Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was a political thug, an old-school Labor MP who could down a pint in five seconds and was no stranger to public outbursts, such as the famous punch of a farmer who egged him on in 2001.
But privately she grappled with what is often mistakenly considered a “women’s disease”: bulimia, an eating disorder.
Bulimia nervosa is a type of eating disorder in which people eat large amounts of food in one sitting and then try to compensate. vomiting, taking laxatives or diuretics, fasting, or exercising excessively (called purging).
While the condition is believed to be caused by multiple factors, including genetics, it can be triggered by embarking on weight-loss diets and, in the case of Lord Prescott, stress.
The former MP for Kingston upon Hull East, who died aged 86 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, went public with his condition in 2008 and was praised for raising awareness of eating disorders in men.
In his autobiography, Lord Prescott said his bulimia developed in the 1980s due to the stress of serving in the then Labor Party shadow cabinet.
He then battled his mental health problem for two decades.
He detailed how during his time in Tony Blair’s government he would binge on burgers, chocolate, chips and fish and chips.
Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott privately struggled with what was and is, falsely, considered for years a “women’s disease”, bulimia.
Writing in The Sunday Times, which serialized his memoirs, Lord Prescott said that when things got to him, he “took refuge in stuffing my face.”
He also spoke of the shame he felt as a man suffering from an eating disorder, later adding that he thought people would think he was “too unstable” to be a minister if his condition became public.
“People usually associate it with young women: anorexic girls, models trying to keep their weight down, or women in stressful situations, like Princess Diana,” he wrote.
Lord Prescott attempted to hide his condition from his loved ones, but his wife Pauline realized what was happening due to “telling signs in the bathroom” along with “missing food.”
She urged him to see a doctor and he was eventually diagnosed with bulimia and sent to seek specialized help.
‘I arrived to find their waiting room full of young women. I was the only man there. “I felt like an idiot,” he recalled.
When he first spoke out about his eating disorder, he had been in recovery for more than a year.
Lord Prescott was a political thug, an old-school Labor MP who could drink a pint in five seconds and was an accomplished boxer.
He famously, as he joked, “connected with the electorate” after punching Craig Evans in 2001 after he goaded the Labor politician.
Lord Prescott’s decision to go public with his bulimia was widely praised at the time.
She was 69 when she made her revelation and helped dismiss the idea that eating disorders were a condition that only ruined the lives of teenage girls.
Eating disorder charity Beat in particular praised Lord Prescott’s honest account of his experience as it helped people realize that men can easily fall victim to eating disorders too.
Although women represent the majority of people with eating disorders, it is estimated that one of those who suffer from them are men.
Like binge eating disorder and anorexia, bulimia can lead to serious physical health problems.
Frequent vomiting can cause a hole to develop in the stomach and damage the throat and teeth due to repeated exposure to acid bile.
In 2017, Lord Prescott told the daily helmet mail of the horrors of “forcing acid down your throat.”
“That weakens the esophagus and eventually, when you’re lying down at night, the acid goes up on its own,” he said.
“It also has the effect of causing the glands on the side of the neck to swell, making it appear even larger.”
The then Deputy Prime Minister Prescott is pictured with the then Prince of Wales Charles in 1998.
Lord Prescott pictured with his wife Pauline, who encouraged him to seek help for his eating disorder.
He also talked about how letters and notes sent by people affected by eating disorders, including loved ones of sufferers, meant a lot to him.
‘One of the letters was from a mother whose daughter suffered from anorexia. “She thanked me for speaking publicly about my eating disorder, because she felt there was a perception that sufferers were weak,” she said.
Lord Prescott, son of a railwayman and a servant from North Wales, has died at the age of 86 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
His family said he passed by to the sound of his favorite jazz music and surrounded by his loved ones. in his nursing home.
In total, around one in 50 Britons are thought to be living with an eating disorder, and of those, around one in five are estimated to have bulimia specifically.
Eating disorders, although commonly developing in adolescence, have been known to occur in children as young as six years old and in adults in their 70s in the UK.
Many people who live with eating disorders do so for years, research suggests.
While treatment, consisting primarily of therapy and diet plans, is available, data suggests that only about half of patients are completely cured.
Anyone concerned about their or someone else’s health in relation to an eating disorder can contact Beat on 0808 801 0677 or at beateatingdisorders.org.uk.