In the American "Freaky Eaters Strange Eaters" documentary, such a woman was once followed.
The woman's name is Amber, and she has been eating Fries for 26 years since she was 3 years old. Yes, you heard it right, for 26 years, Amber only ate fries, three meals a day were fries, and no other food was touched at all. According to the rough statistics of the program group, Amber eats at least 1300 kilograms of potatoes every year, equivalent to 6000, and the consumption of potatoes per month reaches 56 kilograms.
According to Amber's own recollection: "Since she was three years old, whatever food her parents gave her would be spit out like her physiological rejection, and only fries could be ingested. Until I turned 29 this year, this habit was consistent and unchanged. ”
Listening to this matter, you may feel strange to your friends, but this is indeed a real thing, and it is included in the documentary film.
Amber has been eating Fries for 26 years, for what reason?
Many friends may think that Amber is at best an extreme picky eater, obsessed with foods he doesn't like to eat.
Many of Amber's friends also think so, whenever Amber wants to share his situation with his friends, he will be regarded as a wayward "picky eater", and even some netizens commented that he must not have been hungry, pampered, hungry for a few days. This made her very helpless.
In fact, it is not Amber's fault, but a rare disease she suffers from, which is called "pica".
What is pica? As the name suggests, it is a disease that has a specific habit of a certain food or nutrient, but has a physiological rejection of other foods. Note that this is a "disease", not a "fetish". It is not caused by the acquired habits of life.
Some people may also wonder: "If it is a disease, can't the hospital find out"?
If it is just an ordinary medical examination, it is indeed difficult for hospitals to diagnose pica.
On the one hand, on an international scale, the number of patients with pica is extremely rare, and most of them are sugar addicts, and there are very few patients with pedycheism such as Amber on Fries.
On the other hand, pica is a gene type disease, mostly due to gene orientation, so that Amber has a high degree of acceptance of a certain component in Fries, while the acceptance of the rest of the food is low, followed by physiological rejection, and ordinary medical examination methods are difficult to detect this genetic problem.
It is precisely because of this that if Amber wants to truly cure his own pica, he must carry out "rehabilitation training" like most disabled patients, improve the body's tolerance to other foods through long-term training, and then achieve the purpose of overcoming pica.
In other words, Amber must overcome his own physical rejection step by step by constantly eating chips of different colors, then eating potato chips, potato blocks, and finally to rhizomes, in order to achieve the purpose of treating pica. And these foods for her, the taste is like chewing wax, naturally it is as difficult as ascending to the sky, until now, Amber can only barely import some rhizome vegetables and fries that are "inseparable" from it, hoping that her future treatment effect can be better.
After reading Amber's story, many people lamented that this disease still exists in the world! Therefore, the doctor here also reminds you that if the child in the family is resistant to most of the food no matter what way he tries, and produces a physiological rejection reaction, it is necessary to reasonably suspect whether there is a similar disease, or send it to the hospital as soon as possible, and the genetic test is more secure, and it is also necessary to pay careful attention.
On the other hand, eating Fries for 26 consecutive years is also a very big blow to Amber's physical health.
After eating Fries for 26 consecutive years, how has my health changed?
1) There is severe vitamin deficiency and malnutrition
According to the doctor's physical examination of Amber, her gums degenerated, her face was gaunt, and there was obvious anemia, scurvy, which was a typical manifestation of vitamin deficiency. Especially vitamin B12. This is because the long-term intake of only starch, no other vitamin intake, the body's nutritional imbalance caused. This nutritional imbalance directly induces malnutrition.
2) Vision is deteriorating
This is also the reason why Amber is difficult to overcome although pica is difficult to overcome, but insists on treatment, according to the doctor's description, because of vitamin deficiency and a series of nutritional imbalances, Amber's eyeball blood vessels are slowly shrinking, the lens has also been affected, within 3 years, if the pica situation does not improve, it may even be blind.
3) The symptoms of osteoporosis are severe
Because of the long-term consumption of single nutrition, vitamin D, calcium external supplements basically do not exist, bone calcium absorption is lacking, bone is constantly decreasing, has been a serious osteoporosis phenomenon. As far as Amber describes, after squatting, or after walking for a long time, it is difficult to maintain balance immediately, and there will be severe pain in the joints.
In summary, these are the hidden dangers caused by pica to Amber. But at the same time, it can also give you a reminder to picky eaters:
Acquired picky eaters, although not because of genetic orientation, but more or less there is a similar nutrient intake single problem. The Journal of Internal Medicine Almanac once reported on a similar "fries picky eater" whose symptoms were the same as Amba's. Therefore, friends with picky eating tendencies, especially children, please get rid of such bad habits as soon as possible, you have healthy genes and normal eating ability that are not envied by people with hyperphagia such as Amber. Or for their own health, and do and cherish. Get rid of the bad problem of picky eating. Definitely can reap a lot of benefits.