Favourite New Word: Bruna

Favourite New Word: Bruna

I read Amanda De Cadenet's website The Conversation every week and recently, it taught me a new word: Bruna.

This is writer Heidi Hayward's word for when she goes on a crazy eating binge. Or as she describes it, Bruna is the "out of control, morbidly obese woman who takes over your body when you can't stop eating. She signifies absolute shame and hideousness".

I loved reading this piece because my Bruna was a crazy f*cking b*tch up until a few years ago. I was in a weird starve/binge situation, in which I'd be hungry for days thanks to eating basically nothing, and then Bruna would appear and turn me into a breathless food monster.

I can't explain the heady rush of a sudden binge - it literally makes you dizzy. I once ate a tub of hummus with a fork. I polished off a whole jar of pickled onions with no cutlery at all. My Bruna was determined, resourceful - she would not, could not, rest until the fridge was totally empty.

She was at her most prominent when I was working as a breakfast shift waitress in a hotel. People would come in each morning and demolish genuine mountains of egg, meat and mushroom and although us staff could get in on the act, I refused. Outwardly, I had control. And besides, Bruna liked to eat alone.

So, yeah, this was all spectacularly unhealthy and weird. But then - when I was working on a feature about New Year resolutions - I interviewed a nutritionist called Lucinda.

Lovely Lucinda - she was kind, lived in the comfiest big house and listened to me cry my eyes out about the starve/binge thing before teaching me how to eat again. I literally had to re-learn about meals and food groups and everything all of this does to you. It was like being a child.

But after an hour with Lucinda, my Bruna was pretty much gone. She tried to come back a couple of times, but I was armed with nuts, apples and avocados so she had to skulk off in a grump.

The reason I loved Heidi's piece so much is that it made me realise that actually, I wasn't the only person who had this mental approach to food at one point. Does any of this sound familiar? Tweet us @MyDailyUK.

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