A teenager in Bristol, England who only ate five different foods went blind despite having no visible signs he was malnourished, according to his doctor.
Every day, the boy would eat a portion of fries, and snack on Pringles, white bread, slices of processed ham and sausages, leaving him with an extreme, but undetected, vitamin deficiency in his diet, doctors in Britain said in a report published on Tuesday.
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Dr. Denize Atan, one of the doctors behind the article, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, personally treated the “fussy eater” for three years. According to the doctor, the boy was previously healthy and took no medicines. She told BBC News:
“His diet was essentially a portion of chips (fries) from the local fish and chip shop every day. He also used to snack on crisps (chips) — Pringles — and sometimes slices of white bread and occasional slices of ham, and not really any fruit and vegetables.”1
Dr. Atan first treated the boy at the age of 14, when he came in complaining of chronic tiredness. She diagnosed him with anemia and a deficiency in vitamin B12, along with copper, selenium and vitamin D. She gave the boy B12 injections and told him he’d have to start eating a more varied diet.
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However, due to his “aversion to certain textures of food that he really could not tolerate… chips and crisps were really the only types of food that he wanted and felt that he could eat.”1
The boy has what is known as “Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder” 1(ARFID). Previously known as Selective Eating Disorder, it can be overlooked by parents as simply being a picky eater. But the health implications are dangerous, and they’re not limited to vision impairment.
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The study by notes, “the risks for poor cardiovascular health, obesity, and cancer associated with junk food”1 are well known and often discussed. But when a diet with dense foods having little nutritional value becomes all one eats, the risks mount. The boy in Bristol was left malnourished, even though he ate every day and wasn’t hungry. Atan told the BBC:
“He had lost minerals from his bone, which was really quite shocking for a boy of his age.”1
He is not completely blind. He has retained his peripheral vision and can walk around on his own. But Atan said:
“…with blind spots right in the middle of his vision, he will never be able to drive, and would find it really difficult to read, watch TV or discern faces.”1
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