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Brilio.net - Consuming junk food or fast food is often a choice because it is practical. However, this habit can pose quite a fatal risk if done continuously for a long period of time. No half measures, the health problems experienced can even be permanent blindness.
This was experienced directly by a 12-year-old boy from Massachusetts, United States (US). The boy is known to have permanent blindness because the junk food diet he consumed did not contain enough nutrition. He suffers from autism and has an extreme phobia of certain food textures, so he only eats burgers, fries with ranch sauce, donuts, and packaged juice.
As reported by BrilioFood from dailymail.co.uk on Monday (11/11), symptoms of visual impairment began to appear in early 2024. In the morning and evening, his vision began to darken. Then it could only improve during the day. Within six weeks, his condition worsened to the point where he could not walk without leaning on his parents and often bumped into doors and walls.
One night, he woke up screaming because he couldn't see at all. The boy was then taken to the hospital for examination. Then the local doctor discovered that there was something wrong with his unhealthy diet. His diet had made him lack important nutrients that keep the optic nerve healthy.
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Despite supplements and feeding therapy, experts writing in a US medical journal fear his vision loss is permanent. According to dailymail.co.uk, doctors from Boston Children's Hospital said the boy had an eating disorder called avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), which affects about half of children with autism.
This relatively new health condition is on the rise, causing about one in 200 Americans to limit their diet because of anxiety or aversion to certain colors, tastes, textures or smells. Although the boy had a traumatic birth and was born two months premature with a lack of oxygen, he had no underlying conditions other than autism and ADHD, doctors said.
He had delays in speech, cognitive, and motor skills. Two days before being hospitalized, his parents said there was swelling and crust around his eyes. This made him unable to focus, for example when watching TV, the boy stared at the wall.
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Furthermore, doctors discovered that the boy had optic atrophy, a condition in which cells in the optic nerve shrink due to long-term damage. Doctors also said that his vision loss was caused by severe deficiencies of vitamins A, C, D, copper, and zinc from the boy's restricted diet. Vitamin A deficiency in particular is one of the most common causes of blindness in children in the US.
The nutritional deficiencies also caused the boy to develop horizontal ridges on his toenails, which became brittle. The researchers note that autistic children may be more likely to develop ARFID and other eating disorders because of their unique sensory challenges, which make them highly sensitive to textures, tastes, and smells. Autistic children are also often very dependent on routines, so they may have preferences for certain foods.
The Massachusetts boy received supplements of vitamins A, C, D, and K, as well as calcium, thiamine, copper, and zinc while in the hospital. When his nutritional levels returned to normal, he began eating lettuce and cheese on his hamburgers after his family began behavioral therapy. His parents also added supplements to his juice boxes, though he began refusing them after a few weeks.
photo: dailymail.co.uk
"Unfortunately, the patient's case of optic atrophy was severe enough that his vision could not be restored. If this disease had been detected earlier, providing vitamins and nutrients would have improved the patient's vision," explained doctors at Boston's Children Hospital.
A case like this is known to have happened to a teenage girl from England. This child suffered from autism after a poor diet that only consumed sandwiches, French fries, and water. In addition, there is also a 12-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who also suffered from severe malnutrition because of her fear of vomiting after eating.
(brl/mal)
