KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 – A 17-year old British boy has lost his eyesight due to a diet of French fries, Pringles chips and white bread for seven years.
He was first referred to doctors when he was 14 when he complained of tiredness, according to The Huffington Post citing researchers from the University of Bristol.
The boy at first displayed normal body mass index and height, with no visible signs of malnutrition, and took no medications; but a year later he was diagnosed with noted hearing loss and “vision symptoms,” according to the researchers, but “no cause was found.”
At 17, he lost his sight to a rare condition called nutritional optic neuropathy ― damage to the optic nerve that results from nutritional deficiencies which can be caused by drugs, malabsorption of food, poor diet or alcohol abuse, but “purely dietary causes are rare in developed countries,” according to LiveScience.
The boy admitted that chips and crisps were really the only types of food that he wanted and felt that he could eat.
Nutritional optic neuropathy can be treated if the condition is diagnosed in earlier stages, but the boy’s eyesight loss is unfortunately permanent.
But doctors expressed hope that nutritional supplements could prevent the boy’s condition from worsening.
He has been sent to mental health services for eating disorder treatments.