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Ed Gamble is very adamant that he is \u2018not on TikTok<\/a>\u2019. Whenever he\u2019s been exposed to it, the app seems nothing but manic and stressful. \u201cIt sounds like a panic attack. It\u2019ll be an intense music track, then someone waffling on about something, then a cat farting. But people aren\u2019t even watching the whole video, they’re just flicking through.\u201d He cringes. \u201cThat can’t be good for the brain, can it?\u201d<\/p>\n Not good for the brain, <\/a>or the body<\/a>, we now know. It\u2019s not just a TikTok-specific issue, though \u2013 even on the social media platforms he still uses, the comedian, presenter and podcaster has noticed a shifting toxicity in his feed.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes my algorithm is just, like, loads of ripped lads, and it didn\u2019t used to be like that,\u201d the comedian tells me on the Well Enough podcast<\/a>. \u201cI mean, they look lovely. Well done. But I\u2019ve been through<\/a> that type of body transformation, where you go to a personal trainer four times a week and stick to a very specific diet.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, I looked toned and in shape. But having gone through it, I see pictures of men who look like that and just think: \u2018Your life is horrible.\u2019 It\u2019s being hungry and cold all the time. You can\u2019t look like that and be a food lover, in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n Gamble is nothing if not a food lover. The Off Menu podcast, which he hosts with fellow comedian James Acaster<\/a>, sees celebrities from all flavours of fame pitching their \u2018dream menu\u2019. The show has produced surprisingly emotional and intimate conversations from some of the world\u2019s biggest stars. After all, food is an inherently emotional topic. \u201cSometimes they pick a dreadful menu. We\u2019ve had it many times. But if there’s an emotional or funny story behind it, I’m always on board.\u201d <\/p>\n Gamble is well-positioned to sit at the table during conversations around food and body image. Over his lifetime, he\u2019s seen himself go from a self-professed \u2018lovely fat little boy\u2019, to getting diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 13, to achieving a dramatic seven-stone weight loss<\/a> in his early twenties. <\/p>\n His fluctuating weight means he\u2019s lived in many versions of his own body. His diabetes diagnosis means it remains a relationship made of constant, unending maintenance.\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of mental effort,\u201d Gamble sighs. \u201cIt’s like having another job. A 24-hour job.<\/p>\n \u201cYour pancreas is still producing insulin, whereas my pancreas is an absolutely useless bit of kit. It’s completely dead. It’s just floating around in there.\u201d<\/p>\n Diabetes is when the pancreas fails to produce enough or any insulin, the hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar levels by turning glucose from food into energy. People with diabetes have to constantly monitor their blood sugar levels, which can go up or down depending on diet, exercise, sleep, and even emotional state, and inject insulin daily.<\/p>\n Gamble characterises his glucose levels like a puppy: excited, unpredictable, and troublesome. Sometimes the puppy\u2019s having a nap \u2013 that\u2019s a great, easy day. But other times, particularly when other factors get involved (like, say, lack of sleep from being on a comedy tour, or the adrenaline of walking out onstage), \u201cit decides to kick off, and I have to ultra-manage my type 1.\u201d<\/p>\n When he first started doing stand-up, Gamble didn\u2019t plan on speaking about his health. But the more he let the outer world into his inner world, the more positive the response. It can be a really lonely disease, he says. People always like to hear that they\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n He\u2019s wary, however, of the trend of oversharing about health issues online. \u201cIt used to be that people only posted their victories, but then they realised they could post their flaws, too, which somehow got co-opted into something very squeaky clean, like: \u2018We all need to talk about mental health, guys.\u2019 I\u2019m like: \u2018No, I don’t wanna talk about it with you. You seem really annoying.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Listen to the full episode of Well Enough<\/a>, available on Spotify,<\/a> Apple Podcasts<\/a>, and YouTube <\/a>to hear more from Ed Gamble about touring with a chronic illness, male body image, and how technology has transformed diabetes care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-495371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}