Were you a picky eater as a child? Your parents jumped through culinary hoops to try and get you to eat just one vegetable or finish the chicken on your plate even though some of it was touching a few grains of rice and in the Picky Eater Handbook that is instant grounds for complete plate dismissal.
If you are the current parent of a picky eater, may the force be with you.
Young picky eaters often grow up to be fully functioning adults, albeit some with long established food neuroses.
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But Georgi Readman’s case is a little more serious than that. Since a bout with severe food poisoning when she was eight, the 18-year-old Isle of Wight student has refused to eat anything but instant noodles. Thirty miles of instant noodles each year.
Readman reaches that tally by consuming nine packets of chicken-flavoured noodles per week.
"I always fancy noodles and could easily eat two packets at once. I've even eaten them dry and uncooked before,” she told Parentdish UK.
The article notes that she’ll suffer the odd bite of chicken or potato, but her trauma from the food poisoning incident is so profound that she panics, dry heaves and breaks into sweats any time she encounters a fruit or vegetable.
This also means any tiny bits of freeze-dried green, masquerading as vegetables, that end up in her noodle packets have to be immediately sieved out or she won’t go near the entire bowl.
As you can imagine, Readman’s nutritional count isn’t exactly in top form.
Though each packet costs 11 pence (around CAD17 cents) and cuts down on her family’s grocery bills, she’s paying the price with her health.
Doctors have likened her immune system to that of an 80-year-old and at one point thought she might have leukemia as she was exhibiting similar symptoms to patients with the deadly disease.
The hairdressing student has since been diagnosed with Selective Eating Disorder – a condition that causes individuals to only eat a small group of foods that they deem “safe” or “acceptable.”
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In many cases, that number reaches around 10 foods. Readman’s case is more severe. Her parents have since taken her to a cognitive behavioural therapist to try and work through her trauma.
The young woman is also anxious to beat her disorder and experience things most people take for granted, like sharing a proper meal with friends.
"I hate having to put up with this all day everyday. My dream is to eat healthily and put on weight," she added.
Puts wishing for a trip to Disneyland into perspective.