Are You Craving Mad?

Terri Crecco believes that she’s addicted to sugar. Even as a kid, she had trouble resisting sweets. As an adult, when things aren’t going well, biscuits and ice-cream make her feel better. Once, she downed half a kilo of jellybeans walking back to her office after her lunch break. “I meant to eat just a few, but I couldn’t stop until I’d finished the entire bag,” she says. “My cravings can be awful, insatiable. I can’t ignore them.” As a result, the 55-year-old mortgage broker has been waging a lifelong battle with her weight.

Karsten Askeland, 56, a police officer, got hooked on burgers, fries and other fast food when he was 14 and sidelined from sports after breaking his leg. Until then, Askeland had been a trim and athletic lad who played basketball and football, and was the fastest sprinter on the track team.

Immobilised by his broken leg, he continued to eat as if he was still burning thousands of kilojoules a week playing sport. Long after his leg healed and in the years beyond high school, he carried on indulging.

“It would be nothing for me to eat my dinner at home and then go out immediately to McDonald’s and order a quarter-pounder with cheese, a fish sandwich, a large order of fries and a large Coke,” he says. “Sometimes I would go to McDonald’s two or three times a day.”