Taters and mash: strange but true edible tales

IT'S NOT ALWAYS what you eat that keeps you from having abs--its the amount you eat, even it's supposedly healthy. Don't believe us? Take a moment to ponder the case of 48-year-old Cathy Perryman.

For the past 30 years, Cathy has eaten nothing but a steady diet of chocolate, potato chips, and mashed potatoes. "I've gone four days without eating anything but chocolate," she says. "Other days, I might eat two huge candy bars, six bags of chips, and mashed potatoes."

The junk-food regimen is a matter of taste for this British librarian. "I never get sick or feel bored with my diet" she says, "The thought of eating other food makes me sick" (Like any responsible mother, Perryman did clean up her diet while bringing kids into the world. "When I breast-fed, I cut down on my chocolate intake," she says.)

But despite it all, Cathy still weighs in at a very svelte 7 1/2 stone. (Just over 100 pounds for us Yanks.) So how does Perryman stay thin, despite the steady eating as if every day were her period? The secret isn't so much what's on her plate, but the way she fills it up.

"I don't sit down for meals; I just eat when I feel like it" she says. Meaning, instead of shoving a lot of bland, "quality" food down her throat every couple of hours--just because it's time to eat--Perryman sticks with the foods she loves. But she only eats them in small, reasonable quantities when she's hungry.

And how's the diet working? "My husband, Trevor, says I look great" says Perryman. "And at 48, I still feel like an 18-year-old." An 18-year-old, cavity-ridden, vitamin-deprived carbohydrate addict, perhaps, but an 18-year-old nonetheless.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning