Blinded by the Bite
Watch what you eat, or you’ll never be able to again…
We all know junk food isn’t good for you, but who knew it had such catastrophic repercussions…
A teenager from the UK described as a “fussy eater” lost his vision due to a strict diet of Pringles, French fries, white bread, processed ham and sausage.
A case study in Annals of Internal Medicine, shows the boy suffered from nutritional optic neuropathy, which is a dysfunction of the optic nerve cause by a diet low in nutrients required for nerve fibres in the eye to function. If left untreated, the condition can lead to permanent vision loss.
According to researchers at the Bristol Eye Hospital in the U.K., the boy first visited his family doctor as a 14-year-old with a normal body mass index, but complained of tiredness. His doctor gave him some vitamin B12 injections to treat low levels of the vitamin and suggested some dietary changes. About a year later, the boy had developed hearing loss and symptoms related to his vision, but doctors could not determine the cause. By age 17, the boy’s vision had progressed to the point of blindness.
Doctors investigated and found the boy suffered several bone, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, but by the time they had completed the diagnosis, the boy had suffered permanent vision loss.
Researches want to remind people that picky eating is an eating disorder and can cause significant nutritional deficiencies.
Everything in moderation.