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This edifying story could lead your children to eat their vegetables.
A British teenager described as a "tough eater" became blind and partially deaf after missing nothing but chips, sausages, fries and white bread over the last decade, according to an alarming case study published this weekend in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The 17-year-old, who was not named in the report, had visited a general practitioner three years earlier, complaining of fatigue. Tests at that time revealed that he was anemic and that his vitamin B12 content was low. So he started taking vitamin injections and receiving diet advice. But because his height and BMI were normal, doctors did not suspect any major nutritional problems.
At the age of 15, however, his vision and hearing began to deteriorate. At age 17 now, he has suffered permanent vision loss, partial hearing loss as well as bone weakness. Researchers at the University of Bristol have therefore examined his case. And after ruling out factors such as BMI, family history, medication, drug and alcohol use, they determined that her poor diet had damaged the optic nerve to the point of causing blindness.
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In fact, he had developed a condition known as Nutritional Optic Neuropathy (NO), which is more common in countries where extreme poverty, drought and war have led to widespread hunger and malnutrition. (Cuba has experienced an epidemic of optic and peripheral neuropathy affecting more than 50,000 people in the early 1990s. Nutritional deficiencies were a determining factor.) Other tests revealed that he was still suffering from pain. vitamin B12 deficiency, as well as low levels of copper and selenium. as "significantly reduced" in vitamin D and bone mineral density. (These essential nutrients are found in lean beef and poultry, oily fish, green leafy vegetables, dairy products, eggs, nuts and seeds, as well as in other items. a healthy and balanced diet.)
Asked about his daily cooking habits, they learned that he was eating fries in the local fish and chips shop. He also lived in elementary school with crisps, white bread, ham slices and Pringles sausages because he did not like special texture foods. This has led researchers to diagnose a food intake disorder that avoids avoidable restrictions, or AFRID, a relatively new diagnosis that describes topics sensitive to taste, texture, odor, and taste. the appearance of certain types of food, or when a lack of interest in food. They noted that in many cases AFRID, as in this case, the patient has what is considered a normal BMI, so the problem is not always obvious.
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Around two billion people around the world suffer from nutritional deficiencies. In high-income countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, however, they are usually caused by intestinal problems (such as celiac disease and Crohn's disease) that hinder the absorption of important nutrients in stomach, drug use or poor diet. alcoholism or smoking. Food causes rarely lead to nutritional optic neuropathy in developed countries, although researchers have warned that this type of problem may become more common as more consumers choose junk food instead of more nutritious foods. or that veganism (which eliminates (meat, eggs and dairy products) means that some people do not consume enough vitamin D or vitamin B12 in their diet if they do not take enough supplements.
"Vitamins play a very important role in maintaining eye health," Dr. Valerie Elmalem, a neuro-ophthalmologist at the Eye and Ear Infirmary in New York at Mount Sinai, told MarketWatch. These nutrients include vitamin A contained in orange foods, such as carrots and mangos, which keep the surface of the eye moist and facilitate night vision. But B vitamins, iron and thiamine (found in beef, liver, nuts, oranges, eggs and enriched rice, bread, cereals and pasta) are also essential.
"Thiamine deficiency can occur in less than three weeks, which can also affect the optic nerve, the way the eyes move and your memory, too," she said. "I think that several years of this [teen’s] This type of diet would certainly produce deficiencies serious enough to cause vision loss. "
Ocular lesions can be reversed if nutritional optic neuropathy is detected early, but it was too late in this teenager's case. The decade of a highly processed diet, rich in salt, sugar and refined carbohydrates has had a negative impact. (The owner of Pringles Kellogg
K + 2.18%
did not respond to a MarketWatch comment request by presstime.)
"Our vision has such an impact on quality of life, education, employment, social interactions and mental health. This case highlights the impact of diet on physical and visual health and the fact that caloric intake and BMI are not reliable indicators of the condition Dr. Denize Atan, senior author, specialist in neuro-ophthalmology at Bristol Eye Hospital, in a report. His team encourages clinicians to consider nutritional neuropathy in all patients with unexplained vision problems and poor nutrition, regardless of their BMI. (After all, this patient's BMI was normal, so it was not clear that he was malnourished.)
Dr. Atan also wrote in an accompanying article that not having enough B vitamins, iron, calcium, magnesium and copper is known to cause optic neuropathy and is "easily diagnosed at wrong as another disorder if the doctor does not have the patient's food history. . "
But your vision is not the only reason to watch what you eat. The USDA warns that about half of American adults are afflicted with one or more chronic diseases – including diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease – that are often linked to poor nutrition. . Read the USDA's dietary recommendations for Americans, including questions about caffeine, cholesterol and fat, here.
And if you are concerned about the fact that you or a loved one is suffering from a eating disorder, visit the National Eating Disorders Association's website or call the help desk. telephone at (800) 931-2237.
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