Blind Of A Bad Diet: Teen Who Ate Mostly Potato Chips And Fries Lost His Sight

According to a report released Monday, a "tough eater" British teenager since elementary the school has lost vision and suffered a significant hearing loss due to his junk food diet that has been going on for years.

At the age of 14, the boy complained of fatigue to his family doctor. "He was a" tough eater "but he was otherwise healthy and was not taking any medicine," according to the report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The doctor gave him injections of vitamin B12 and advice about his diet.

At the age of 15, the teenager began to lose hearing and was referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist. Shortly after, he developed vision problems.

The teenager's vision continued to worsen over the next two years and by age 17, her vision had dropped to 20/200, which is considered legally blind in the United States and the United States.

His optic nerve was the problem, but the tests did not reveal any obvious cause.

When the doctors investigated the teen's habits and nutrition, he denied having used alcohol, tobacco or drugs, according to the report written by the boy's doctors in Bristol, England.

"However, the patient confessed that since elementary school he would not eat certain food textures," the authors wrote. "He ate every day a serving of fries from the local fish and chips shop and nibbled Pringles, white bread, sliced ​​ham and sausages."

Nutritional deficiencies can contribute to vision and hearing problems but in developed countries, "purely dietary causes" of such vision problems are rare, the authors wrote. In the case of the adolescent, nutritional deficiencies in several essential vitamins and minerals, including B vitamins and copper, probably played a role in his visual and auditory loss.

He received nutritional supplements and his vision stopped getting worse, even though it did not improve.

The doctors also referred the youth to mental health services, concluding that his eating habits were an eating disorder. "A diet" limited to junk food that causes many nutritional deficiencies is an eating disorder, "says the report.

Optic nerve lesions resulting from poor nutrition "are potentially reversible if detected early. If they are not treated, they lead to permanent blindness."