Most of us have that one favorite food in our life that we claim we can live on! For me, it’s pizza! I do not mind eating pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all 365 days in the year. But, all that’s hypothetical, right?
No sane person would ever decide to live on their favorite food, be it fries or hamburgers for life no matter how much you love them.
 I came across a recent story of a 17-year-old UK boy who has been eating only chips, bangers, white bread and ham for a decade!
Let that sink in!
The teenager has told doctors that he did not like the ‘texture’ of any fruits and vegetables and hence took to junk food since he was seven. Following several vitamin deficiencies, the optic nerve in the boy’s body which connects the brain to the eye was damaged. And he lost his eye sight!
Dr Denize Atan works for the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust studied the boy’s case. He told Mirror:
“He had a daily portion of fries from the local fish and chip shop and snacked on Pringles, white bread, processed ham slices and sausage.”
He also said the the boy’s blindness was caused by a eating disorder called avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (AFRID). People suffering from this disorder become sensitive to the taste, texture, smell or appearance of certain types of food.
The boy reportedly lost his eyesight because of nutritional optic neuropathy (NON) usually found among the malnourished children in BPL (Below Poverty Line) families with restricted food supplies.
Apart from blindness, the teen has also developed bone weakness and partial hearing loss.
The doctors said that though his height and BMI was normal, he was deficient in vitamin B12 which is found in offal, milk, fish and eggs. His condition, however, remained undiagnosed for years. They also said that NON is hereditary but no such case of the disorder wasÂ
Apart from being a ‘fussy’ eater, the boy showed no abnormalities. He visited a doctor for tiredness when he was 14 and deficiency of Vitamin B12 was found, He gradually began to lose his eye-sight as he turned 15.
After two years toÂ
“Junk foods are nutritionally poor but energy-dense and cheap. Hence, high-energy diets correlate with high BMI, low socioeconomic status and poor health. Fussy eating’ that is restricted to junk foods and causes multiple nutritional deficiencies is an eating disorder,” Dr Atan said.
“Avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a relatively new diagnostic entity, but unlike anorexia nervosa, it is not driven by weight or shape concerns. Onset is in middle childhood, with lack of interest in food, heightened sensitivity to food textures, and fear of the consequences of eating,” he added.