My LIFE-THREATENING Pizza Addiction Addicted to Pizza Freaky Eaters (US) S1 E3 Only Human

Name: My LIFE-THREATENING Pizza Addiction Addicted to Pizza Freaky Eaters (US) S1 E3 Only Human
Uploaded: 2025-08-18T17:30:37+00:00
Duration: 21 min 11 s
Channel: canalneurodivergente80

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há 7 semanas

33-year-old Josh has an obsession with pizza. Pizza for breakfast, pizza for lunch, pizza for dinner, and it's taking a serious toll on his health. Josh's uncle, David, is desperate for someone to help. Can the experts help to break this dangerous addiction?
Freaky Eaters documents the intense struggles of those with a dangerous compulsion towards a particular food. With the help of two experts, the Freaky Eater confronts the painful truth behind their food obsession and fights to reclaim control of their diet and combat the destructive side effects their behaviour is having on their health. Patients include a girl who drinks more than 30 cans of cola a day, a 29-year-old mother who only eats French fries and a diabetic who has a life-threatening addiction to cheeseburger. Can they overcome their dependencies and learn how to manage their diets?

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00:00A freaky eater is someone who takes an eating habit to the extreme.

00:0922-year-old Josh has an obsession with pizza. Pizza for breakfast, pizza for

00:14lunch, pizza for dinner. And it's taking a serious toll on his health.

00:21Josh's uncle David is desperate for someone to help. If it's left unchecked

00:26he's going to kill himself. Can specialist Mike Dow and JJ Virgin break this dangerous

00:31addiction? This is how much pizza you eat in a year. Damn. In order to save his stomach.

00:37This is poisonous to your body. And his life. This is incredibly dangerous to your health.

00:43If we do not help him, Josh could die.

00:56My name is David and Josh my nephew is a freaky eater. 22-year-old Josh eats pizza three meals

01:06a day. Some good stuff. A total of 1800 pounds every single year. 80 times more than the average

01:14person. Josh's pizza consumption is too excess. It's gotten to the point where it's a compulsion.

01:20I crave pizza every time I want a meal. Right now I want pizza. I don't know what made me

01:25want it. I just want it. He'll eat it hot, cold, one day old, frozen, microwaved. Josh's

01:35only nutrition comes from the 2,000 cups of white flour, 250 cups of tomato sauce, and 230

01:42pounds of cheese that he eats every year. God I love pizza. Josh's diet concerns me, scares

01:49me really. Because I feel like if it's left unchecked, that he is going to kill himself.

01:58When Josh was a child, he ate a variety of foods. Joshua was not a picky eater when he

02:04was younger. The picky eating didn't start until he actually had money to buy his own food.

02:11Starting in third grade, Josh was able to buy his own lunches. And that's when pizza became

02:15a problem. On Fridays, if you waited until the second bell after the lunch lady had extras,

02:21she'd give you an extra big slice of pizza. Soon, Josh was eating pizza whenever he could

02:27get his hands on it. And gradually, other foods disappeared from his diet. The last time I could

02:32remember eating a vegetable was probably fifth grade, when my mom forced me to eat some. And

02:38I ate some, just to disguise the other hand, grabbing it in the napkin to throw it away.

02:44Despite his terrible diet, Josh pushed himself as an athlete, and he excelled in high school

02:50volleyball. Joshua the athlete was actually quite good. During high school, he was MVP and

02:55he helped to coach the teams. And then when he started playing beach volleyball, we saw a

02:59lot of great future for him. It was very exciting to watch him play, because he was good at it.

03:04And you could just tell he enjoyed it. He beamed. He smiled. Volleyball was the most important thing

03:11to me. But then, three years ago, when Josh was 19, he suddenly became ill. I was at volleyball

03:19practice, and I was just running. And then all of a sudden, I just had this urge to just vomit.

03:27And then it started happening day after day after day after day. And then after a month, it started

03:33happening when I was waking up. And it's been going on for two and a half years. When I wake

03:39up in the morning, I have about 10 to 30 minutes of hell. I'll have a massive headache. My heart

03:47will be palpitating. I have about 10 to 30 minutes to throw up. It's like mentally just agonizing,

03:56you know, every morning waking up like that. Josh was passed from doctor to doctor over

04:01the course of three years. After countless tests and scans, not one could diagnose him. The

04:07most they could do was prescribe migraine medication. I've actually sat down and told the doctors

04:12how much pizza you actually eat every day, every week. I told him I eat a lot of pizza,

04:19but I remember that exactly. Before Josh got sick, he was a young man with a plan. You know,

04:25he was in school. He was playing volleyball regularly. And all of his dreams of being a pro

04:30volleyball player, finishing school, just absolutely evaporated. I lost volleyball. I lost so many

04:36friends. I lost working out. I lost going to the beach. So there's a deep, a deep hole. Forced

04:43to quit the sport that had come to define him, by the age of 20, Josh had lost everything. His

04:49athletic dreams, his friends, and his self-esteem. Come on, eat it. It's good. You can have it. I

04:56don't want it. It has vegetables and stuff in there. Eventually, he left school and moved

05:00in with his grandmother. He is not eating any vegetables or any fruit. One of these days,

05:07I'm going to give up on you. As he descended deeper and deeper into depression, Josh ate

05:12more and more pizza, his one comfort. He currently eats over 469 pizzas each year, 320 slices every

05:21single month. I definitely forget about my problems when I'm eating pizza. For that moment, I'm not

05:27thinking about volleyball. So whatever's going on after I eat that pizza, I like that feeling.

05:32So how much of this pizza do you think you're going to be able to eat? Oh, probably you might

05:35have. I think for Josh, the amount of pizza that he eats is at the very least, if it does

05:42not cause his illness, it aggravates it. I could answer 100% to my heart of hearts that I do

05:49not believe my diet has anything to do with the way that I feel physically. There's way more

05:54foods that are way more unhealthy than pizza. Josh's life is spiraling out of control, and

06:00he needs help before it's too late.

06:10With Josh's health declining by the day, his uncle has finally convinced him to meet with

06:15freaky eater specialist Dr. Mike Dow and nutritionist JJ Virgin. Over the next two days, they'll attempt

06:21to help him break his addiction and get his life back on track. My uncle's always told me he's

06:26concerned with the way I eat. To have him have some other people join in now makes me really realize

06:31how concerned he is. Hi. Hi, I'm JJ. I'm a certified nutrition specialist. I've been teaching people

06:38how to get healthy for the past 25 years, and I've literally worked with thousands of people from all walks of life.

06:44Josh, Dr. Mike Dow. I'm a licensed psychotherapist with specializations in eating disorders and addictive behaviors.

06:50We've heard from your uncle that there's some really serious health stuff going on.

06:54So he brought us in to basically change your life.

06:57JJ and I are absolutely the people that are going to get through to Josh.

07:02He's already been to doctors. What he needs are people that are going to get to the heart of the matter.

07:06How his psychology, how his nutrition, all of these things are impacting the way he feels, the way he eats.

07:13It sounds like there's a lot of people in your family who are very worried about you. Are you worried about you?

07:17Yeah. Are you ready to do something about it?

07:20I think I'm at a point now where I'm willing to try anything to improve my life.

07:25Look, I'm kind of apprehensive if they're trying to make a link between my illness and the way I eat.

07:31I'm not sure that's connected, but I am definitely willing to hear what they had to say.

07:36Josh refuses to believe that his all-pizza diet is responsible for the mysterious illness that has destroyed his life.

07:43I lost volleyball. I lost so many friends. There's a deep hole.

07:48Freaky eater specialists Dr. Mike Dow and JJ Virgin are hoping that some shock therapy will open Josh's eyes to the effect of his disastrous diet.

07:57So Josh, this is how much pizza you eat in a year.

08:02Wow.

08:08469 boxes.

08:11You look shocked.

08:12Yeah.

08:14In this box, white flour, sugary sauce, cheese, salt. The amount you are getting in a year, 230 pounds of cheese. That's loaded with saturated fat.

08:27Damn.

08:28Nearly 2,000 cups of white flour. That's fast-tracked to diabetes and heart disease right there.

08:34I'm beyond myself.

08:37Shock therapy is really realizing the amount of detrimental stuff you are putting in your body.

08:44Seeing it, presenting it, helps the patient to say, wow, this is what I'm doing to myself.

08:49We've got one more thing we need to show you.

08:52This here represents the fat in those 469 pieces. This is 80 pounds of the baddest fat of all. Trans fat, saturated fat. Consuming this amount of this type of fat is going to give you heart disease or cancer or diabetes.

09:14It's just a matter, Josh, of which one's going to get you first.

09:20It looked like vomit. It really hit me that, like, what I was putting into my body could possibly be, like, what I was throwing up.

09:26I want you to actually feel what it is like to choose to put this in your body, and we are going to ask you to pour all of this fat into that vat.

09:36So just pour it in there? Yep.

09:50The Vectin is your body and your veins.

09:52What does that mean?

09:53Probably a heart attack.

09:54Yeah.

09:58Oh, my God, I could have had a heart attack.

10:00What I want to ask you to do is to pick up that silver vat of fat, and I want you to hold it for as long as you can.

10:12How does that feel?

10:14It's heavy.

10:15Heavy?

10:16When it's ready to go, I just want you to drop it.

10:19It definitely felt good to throw the fat and be able to do it and get it away from me as far as possible.

10:32Now, there's one more thing.

10:33We've arranged to get some blood tests done because we really need to see what kind of damage you've caused with your 469 pizzas a year.

10:40So we're going to go out and get those now.

10:42All right. Let's get to work.

10:43Before the lab results come back, Dr. Dow wants to get to the root of Josh's addiction to pizza by bringing him to the place that triggered his downward spiral.

10:56It's been a while since you picked up one of these, huh?

10:58Yeah.

11:01Tell me about how you got into volleyball.

11:03My mom actually forced me, forced me to play.

11:06She said that we all had to be two-sport athletes in high school.

11:09Did you want to play volleyball?

11:11Once I started playing and I saw that I had promise, I realized that maybe this is a way that I could kind of show them that I could accomplish something, be good at something.

11:19If you were talking to your mom at that time, what was it that you needed from her that you didn't get?

11:24The approval. In my eyes, I don't think I was still on the track to be getting that approval.

11:29You needed their approval.

11:30Yeah.

11:31In assessing Josh's self-worth, he didn't have very many things that made him feel good enough about himself like he did when he was an athlete.

11:39When he stopped getting that, he turned to cheese pizza.

11:42So he used this object, this food, to get things that he was not getting in his life.

11:47When you started playing volleyball, this was actually something that made you feel really good about yourself.

11:51Yeah.

11:52And then tell me about pizza coming in.

11:54Once I lost volleyball, that's when I started to realize I didn't have control over anything anymore.

12:00So there were some things going on in your life that you were not in control of?

12:03I think it all just kind of started once the sickness happened.

12:06Yeah.

12:07Once I wasn't able to play volleyball anymore, it all kind of just crumbled away.

12:09Yeah.

12:10And then I was just desperately grasping for something.

12:14And you didn't have anything else, so you gravitated towards pizza.

12:16So everything in the way you felt, the way you thought was, I can't control that, but I can control this.

12:22Yeah.

12:23We have to figure out what are the things in your life that you can start to feel good about.

12:28Uh-huh.

12:29Not until today did I ever start to really make the connection between what I was eating and why I was eating it.

12:34Before, it was nothing more than I'm hungry and I feel like eating pizza.

12:38Now I'm starting to think maybe it's more.

12:40Ready to take the next step?

12:41Yeah.

12:46Josh has been grappling with a mysterious illness for the past three years.

12:50I'll have a massive headache, my heart will be palpitating, and then I have about 10 to 30 minutes to throw up.

12:56Determined to find the answer behind his illness, JJ arranged for Josh to have specialized testing

13:02to look for a link between his physical condition and his diet.

13:10I just got the blood test back from the lab and the news is not good.

13:15You've had food allergy testing, right?

13:18Mm-hmm.

13:19So there's food allergies and that's like when you eat a peanut and your, you know, your throat closes up.

13:23Mm-hmm.

13:24And then there's another type of response.

13:26It's an immune response called a delayed food sensitivity.

13:29Mm-hmm.

13:30This is very different.

13:31This happens because you eat the same food over and over and over and over again.

13:37Mm-hmm.

13:38And when you do that, your body can actually start to become sensitive to it and starts to have a toxic response to it.

13:45But worse than that, your body actually craves it.

13:49Mm-hmm.

13:50So you eat it and the reaction to it's delayed.

13:53You might eat it and eight hours later you start to feel worse.

13:57So you don't directly tie it to the food.

13:59But your body starts to create an immune response that makes you crave the very food that's hurting you.

14:04Mm-hmm.

14:05So what do you think, hearing that, what do you think you probably are reacting to?

14:10The pizza.

14:12Or the cheese or something that's in there.

14:15Bingo.

14:16See these greater than 2,000?

14:18Mm-hmm.

14:19That's a huge response.

14:20See how you're written severe?

14:22Wow.

14:23The dairy.

14:24That's toxic for you.

14:25Right.

14:26Right?

14:27Yeah.

14:28It's just exactly like poison.

14:29This is poisonous to your body.

14:31The type of lab tests that we're looking at now are very different.

14:36They aren't done traditionally by doctors.

14:38And so they've been missed.

14:40I'm overwhelmed with emotion right now.

14:44I don't even know what to think.

14:48I would have bet any amount of money that my diet had nothing to do with my sickness.

14:53And now I know my diet was my sickness, and it changes everything.

14:59Wow.

15:04It took three years, and now it's just finally we have an answer.

15:08All of it's fixed with food.

15:10Dang, this is going to be hard.

15:13I've got to do what I've got to do, you know?

15:17Josh now faces the daunting task of removing pizza from his diet completely.

15:22But JJ and Dr. Dow have a plan to keep him on track.

15:25So what I did was put together a menu to make this, again, simple for you.

15:28Yeah.

15:29Okay?

15:30I've got some breakfast for you.

15:31They're going to be things that you've been eating already.

15:33Uh-huh.

15:34Okay?

15:35With a healthy twist.

15:36I've created a menu plan for Josh that's going to be a bit of a challenge.

15:39What I tried to do was take things that he was already eating or already familiar with,

15:43and then put a challenge in there, like vegetables.

15:46Well, you have homework for me that is creating quality time so that you can get your needs met

15:51and your relationships that are important to you.

15:53Josh's homework is a combination of the nutritional plan put together by JJ,

15:57and he's going to be improving his life by spending time with his family, improving his relationships.

16:03Are these homework assignments something that you are clear about?

16:06Um, they're very clear. I'm going to do them.

16:08Okay?

16:09Going cold turkey is hard because dairy is in every single food Josh loves.

16:14But also, when he stops eating it, his body is going to scream.

16:19He's going to crave it so much.

16:22Coming up, Josh tries to adapt to a pizza-free diet.

16:27But will the temptation prove too much?

16:30You could tell that he wanted to take a bite.

16:33It hurts.

16:38Dr. Dow and JJ have given Josh the tools to conquer his addiction.

16:43But now the True Test is managing it on his own.

16:47The first couple days that Josh makes this change are going to be brutal.

16:52But within a week, he's going to feel like a new man.

16:56That fatigue, the headaches, they'll be gone.

16:58It's Josh's first full day without pizza in three years.

17:02And as JJ predicted, his body is suffering the effects of withdrawal.

17:06It's all tough right now.

17:08You know, no dairy whatsoever.

17:10No sugar.

17:11I do not feel physically strong.

17:14I'm always hungry.

17:15The following day, Josh takes Dr. Dow's advice and spends some time with his siblings for emotional support.

17:23Brother.

17:24What's up?

17:25We brought you some food.

17:26But each meal without pizza is a struggle.

17:29Right now, every time I have a meal, my body's wishing I had cheese on it.

17:35And I just miss the taste of pizza, really.

17:37Nothing I've been eating tastes that good.

17:39Emotionally, it's draining.

17:41Thinking about every meal and what I used to be able to eat and what I can eat now.

17:44And having to try to eat all these vegetables, it's really frustrating.

17:47I'm really agitated.

17:48Eating vegetables every day sucks.

17:55It's Josh's third day without pizza.

17:58And physically, he's feeling much better.

18:00But he also finds himself surrounded by temptations.

18:03You know, I went down the aisle where I usually get pizza and I was just like, everything looks so appealing.

18:09I took extreme self-control on the third day.

18:13So, three days, I think, is pushing it.

18:20Finally on day five, JJ and Dr. Dow feel Josh is ready for his toughest challenge yet.

18:28An Italian dinner without pizza.

18:31Josh has made major changes and has died, and this is no easy task.

18:35What may be even more difficult for Josh is resisting temptation in real-life situations.

18:41What Josh doesn't know is that his entire family is waiting to join him.

18:45How you doing?

18:46How you doing?

18:47I was very surprised to see my whole family sitting there.

18:50I was kind of nervous.

18:54Looking at that menu, I realized I'd never looked at a menu before.

18:57I can't be ignorant.

18:59You know, I might need to eat some things I'm not going to enjoy just to reap the benefits.

19:03Hi, Maria. I'm taking the order tonight.

19:05Well, we looked at that menu, and I thought there's nothing on here that he's eaten in the last ten years.

19:12What is he going to pick?

19:13I guess I'm going to be getting the shrimp and clams-y Teresa.

19:18Wow.

19:19Flams.

19:20Love it.

19:21Amazing.

19:22I never thought I'd see the day where we'd go out to dinner and Josh would order anything other than pizza.

19:27I was shocked.

19:28Can I get the classic margarita pizza?

19:31Aww.

19:32That hurts.

19:34I was actually very glad that Josh's brother ordered the pizza because those real-life behavioral triggers, when somebody's going to have the pizza, that's what Josh needs to experience.

19:46I can smell the pizza, I can smell the bread, I can smell the cheese. It was tough.

20:07Very good.

20:08Very good.

20:09Very good.

20:10Very good.

20:11Yes.

20:12I can't bring myself to believe that this is actually it. As every day that goes by and he feels better, my confidence grows.

20:26Josh.

20:27Here we are.

20:29Graduating to good health.

20:32I don't think words can express how grateful I am.

20:36With just a few small changes to his diet, Josh has gone from someone with nothing to live for, no school, no career, and no future, to someone who has hope and a clear path to getting his life back.

20:50I'm feeling less nauseous. I feel like I'm thinking more clearly. I feel like I stared death in the face and I made a choice and now I'm starting over and I have the potential to be bigger, better, and stronger than I was before.

21:03I can't believe that, you know, through all of this pizza was my enemy.

21:06But it was my enemy.