamble said “I’m always thinking, ‘I shouldn’t eat that.’ I’m always ready to binge eat.
“But now I’ve got an extra layer to my thoughts where I can think about how food makes me feel in future,” he added. “I can think about the next few hours as opposed to the instant gratification. But, definitely, I think a fat man brain is what I’ve got.”
Gamble, who is a judge on the BBC’s Great British Menu and has co-hosted the food comedy podcast Off Menu with James Acaster since 2018, criticised claims obesity costs the NHS many millions of pounds each year.
“It’s such a bullshit argument,” he said. “It’s people who want to be angry with other people. ‘You’re costing the NHS a lot’. Everyone costs the NHS money.”
Last year, Gamble admitted he became fixated with his image and couldn’t stop checking his weight on the scales in his house.
“After losing weight, I got more obsessed with my image. You do feel different, wondering, ‘Oh, maybe I’m attractive now,’” he said.
The Great British Menu judge had to watch his more obsessive tendencies after he dropped to 12 stone and was weighing himself every day.
“That’s not a weight I operate well at,” he recalled. “It means I don’t have a social life; I’m always exercising and thinking about what I eat.”
“At that point, my mum said, ‘You don’t need to keep doing this. Build in having fun again.’”
Gamble said that while had weighing scales in his bathroom at the time, he saw them as “evil”. “You’ve put on 2lb. So what? Stop looking. Go with how you feel,” he said.
Growing up as a “posh little boy”, Gamble often used food to prove that he was “like the grown-ups”. Speaking to The Independent, Ed Gamble recalled first eating poached salmon when he was three or four years old.
“I think it would be easy to serve child me in a restaurant,” he said. “I think you’d think I was weird, possibly, because I’d be sat bold upright at the table, sort of like a mini [food critic] Jay Rayner, just demanding everything.”
For anyone struggling with the issues raised in this article, eating disorder charity Beat’s helpline is available 365 days a year on 0808 801 0677. NCFED offers information, resources and counselling for those suffering from eating disorders, as well as their support networks. Visit eating-disorders.org.uk or call 0845 838 2040
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