Horrific reality of what happened to boy who only ate crisps and chips for six years

A young lad who refused to eat anything except crisps and chips found out the hard way why a healthy diet is so important.

The UK teenager's diet largely consisted of junk food for more than half a decade and consuming fruit or vegetables was a rare occurrence for him.

The 'fussy eater' from Bristol exclusively tucked into 'chips, crisps and white bread' after leaving primary school, which resulted in some dire consequences later down the line.

According to a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal released in 2019, the furthest he'd go is having the occasional slice of ham or a sausage.

But apart from that, the youngster was only consuming French fries, Pringles and white bread, according to the BBC.

Despite this, he appeared to be fit, healthy and wasn't on any medication - but after complaining of feeling tired and unwell at the age of 14, doctors realised this wasn't the case.

Tests revealed that the schoolboy had severe vitamin deficiencies and signs of malnutrition.

It emerged that the lad had a lack of vitamin B12, which our bodies need to make healthy red blood cells that can carry oxygen around.

This vitamin also ensures your nervous system keeps functioning as it should, while it plays a crucial role in making and repairing DNA too.

According to the NHS, a vitamin B12 deficiency can arise if you have a lack of vitamins in your diet - and as it’s generally only found in animal foods, vegans are often susceptible to it.

The young lad from Bristol lived off chips and crisps for six years (Getty Stock Image)

It can cause a myriad of health issues, including extreme tiredness, a lack of energy, pins and needles, mouth ulcers, muscle weakness, vision problems and even psychological issues.

Patients are typically treated with injections or supplements which replace the missing vitamin, but some people can require life-long treatment.

Grub such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy products and specially fortified foods are brimming with B12, so that's the kind of stuff you want to be eating if your levels are running low.

Anyway, doctors gave the 14-year-old with supplements for his deficiency and advised him to improve his diet - but he didn't end up sticking with either of these treatments.

He ended up at the Bristol Eye Hospital three years later, complaining that he was suffering from progressive sight loss.

By this point, the 17-year-old was severely malnourished due to his restricted diet, with a medic who treated him saying: "He had lost minerals from his bone, which was really quite shocking for a boy of his age."

Dr Denize Atan explained that the lad's diet essentially consisted of 'a portion of chips from the local fish and chip shop every day' and unhealthy snacks.

"He also used to snack on crisps - Pringles - and sometimes slices of white bread and occasional slices of ham, and not really any fruit and vegetables," Dr Atan said.

"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."

He rarely consumed any fruit or veg, instead preferring to stick to unhealthy snacks (Getty Stock Image)

Dr Atan and her colleagues at the Bristol Eye Hospital ordered further tests of the teen's vitamin levels, which revealed he was still deficient in B12, as well as other crucial vitamins and minerals such as copper, selenium and vitamin D.

These deficiencies resulted in the lad meeting the criteria for being registered blind and he was diagnosed with nutritional optic neuropathy.

EyeWiki says this is often 'triggered by vitamin B complex deficits' as it results in an 'interruption of electron transport' and 'a reduction in ATP production'.

The condition is treatable if caught early, however, if it's left too late the damage becomes permanent as the nerve fibres in the optic nerve die off.

"By the time his condition was diagnosed, the patient had permanently impaired vision," the Annals of Internal Medicine journal noted.

"He had blind spots right in the middle of his vision," Dr Atan explained. "That means he can't drive and would find it really difficult to read, watch TV or discern faces.

"He can walk around on his own though because he has got peripheral vision."

The expert said although these cases are uncommon, they offer a stark reminder of the the dangers that come with not eating a healthy balanced diet.

Advising worried parents who might have picky eaters in the family, she said: "It's best not to be anxious about picky eating, and instead calmly introduce one or two new foods with every meal."