14 DAY TRIAL // After developing food phobia after choking as a child, a British teenager has basically lived on a chicken-escalope diet for most of her life.
Charlotte Snow, from north London, choked on spaghetti when she was three years old and since then, she refused to eat anything apart from breaded chicken breasts, because she is simply terrified of other foods. Her bizarre phobia has left her scared of trying other food varieties.
“I’ve been scared to try other foods since I can remember,” Charlotte says. “Just the thought of putting other foods in my mouth and then not liking the taste makes me feel anxious. I don’t know what I would do if I ate something I wasn’t keen on.”
The teenager's mother, Carla Snow, says her daughter would eat everything when she was a toddler, but became a fussy eater after the scary experience in which she chocked on spaghetti. Despite her parents' desperate attempts to convince her to have a balanced diet, Charlotte only accepted to add crisps, bread and cereal to her limited menu, Daily Mail informs.
“When Charlotte was a baby, she ate everything and we had no problems at all. But one day, I was feeding her some spaghetti and she choked on the food,” Mrs. Carla said. “that experience scarred her and ever since then, she’s turned her back on most foods and has been very fussy.”
Despite her frail, high-fat regime, the 18-year-old girl is a slender size ten and has no health problems as a result of her poor diet. However, her mother is worried that she might suffer health problems in the future because she’s not getting the nutrients she needs, so she regularly takes her daughter to the doctor to take a blood test and make sure everything is still OK.
But although Charlotte's health was not impacted by her phobia, her everyday life was, as her irrational fear of food has made it very difficult for her to socialize.
“I would love to be able to eat more foods one day. It would be great to enjoy dinner with my friends and socialise more,” she admits.
The eating disorder Charlotte is suffering from is called Selective Eating Disorder (SED), which prevents the consumption of certain foods. It generally appears in childhood and some people may continue to be afflicted with SED throughout their adult lives.