
UK teenager loses sight from poor diet - sjcsjc
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49551337
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DanBC
BBC have missed out important information.

This child is autistic and has an eating disorder called ARFID -
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/restrictive_food_inta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/restrictive_food_intake_disorder)

England currently has a pretty severe problem with paediatric mental health
services (which is where paediatric autism diagnostic and support services
would normally sit), and with providing community support for people.

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killmepete
Reminds me of those reality shows like freaky eaters. Normally boiled down to
a horrific expirence as a child or over sensitive taste ('supertasters').

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ollie87
I know it's not to everyone's comedy tastes but I sort of always enjoted Harry
Hill's takes on "Freaky Eaters" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-AvekuF-
rg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-AvekuF-rg)

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frereubu
This reminds me of a story told to me at university when an "enterprising"
student took out the maximum loan he could, bought an expensive stereo system
and a sack of porridge oats to eat for the rest of the term, and promptly got
scurvy. I always suspected it was apocryphal, but I'm re-evaluating the
probability of it being true now.

~~~
growlist
Ha, I heard this too around 1994

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frereubu
Me too. University of Edinburgh?

~~~
growlist
Manchester, via my brother!

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lazylizard
I stopped when i felt the feathers in the balut i was trying...the rest of it
was vaguely acceptable...haiz

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xiphias2
"He explained this as an aversion to certain textures of food that he really
could not tolerate, and so chips and crisps were really the only types of food
that he wanted and felt that he could eat."

Is his thinking the product of parents who allow anything, teachers who have
to allow everything, the entitlement culture?

It's hard for me to accept that the boy is not tolerating any kind of
vegetable in the biological sense of the word.

~~~
jakobegger
One of my sons is a very picky eater and he has a strong aversion to certain
food textures.

Some foods we can get him to eat by being insistent.

But with some types of food it's pointless. He will try them if we are
insistent enough, but it makes him gag and regurgitate.

His one year younger brother eats pretty much anything, so I don't think it
has anything to do with us being too lenient.

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ollie87
I was a bit like this as a kid, the way it was solved was to involve me more
in the cooking process. From the age of about 13 I cooked most of my own
meals, now love to cook. Growing up I used to watch episodes of The Naked Chef
too which helped, because as a 10 year old kid Jamie Oliver at the time seemed
like a cool guy.

~~~
mcv
Letting kids help with cooking works very well. Food that you prepared
yourself always tastes better than when someone else did it. Kids get exposed
to learning a useful skill, and they eat better. The only downside is that
parents have to adapt their usual cooking routine.

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scandox
A cousin of mine only eats "white" food: pasta, potatoes, bread. They've never
knowingly eaten a vegetable, or anything green or yellow. They're now in their
40s and still one of the most vibrantly healthy and energetic (appearing)
people I know.

Edit: This is NOT a recommendation, nor intended as a diminishment of the
suffering alluded to in the article. I just find this relative's bad diet and
excellent health an interesting curiosity. They do eat chicken and eggs also,
but not the yoke of eggs.

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majewsky
Potatoes _are_ vegetables.

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frereubu
And as far as I know contain a pretty decent amount of vitamin C at the very
least.

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adrianN
Until you cook them? Vitamin C is not very heat resistant.

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friendly_chap
That's what I thought too until I actually looked into the matter, don't have
source at hand but apparently 1 hour of cooking causes about a 30% drop in
Vitamin C. Not that bad.

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Cederfjard
Do you know if leaving the skin on helps?

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friendly_chap
I was researching usage of pure vitamin C powder in cooked foods and tea.
Don't think the skin matters much if the powder can survive.

