A teenager in the United Kingdom described as a “fussy eater” partially lost his vision due to a strict diet of Pringles, French fries, white bread, processed ham and sausage.
A case study published Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine, shows the boy suffered from nutritional optic neuropathy, a dysfunction of the optic nerve cause by a diet low in nutrients required for nerve fibres in the eye to function. The condition can lead to permanent vision loss if left untreated.
Researchers at the Bristol Eye Hospital in the U.K. said 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.
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 visited the Bristol Eye Hospital with serious vision loss.
“He presented with blurred vision and blurred mainly in the centre of his vision, in fact his peripheral vision is intact,” Dr. Denize Atan, an ophthalmologist at the Bristol Eye Hospital who treated the teenager, told CTV News Channel. “He also had reduced colour vision and there were other signs to show that he had a dysfunction of his optic nerves.”
Doctors investigated and found the boy suffered several bone, vitamin and mineral deficiencies. That was when the teenager admitted to avoiding foods with certain textures since elementary school. He said he only ate French fries, Pringles, white bread, processed ham and sausage.
Ben Cousins – CTVNews – Monday, September 2, 2019.
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