Skinny food phobic forced to swap meals with a morbidly obese man

A dangerously skinny food phobic was forced to swap meals with a morbidly obese man in a bid to help her gain weight.

Yasmin Smith spent a week in a diet clinic with Darryl Watson, a 33 stone father of one,  in an effort to overcome her fear of food.

The 7.5 stone mum developed a fear of food when she was diagnosed with a lactose intolerance two years ago.

She became convinced she had intolerance to dairy, wheat, fish and preservatives as well and wiped them off her daily menu.

Yasmin said: "I've been on a lactose free, wheat free, preservative free, additive free, everything free diet for the last two years. Now I just feel like I'm running on empty like a car.

"I worked out when I eliminated wheat I stopped feeling so bloated, when I eliminated dairy and various other things like fast food and preservatives I stopped getting migraines, I stopped feeling sick in the morning all the times and I just went with it. Unfortunately if you don't have those kinds of foods you lose lots of weight.

"With my son when we are messing around everyone is quite scared of me being snapped or hurt."

Refusing to eat anything other than fresh fruit, vegetables and lean meat had left Yasmin a stone and a half underweight.

On a typical day she consumes just 1300 calories, 700 less than the recommended intake for women.

A typical breakfast included rice cakes with strawberries followed by salad or a smoothie for lunch and chicken breast with vegetables and a banana for dinner.

Yasmin's low calorie intake means she is missing out on the equivalent of two days worth of food each week.

She said: "I just feel like I look too thin. I look in the mirror and I just see bones. You'd get an obese person wearing jumpers and jackets to cover the obesity up. I do the same but to cover being thin.

"If I saw someone that was really obese I'd think God do you know what you are doing to yourself, do you know what you're putting in your body, do you know what poisons and artificial rubbish is in your body?"

Yasmin lived and swapped meals with diet dodger Darryl Watson for the Channel 4 Supersize vs Superskinny programme.

The opposites teamed up in a bid to help each other abandon their bad eating habits.

At 33 stone Darryl is four times the size of Yasmin. Enormous fry ups and sack loads of snack foods washed down with gallons of sugary drinks have caused his waist to expand to 66 inches.

Darryl admits his diet of burgers, crisps, pizzas and toasted sandwiches is beginning to take its toll on his health.

He said: "I find it hard to do what I was doing before. Just standing up and getting around is a lot harder than it used to be. Lugging 33 stone around is not an easy job."

Darryl has struggled with his weight since childhood but says he has piled on 15 stone in the last ten years.

He said: "I was 23 when I met my wife. I was around 18 or 18.5 stone and through contentment and being happy started putting it on."

His weight is also beginning to upset wife Tracey.

She said: "We went swimming and there was another floor above us with glass. People were pointing at him and you could lip read they were saying 'how on earth can someone get into that state?'

"Darryl didn't see so I didn't say anything but that hurt me."

In the food clinic Darryl and Yasmin swapped diets for five days. On the first day Darryl was forced to survive the whole morning on four rice cakes while the thought of tucking into a full English breakfast complete with toast and black pudding made Yasmin feel physically sick.

For lunch Darryl had a single glass of fruit smoothie while Yasmin forced down a Pot Noodle and peanut butter sandwich.

By dinner Darryl was more than ready for his chicken and avacado salad but Yasmin struggled to eat roast chicken with all the trimmings.

Yasmin said: "It's not the taste, it's the idea of what's in my mouth. The amount of everything together I was quite shocked by. I've never known anyone who could eat that much.

"The stuffing with the wheat in it is definitely having an effect. I can feel my stomach bubbling and I'm starting to feel a bit sicky.

"I'm actually shaking. I just feel really sick. I haven't felt like this for a long time. This is how I felt when I used to eat all of this."

Forced to look at images of her malnourished body, Yasmin said:" I used to have a nice bum and it's gone.

"It reminds me of what you see on the news when you see the children in Ethopia with their stomachs and ribs sticking out."

Apart from the diagnosed lactose intolerance, doctors found no evidence that Yasmin's body is unable to digest other types of food.

They believed she was using intolerances as an excuse to eat less and confronted her with her biggest fear, a wheat based pizza topped with prawns, chicken and cockles.

After a week in the clinic Yasmin and Darryl were sent home with the same 12-week healthy eating programme to follow.

In just three months Darryl lost 4 stone 3lbs, the equivalent of his young son while Yasmin put on half a stone and more than four inches around her stomach and hips.

Yasmin said: "I've learned not to fear food anymore. I feared food because I put all my worries of my intolerances from lactose all in one and combined them unnecessarily.

"It's brilliant and means I can lead a normal life again."

Darryl said: "This has been life changing. I've learned that there are people at the other extreme of dieting where they just eat so little.

"How I was eating before wasn't right. It was just eating what I wanted when I wanted and that's not the right way."

By Kim Gregory, Jan 30 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy