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UK teenager loses sight from poor diet
- xiphias2 7y ago"He explained this as an aversion to certain textures of food that he really could not tolerate, and so chips and crisps were really the only types of food that he wanted and felt that he could eat." Is his thinking the product of parents who allow anything, teachers who have to allow everything, the entitlement culture? It's hard for me to accept that the boy is not tolerating any kind of vegetable in the biological sense of the word.
- raverbashing 7y agoI agree There's too much "my son won't eat that" while forgetting how the older generations dealt with that. Guess what, tough love is needed sometimes. For the amount of things parents shouldn't compromise on, eating a varied diet is one important thing. "Won't tolerate" is 99% of the time just a matter of sticking up to it. A couple of years ago I just wouldn't tolerate unsweetened coffee. Now that's all I drink for the most part. (There are very few specific foods that I won't tolerate but nothing to the point of having an extremely deficient diet) Edit: while there was an underlying issue that was absent from the story, the point stands, nobody will "magically" start tolerating foods they don't without some active effort.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- adrianN 7y agoIt sounds like a legitimate psychological problem. I would hesitate to blame the entitlement culture on this.
- cameronbrown 7y agoI disagree. Overexposure to such rich (read: crap) foods have definitely dulled my own palette. It wasn't necessarily entitlement culture since it was all junk food I'd bought myself during high school, but I'm definitely regretting it now.
- SmellyGeekBoy 7y agoDisagree all you like, but other news sources are reporting that it's a result of a form of autism.
- GarvielLoken 7y agoWhich makes it a chiken and egg problem because Autism has been linked to... diet. There's a lot of new research now on the links between the gut and the brain.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- DanBC 7y agoHe is autistic and has a legitimate eating disorder. The BBC have fucked the reporting. ARFID (Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder) is common in autistic people. The article points to a collapse in the support available to young people with mental ill health or autism or learning disability.
- bestouff 7y agoI've read somewhere that humans like crispy food because it's naturally a good way to differentiate e.g. not-yet-rotten vegetables. But like our innate taste for salt and sugar it's perverted in industrial foods.
- kiba 7y agoI am not quite sure why you are so quick to assume things about the person in the article.
- xiphias2 7y agoWhat do you think I assumed? DanBC's comment cleared it up for me, he has a mental illness, not biological intolerance. I was interested in what happened to him, and how common it is, as I personally know somebody who knows that she's not eating healthy (to the point of vitamin deficiency), yet she still doesn't change her diet. Also she isn't mentally ill.
- pwagland 7y agoHad you skipped your first sentence, which sounds like you are trying to blame millennials and their "entitlement problem", then you wouldn't get this reaction. Saying that you find this hard to understand, and "what causes this" is an open ended question of curiosity, instead of "Is this because parents are too lenient" which is pointing towards what you expect the answer to be.
- jakobegger 7y agoOne of my sons is a very picky eater and he has a strong aversion to certain food textures. Some foods we can get him to eat by being insistent. But with some types of food it's pointless. He will try them if we are insistent enough, but it makes him gag and regurgitate. His one year younger brother eats pretty much anything, so I don't think it has anything to do with us being too lenient.
- _ph_ 7y agoHave you tried preparing your own smoothies? If you can find main components your son likes, it is a great way to add some additional ingredients for nutritional balance to it. I do this myself - I found out that a lot of vegetables and fruits I would not bother to eat by themselves blend well together in a smoothie.
- richrichardsson 7y agoMy son has had a bit of an issue with texture for the last year; he'll spit out his food as soon as he feels something in addition to the pasta he's eating for instance, but blend it all up into a sauce and no problem. Thankfully it seems to just be a "stage", as it appears to be improving as he gets older.
- iraldir 7y agoThis might be defeating the point. I guess the reason here is not just to have nutrients but also to give them good habits for their adult life. Otherwise you could just give them soylent or something and be done with it. NB: Not a parent yet so don't take anything I say to seriously.
- _ph_ 7y agoWell, there is a difference between just eating an artificial supplement and preparing the "rejected" food in a different way. It isn't about hiding the component, but bringing it in a desirable form.
- ollie87 7y ago
- flukus 7y agoIf it's the texture of the food then it's possible he wasn't exposed to vegetables prepared in the right way. I can't stand cooked veggies (I've read there's a connection between this and perforated eardrums) and if I hadn't discovered I like them raw than I probably wouldn't eat many even today.
- kevingadd 7y agoI've had texture sensitivity since I was a small child. Some types of food will literally make me vomit or get near to that point and it doesn't matter whether I keep trying to eat them. Lots of vegetables happen to have similar texture that causes a similar reaction, but not all of them, so I do what I can there. Fish is a similar problem, so sushi turns out bad every time I try it. Combine that with food allergies (severe to the point of causing seizures in childhood) and it's pretty reasonable to not be super into wanting to try lots of new stuff and eat it after it makes me feel bad, no? Sometimes I go out to eat with people even though the restaurant doesn't have anything safe to eat, you know, out of courtesy? I guess that's entitlement culture.
- nailer 7y agoIt's a British cultural thing. People who aren't physically or mentally disabled go on benefits, as if having applied for welfare (despite being capable of work) is reason to reserve sympathy. Children drink Fanta for breakfast. The bus reeks of marijuana at 7AM. If a referendum doesn't go your way you complain until it's overturned. There's simply a lot of people with a lot of entitlement and no motivation. Responding to the downmods: I don't mean to imply that everyone in the UK acts this way. However if you've spent time here, particularly if you're from overseas where these things are not common, the experiences above should be familiar.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- jamisteven 7y agoDarwin at its finest, cant fix stupid.
- greglindahl 7y agoThat's too young to be eligible for a Darwin Award. https://darwinawards.com/rules/ https://darwinawards.com/rules/
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- DanBC 7y agoHe has an eating disorder. Show some fucking empathy.
- 2_listerine_pls 7y agoOn the positive side, He can't read the comment.
- dang 7y agoWe've had to ask you several times to stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait to HN. If you keep doing it, we are going to have to ban you. Would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use the site as intended?
- 2_listerine_pls 7y agoSorry Dang, I won't do it anymore.
- frereubu 7y agoI haven't seen a more callous comment in a long time. This was a child who has obviously been dreadfully let down by their parents. Shame on you.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- DanBC 7y agoBBC have missed out important information. This child is autistic and has an eating disorder called ARFID - Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/restrictive_food_intake_disorder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/restrictive_food_inta... England currently has a pretty severe problem with paediatric mental health services (which is where paediatric autism diagnostic and support services would normally sit), and with providing community support for people.
- frereubu 7y agoThis reminds me of a story told to me at university when an "enterprising" student took out the maximum loan he could, bought an expensive stereo system and a sack of porridge oats to eat for the rest of the term, and promptly got scurvy. I always suspected it was apocryphal, but I'm re-evaluating the probability of it being true now.
- SamReidHughes 7y agoI can definitely see that happening. At one high school summer program held on a college campus, I basically ate nothing but bagels and cream cheese for three and a half weeks. I put most of my spending money in a TI-89 and mechanical pencils, the rest in Pepsi.
- growlist 7y agoHa, I heard this too around 1994
- Lio 7y agoWell I've heard the same story based around instant noodles and a start-up entrepreneur so I'd say it's definitely an urban myth.
- killmepete 7y agoReminds me of those reality shows like freaky eaters. Normally boiled down to a horrific expirence as a child or over sensitive taste ('supertasters').
- ollie87 7y agoI know it's not to everyone's comedy tastes but I sort of always enjoted Harry Hill's takes on "Freaky Eaters" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-AvekuF-rg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-AvekuF-rg
- scandox 7y agoA cousin of mine only eats "white" food: pasta, potatoes, bread. They've never knowingly eaten a vegetable, or anything green or yellow. They're now in their 40s and still one of the most vibrantly healthy and energetic (appearing) people I know. Edit: This is NOT a recommendation, nor intended as a diminishment of the suffering alluded to in the article. I just find this relative's bad diet and excellent health an interesting curiosity. They do eat chicken and eggs also, but not the yoke of eggs.
- ollie87 7y agoSeems like an outlier to me.
- scandox 7y agoYeah I agree. But it is an extraordinary thing to observe over a lifetime.
- majewsky 7y agoPotatoes are vegetables.
- frereubu 7y agoAnd as far as I know contain a pretty decent amount of vitamin C at the very least.
- adrianN 7y agoUntil you cook them? Vitamin C is not very heat resistant.
- friendly_chap 7y agoThat's what I thought too until I actually looked into the matter, don't have source at hand but apparently 1 hour of cooking causes about a 30% drop in Vitamin C. Not that bad.
- lazylizard 7y agoI stopped when i felt the feathers in the balut i was trying...the rest of it was vaguely acceptable...haiz
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