Giraffes, sparrows, squirrels – and virtually any other wild animal you care to name – eat when they’re hungry, until they’re satisfied, and then they stop eating. Have you ever seen a fat sparrow? Do they eat the seed off the ground until it’s all gone and they can’t fly away? No, they eat what they need and then leave. Would a giraffe pull off and then eat so many leaves from a tree that it couldn’t walk? Not a chance! Squirrels, too.

They’ll go out and collect lots of nuts for food. But do they then eat them all until they’re fat? No – they eat what they need, and then bury the rest for when they’re hungry again. Obesity is almost exclusively a disease that affects the human species. The squirrel says, ‘that’s enough: bury’. Squirrels have got it together!

It’s a similar story with disease. It’s likely that we can all name someone who died of cancer, or a heart attack, or liver disease.

But how many animals die each year from obesity-related conditions? How many of those are captive or domesticated, and how many are wild? Think about what that might mean.

And what do we humans do? We sit there and eat – one, maybe two, courses, and then order pudding. No one orders pudding because they’re hungry, do they? How can they be?

They’ve just had two courses, probably a glass of wine, and a bread roll, too. So we’ve had three or more courses, and then we go on to eat between these meals as well. We eat and eat, even though we’re not actually hungry. How stupid are we?

If you’ve been on diets before and they’ve failed, it’ll be because a diet doesn’t address what’s going on inside your head. A diet never addresses the whole concept of emotional eating – that is, eating when you’re bored or stressed or angry.

It’s our belief that diets can’t work in the long term because you always “go back” to your old ways unless you’ve changed your thinking. Our new book Gastric Mind Band is about giving you the defense mechanisms you need. You’ve got to be able to enjoy yourself and live – and eat – in the real world.

There are plenty of people who’ve lost a considerable amount of weight with different groups or diet systems, and then put it all back on because none of them ever get to the subconscious part of the decision-making process.

They address the symptom, but not the cause.