This sounds like an old wives' (mother's?) tale, and it's in a cheesy UK tabloid, but let's just pretend it's true for the sake of the argument. And because it's funny.
Junk food kills!
A LAD who only ate chips, toast and baked beans was killed by his junk diet — aged just 20.
...
His devastated family told yesterday how they had tried to get Scott to eat proper food since childhood. His sister Gail Fairweather said: "Scott would never eat any fruit or vegetables. There were only a few things he would eat — McDonald’s chips were his favourite. He would eat toast — but only if it was made from sliced white Danish bread, with a thin spreading of Lurpak butter. He would eat baked beans, but only Morrisons’ own brand and only now and then. He was always like that, from being little. Finding stuff he would eat was such a struggle."
Scott, of Sunderland, fell ill last year and at first his family thought he had flu. Mum-of-six Gail said: "He was tired all the time and could not walk far. He got out of breath very quickly and could barely get across the room."
Medics discovered liver problems — although he rarely drank. Scott was sent to a dietician after refusing the transplant -- but didn’t like nutritional supplements on offer. Doctors insisted on the teeth op, fearing Scott would be killed by blood poisoning -- but afterwards his gums would not stop bleeding.
The article says he weighed 16 stone, or around 240 pounds, so he wasn't grotesquely huge or anything. And he died from some sort of blood poisoning/hemophilia, brought on by eating nothing but French fries (chips) and bread? Weird.
I tend to doubt the veracity of this story, but just going with it for a minute. Assume he really did eat nothing, literally nothing but fried potatoes and toast and sugary baked beans. It's no surprise he wouldn't brush his teeth either, given that track record, but could there be a medical reason? It's easy to say he was stupid and an incredibly-picky eater, but maybe something haywire in his body made other foods taste horrible, or upset his stomach? Like people who can't handle gluten, or peanut butter, or whatever seemingly-innocuous food the rest of us enjoy. I doubt we'll see a follow up with autopsy results, at least not from the UK Daily Sun, anyway.
In any event, I can see moms all over the UK clipping this article and sticking it on the fridge to try and control their little, "I won't eat that rabbit food!" monster of a child. Malaya and I discuss this sort of thing all the time, and dread it. When our future hypothetical children suddenly, one day, decide they won't eat _______ or _______ anymore. And it's never hamburgers, or cheese sandwiches, or french fries, or other unhealthy stuff you'd be fine with your kid not eating in the first place. My parents tell me I'd eat everything as a baby, and then suddenly when I was like 5 I suddenly refused to even consider eating Chinese food anymore, despite the fact that I'd always liked it until then. I have no memory of eating it as a baby and refusing it as a child, but I do recall sort of rediscovering it in my teens, without any idea why I hadn't been eating it all along. It makes no sense, but it's part of how kids become willful and form their own (frequently stupid) opinions and preferences. And I'm sure it will vex us, no matter how food-liberal we try to raise our kid(s), and how we try to set a good example for them by our varied and vegetable/fruit-intensive diets.
Perhaps I should save this article for the future then, just in case?
