Freaky Eaters (2007) s03e07 Episode Script
Addicted to Yorkshire Puddings
NARRATOR: '19-year-old Aaron Saunders might seem like | your average teenager.
' Whoo! 'But behind closed doors he struggles with a dark | and debilitating problem.
Aaron is addicted | to Yorkshire puddings.
He chomps his way | through a dozen a day.
Since the age of five, he hasn't been able to stomach | much else.
' The fact that I don't eat much more | than a toddler does, it kind of makes me feel | quite embarrassed.
'But at least he's now | eating something.
' Aaron was on powdered milk from | birth until he was about five.
'Where this freaky eating comes from | is anyone's guess, but Aaron's mum has her theory.
' I think it's an alien | from outer space.
I think someone came down | in the hospital and whipped him away.
Never met anybody else like it.
'Weighing in at just 8.
5 stone, not surprisingly, this pudding diet | is starting to take its toll.
' Aaron is not getting enough vitamins | and things.
He gets very tired.
'And with his weight continuing | to drop, it could soon become a matter | of life or puddings for Aaron.
' I think my problem is serious.
The last time I checked, | I'm two stone under weight.
I think if it did continue | any longer I would eventually | be put in hospital.
'Helping him to beat | his food freakiness will be the job of our experts.
Nutritionist Charlotte Watts will attempt to move | his kiddie palate onto grown-up foods.
' Ooh, no, instantaneous.
'Psychologist Felix Economakis will have his work cut out | tackling Aaron's food fears.
' I think you just don't want to | go somewhere because you associate it with | something really negative.
'And his lack of commitment | to changing.
' If you don't cooperate, | I can't do anything.
'But with just four weeks to work on their youngest | and most extreme case yet, can Aaron grow up nutritionally | and kick the puddings for good?' I guess I'm gradually losing | confidence.
It's easier said than done.
No.
'19-year-old Aaron Saunders lives with his mum and dad | in Norwich.
After dropping out of school | with no qualifications, he recently started his first job | as a receptionist at a local maintenance firm.
Aaron grew up as an only child.
And whilst he may be taking | his first steps into adulthood, when it comes to his eating habits | he's got a lot of growing up to do.
Aaron survives on Yorkshire puddings.
But eating over a dozen a day isn't | something he actually likes.
' The reason I eat Yorkshire puddings is because I can tolerate them.
I don't really enjoy them, | but it's something I can eat and that my mouth accepts.
'He may be 19, but Aaron's diet has hardly | progressed since he was a toddler, when his parents first noticed | his freaky eating.
' I was on the baby formula | till I was about five or six.
He would not eat baby food.
He'd put it in his mouth | and then spit it out at you.
We had expert advice, and they just said, "As long as | he's healthy, he's fine, he's sleeping well, | let him have just that.
" I'll go and eat these.
'His family may be used to it, but Holly, Aaron's girlfriend | of two years, finds it hard to handle.
' Aaron's eating habits | really do frustrate me and make me feel awkward.
One day I saw him eating like 12 | Yorkshire puddings on a plate, and you just think, "Whoa! | That's really weird.
" Enjoying that? 'Aaron doesn't get all his nutrients | from his beloved Yorkshire puddings.
There are a few other foods | he will eat.
' Chips, crisps.
Chocolate.
'And one of them | also batter based.
' And pancakes.
'As well as being freaky | about what he'll eat, Aaron's also developed | a complicated set of rules about where he'll eat too.
' I can't really eat my main meals, like Yorkshire puddings | and pancakes, anywhere other than my own house, cos they'll taste different, | I think.
It's something about having his own | utensils, I think, and his own sort of He's in much more control | if he's got all of his own stuff.
'But even at home there are rules.
Mum and Dad eat at the table while Aaron insists on munching | his 12 Yorkshire puds in solitude upstairs.
' I'll eat them whilst I'm playing | a computer game or watching a television show.
And then it takes my mind off | the fact I'm eating food and it makes it easier to eat | the same stuff over and over if I'm ignoring it, basically.
'Ironically, all Aaron | wants is a simple life.
' If there's lots of different foods | in front of me, it would be quite daunting | in a way.
All the different tastes and that | would get quite confusing and I'll just gag.
And that's not good.
Possibly a sprout.
I'm not sure.
Looks like a tree.
'Aaron's loved ones are worried about what his diet | is doing to his health.
' I'm frightened that he's | he's gonna die in the end, because he's just not having all | the vitamins.
I do notice things about Aaron, | like his tiredness.
I'll turn to the caffeine pills just to give me that extra boost | in the morning so I can actually do anything.
He's really pale.
Ever since I've first known him | he has lost a lot of weight.
I'm just eating to live, | and it's such a problem.
I'm so bored of it by now | and it needs to change.
'Today Aaron has a date | with dietary destiny.
Psychologist Felix | and nutritionist Charlotte have just four weeks to bring Aaron's | bizarre eating habits back down to earth.
' Hi, Aaron.
| Hello! Hello.
| I'm Felix, this is Charlotte.
Hello, nice to meet you.
'Before they can begin their work, Charlotte and Felix want Aaron to | hear a few home truths he may never have heard before.
' And what I'd like you to do, Aaron, is really listen to | the comments here, take it on board, and then we'll catch up with you | after you've seen it.
OK then.
| All right, see you soon.
Aaron, it's Mum here.
We've tried so hard | when you were younger, trying to give you things.
It really does worry me about what | the future's gonna hold for us and for you yourself.
Hi Aaron, it's Dad here.
I'd really, really love to see | you eat if not a proper meal just a few different things so that I know that you would be | happier in yourself.
Just imagine if we could go out | and have a meal together.
You won't be sitting there | with an empty plate, people won't be looking at you like you've got something wrong | with you.
Sometimes I feel I've failed, | that we've not If only we could put the clock back, it would be a lot, lot better.
I'm really scared | that your eating issues are gonna affect you | when you're older, and cause problems.
And you could have heart failure, and then I'd be left by myself | just thinking, "Why wasn't something done about it | when you were young enough?" Um, so please, if we could just get | through this together, that would be really great.
I love you lots, and I'll support | you all the way through.
What was that like for you | to hear those comments? Um, it was quite difficult.
I mean, we don't really talk about | stuff like that face-to-face.
So it's good to hear that they're | behind me all the way.
Because when they usually talk to me it sounds like | they're just nagging me.
I feel like I just want to get out | of there and not talk to them.
Was there anyone in there | who particularly moved you? Um, yeah, Holly at the end, where she said that, | if she was by herself, you know.
It really means I've got to change.
It's good that you've had that | kind of response.
We really need you to give it | your all.
Yeah.
Are you ready to start, then? | Yep.
OK, let's go.
'Felix and Charlotte have organised a nutritional wake-up call for Aaron that may be hard to swallow.
' So what do you make | of all of this, Aaron? Uh, that's quite crazy, actually.
Ah, good, | I'm glad you had that reaction.
Yeah! This is not just a representation | of the kind of things you eat, this is actually the only thing | you eat.
Aaron, I don't know | what scares me more.
How little you eat, | or what you actually eat.
Your staple diet for the year is this 1,872 Yorkshire puddings.
| That's a lot.
(LAUGHS) Yeah, it's kind of, | it's a lot of Yorkshire puddings.
But it's not really a lot of food.
| No.
It reminds me how boring it is | just to eat it every day.
Yes, absolutely.
| It looks amazingly bland.
And it also looks bland | nutritionally.
'And it's not just the 1,872 puddings | that's a worry.
' If we come over here, I think this | really helps to illustrate, because this slop is what the | Yorkshire puddings are made from.
Looks like somebody just emptied | the rest of their plate | into a bin or something.
From my point of view, | your saving grace here is that there's eggs | and milk in here.
At least you're getting some | B-vitamins.
'On top of this paddling pool | of pancake mix, Aaron also chomps his way through | 730 bags of crisps a year.
' This is the start | of quite a few disease processes.
So this is why it's so crucial | for us to stop this now.
Yeah.
'And then of course there is | the chocolate.
' At least it's not yellow.
Saving grace.
But this is 416 bars of chocolate.
When you look at this diet | in its entirety, what's your feeling when you see | other people's diets, and just making a comparison? It's actually quite disturbing, | cos there's so little here.
Right now you're suffering | double whammy.
You eat too little | and you eat the wrong kind of stuff.
It's almost as if you're | at a stage where you're not feeling that your body | can handle full adult food, and we need to get you into a mode where you're moving onto | an adult diet.
And looking at it, it just makes me feel a bit sick.
So it is quite disturbing to see it | all just right in front of me.
So bearing this in mind, what is it you want to achieve | at the end of the four weeks? I think I'd like a more varied diet, | and not be so bored of food, really.
Brilliant, OK.
I'm really worried about Aaron.
He's certainly the most severe case | we've come across.
And I feel his actual life | is on the line.
I really need him to be | that shocked, cos he's got an enormous amount of | changing to do, just staggeringly huge mountain | to climb.
From my point of view to what to do, we've got to start from | the beginning.
'Aaron has a mammoth task ahead, but helping him to batter his freaky | eating into submission won't be easy for girlfriend Holly | either.
' I do love Aaron, but sometimes it is | really, really hard to sort of think to yourself, you know, "Can I carry on with this? Am I gonna put up with this | anymore?" When I'm with him I just learn | to blank it out.
I just completely ignore it as much | as I can, because otherwise | I think I'd just go crazy.
I wouldn't have been able | to stay with him if I didn't learn to blank it out.
It's quite complicated.
It's not just gonna be me, you know, | training myself to eat new foods.
It's gonna be a lot more than just, | you know, four weeks and then I'm fine, | I'm like everyone else.
'Aaron's diet isn't just dull, | it's dangerous.
Charlotte wants to find out what | damage he may be doing to his health.
Dr Pixie McKenna is GP who | specialises in eating disorders.
Charlotte's brought Aaron | to her clinic.
' I've spent the last few weeks just | going through your medical history and having a look at | those blood tests which you kindly had done for us.
And there's quite a lot to worry | about you.
The big thing that strikes me, | thinking about your symptoms and how you feel - cos you're feeling quite tired, | aren't you? Kind of exhausted, yeah.
I think your blood sugar levels, | as shown in your blood tests, are actually dropping | during the day.
Typically you will feel very tired, because glucose is your, | it's basically your fuel.
We really crucially need you to get | onto food sources that sustain energy.
| Yeah.
And one of the most important things | for that is to have breakfast.
'When blood sugar levels fall | below normal, it's known as hypoglycemia, which in plain English means | "undersweet blood".
The brain is one of | the first organs affected from the lack of glucose it needs | for fuel, leaving you feeling weak, tired, | irritable and trembly.
Eating foods that release | sugar slowly, such as oats, berries and bananas, is the best way to provide | a constant level of energy to your body and your brain.
' Do you want to pop up on | the weighing scales for me? 54.
5kg.
How tall are you? | About 5'9".
OK.
Are you familiar with this thing | called body mass, BMI, which is the ratio of your weight | to your height? Yeah.
And in a healthy male we would like | that to be over 20.
Now yours is coming in at under 18.
Your body's in a bit | of a starvation state.
Yeah, so it's gonna start using up | other sources of energy.
And you don't want to | get to the point where it starts wasting muscle away.
So it starts using protein for fuel, because that's the point where it's | very, very hard to build up again.
And I would like to lot, | I would say, bulkier.
I know I look thin.
I don't look slim, | I look like a stick.
Are you worried about what you see? | Er, I don't like what I see.
So you would be happier | if you looked healthier? Yeah.
| OK.
I think at the moment | you're like a house plant with no plant food and no water.
And we want you to blossom.
| Yeah.
I was really taken aback | when I met Aaron.
Because he looked sick! And I hope that the simple | suggestions we gave to him about how he can change things NOW and ultimately feel better | and look better, he's taken on board.
I did like the way that she went for | saying how it could be if I did eat, as opposed to saying how it will be | if I don't eat.
They'd done it in a way that appealed to me.
'With no time to waste, Charlotte sends Aaron home with a homework hamper filled with | tasks for the week ahead.
And it starts with something to get | those blood sugar levels up.
' "Breakfast is the most important | meal of the day.
This week I would like you to eat a piece of fruit or one type of | breakfast food every morning.
It must be of nutritious value.
| Enjoy.
" I don't think anything | looks appealing.
And I don't think I'm at a point | where I'll enjoy food.
That's a healthier breakfast | than I would eat.
(BOTH LAUGH) Guess I've kind of gotten | everything I need from this, and now I need to just go away | and think, process it all in my head.
'Breakfast is a scary prospect, and it doesn't take long before Aaron | needs to make rules in order to cope.
' The rule of one nutritious thing | a day is limiting me a bit.
I'd rather have the choice | of being able to eat one thing, new thing, a day, | or not trying one new thing a day.
I know you feel pressured, but is the fact that you try | and make rules for it, then, just something that you find | comfortable with food? Is it part of your, like, control? | I suppose so, yeah.
I think I'm gonna start Monday.
I just think that's the start | of the week, that will be a good time | to start.
For me it is hard to see Aaron eating a full meal | in a couple of weeks' time.
After all these years of him just | eating Yorkshire puddings, it's so, so hard to see | that he's going to be able to try all the new things you can | possibly have in a meal.
But I haven't given up on him.
'With his homework hamper on hold, the following morning, Aaron heads off for his first | one-on-one with Charlotte.
' This exercise today is really about | me finding out where Aaron is, him understanding his own | relationship with food, and between those two things really finding out | how we can move them forward.
How is this looking to you? Daunting.
I'm quite nervous at the moment.
There seems to be a lot of things | that aren't consistent.
Oh, I see - kind of uniform.
| Yeah.
For instance, all of your Yorkshire | puddings look the same.
So you feel safe | within boundaries.
Do you eat nuts at all? | Have you ever eaten nuts? No.
They just don't look appealing | whatsoever.
They don't look like food, | I suppose.
I guess I'm trying to think of like | a procedure I'd have to go through before I try it.
Oh, you're trying to make some more | rules around trying the new things.
Yeah.
Are you feeling | real resistance here? I know in my head what's the worst | that can happen.
Yeah.
But it's still something | I wouldn't enjoy doing.
What happened? What was the bit | where you suddenly Hm.
I mushed it, and then I'd get | a hard bit again.
Unlike something like | the Yorkshire pudding where the whole thing | kind of goes pfft really quickly? 'After a little success | with the nuts, Charlotte hopes fruit | might be easier to swallow.
' That's pear and that's apple.
Eugh, that's really horrible.
In which way? Slimy.
Leaving residue on my hand.
I guess in my head | it doesn't feel right.
Can you define "right"? I guess it's to do with the fact that nothing else I eat | is anything like it.
'Charlotte's going nowhere fast, but makes a last-ditch attempt | to get Aaron to combine foods, something he's never done before.
' How does the idea of putting two | things in your mouth at once | feel to you? If I did have two things I'd have to enjoy the things | separately beforehand.
OK.
I'd say carrot dipped in | a bit of soft cheese.
Do you want to taste a bit of | the cheese first? That would be easier.
| OK.
Here you are.
(CHUCKLES) I don't know why I can't try it.
It's like | I can't will myself to.
Like I'm thinking in my head, | "Come on," but I can't.
I-I don't know why.
Ooh, no.
Instantaneous.
All the foods in front of you are | important to try and consider as part of a diet that we need to | work you towards.
This is something you need to | start doing yourself.
I'm not gonna be there at home | to sit here and go (LAUGHS) Are you ready to do that? | I think so, yeah.
What I learnt from Aaron today | is that he is a very extreme case.
He's incredibly systematic | in his approach, and it's very much applied around | his old rules.
And he needs to let go of those | a bit.
Unfortunately that's not really | gonna work here.
It's really hard for me to explain, and I don't even understand | all the rules myself, but it's almost like I have to break | everything down into logic before I can even attempt | to try anything new.
ALARM CLOCK PLAYS A TUNE 'It's Monday morning, and Aaron's up early to tackle | Charlotte's homework task - muesli.
This will the first time he's ever | attempted to eat a proper breakfast.
' Not sure how well I'll fare here.
It's quite hard to map out | my routine.
It's just I have to think | about things quite a bit before I can try it.
I don't think there's anything | in life that, for me, that translates to how hard | I find it to try food.
Don't think I should have put | so much in the bowl.
Aaron? | (AARON SPITS) TOILET FLUSHES No.
I kind of panicked when it didn't | go down with the milk.
Not chewing it.
I figured | it was not chewable stuff.
No.
'With Aaron still struggling to get | his head around his homework task, Felix wants to uncover what lies at | the root of his eating problems.
' Where do you feel this developed, this idea of you can only eat | certain foods and then nothing else? I think I've been like it | ever since I was born.
So up to what age were you still | just drinking formula milk? Probably about the age of six.
Right, wow.
| That is obviously a long time.
Yeah, they said they went to | the doctor about it.
Why am I still on milk? And the doctor just said, | "He'll grow out of it eventually.
" And I think they just took that | on board, and then that was the big mistake.
OK, when you think of Dad, what are the first three adjectives | that come to mind? I see him as a bit clumsy | and a bit foolish, I think.
And when you think of Mum? She's a bit over-caring.
How is she over-caring? Um, well, she just kind of hassles | me all the time about it.
"What have you eaten? | What have you had today? What are you going to eat later?" | And I just get tired of it.
So the way to not help you | is to nag you.
As soon as someone nags you, you go | the other way and you resist.
I feel pressured about it.
So from an early age | you got your way with food and then eating | on your own, and obviously that's gonna ruin | the closeness of the family.
You're not eating around meal times, | and chatting and conversing.
And also you wouldn't necessarily | see your parents as parents, as leaders.
It's more like you seem to call | the shots.
In a way, yeah.
| In a way.
OK.
I don't think I really am | that close to any of my family.
Right.
And that seems to be partly | out of choice, is it? I suppose so.
It just seems awkward to try | and step up the communication.
Do you have any ideas | about why that might be? I think a lot of it | had to do with the fact that I felt like | they were hassling me a lot about my eating and stuff.
Oh, right.
I just kept shouting at them for it | and stuff.
Cos it seems unusual.
Most of us seek | some kind of closeness, at least until we're teenagers, | then we want to break away.
So for it to happen | at such a young age, it's kind of interesting, | and it's intriguing for me.
Aaron seems to be putting up | barriers with his family in much the same way | he does with his food.
So in order for him to progress and for me to help him overcome | these barriers, I need to work with him | to discover further what triggered these food problems | in the first place.
I really wasn't sure why Felix was | asking me all these questions about my family.
I don't think it made much sense and | I don't think it was very relevant and I'm not really sure what to make | of that session as a whole.
'The next morning, Holly is up early | with Aaron to help him with his second attempt | at tackling breakfast cereal.
But before long, he's back to | his old trick - putting things off.
' What are you going to do | when I'm not here and you've got to eat something? Why don't you do it now, | while I'm here? Then at least you've got | some sort of help.
I suppose if I was going to try | anything, it would be the hot oats.
I'm gonna go put my phone on charge.
| It's low on battery.
No matter how much you try, he doesn't seem to see it | as encouragement.
He just takes it straightaway | as pressure, and it's annoying, | because I have to keep doing it.
Just do it! 'Sensing Holly's frustration, Aaron finally relents and gets | his oats in the microwave.
' If you keep playing with it | you're gonna make it look worse.
Hm.
Come on.
I hate this barrier.
Yeah, I know.
I think it stresses me out | cos it's hot, and it's stressing me out because | it'll go cold if I don't eat it.
And because I'm worried | about it going cold that pushes me away from it more.
| Yeah.
It's too complicated.
| How is it complicated? Toobitty.
| The cereal? It's just cereal.
| It's not, though.
It's not milk and solid, | it's mush and more mush.
I'm annoyed at myself | for not being able to try it, cos it should be so easy, | but it's so not.
No.
I really don't know what's best | for Aaron now.
At one point he was | he was quite close to tears.
And it's a real shame, because he seemed so positive | about it to start off with.
I felt quite bad for him, because I've never seen him get that | sort of stressed about food.
It has left me thinking, is he gonna change his mind | about this whole thing? And if what he's gone through so far has been a waste of time, | just because of some hot oats.
'Aaron's halfway through | his dietary makeover, but he still hasn't left | the starting gate.
Felix needs a plan to move him on.
And fast.
' Aaron's a very severe case with almost obsessive-compulsive | type of rules and behaviour.
And I think understanding his | thought processes as a child may help me to move him forward | in the present.
I'd like you to imagine that you're standing on an imaginary | time line of your life.
You're in the present.
There's the future.
| Behind you is the past.
I'd like you to consider taking | a step forward in the future, to a time in the future where what you've come to see me | about is resolved to your satisfaction.
Deep breath andexcellent.
Here you are in the future.
How is it different here for you? Um, I feel a lot healthier.
Um, you know, stronger, faster.
Excellent.
What I'd like you to do is take a | step back into that present state.
When you look at that future you, | my question is, what specifically prevents you | being there right now? It's my mind.
My invisible wall of not being able | to try new things.
The thing that frustrates me is I | don't know what is holding me back.
OK, well, that's what we're here to | explore a little bit.
We're just here to find out.
So this | is what I'd like you to do.
I'd like you to really tune into | the obstacle in a moment.
Really allow yourself | to feel the block.
And I want you to track those | memories back to the very first time you recall, you know, "When did I first create | this block?" I'm finding it really hard to | understand it.
Right.
I just cannot move | that feeling back with me.
So something's happening around you | in your environment.
Can you get a sense | what you're reacting to here? Not really.
I don't know why this is so hard.
What's the specific difficulty here | for you? I don't like going back | in my memory.
I think when I was like the age | of 16, I kind of was like new Aaron and just ignored the rest before it.
We're not asking you to be that | Aaron again once and for all time.
We're asking you to get some | important information that will shed some light | on the future so we can make some changes.
'The session continues, but the more | Felix probes into Aaron's past, the more he resists.
' Can't see how it relates, | so that's all Right.
| That's what's putting me off.
The reason that | it's making me resist is cos I don't see how this has anything to do with | why I can't eat food, because I know it's been | since birth.
What you're sort of doing today | is similar to what you do with food.
If you get uncomfortable | around food, you shut down and you withdraw.
The block is coming up | and using this as well.
"Because I can't get it, | I'm not gonna do it.
" And I don't think that's the real | cause of this resistance.
I think you just don't wanna | go somewhere because you associate it with | something really, really negative.
It's just one of those things.
The way I eat is one of those things | and I'm trying to get over it.
It's got nothing to do with | any deep-seated secrets or underlying personality problems | or It's just something that's happened.
It's not all these deep things | with my family.
That's just other crap | that's gone on.
If I've had these eating habits | since I was born, I can't see how anything that's | happened between then and now has any relevance to why | I eat like I do.
It's almost like he wants to change | without putting any work into it.
He just wants it to be magically | transferred to him.
And that's just not how it works.
It's again Aaron being his own | worst enemy about something, and coming up with reasons | and excuses not to engage in the therapy.
And that's a frustrating position | for a therapist to be in.
Hello.
| MUM: Hello! How did it go? Just a load of pointless stuff | that was completely pointless and was a waste of time.
I'd have had more fun at home.
Well, I've kind of got it in my head | that this is about eating, and then they do | all this other stuff that's got nothing to do with it.
Waste of time.
Sort of retracing to your steps, | you know? And nothing drastic happened | when I was seven that made me not stop eating, | did it? No.
| Well, there we go.
They're trying to make we work out | distant memories, which are a load of (BLEEP).
You know, when I held you down | and stood on you, and said, "You eat this.
" And we force-fed you | when we put a funnel in your mouth.
Hopefully I'm doing | something useful tomorrow that'll actually be useful.
You like Charlotte.
| I like Charlotte.
Cos she talks about food.
'Felix and Charlotte | decide they need to change tack if they ever want to get through | to Aaron.
Charlotte thinks a bit of | food science might appeal to Aaron's | over-analytical brain.
' The purpose of today is to really | work with the way Aaron thinks.
He's very systematic, he likes to | break things down to progress and he likes to know why | before he does something.
So I've brought him to | a food science lab where he'll get to taste | new flavours, he'll get to understand | how the tongue works.
That way when he starts to try | new things it's not just a massive bombardment | of the senses.
'Charlotte's got a plan she hopes | will persuade Aaron to abandon some of his food rules.
She's brought him to meet | food analyst Dave Hart.
' What we're gonna try and explain is | how your sense of taste works.
There are only five basic tastes, and all of these you taste | on your tongue, OK? Anything beyond these five you need | your nose for as well.
So this is sweet, OK? Yeah.
The next one is bitter.
| OK.
OK.
This is sour.
All right.
Now this is salt.
All right.
Yuck! This is the fifth taste.
This one may not be | so familiar to you.
This is a taste called umami, which is Japanese for | "delicious taste", basically.
And it's a taste | that comes from glutamates.
Your tongue is coated with hundreds | and hundreds of little things we refer to as taste buds.
We can show this on your tongue | by staining it blue, the little taste buds | standing out as being pink.
Can you see the density of the taste | buds is quite high on the tip of the tongue? | Oh.
Which means actually Aaron's | probably quite a sensitive taster.
Which means, actually, | when he's trying new foods, they are gonna be They are gonna seem more intense | than they might do to, definitely, to me, | and maybe to you.
'But Aaron's problem isn't simply | that food tastes stronger to him.
' I guess one of my problems is that | I associate tastes with image.
Yeah.
'Charlotte hopes that if Aaron | can't see what he's eating his mind will stop telling him | not to eat it.
' Now I've lost the main sense I use, | and it kind of makes me nervous.
Yeah.
OK, you ready? | Not really.
OK.
Um, is that carrot? | Yeah! Hm.
The texture, I think maybe | because I didn't see it, just kind of was like, | this is a bit strange, but wasn't ultimately making me | want to get it out of my mouth.
Brilliant.
So what's the difference, | then, when you can't see it? There's less me trying to think | it out, I think.
Yeah.
Is this gonna be any more | complicated? No.
There's somecrispy.
Some.
| Mm.
Had a bit more flavour to it.
Felt a bit more | I'd use the word "meaty".
But I mean - | Yeah, that's good.
That was a beetroot crisp.
A beetroot crisp? | Yes.
OK.
| OK, you ready? Wasn't too bad.
Banana.
It's actually Kiwi fruit.
Kiwi fruit.
Can I take these | off now? Yes, absolutely.
What I find so interesting is you | were very willing, in comparison, to just take the food | and experience it.
If you looked at it before | you had tasted it, without the visuals, how do you | think you would have felt about it? It would have taken a lot more | for me to put it in my mouth.
As it progressed and he actually | started trying real food and responding to that, he could logically | move his way forward, and that's really important to him and how he manages his problem | and how to get out of it.
Thought that was a lot better.
I learnt a lot about the core things | about food, and I think it's important to be | able to know the underlying stuff before I can really get on with it, | really.
Pleased with the day.
I think it was very positive.
There was a lot I learned, and definitely a good push | in the right direction, I think.
'The next morning, empowered by the previous day's | food revelations, Aaron attacks Charlotte's next | homework hamper.
' "There are some suggested lunch | and dinner recipes for you to try this week.
I would like you to try a different | lunch and dinner every day.
" Crunchy vegetable stir fry.
Right, that's far too complicated.
Vegetable and lentil, | a homely chunky soup.
Eugh.
'But without a blindfold, it's not long before | those barriers go up.
' Free range egg noodles.
No.
I have no idea.
Not really sure what do to with any | of this stuff here.
I think this week's gonna be | a bit more difficult.
I think a lot of these foods | I'm gonna put in my mouth and instantly hate and never want to | go near again.
Don't know how ready I am | for this yet.
'That evening, Aaron's still stuck | on what to do with his hamper, so he enlists the help of his mum.
' There must be something | that you fancy.
And you've got to help yourself.
I can't keep suggesting things.
You should be suggesting things | to me, what you want doing, and then we could cook | them together.
I'm too pressured into it.
You know, I can't figure out a way | in my head where I can do this.
There's no system to it.
I can't work my way through | any certain things.
I can't This I can't figure out what the problem | is with me at the moment.
I can't figure out | why I can't try new things cos I can't figure out | how to decide what I should try.
And it's just pissing me off.
Yeah, but I'm frightened you're getting all this help | and it's still not working, not really.
Only in little tiny doses.
And I'm frightened, when this ends, you're just gonna go downhill again, straight back to Cos the more I pressurise you, | you're .
.
you're telling me, | "I don't want it.
Go away.
" Hm.
And it's been like it | all these years, really.
Mm, I know.
| It's how I work with everything.
I need a switch to go off | in my head.
And I don't know what I need to do to make my mental ba .
.
this switch to go back on again.
Maybe that's the problem, | because I don't know what to try, but I can't tell You're waiting for me to tell you | what I want to try and I don't know, so we're in a catch-22.
I don't know, Aaron, | I'm not an expert.
I don't know what to suggest at all.
At the moment I'm getting | quite stressed.
I can hear myself | sort of nagging him.
(LAUGHS) Oh, never mind.
Perhaps next week | will be a lot better.
'Felix thinks | Aaron's family's approach to his food problems as a child is a key obstacle to him changing.
So far Aaron's resisted any attempts | to explore this, but Felix fully intends to revisit | his past if he's to help Aaron move on.
For now, though, | there are more pressing matters.
' The aim of today is twofold.
I need to rebuild some of the trust | and rapport I've had with Aaron, and then I need to show Aaron | a practical way for him to overcome his severe | limitations with his eating, which are really hindering | his progress.
'If Aaron is to change, he'll need to really work with Felix | on this next task to obliterate those barriers.
' So where do you think you need | the most help to move forward? I think I need to work through | my logic in my head.
There are some rules here, | some food rules.
What would the top three ones be, | for example? Fear of the unknown.
| Fear of the unknown.
I wish I could just eat | and wish I could enjoy food.
I want you to consider | those three rules that are the obstacles to your | eating the way you want to, and what I'd like you to do is kind | of very symbolic here.
I've got some paper over there | and I'd like you to spell out each of these rules, | one at a time.
So this is your obstacle, your | mental barrier, fear of the unknown.
OK.
I want you to get in the car and | I want you to get really motivated and I want you to just | drive right through this, lift up your arm, | just smash through this barrier.
All right.
| How does that sound? Sounds good.
Sounds empowering.
| That's the plan.
I want you to get in a very | powerful, motivated state right now.
Smash through! Whoo-hoo! Hooray! Whoo-hoo! What did that feel like? It's good.
| It's good! Well, doing things, just like that, | without much thought, just going ahead and doing it, | can be just a lot of fun.
Yeah.
We just make it bigger | than it needs to be.
Go straight through and do it, you | find, what was all the fuss about? Ultimately those rules | are just there to be broken.
How confident do you feel right now | about doing that with your diet? Pretty confident.
| Good.
I can imagine just the feelings | I got just, "I'm gonna do this.
" And the motivation I had behind it | just to smash through it, you know? If I could put that | into trying food, you know, I think it would be | very positive.
I think I had a lot of fun, and I think I broke down some | barriers in more ways than one.
I do believe there's a part of Aaron | that really doesn't want to change, but even so, I can't do that work | for him, so we still need commitment | from him, and the courage and the focus, | everything that that entails.
'Felix may have instilled some | self-belief in Aaron, but if he's to move forward, it's food barriers he needs to break | through, not paper ones.
' CHARLOTTE: So how have you been | getting on since I last saw you? I really haven't tried much | in the last week.
I got thrown off by the hamper, | I think.
Can you tell me | what threw you off there? It all happened a bit too fast.
Like I had breakfast, fruit, | every day, and then I kind of went, | three meals - flumf! - right all the way up | on the difficulty meter.
And it kind of just | intimidated me a bit.
What you're doing at the moment | is putting objections up for the sake of objections, | rather than going, "Actually, you know what? | I'm gonna have to do this.
" So what I wanted | to do with you today is find a way that we can prepare | some simple meals together, but make sure that they're simple | enough for you to continue and not feel like | they make you shut down.
'As Aaron is hiding behind | a lack of knowledge, Charlotte resorts to working with him to go through the contents | of the homework hamper.
' OK, Aaron, what I want to do | for you today is start with some pasta and a very simple pasta sauce.
Then I want to make | an omelette with you.
One portion.
Put it in there.
You see there you've got a kind | of That's simmering.
Jacuzzi.
| Yeah, a Jacuzzi is simmering.
OK! | That's what you want.
How does that look to you? Red.
It probably tastes red | as well.
I don't think I'm gonna fare | too well with this meal.
Could you tell me why? | It's got bits in it.
You've got a sauce.
| You've got pasta.
OK, so if we take a piece of this.
Do you want to grab a bit? A bit with sauce on.
How do you feel about | this forkful? I don't know.
| Cheers.
(LAUGHS) It's all right.
| Hooray! 'As success starts to creep up | on Aaron, Charlotte moves on to an omelette.
' I want to know | what you think about this.
Looks too yellow.
(LAUGHS) That is an absolutely classic | combination.
What is it? | Red pepper.
Grab that off my fork.
'Apart from his tongue and teeth, this is the first time | Aaron has ever had two things in his mouth | at the same time.
' Mm! That added.
It gave it | plus points.
Yeah.
Not only did you try new eggs, you tried them with the pepper, but could recognise | that with a new food that changed the taste.
So it's really a question of taking | all the positive bits from here, and you must promise me that you'll | go away and write a list of those.
And then really building on that.
Yeah? | Yeah.
I was please to see there were very | few objections raised.
Um, none, actually.
I really can't think of any.
No real barriers put up.
So he seemed open, which means that there's something | to be worked with.
Aaron's final challenge seems | much more within reach now.
It seems that he could sit down in | front of a plate of mixed tastes and textures, something as varied enough | to call a meal, and make some progress with it.
'With the taste of victory | still in his mouth, that evening Aaron and Holly cook up | a list of further foods to try.
' Pasta.
We need to work on pasta.
Yeah.
What do you eat pasta with? Carbonara sauce.
That kind of sauce that I really | don't like the look of? No, that's mayonnaise.
Cheese toastie.
Omelette.
| Omelette.
Me and Holly made a nice list of all | the food I've tried, and how to combine them.
I think if I continue doing this | every day then I'll make a lot of progress.
'Over the next week, Aaron's food | barriers continue to crumble.
' Hello, video diary.
I'm eating pasta.
Not sure what sauce is on it, | but you know, it's all right.
Slowly my rules | are starting to cave in.
It's getting easier for me to bypass | them and say, "That was my old rule, but now I | don't have to listen to it, really.
" I'm feeling quite shocked about | Aaron's swift turnaround.
I actually made one of these | by myself, so I never would have expected him to | be eating the stuff he's eating.
'He still can't stomach dining | with his parents, but does start eating similar foods | to them.
' He did try, um, carrots, cauliflower | and broc.
And yes, he ate the lot.
So we think, yes, | it's definitely a breakthrough.
Just flabbergasted.
Mm.
That's all right.
'As Aaron's forging ahead | with his new diet, Felix feels it's the right time | to try and readdress the past and the issues behind | his eating problems if he's going to have any hope | of continuing to change.
' Aaron is finally making some | progress with his eating, which is great.
But if he's to continue with | this path, we need him to work on | those barriers he puts up with his parents.
'Felix is taking the family | to a country retreat.
The aim is to get them talking | honestly about the past, how Aaron's food freakiness has been | difficult to deal with and how they can be supportive of him | in the future.
' How do you feel about Aaron's | progress in general? Well, I can't believe it.
| It's marvellous, yeah.
I'm just really astounded by it.
| Great.
We're getting there.
| Yeah, getting there.
Some meals we struggle with.
I've brought you here today to help you have that one last push in the final stages of overcoming | this whole problem.
I know that perhaps you're not the most emotionally expressive | family together round Aaron, but if we can learn to enhance that | communication a little bit, then I think it's going to help you | move forward into the future.
So over there we have three easels.
In a moment I'd like you each | to go over to one, and then I'll just ask you to write | your feelings down about certain topics.
I just know this is utterly | going to fail.
You think? | BOTH: Yeah.
All right, so, shall we? What I'd like you to consider | in the past is, the past 18 years, how you've really been feeling about Aaron's relationship with food | as a family, the impact it's had on you, | your fears, um, hopes and the things | you didn't understand.
All folded arms.
(LAUGHS) It's just the number one.
That's all it was, | always will be, was the worry factor.
I used to say, "Although we're | nagging you, Aaron, you just don't know how much me | and Mum do worry about you.
" Yeah, I did feel | I sort of was failing him.
Is that what motivated you to just | try and nag him more? Yes.
It's a vicious circle, | isn't it? That you're trying and forcing | things onto him, and, "Come on, he's got to do this," | you know? I don't think there's anything | you could have done.
I mean, to me it was normal.
| Sure.
And just saying to me, "You know | we're worrying about you," you know, in my head that's just | trying to upset me.
So it just makes me want to | lash back and not do it even more, | so we're just going in circles.
From your perspective, um, Aaron was not trying it because he | was just being, what, fussy? Yeah, fussy, awkward, yeah.
I think that's where a lot | of the problems lied with it.
If you think I'm trying to do it | to spite you or something, and I'm genuinely doing it because | I don't want to eat it, cos I'm terrified of trying it, that's where all of our arguments | were stemming from.
Part of you, Aaron, | now realises that it was coming out of a sheer, like, "What do I do to get this child to | eat, cos I'm worried about him.
" Frustration.
| Thank you.
It's exactly the word.
So knowing that now, does that change the way you feel | about the past at all? I think it's been good to just get everything out | in the open.
It's just nice | to be told everything.
I thought that exercise | went really well.
I didn't think it would | in the first place, but once it got started | it went really well.
We're very quiet with each other.
We don't elaborate | on our feelings much.
So it was good that we were talking | to each other and not going all awkward about it.
So I think everything | we're doing together is just helping that bit more.
So I think that has brought us | closer together, yeah.
I think what this might do for Aaron | and his parents in the future is to learn to build an appreciation that Aaron has his own way | of doing things.
And nagging him is not the best way.
So learning to allow him to find his own ways around food | is gonna be very important.
'One month since he decided to ditch | his freaky eating, it's the day of Aaron's | final challenge.
For the first time in his life, he's getting ready to go out to | a restaurant, and attempt to eat a meal that hasn't | been cooked by his mum at home.
' What could go wrong tonight is if something doesn't look like | I expected it to.
If I've tried something in the past | and failed, I've just kicked myself for | a few days and stoppednot tried new things.
So, um, yeah, I think it'd be a bit | of a throw if I fail tonight.
But let's hope I don't.
'Aaron has decided that he'd like to | face his final challenge with his mates and not his family.
But they are anxious for him.
' MUM: I'm nervous | because he's nervous, I think.
Hopefully there's a varied menu and there'll be something there | that he'll try.
'Aaron's off to an Italian cafe, where his friends hope to see him eat | a meal for the first time ever.
He has no idea what's on the menu, | but one thing's for sure - there'll be no Yorkshire puddings | in sight.
' The more I think about something, | the more stressed I get.
So I'm just letting it happen.
I think he does feel | under pressure a bit.
He's not used to eating | in front of everyone.
I have doubts that he'll actually | even do it.
I really do think | Aaron's gonna struggle, but hopefully he'll put everything | he's learned over the past few weeks into practice | and just sort of go for it and try not to panic over the amount | of things on the menu.
'Felix and Charlotte have dropped by to give him some words | of encouragement.
' How are you feeling? | Er, I'm fine at the moment.
I might get a bit nervous | when I sit down and I know that the food's coming.
Yeah.
Are you gonna finish | a whole plate today? I'll try my best.
What's the most | important thing for you tonight? Just enjoying myself.
If you can relax tonight around food then you'll be relaxing for the rest | of your life about it.
'First Aaron will have to decide | what to eat.
' I'm scanning down the menu.
I have no idea what any | of these are.
'Fazed by the menu, Aaron settles for something that | seems vaguely familiar - pizza.
' Tomato and mozzarella.
I don't think I'm gonna be able to | eat all of this.
Just do it.
Just eat a whole - | Uh-huh.
Just take a big bite.
With the tomato in, cheese and | everything else and you'll be fine.
Oh, wow! | Hooray.
How was that? | Not too fond of these tomatoes.
They squirt too much.
They're too cold | for the rest of the pizza.
But you will eat them, | which is the main thing.
A couple of weeks ago | you wouldn't have gone near that.
I'm just surprised you tried it.
'Aaron's done brilliantly, but there's only so much | his small stomach can take.
' I'm so full.
| Just finish off that bit, then.
We're all very proud, Aaron.
You can come out for meals | with us now.
Yes! | (THEY CHEER) 'Aaron might not have finished | the whole pizza, but he's not worried.
How did it go? | Quite well, I think.
Wow! | Yeah! I didn't eat too much, | but I'm quite full.
Is that more than you've eaten | in a meal ever, would you say? Yeah.
Holly, how do you feel? | Proud.
Who here is surprised by this? I was amazed how far he's come | from the beginning.
The change is amazing.
Do you feel that the goals | you set out to achieve all those weeks ago have been met to | your satisfaction? Yeah, definitely.
Eat a meal out with friends.
| I've done that.
I'm really proud of him, and the way he's learnt to handle | trying new foods.
It's just unbelievable when you see | him the way he was before, and now you see him now, | and it's just so, so weird.
What's impressive for me was | all those rigid food rules just swept away with him.
He just went ahead | and enjoyed a meal.
Whoo-hoo! It's freedom in that he can enjoy | his life with his friends.
Yeah.
| So that's incredible.
That's huge.
Huge mountain for him to climb.
In a way this has been | a, like a rebirth for me.
It's like I've finished boot camp and I've finally gotten all that | last problem out of the way that you have when you're a child, and now I'll just be able to finally | get on with my life.
Closed Captions by CSI
' Whoo! 'But behind closed doors he struggles with a dark | and debilitating problem.
Aaron is addicted | to Yorkshire puddings.
He chomps his way | through a dozen a day.
Since the age of five, he hasn't been able to stomach | much else.
' The fact that I don't eat much more | than a toddler does, it kind of makes me feel | quite embarrassed.
'But at least he's now | eating something.
' Aaron was on powdered milk from | birth until he was about five.
'Where this freaky eating comes from | is anyone's guess, but Aaron's mum has her theory.
' I think it's an alien | from outer space.
I think someone came down | in the hospital and whipped him away.
Never met anybody else like it.
'Weighing in at just 8.
5 stone, not surprisingly, this pudding diet | is starting to take its toll.
' Aaron is not getting enough vitamins | and things.
He gets very tired.
'And with his weight continuing | to drop, it could soon become a matter | of life or puddings for Aaron.
' I think my problem is serious.
The last time I checked, | I'm two stone under weight.
I think if it did continue | any longer I would eventually | be put in hospital.
'Helping him to beat | his food freakiness will be the job of our experts.
Nutritionist Charlotte Watts will attempt to move | his kiddie palate onto grown-up foods.
' Ooh, no, instantaneous.
'Psychologist Felix Economakis will have his work cut out | tackling Aaron's food fears.
' I think you just don't want to | go somewhere because you associate it with | something really negative.
'And his lack of commitment | to changing.
' If you don't cooperate, | I can't do anything.
'But with just four weeks to work on their youngest | and most extreme case yet, can Aaron grow up nutritionally | and kick the puddings for good?' I guess I'm gradually losing | confidence.
It's easier said than done.
No.
'19-year-old Aaron Saunders lives with his mum and dad | in Norwich.
After dropping out of school | with no qualifications, he recently started his first job | as a receptionist at a local maintenance firm.
Aaron grew up as an only child.
And whilst he may be taking | his first steps into adulthood, when it comes to his eating habits | he's got a lot of growing up to do.
Aaron survives on Yorkshire puddings.
But eating over a dozen a day isn't | something he actually likes.
' The reason I eat Yorkshire puddings is because I can tolerate them.
I don't really enjoy them, | but it's something I can eat and that my mouth accepts.
'He may be 19, but Aaron's diet has hardly | progressed since he was a toddler, when his parents first noticed | his freaky eating.
' I was on the baby formula | till I was about five or six.
He would not eat baby food.
He'd put it in his mouth | and then spit it out at you.
We had expert advice, and they just said, "As long as | he's healthy, he's fine, he's sleeping well, | let him have just that.
" I'll go and eat these.
'His family may be used to it, but Holly, Aaron's girlfriend | of two years, finds it hard to handle.
' Aaron's eating habits | really do frustrate me and make me feel awkward.
One day I saw him eating like 12 | Yorkshire puddings on a plate, and you just think, "Whoa! | That's really weird.
" Enjoying that? 'Aaron doesn't get all his nutrients | from his beloved Yorkshire puddings.
There are a few other foods | he will eat.
' Chips, crisps.
Chocolate.
'And one of them | also batter based.
' And pancakes.
'As well as being freaky | about what he'll eat, Aaron's also developed | a complicated set of rules about where he'll eat too.
' I can't really eat my main meals, like Yorkshire puddings | and pancakes, anywhere other than my own house, cos they'll taste different, | I think.
It's something about having his own | utensils, I think, and his own sort of He's in much more control | if he's got all of his own stuff.
'But even at home there are rules.
Mum and Dad eat at the table while Aaron insists on munching | his 12 Yorkshire puds in solitude upstairs.
' I'll eat them whilst I'm playing | a computer game or watching a television show.
And then it takes my mind off | the fact I'm eating food and it makes it easier to eat | the same stuff over and over if I'm ignoring it, basically.
'Ironically, all Aaron | wants is a simple life.
' If there's lots of different foods | in front of me, it would be quite daunting | in a way.
All the different tastes and that | would get quite confusing and I'll just gag.
And that's not good.
Possibly a sprout.
I'm not sure.
Looks like a tree.
'Aaron's loved ones are worried about what his diet | is doing to his health.
' I'm frightened that he's | he's gonna die in the end, because he's just not having all | the vitamins.
I do notice things about Aaron, | like his tiredness.
I'll turn to the caffeine pills just to give me that extra boost | in the morning so I can actually do anything.
He's really pale.
Ever since I've first known him | he has lost a lot of weight.
I'm just eating to live, | and it's such a problem.
I'm so bored of it by now | and it needs to change.
'Today Aaron has a date | with dietary destiny.
Psychologist Felix | and nutritionist Charlotte have just four weeks to bring Aaron's | bizarre eating habits back down to earth.
' Hi, Aaron.
| Hello! Hello.
| I'm Felix, this is Charlotte.
Hello, nice to meet you.
'Before they can begin their work, Charlotte and Felix want Aaron to | hear a few home truths he may never have heard before.
' And what I'd like you to do, Aaron, is really listen to | the comments here, take it on board, and then we'll catch up with you | after you've seen it.
OK then.
| All right, see you soon.
Aaron, it's Mum here.
We've tried so hard | when you were younger, trying to give you things.
It really does worry me about what | the future's gonna hold for us and for you yourself.
Hi Aaron, it's Dad here.
I'd really, really love to see | you eat if not a proper meal just a few different things so that I know that you would be | happier in yourself.
Just imagine if we could go out | and have a meal together.
You won't be sitting there | with an empty plate, people won't be looking at you like you've got something wrong | with you.
Sometimes I feel I've failed, | that we've not If only we could put the clock back, it would be a lot, lot better.
I'm really scared | that your eating issues are gonna affect you | when you're older, and cause problems.
And you could have heart failure, and then I'd be left by myself | just thinking, "Why wasn't something done about it | when you were young enough?" Um, so please, if we could just get | through this together, that would be really great.
I love you lots, and I'll support | you all the way through.
What was that like for you | to hear those comments? Um, it was quite difficult.
I mean, we don't really talk about | stuff like that face-to-face.
So it's good to hear that they're | behind me all the way.
Because when they usually talk to me it sounds like | they're just nagging me.
I feel like I just want to get out | of there and not talk to them.
Was there anyone in there | who particularly moved you? Um, yeah, Holly at the end, where she said that, | if she was by herself, you know.
It really means I've got to change.
It's good that you've had that | kind of response.
We really need you to give it | your all.
Yeah.
Are you ready to start, then? | Yep.
OK, let's go.
'Felix and Charlotte have organised a nutritional wake-up call for Aaron that may be hard to swallow.
' So what do you make | of all of this, Aaron? Uh, that's quite crazy, actually.
Ah, good, | I'm glad you had that reaction.
Yeah! This is not just a representation | of the kind of things you eat, this is actually the only thing | you eat.
Aaron, I don't know | what scares me more.
How little you eat, | or what you actually eat.
Your staple diet for the year is this 1,872 Yorkshire puddings.
| That's a lot.
(LAUGHS) Yeah, it's kind of, | it's a lot of Yorkshire puddings.
But it's not really a lot of food.
| No.
It reminds me how boring it is | just to eat it every day.
Yes, absolutely.
| It looks amazingly bland.
And it also looks bland | nutritionally.
'And it's not just the 1,872 puddings | that's a worry.
' If we come over here, I think this | really helps to illustrate, because this slop is what the | Yorkshire puddings are made from.
Looks like somebody just emptied | the rest of their plate | into a bin or something.
From my point of view, | your saving grace here is that there's eggs | and milk in here.
At least you're getting some | B-vitamins.
'On top of this paddling pool | of pancake mix, Aaron also chomps his way through | 730 bags of crisps a year.
' This is the start | of quite a few disease processes.
So this is why it's so crucial | for us to stop this now.
Yeah.
'And then of course there is | the chocolate.
' At least it's not yellow.
Saving grace.
But this is 416 bars of chocolate.
When you look at this diet | in its entirety, what's your feeling when you see | other people's diets, and just making a comparison? It's actually quite disturbing, | cos there's so little here.
Right now you're suffering | double whammy.
You eat too little | and you eat the wrong kind of stuff.
It's almost as if you're | at a stage where you're not feeling that your body | can handle full adult food, and we need to get you into a mode where you're moving onto | an adult diet.
And looking at it, it just makes me feel a bit sick.
So it is quite disturbing to see it | all just right in front of me.
So bearing this in mind, what is it you want to achieve | at the end of the four weeks? I think I'd like a more varied diet, | and not be so bored of food, really.
Brilliant, OK.
I'm really worried about Aaron.
He's certainly the most severe case | we've come across.
And I feel his actual life | is on the line.
I really need him to be | that shocked, cos he's got an enormous amount of | changing to do, just staggeringly huge mountain | to climb.
From my point of view to what to do, we've got to start from | the beginning.
'Aaron has a mammoth task ahead, but helping him to batter his freaky | eating into submission won't be easy for girlfriend Holly | either.
' I do love Aaron, but sometimes it is | really, really hard to sort of think to yourself, you know, "Can I carry on with this? Am I gonna put up with this | anymore?" When I'm with him I just learn | to blank it out.
I just completely ignore it as much | as I can, because otherwise | I think I'd just go crazy.
I wouldn't have been able | to stay with him if I didn't learn to blank it out.
It's quite complicated.
It's not just gonna be me, you know, | training myself to eat new foods.
It's gonna be a lot more than just, | you know, four weeks and then I'm fine, | I'm like everyone else.
'Aaron's diet isn't just dull, | it's dangerous.
Charlotte wants to find out what | damage he may be doing to his health.
Dr Pixie McKenna is GP who | specialises in eating disorders.
Charlotte's brought Aaron | to her clinic.
' I've spent the last few weeks just | going through your medical history and having a look at | those blood tests which you kindly had done for us.
And there's quite a lot to worry | about you.
The big thing that strikes me, | thinking about your symptoms and how you feel - cos you're feeling quite tired, | aren't you? Kind of exhausted, yeah.
I think your blood sugar levels, | as shown in your blood tests, are actually dropping | during the day.
Typically you will feel very tired, because glucose is your, | it's basically your fuel.
We really crucially need you to get | onto food sources that sustain energy.
| Yeah.
And one of the most important things | for that is to have breakfast.
'When blood sugar levels fall | below normal, it's known as hypoglycemia, which in plain English means | "undersweet blood".
The brain is one of | the first organs affected from the lack of glucose it needs | for fuel, leaving you feeling weak, tired, | irritable and trembly.
Eating foods that release | sugar slowly, such as oats, berries and bananas, is the best way to provide | a constant level of energy to your body and your brain.
' Do you want to pop up on | the weighing scales for me? 54.
5kg.
How tall are you? | About 5'9".
OK.
Are you familiar with this thing | called body mass, BMI, which is the ratio of your weight | to your height? Yeah.
And in a healthy male we would like | that to be over 20.
Now yours is coming in at under 18.
Your body's in a bit | of a starvation state.
Yeah, so it's gonna start using up | other sources of energy.
And you don't want to | get to the point where it starts wasting muscle away.
So it starts using protein for fuel, because that's the point where it's | very, very hard to build up again.
And I would like to lot, | I would say, bulkier.
I know I look thin.
I don't look slim, | I look like a stick.
Are you worried about what you see? | Er, I don't like what I see.
So you would be happier | if you looked healthier? Yeah.
| OK.
I think at the moment | you're like a house plant with no plant food and no water.
And we want you to blossom.
| Yeah.
I was really taken aback | when I met Aaron.
Because he looked sick! And I hope that the simple | suggestions we gave to him about how he can change things NOW and ultimately feel better | and look better, he's taken on board.
I did like the way that she went for | saying how it could be if I did eat, as opposed to saying how it will be | if I don't eat.
They'd done it in a way that appealed to me.
'With no time to waste, Charlotte sends Aaron home with a homework hamper filled with | tasks for the week ahead.
And it starts with something to get | those blood sugar levels up.
' "Breakfast is the most important | meal of the day.
This week I would like you to eat a piece of fruit or one type of | breakfast food every morning.
It must be of nutritious value.
| Enjoy.
" I don't think anything | looks appealing.
And I don't think I'm at a point | where I'll enjoy food.
That's a healthier breakfast | than I would eat.
(BOTH LAUGH) Guess I've kind of gotten | everything I need from this, and now I need to just go away | and think, process it all in my head.
'Breakfast is a scary prospect, and it doesn't take long before Aaron | needs to make rules in order to cope.
' The rule of one nutritious thing | a day is limiting me a bit.
I'd rather have the choice | of being able to eat one thing, new thing, a day, | or not trying one new thing a day.
I know you feel pressured, but is the fact that you try | and make rules for it, then, just something that you find | comfortable with food? Is it part of your, like, control? | I suppose so, yeah.
I think I'm gonna start Monday.
I just think that's the start | of the week, that will be a good time | to start.
For me it is hard to see Aaron eating a full meal | in a couple of weeks' time.
After all these years of him just | eating Yorkshire puddings, it's so, so hard to see | that he's going to be able to try all the new things you can | possibly have in a meal.
But I haven't given up on him.
'With his homework hamper on hold, the following morning, Aaron heads off for his first | one-on-one with Charlotte.
' This exercise today is really about | me finding out where Aaron is, him understanding his own | relationship with food, and between those two things really finding out | how we can move them forward.
How is this looking to you? Daunting.
I'm quite nervous at the moment.
There seems to be a lot of things | that aren't consistent.
Oh, I see - kind of uniform.
| Yeah.
For instance, all of your Yorkshire | puddings look the same.
So you feel safe | within boundaries.
Do you eat nuts at all? | Have you ever eaten nuts? No.
They just don't look appealing | whatsoever.
They don't look like food, | I suppose.
I guess I'm trying to think of like | a procedure I'd have to go through before I try it.
Oh, you're trying to make some more | rules around trying the new things.
Yeah.
Are you feeling | real resistance here? I know in my head what's the worst | that can happen.
Yeah.
But it's still something | I wouldn't enjoy doing.
What happened? What was the bit | where you suddenly Hm.
I mushed it, and then I'd get | a hard bit again.
Unlike something like | the Yorkshire pudding where the whole thing | kind of goes pfft really quickly? 'After a little success | with the nuts, Charlotte hopes fruit | might be easier to swallow.
' That's pear and that's apple.
Eugh, that's really horrible.
In which way? Slimy.
Leaving residue on my hand.
I guess in my head | it doesn't feel right.
Can you define "right"? I guess it's to do with the fact that nothing else I eat | is anything like it.
'Charlotte's going nowhere fast, but makes a last-ditch attempt | to get Aaron to combine foods, something he's never done before.
' How does the idea of putting two | things in your mouth at once | feel to you? If I did have two things I'd have to enjoy the things | separately beforehand.
OK.
I'd say carrot dipped in | a bit of soft cheese.
Do you want to taste a bit of | the cheese first? That would be easier.
| OK.
Here you are.
(CHUCKLES) I don't know why I can't try it.
It's like | I can't will myself to.
Like I'm thinking in my head, | "Come on," but I can't.
I-I don't know why.
Ooh, no.
Instantaneous.
All the foods in front of you are | important to try and consider as part of a diet that we need to | work you towards.
This is something you need to | start doing yourself.
I'm not gonna be there at home | to sit here and go (LAUGHS) Are you ready to do that? | I think so, yeah.
What I learnt from Aaron today | is that he is a very extreme case.
He's incredibly systematic | in his approach, and it's very much applied around | his old rules.
And he needs to let go of those | a bit.
Unfortunately that's not really | gonna work here.
It's really hard for me to explain, and I don't even understand | all the rules myself, but it's almost like I have to break | everything down into logic before I can even attempt | to try anything new.
ALARM CLOCK PLAYS A TUNE 'It's Monday morning, and Aaron's up early to tackle | Charlotte's homework task - muesli.
This will the first time he's ever | attempted to eat a proper breakfast.
' Not sure how well I'll fare here.
It's quite hard to map out | my routine.
It's just I have to think | about things quite a bit before I can try it.
I don't think there's anything | in life that, for me, that translates to how hard | I find it to try food.
Don't think I should have put | so much in the bowl.
Aaron? | (AARON SPITS) TOILET FLUSHES No.
I kind of panicked when it didn't | go down with the milk.
Not chewing it.
I figured | it was not chewable stuff.
No.
'With Aaron still struggling to get | his head around his homework task, Felix wants to uncover what lies at | the root of his eating problems.
' Where do you feel this developed, this idea of you can only eat | certain foods and then nothing else? I think I've been like it | ever since I was born.
So up to what age were you still | just drinking formula milk? Probably about the age of six.
Right, wow.
| That is obviously a long time.
Yeah, they said they went to | the doctor about it.
Why am I still on milk? And the doctor just said, | "He'll grow out of it eventually.
" And I think they just took that | on board, and then that was the big mistake.
OK, when you think of Dad, what are the first three adjectives | that come to mind? I see him as a bit clumsy | and a bit foolish, I think.
And when you think of Mum? She's a bit over-caring.
How is she over-caring? Um, well, she just kind of hassles | me all the time about it.
"What have you eaten? | What have you had today? What are you going to eat later?" | And I just get tired of it.
So the way to not help you | is to nag you.
As soon as someone nags you, you go | the other way and you resist.
I feel pressured about it.
So from an early age | you got your way with food and then eating | on your own, and obviously that's gonna ruin | the closeness of the family.
You're not eating around meal times, | and chatting and conversing.
And also you wouldn't necessarily | see your parents as parents, as leaders.
It's more like you seem to call | the shots.
In a way, yeah.
| In a way.
OK.
I don't think I really am | that close to any of my family.
Right.
And that seems to be partly | out of choice, is it? I suppose so.
It just seems awkward to try | and step up the communication.
Do you have any ideas | about why that might be? I think a lot of it | had to do with the fact that I felt like | they were hassling me a lot about my eating and stuff.
Oh, right.
I just kept shouting at them for it | and stuff.
Cos it seems unusual.
Most of us seek | some kind of closeness, at least until we're teenagers, | then we want to break away.
So for it to happen | at such a young age, it's kind of interesting, | and it's intriguing for me.
Aaron seems to be putting up | barriers with his family in much the same way | he does with his food.
So in order for him to progress and for me to help him overcome | these barriers, I need to work with him | to discover further what triggered these food problems | in the first place.
I really wasn't sure why Felix was | asking me all these questions about my family.
I don't think it made much sense and | I don't think it was very relevant and I'm not really sure what to make | of that session as a whole.
'The next morning, Holly is up early | with Aaron to help him with his second attempt | at tackling breakfast cereal.
But before long, he's back to | his old trick - putting things off.
' What are you going to do | when I'm not here and you've got to eat something? Why don't you do it now, | while I'm here? Then at least you've got | some sort of help.
I suppose if I was going to try | anything, it would be the hot oats.
I'm gonna go put my phone on charge.
| It's low on battery.
No matter how much you try, he doesn't seem to see it | as encouragement.
He just takes it straightaway | as pressure, and it's annoying, | because I have to keep doing it.
Just do it! 'Sensing Holly's frustration, Aaron finally relents and gets | his oats in the microwave.
' If you keep playing with it | you're gonna make it look worse.
Hm.
Come on.
I hate this barrier.
Yeah, I know.
I think it stresses me out | cos it's hot, and it's stressing me out because | it'll go cold if I don't eat it.
And because I'm worried | about it going cold that pushes me away from it more.
| Yeah.
It's too complicated.
| How is it complicated? Toobitty.
| The cereal? It's just cereal.
| It's not, though.
It's not milk and solid, | it's mush and more mush.
I'm annoyed at myself | for not being able to try it, cos it should be so easy, | but it's so not.
No.
I really don't know what's best | for Aaron now.
At one point he was | he was quite close to tears.
And it's a real shame, because he seemed so positive | about it to start off with.
I felt quite bad for him, because I've never seen him get that | sort of stressed about food.
It has left me thinking, is he gonna change his mind | about this whole thing? And if what he's gone through so far has been a waste of time, | just because of some hot oats.
'Aaron's halfway through | his dietary makeover, but he still hasn't left | the starting gate.
Felix needs a plan to move him on.
And fast.
' Aaron's a very severe case with almost obsessive-compulsive | type of rules and behaviour.
And I think understanding his | thought processes as a child may help me to move him forward | in the present.
I'd like you to imagine that you're standing on an imaginary | time line of your life.
You're in the present.
There's the future.
| Behind you is the past.
I'd like you to consider taking | a step forward in the future, to a time in the future where what you've come to see me | about is resolved to your satisfaction.
Deep breath andexcellent.
Here you are in the future.
How is it different here for you? Um, I feel a lot healthier.
Um, you know, stronger, faster.
Excellent.
What I'd like you to do is take a | step back into that present state.
When you look at that future you, | my question is, what specifically prevents you | being there right now? It's my mind.
My invisible wall of not being able | to try new things.
The thing that frustrates me is I | don't know what is holding me back.
OK, well, that's what we're here to | explore a little bit.
We're just here to find out.
So this | is what I'd like you to do.
I'd like you to really tune into | the obstacle in a moment.
Really allow yourself | to feel the block.
And I want you to track those | memories back to the very first time you recall, you know, "When did I first create | this block?" I'm finding it really hard to | understand it.
Right.
I just cannot move | that feeling back with me.
So something's happening around you | in your environment.
Can you get a sense | what you're reacting to here? Not really.
I don't know why this is so hard.
What's the specific difficulty here | for you? I don't like going back | in my memory.
I think when I was like the age | of 16, I kind of was like new Aaron and just ignored the rest before it.
We're not asking you to be that | Aaron again once and for all time.
We're asking you to get some | important information that will shed some light | on the future so we can make some changes.
'The session continues, but the more | Felix probes into Aaron's past, the more he resists.
' Can't see how it relates, | so that's all Right.
| That's what's putting me off.
The reason that | it's making me resist is cos I don't see how this has anything to do with | why I can't eat food, because I know it's been | since birth.
What you're sort of doing today | is similar to what you do with food.
If you get uncomfortable | around food, you shut down and you withdraw.
The block is coming up | and using this as well.
"Because I can't get it, | I'm not gonna do it.
" And I don't think that's the real | cause of this resistance.
I think you just don't wanna | go somewhere because you associate it with | something really, really negative.
It's just one of those things.
The way I eat is one of those things | and I'm trying to get over it.
It's got nothing to do with | any deep-seated secrets or underlying personality problems | or It's just something that's happened.
It's not all these deep things | with my family.
That's just other crap | that's gone on.
If I've had these eating habits | since I was born, I can't see how anything that's | happened between then and now has any relevance to why | I eat like I do.
It's almost like he wants to change | without putting any work into it.
He just wants it to be magically | transferred to him.
And that's just not how it works.
It's again Aaron being his own | worst enemy about something, and coming up with reasons | and excuses not to engage in the therapy.
And that's a frustrating position | for a therapist to be in.
Hello.
| MUM: Hello! How did it go? Just a load of pointless stuff | that was completely pointless and was a waste of time.
I'd have had more fun at home.
Well, I've kind of got it in my head | that this is about eating, and then they do | all this other stuff that's got nothing to do with it.
Waste of time.
Sort of retracing to your steps, | you know? And nothing drastic happened | when I was seven that made me not stop eating, | did it? No.
| Well, there we go.
They're trying to make we work out | distant memories, which are a load of (BLEEP).
You know, when I held you down | and stood on you, and said, "You eat this.
" And we force-fed you | when we put a funnel in your mouth.
Hopefully I'm doing | something useful tomorrow that'll actually be useful.
You like Charlotte.
| I like Charlotte.
Cos she talks about food.
'Felix and Charlotte | decide they need to change tack if they ever want to get through | to Aaron.
Charlotte thinks a bit of | food science might appeal to Aaron's | over-analytical brain.
' The purpose of today is to really | work with the way Aaron thinks.
He's very systematic, he likes to | break things down to progress and he likes to know why | before he does something.
So I've brought him to | a food science lab where he'll get to taste | new flavours, he'll get to understand | how the tongue works.
That way when he starts to try | new things it's not just a massive bombardment | of the senses.
'Charlotte's got a plan she hopes | will persuade Aaron to abandon some of his food rules.
She's brought him to meet | food analyst Dave Hart.
' What we're gonna try and explain is | how your sense of taste works.
There are only five basic tastes, and all of these you taste | on your tongue, OK? Anything beyond these five you need | your nose for as well.
So this is sweet, OK? Yeah.
The next one is bitter.
| OK.
OK.
This is sour.
All right.
Now this is salt.
All right.
Yuck! This is the fifth taste.
This one may not be | so familiar to you.
This is a taste called umami, which is Japanese for | "delicious taste", basically.
And it's a taste | that comes from glutamates.
Your tongue is coated with hundreds | and hundreds of little things we refer to as taste buds.
We can show this on your tongue | by staining it blue, the little taste buds | standing out as being pink.
Can you see the density of the taste | buds is quite high on the tip of the tongue? | Oh.
Which means actually Aaron's | probably quite a sensitive taster.
Which means, actually, | when he's trying new foods, they are gonna be They are gonna seem more intense | than they might do to, definitely, to me, | and maybe to you.
'But Aaron's problem isn't simply | that food tastes stronger to him.
' I guess one of my problems is that | I associate tastes with image.
Yeah.
'Charlotte hopes that if Aaron | can't see what he's eating his mind will stop telling him | not to eat it.
' Now I've lost the main sense I use, | and it kind of makes me nervous.
Yeah.
OK, you ready? | Not really.
OK.
Um, is that carrot? | Yeah! Hm.
The texture, I think maybe | because I didn't see it, just kind of was like, | this is a bit strange, but wasn't ultimately making me | want to get it out of my mouth.
Brilliant.
So what's the difference, | then, when you can't see it? There's less me trying to think | it out, I think.
Yeah.
Is this gonna be any more | complicated? No.
There's somecrispy.
Some.
| Mm.
Had a bit more flavour to it.
Felt a bit more | I'd use the word "meaty".
But I mean - | Yeah, that's good.
That was a beetroot crisp.
A beetroot crisp? | Yes.
OK.
| OK, you ready? Wasn't too bad.
Banana.
It's actually Kiwi fruit.
Kiwi fruit.
Can I take these | off now? Yes, absolutely.
What I find so interesting is you | were very willing, in comparison, to just take the food | and experience it.
If you looked at it before | you had tasted it, without the visuals, how do you | think you would have felt about it? It would have taken a lot more | for me to put it in my mouth.
As it progressed and he actually | started trying real food and responding to that, he could logically | move his way forward, and that's really important to him and how he manages his problem | and how to get out of it.
Thought that was a lot better.
I learnt a lot about the core things | about food, and I think it's important to be | able to know the underlying stuff before I can really get on with it, | really.
Pleased with the day.
I think it was very positive.
There was a lot I learned, and definitely a good push | in the right direction, I think.
'The next morning, empowered by the previous day's | food revelations, Aaron attacks Charlotte's next | homework hamper.
' "There are some suggested lunch | and dinner recipes for you to try this week.
I would like you to try a different | lunch and dinner every day.
" Crunchy vegetable stir fry.
Right, that's far too complicated.
Vegetable and lentil, | a homely chunky soup.
Eugh.
'But without a blindfold, it's not long before | those barriers go up.
' Free range egg noodles.
No.
I have no idea.
Not really sure what do to with any | of this stuff here.
I think this week's gonna be | a bit more difficult.
I think a lot of these foods | I'm gonna put in my mouth and instantly hate and never want to | go near again.
Don't know how ready I am | for this yet.
'That evening, Aaron's still stuck | on what to do with his hamper, so he enlists the help of his mum.
' There must be something | that you fancy.
And you've got to help yourself.
I can't keep suggesting things.
You should be suggesting things | to me, what you want doing, and then we could cook | them together.
I'm too pressured into it.
You know, I can't figure out a way | in my head where I can do this.
There's no system to it.
I can't work my way through | any certain things.
I can't This I can't figure out what the problem | is with me at the moment.
I can't figure out | why I can't try new things cos I can't figure out | how to decide what I should try.
And it's just pissing me off.
Yeah, but I'm frightened you're getting all this help | and it's still not working, not really.
Only in little tiny doses.
And I'm frightened, when this ends, you're just gonna go downhill again, straight back to Cos the more I pressurise you, | you're .
.
you're telling me, | "I don't want it.
Go away.
" Hm.
And it's been like it | all these years, really.
Mm, I know.
| It's how I work with everything.
I need a switch to go off | in my head.
And I don't know what I need to do to make my mental ba .
.
this switch to go back on again.
Maybe that's the problem, | because I don't know what to try, but I can't tell You're waiting for me to tell you | what I want to try and I don't know, so we're in a catch-22.
I don't know, Aaron, | I'm not an expert.
I don't know what to suggest at all.
At the moment I'm getting | quite stressed.
I can hear myself | sort of nagging him.
(LAUGHS) Oh, never mind.
Perhaps next week | will be a lot better.
'Felix thinks | Aaron's family's approach to his food problems as a child is a key obstacle to him changing.
So far Aaron's resisted any attempts | to explore this, but Felix fully intends to revisit | his past if he's to help Aaron move on.
For now, though, | there are more pressing matters.
' The aim of today is twofold.
I need to rebuild some of the trust | and rapport I've had with Aaron, and then I need to show Aaron | a practical way for him to overcome his severe | limitations with his eating, which are really hindering | his progress.
'If Aaron is to change, he'll need to really work with Felix | on this next task to obliterate those barriers.
' So where do you think you need | the most help to move forward? I think I need to work through | my logic in my head.
There are some rules here, | some food rules.
What would the top three ones be, | for example? Fear of the unknown.
| Fear of the unknown.
I wish I could just eat | and wish I could enjoy food.
I want you to consider | those three rules that are the obstacles to your | eating the way you want to, and what I'd like you to do is kind | of very symbolic here.
I've got some paper over there | and I'd like you to spell out each of these rules, | one at a time.
So this is your obstacle, your | mental barrier, fear of the unknown.
OK.
I want you to get in the car and | I want you to get really motivated and I want you to just | drive right through this, lift up your arm, | just smash through this barrier.
All right.
| How does that sound? Sounds good.
Sounds empowering.
| That's the plan.
I want you to get in a very | powerful, motivated state right now.
Smash through! Whoo-hoo! Hooray! Whoo-hoo! What did that feel like? It's good.
| It's good! Well, doing things, just like that, | without much thought, just going ahead and doing it, | can be just a lot of fun.
Yeah.
We just make it bigger | than it needs to be.
Go straight through and do it, you | find, what was all the fuss about? Ultimately those rules | are just there to be broken.
How confident do you feel right now | about doing that with your diet? Pretty confident.
| Good.
I can imagine just the feelings | I got just, "I'm gonna do this.
" And the motivation I had behind it | just to smash through it, you know? If I could put that | into trying food, you know, I think it would be | very positive.
I think I had a lot of fun, and I think I broke down some | barriers in more ways than one.
I do believe there's a part of Aaron | that really doesn't want to change, but even so, I can't do that work | for him, so we still need commitment | from him, and the courage and the focus, | everything that that entails.
'Felix may have instilled some | self-belief in Aaron, but if he's to move forward, it's food barriers he needs to break | through, not paper ones.
' CHARLOTTE: So how have you been | getting on since I last saw you? I really haven't tried much | in the last week.
I got thrown off by the hamper, | I think.
Can you tell me | what threw you off there? It all happened a bit too fast.
Like I had breakfast, fruit, | every day, and then I kind of went, | three meals - flumf! - right all the way up | on the difficulty meter.
And it kind of just | intimidated me a bit.
What you're doing at the moment | is putting objections up for the sake of objections, | rather than going, "Actually, you know what? | I'm gonna have to do this.
" So what I wanted | to do with you today is find a way that we can prepare | some simple meals together, but make sure that they're simple | enough for you to continue and not feel like | they make you shut down.
'As Aaron is hiding behind | a lack of knowledge, Charlotte resorts to working with him to go through the contents | of the homework hamper.
' OK, Aaron, what I want to do | for you today is start with some pasta and a very simple pasta sauce.
Then I want to make | an omelette with you.
One portion.
Put it in there.
You see there you've got a kind | of That's simmering.
Jacuzzi.
| Yeah, a Jacuzzi is simmering.
OK! | That's what you want.
How does that look to you? Red.
It probably tastes red | as well.
I don't think I'm gonna fare | too well with this meal.
Could you tell me why? | It's got bits in it.
You've got a sauce.
| You've got pasta.
OK, so if we take a piece of this.
Do you want to grab a bit? A bit with sauce on.
How do you feel about | this forkful? I don't know.
| Cheers.
(LAUGHS) It's all right.
| Hooray! 'As success starts to creep up | on Aaron, Charlotte moves on to an omelette.
' I want to know | what you think about this.
Looks too yellow.
(LAUGHS) That is an absolutely classic | combination.
What is it? | Red pepper.
Grab that off my fork.
'Apart from his tongue and teeth, this is the first time | Aaron has ever had two things in his mouth | at the same time.
' Mm! That added.
It gave it | plus points.
Yeah.
Not only did you try new eggs, you tried them with the pepper, but could recognise | that with a new food that changed the taste.
So it's really a question of taking | all the positive bits from here, and you must promise me that you'll | go away and write a list of those.
And then really building on that.
Yeah? | Yeah.
I was please to see there were very | few objections raised.
Um, none, actually.
I really can't think of any.
No real barriers put up.
So he seemed open, which means that there's something | to be worked with.
Aaron's final challenge seems | much more within reach now.
It seems that he could sit down in | front of a plate of mixed tastes and textures, something as varied enough | to call a meal, and make some progress with it.
'With the taste of victory | still in his mouth, that evening Aaron and Holly cook up | a list of further foods to try.
' Pasta.
We need to work on pasta.
Yeah.
What do you eat pasta with? Carbonara sauce.
That kind of sauce that I really | don't like the look of? No, that's mayonnaise.
Cheese toastie.
Omelette.
| Omelette.
Me and Holly made a nice list of all | the food I've tried, and how to combine them.
I think if I continue doing this | every day then I'll make a lot of progress.
'Over the next week, Aaron's food | barriers continue to crumble.
' Hello, video diary.
I'm eating pasta.
Not sure what sauce is on it, | but you know, it's all right.
Slowly my rules | are starting to cave in.
It's getting easier for me to bypass | them and say, "That was my old rule, but now I | don't have to listen to it, really.
" I'm feeling quite shocked about | Aaron's swift turnaround.
I actually made one of these | by myself, so I never would have expected him to | be eating the stuff he's eating.
'He still can't stomach dining | with his parents, but does start eating similar foods | to them.
' He did try, um, carrots, cauliflower | and broc.
And yes, he ate the lot.
So we think, yes, | it's definitely a breakthrough.
Just flabbergasted.
Mm.
That's all right.
'As Aaron's forging ahead | with his new diet, Felix feels it's the right time | to try and readdress the past and the issues behind | his eating problems if he's going to have any hope | of continuing to change.
' Aaron is finally making some | progress with his eating, which is great.
But if he's to continue with | this path, we need him to work on | those barriers he puts up with his parents.
'Felix is taking the family | to a country retreat.
The aim is to get them talking | honestly about the past, how Aaron's food freakiness has been | difficult to deal with and how they can be supportive of him | in the future.
' How do you feel about Aaron's | progress in general? Well, I can't believe it.
| It's marvellous, yeah.
I'm just really astounded by it.
| Great.
We're getting there.
| Yeah, getting there.
Some meals we struggle with.
I've brought you here today to help you have that one last push in the final stages of overcoming | this whole problem.
I know that perhaps you're not the most emotionally expressive | family together round Aaron, but if we can learn to enhance that | communication a little bit, then I think it's going to help you | move forward into the future.
So over there we have three easels.
In a moment I'd like you each | to go over to one, and then I'll just ask you to write | your feelings down about certain topics.
I just know this is utterly | going to fail.
You think? | BOTH: Yeah.
All right, so, shall we? What I'd like you to consider | in the past is, the past 18 years, how you've really been feeling about Aaron's relationship with food | as a family, the impact it's had on you, | your fears, um, hopes and the things | you didn't understand.
All folded arms.
(LAUGHS) It's just the number one.
That's all it was, | always will be, was the worry factor.
I used to say, "Although we're | nagging you, Aaron, you just don't know how much me | and Mum do worry about you.
" Yeah, I did feel | I sort of was failing him.
Is that what motivated you to just | try and nag him more? Yes.
It's a vicious circle, | isn't it? That you're trying and forcing | things onto him, and, "Come on, he's got to do this," | you know? I don't think there's anything | you could have done.
I mean, to me it was normal.
| Sure.
And just saying to me, "You know | we're worrying about you," you know, in my head that's just | trying to upset me.
So it just makes me want to | lash back and not do it even more, | so we're just going in circles.
From your perspective, um, Aaron was not trying it because he | was just being, what, fussy? Yeah, fussy, awkward, yeah.
I think that's where a lot | of the problems lied with it.
If you think I'm trying to do it | to spite you or something, and I'm genuinely doing it because | I don't want to eat it, cos I'm terrified of trying it, that's where all of our arguments | were stemming from.
Part of you, Aaron, | now realises that it was coming out of a sheer, like, "What do I do to get this child to | eat, cos I'm worried about him.
" Frustration.
| Thank you.
It's exactly the word.
So knowing that now, does that change the way you feel | about the past at all? I think it's been good to just get everything out | in the open.
It's just nice | to be told everything.
I thought that exercise | went really well.
I didn't think it would | in the first place, but once it got started | it went really well.
We're very quiet with each other.
We don't elaborate | on our feelings much.
So it was good that we were talking | to each other and not going all awkward about it.
So I think everything | we're doing together is just helping that bit more.
So I think that has brought us | closer together, yeah.
I think what this might do for Aaron | and his parents in the future is to learn to build an appreciation that Aaron has his own way | of doing things.
And nagging him is not the best way.
So learning to allow him to find his own ways around food | is gonna be very important.
'One month since he decided to ditch | his freaky eating, it's the day of Aaron's | final challenge.
For the first time in his life, he's getting ready to go out to | a restaurant, and attempt to eat a meal that hasn't | been cooked by his mum at home.
' What could go wrong tonight is if something doesn't look like | I expected it to.
If I've tried something in the past | and failed, I've just kicked myself for | a few days and stoppednot tried new things.
So, um, yeah, I think it'd be a bit | of a throw if I fail tonight.
But let's hope I don't.
'Aaron has decided that he'd like to | face his final challenge with his mates and not his family.
But they are anxious for him.
' MUM: I'm nervous | because he's nervous, I think.
Hopefully there's a varied menu and there'll be something there | that he'll try.
'Aaron's off to an Italian cafe, where his friends hope to see him eat | a meal for the first time ever.
He has no idea what's on the menu, | but one thing's for sure - there'll be no Yorkshire puddings | in sight.
' The more I think about something, | the more stressed I get.
So I'm just letting it happen.
I think he does feel | under pressure a bit.
He's not used to eating | in front of everyone.
I have doubts that he'll actually | even do it.
I really do think | Aaron's gonna struggle, but hopefully he'll put everything | he's learned over the past few weeks into practice | and just sort of go for it and try not to panic over the amount | of things on the menu.
'Felix and Charlotte have dropped by to give him some words | of encouragement.
' How are you feeling? | Er, I'm fine at the moment.
I might get a bit nervous | when I sit down and I know that the food's coming.
Yeah.
Are you gonna finish | a whole plate today? I'll try my best.
What's the most | important thing for you tonight? Just enjoying myself.
If you can relax tonight around food then you'll be relaxing for the rest | of your life about it.
'First Aaron will have to decide | what to eat.
' I'm scanning down the menu.
I have no idea what any | of these are.
'Fazed by the menu, Aaron settles for something that | seems vaguely familiar - pizza.
' Tomato and mozzarella.
I don't think I'm gonna be able to | eat all of this.
Just do it.
Just eat a whole - | Uh-huh.
Just take a big bite.
With the tomato in, cheese and | everything else and you'll be fine.
Oh, wow! | Hooray.
How was that? | Not too fond of these tomatoes.
They squirt too much.
They're too cold | for the rest of the pizza.
But you will eat them, | which is the main thing.
A couple of weeks ago | you wouldn't have gone near that.
I'm just surprised you tried it.
'Aaron's done brilliantly, but there's only so much | his small stomach can take.
' I'm so full.
| Just finish off that bit, then.
We're all very proud, Aaron.
You can come out for meals | with us now.
Yes! | (THEY CHEER) 'Aaron might not have finished | the whole pizza, but he's not worried.
How did it go? | Quite well, I think.
Wow! | Yeah! I didn't eat too much, | but I'm quite full.
Is that more than you've eaten | in a meal ever, would you say? Yeah.
Holly, how do you feel? | Proud.
Who here is surprised by this? I was amazed how far he's come | from the beginning.
The change is amazing.
Do you feel that the goals | you set out to achieve all those weeks ago have been met to | your satisfaction? Yeah, definitely.
Eat a meal out with friends.
| I've done that.
I'm really proud of him, and the way he's learnt to handle | trying new foods.
It's just unbelievable when you see | him the way he was before, and now you see him now, | and it's just so, so weird.
What's impressive for me was | all those rigid food rules just swept away with him.
He just went ahead | and enjoyed a meal.
Whoo-hoo! It's freedom in that he can enjoy | his life with his friends.
Yeah.
| So that's incredible.
That's huge.
Huge mountain for him to climb.
In a way this has been | a, like a rebirth for me.
It's like I've finished boot camp and I've finally gotten all that | last problem out of the way that you have when you're a child, and now I'll just be able to finally | get on with my life.
Closed Captions by CSI