AS the saying goes, beans are good for the heart and the more you eat the more you…
Unfortunately for Beth Hall she knows this all too well because her boyfriend refuses to eat anything but baked beans on toast.
Breakfast each day is a can of beans smothered over four slices of toasted white bread, lunch the same and dinner the same again.
Frustrated Beth, 20, has to put up with fella Gary Watkinson constantly breaking wind and the embarrassment of telling friends and family about his unsual diet.
Romantic meals out are almost impossible and when Beth cooks Gary anything but his favourite meal, it ends up in the dog’s bowl.
But despite his addiction, Gary, 25, is a PERSONAL TRAINER with great skin and a ripped physique.
Beth says: “It does my head in. My life with Gary is just beans, beans, beans. And more beans. I can’t stand it. It’s all there ever is, my cupboards are filled with stacks of cans of beans.
“I used to love eating them but I can’t stand the sight of beans now. In fact, I couldn’t put another bean in my mouth.”
The couple, from Huddersfield, West Yorks, first met two years ago, in a bar in the town, and Beth thought Gary’s obsession with beans was down to him being a lazy cook.
She says: “When he told me about his bizarre eating habit, I didn’t believe him at first. I just thought he couldn’t cook very well. It wasn’t very romantic but I didn’t mind at first.”
But when Beth moved in with Gary, she realised he was not fibbing about the beans.
She says: “Even when I’d order a takeaway, he wouldn’t eat it. And the only thing his mum ever made him was beans on toast. So I realised he had been telling me the truth and I was amazed.
“How could someone survive on that?”
It was last summer, when the pair flew to Ibiza to work as holiday reps for the season, that Gary’s habit became a real problem. Beth says: “It was a nightmare. He couldn’t find anywhere that sold beans. Then he found this one shop but it was on the other side of the island to where we were staying.
“We ended up spending a fortune on taxis there and back to stock up. It was ridiculous.
“In the end we had to move apartments just to be closer to the beans.”
His only fallback, in the event he cannot get hold of beans, is a plate of mash or chips, and maybe some ice cream.
And not any baked beans will do. It has to be Branston.
Gary adds: “I have no idea where my obsession came from.
“I remember when I was a kid, if my mum tried to give me other food I would just throw it on to the floor.
“I used to eat Heinz beans, but now I can only eat Branston. If someone gave me beans that were Tesco Value, I would know and refuse them.”
One instance when Gary was forced to eat something other than beans brings back particularly bad memories for Beth.
Beth, a drinks firm distributor, says: “We were in a café and there were no Branston beans so Gary had to order chips.
“When he asked for ketchup, the waiter gave him chilli sauce and didn’t tell him.
“He’d never had spice in his life until that point. But he smothered his chips in it and, after about three chips, went bright red in the face and almost passed out.
“He then went crazy and started a fight with the waiter. I had to drag him away — starving hungry.
“We used to go to the Toby Carvery and I would have a large plate of meat, vegetables, mash and gravy while Gary would just eat a big plate of dry mash.
“But when they started putting parsley on as a garnish, that was the end of that. We’ve not been back since.
“Now, if we ever go out for a meal, which is rare, Gary just orders chips or ice cream. It’s mortifying. And whenever I want to cook a nice, romantic meal for us, or have something sweet for Valentine’s Day, it’s the same situation. I’ll end up cooking myself a roast dinner — and sharing it with the dog instead, while Gary eats his beans.
“Sometimes I put his beans in a heart-shaped bowl, or make his toast with an I Love You stamp on, just to add some romance.”
Meanwhile, Gary talks freely about his fixation. He says: “I don’t eat vegetables or fruit, or any other kind of carbs or cereal. I get up in the morning and have beans on toast. Then for lunch I have the same — and the same again for dinner.”
He spends more than £500 a year on beans and says: “I don’t feel I’m missing out. It’s not a case of not wanting to try other food, it’s just that I can’t. It makes me cringe.
“My mates have offered me £50 just to take a bite of a cheese-and-tomato pizza but I can’t do it. They think it’s hilarious — and I guess it is weird.”
And the b-word can cause tiffs with Beth. She says: “The only thing we ever argue about is beans — either I don’t cook them right, or I’ve not put in enough butter. And he does fart a lot.”
Yet Gary is in tip-top shape. He says: “We read a story about a woman who had died recently from eating a weird diet like mine. So at Beth’s request I went to my GP for a check.
“They took my blood sample but it came back healthy. They told me I was fine and, for my weight, had nothing to worry about.”
Yvonne Wake, of the Nutrition Society, says beans are nutritious but a diet of just them could, in future, leave Gary frail and unable to fight off disease.
On the positive side, she says: “He does eat food that contains a good amount of fibre so is probably not constipated, which can often lead to ill health and cancer.
“He also gets fat from the beans, the toast and the chips, which will provide him with calories. So even though he is slim, he is still getting energy.”
But she warns: “He needs to get more vitamins, minerals and trace elements, to avoid the illnesses that befall the elderly. He will probably have a weakened immune system, so fighting off disease and colds will be a problem going forward.”
For the time being, though, Gary is a picture of health.
Beth says: “He’s never ill, he has spotless skin, his hair glows, he’s full of energy and goes to the gym for two hours a day. He’s ripped, too. I try hard to maintain my figure and eat the right things but Gary eats what he wants and looks great, it is so annoying.
“Yet despite everything, I wouldn’t want to change him.”
Gary’s perfect baked beans on toast
— Microwave beans for exactly 90 seconds.
— Stir, then cook for another 90 seconds.
— Add knob of butter and pinch of salt, then stir again.
— Four pieces of white bread to bump up calories.