This may be old news for some of you, but I’ve been digesting it for a couple of weeks now and trying to decide if I believe it or not.
Across the pond in Great Britain, 17-year-old factory worker Stacey Irvine collapsed having difficulties breathing. Hospital workers hoping to get to the bottom of her “illness” and severe anemia heard claims from the young woman that she had never in her life eaten a fruit or vegetable and had been on a steady, 15-year diet of nothing but chicken nuggets with the occasional side of fries.
By chicken nuggets I do mean the processed kind that have been accused of being made from mechanically separated poultry and “binders” which are then formed into a meat paste, breaded and fried as opposed to real bona-fide deboned chicken breast coated and cooked the same way.
Miss Irvine claims her mother introduced her to what many consider pseudo-food when she was a mere two-year-old tot. She and her mother say that from that point forward chicken nuggets took the lead role in her dietary pecking order.
As you can imagine Stacey’s mother has been blasted by comments from thousands.
Having dealt with my own picky eaters as I traversed motherhood with toddlers I somewhat understand desiring the path of least resistance, but not for that many years and definitely not knowing the dire health consequences.
I hesitate to judge, but surely her backbone must have been stronger than a young child’s food preference.
The advice I always heard —they will eat what they’re offered when they get hungry enough—always worked for me and my young-mother friends. I didn’t see anywhere that Stacey’s mom ever tried the old-fashioned starve ‘em route. And I realize to some near starvation may sound cruel, but look where not intervening landed them.
Of course Stacey has now been interviewed ad nauseum, and I’m a tiny bit embarrassed to admit I think I’ve read them all. Some included pictures of the young woman. Surprisingly, she is not overweight. However, she has dark circles around her eyes and her skin is devoid of that rosy 17-year-old youthful glow.
I’m not even sure I entirely believe her or her mother’s accounts that nary a piece of produce has ever touched her lips. Is it really possible to subsist on a beige, colorless diet for that long and only have anemia and breathing difficulties to show for it?
I’m very curious as to her long-term prognosis as doctors said her body was devoid of all the vitamins and minerals it’s believed humans need to survive.
And I thought the whole collapsing thing would be a wake-up call for Stacey, but she doesn’t really have plans to make her diet any more varied as suggested by doctors. Seems like very slow suicide, but the voyeuristic side of me sort of wants to see how it will play out for her long term.
I forgot to mention Stacey is also suffering from inflamed veins in her tongue. Maybe her taste buds are just plain angry because having virtually nothing but fast-food chicken nuggets for 15 years . . . that’s fowl.
© 2012 Natalie Whatley
February 18th, 2012 at 5:13 am
Dag, my Mom always put food on the table for Dad and I, my 3 brothers and older sister. We ate it or went without – it was that simple. Every person in this country of overweight people should sit down with a copy of the movie “Supersize Me”. It should make a person change their eating habits, but like the young Brit, it probably won’t. A person can eat “junk” food occasionally…occasionally, if they want to be healthy. Now, where is my oatmeal and raisin breakfast?
February 19th, 2012 at 5:28 am
I agree with you that if a kid won’t eat something healthy at first, they will if they get hungry enough. I’ve always heard that even if a kid doesn’t like a food to keep offering it due to their tastes changing. I was just amazed in the original yahoo article that I read to find how low the protein level was in the supposed “chicken.” I don’t know how they can sell it!