Meet the pub landlady who only eats 17 foods… and has panic attacks if she goes near any others
Size six Jill Hayman is at risk of being physically sick when she sees or smells food outside of her 'safe' products
EVERY family has a fussy eater but Jill Hayman’s phobia means she eats just 17 things – including prawn crackers and chocolate cake.
The size-six pub landlady gets panic attacks and is physically sick when she sees or smells food outside of her “safe” products.
Jill has never used cutlery — scoffing seven loaves of bread a week and snacking on grapes and unripe bananas.
The 36-year-old washes it all down with fizzy drinks, peach schnapps or Estrella lager.
It may sound comical, but Jill is crippled by a psychological disorder — Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder — where consuming certain foods causes severe anxiety.
Just opening a bottle of ketchup or tub of pasta salad would see her flee the room.
She says: “My throat will close and then I have panic attacks. I can’t control it. I’ve been physically sick just speaking about food.”
Jill, from Montrose, Scotland, says: “I’ve never been able to sit and have a hot meal or use a knife and fork. To me, toast is dinner.
“I’m not a vegetarian because I don’t eat vegetables. I don’t eat meat either.
"I think bread is safe because there’s no flavour and there’s not much that can change.
“Someone once called me a ‘breadatarian’ — and that’s the way I often describe it to myself to make a joke of it.”
Jill’s phobia began when she was eight months old.
She says: “It started as soon as my mum was weaning me off baby food.
"My family would sit and eat a cooked dinner but I would just be sat there with bread and butter or a sandwich.”
Jill started to reject certain foods which experts believe was triggered by her choking on something as a baby.
Hypnotherapist Felix Economakis, who is treating Jill, says: “It’s likely that something at the time scared Jill and her brain made a note that this wasn’t as expected and panicked.
“A shock like that can activate a fight or flight response and create an aversion to food.”
As she grew older and started school, Jill’s rigid diet of Frazzles and bread took its toll.
She says: “I came home from school for my meals and missed out on a lot, like a trip to France, because eating would have been too much of a problem.
“To this day, when I bump into anyone from primary school they’ll say, ‘Are you still on the bread and Frazzles diet?’”
Avoiding certain foods also played havoc on Jill’s body, sending her “chubby” frame plummeting to a dangerous 5st as a teenager.
She says: “I was always a chubby child but nobody would believe what I ate because of the size of me.
"They were like, ‘Well, you look healthy’. As a teenager I went up to a size 16 but then I started to lose weight.
"I become weak and dizzy every time I stood up.
“If I walked more than 100 yards, I had to stop, take a breath or hold on to the wall or I would pass out.”
'A condition common in toddlers'
SUN doctor CAROL COOPER says: “The main symptom of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is extreme faddy eating, and the person may reject whole food groups, like vegetables.
“When faced with any food that isn’t acceptable, the person may become distressed or vomit.
“It has nothing to do with anorexia or bulimia – this disorder is more like a phobia or anxiety.
“Nobody is sure how many adults have the condition, but it’s common in toddlers, who often grow out of it.
“There is a risk of nutritional problems, especially over time.
“Tooth damage is common too, as the preferred foods are often high in sugar.”
Doctors prescribed Jill regular vitamin B12 injections and she forced herself to start eating green bananas, grapes, Golden
Delicious apples and certain yoghurts to get vital nutrients.
Jill, who now weighs 6st 7lb and suffers from fatigue, says: “I don’t get much calcium so over the years my teeth have broken away.
"I get a lot more tired than other people and have bad stomach pains, too.
“I’ve been down to a size 4. I’ve begged and pleaded for help from the doctors but I’ve always been told it’s a ‘phase’.”
Jill, who has been in a relationship with Craig Mathers, 29, for six years, fears her phobia could prevent her having a family.
She says: “I don’t know if I could ever have a child — I can’t go near a kid covered in food or think about feeding them food with chunks.
“How can I be a mother if I can’t feed my own child?”
Jill hopes her sessions with Felix at The Health Therapies clinic in London will combat her phobia.
She says: “I just want to be able to pick up a knife and fork and have a meal. I want to be normal.”
