"I used to be a compulsive eater until two years ago. If anybody had said to me, what's my drug of choice, I would have said 'Food'," she said.
Speaking on the RTÉ programme this morning, McEvoy said that overeating and sugar had a very negative effect on her health: "I didn't realise that when you eat loads of carbohydrates it turns into loads of sugar.
"And that's what I was doing. The Chinese take-away followed by the Haagen Daaz, three times a week."
Through a healing process and giving up sugar, that has all disappeared but giving up sugar is easier said than done so how did she break her bad habits of over 40 years: "It was a combination of, I think, a desire to heal myself, going to the right therapist and following the right diet.
"I had done it several times before but I gave up sugar completely for ten days. I gave up everything completely for ten days and took certain supplements that were recommended to me plus I was going to a person who took my spiritual feelings about things on board and respected that."
She added: "When I say I gave up sugar, I gave up refined sugar so I don't eat sweets, I don't eat cakes – white sugar of any description.
"I've stopped the bingeing. I thought I was bingeing because there was some deep, dark dreadful secret in my past, but it was actually because my blood sugar levels where all over the gaff."
The former Glenroe actress, who appeared in the recent documentary based on the hit RTÉ soap, has spoken previously about suffering from depression. Sean asked her how she is currently dealing with that: "I take medication. It works obviously, because I have to keep going.
"If I came onto the Sean O'Rourke show and burst into tears, I can't work."
Listen back to the interview here (13 minutes) on Soundcloud
McEvoy was on the RTÉ Radio 1 programme to talk about her new book Ordinary Beauty: Meaningful Moments in Everyday Life.
