Over all, these Anonymous Fellowships leave sufferers from eating disorders to make their own decisions on physical abstinence. However, in practice those who have achieved long-term recovery from eating disorders tend to use the following guidelines:

1. Abstinence from sugar and white flour and other refined carbohydrates, including alcohol.
2. Three regular meals a day with nothing in between.
3. Normal portion sizes, judged on what other people are taking.
4. No added salt or spices.

At the same time they will need to be aware of other addictive substances and processes and, where specifically appropriate for themselves, cut them out. It should be emphasised that mere abstinence is not enough. Eating disorders do not respond simply to willpower or to dietary regimes. Sufferers have to attend regular meetings of Overeaters Anonymous or another appropriate Anonymous Fellowship and work the Twelve Step programme of recovery. They need to read the Fellowship literature on a regular basis and get a sponsor to guide them on their journey so that they no longer try to work everything out for themselves. The programme is in fact very straightforward and simple - but addicts are compulsive complicators and will always try to find ways of ducking and diving, weaving and manipulating and generally trying to control rather than surrender. The guidance of other members of the Anonymous Fellowships is therefore vital to continuing recovery. Even here, however, there can be traps. Somehow the notion of "food sponsors" has crept into the Anonymous Fellowships. Sufferers may be encouraged to telephone in to their "food sponsor" the food they intend to eat that day. In my view this is a totally obsessive and unnecessary and even destructive process. It continues to focus on the food rather than on the person. An even greater obsession is found in those sufferers who still work a "Grey Sheet" programme of abstinence. Even worse is the "HOW" programme in which portion sizes are rigidly controlled, even by taking a small set of scales and a set of scissors to restaurants so that the exact quantity of meat or other foodstuffs can be weighed out before consumption. In my view this is absolutely crazy, with the sufferers continuing to be dominated by food and its hidden power. There is nothing hidden about the power of sugar and refined carbohydrates to lead to cravings; this is a common experience of people suffering from eating disorders. However, there is no such power in any other food substance. Binge foods such as fats or fruit - or anything that any particular sufferer may have used - can safely be reintroduced when recovery is sufficiently stable to take on the further challenge of new experience and trust.