May we present Stacey Irvine, 17, the new poster girl for neglectful parenting and test case for even more Nanny State intervention:
A teenage girl who has eaten almost nothing else apart from chicken nuggets for 15 years has been warned by doctors that the junk food is killing her.
Stacey Irvine, 17, has been hooked on the treats since her mother bought her some at a McDonald’s restaurant when she was two.
[. . .]
Miss Irvine, who has never eaten fruit or vegetables, had swollen veins in her tongue and was found to have anaemia.
[. . .]
Her exasperated mother Evonne Irvine, 39, who is battling to get her daughter seen by a specialist, told the newspaper: ‘It breaks my heart to see her eating those damned nuggets.
‘She’s been told in no uncertain terms that she’ll die if she carries on like this. But she says she can’t eat anything else.’
She once tried starving her daughter in a bid to get her to eat more nutritious food – but did not have any success.
Miss Irvine, whose only other variation in her diet is the occasional slice of toast for breakfast and crisps, said that once she tried nuggets she ‘loved them so much they were all I would eat’.
Of course, this is reported in the Daily Mail, so the story’s relationship with reality may be a bit looser than one might hope.
Ummm…. if eating McNuggets makes you that hot, sign me up.
Comment by Lickmuffin — January 26, 2012 @ 13:08
Yep, gotta call BS on the Daily Mail here. They’ve either been hoodwinked into swallowing a publicity stunt, or they are perpetrating the scam themselves.
Never mind the young lady’s general physical appearance being well above average for her age, there are no visible symptoms of the claimed anemia, and no mention of the chronic symptoms that would present with anemia caused by long-term dietary deficiency. Added to that would be the complications of anemia particular to a teen of the fairer sex.
As for the lack of fruits/vegetables, I see catsup/ketchup in the one photo with the fries, and it’s tough to imagine that all those nuggets are consumed without any sauce, nor is her morning slice of toast likely to always be eaten dry. While the claimed diet is far from ideal, if one considers the likely unreported details, she’s eating far better than many gainfully-employed, first-world teens.
It’s also tough to buy that even the most incompetent parent(s) were completely unable to influence their daughter’s diet over the course of 15 years.
Also, there’s the issue of involuntary cravings (not limited just to pregnant women). When the human body senses a significant deficiency in any needed nutrients, eventually the craving for these nutrients becomes too strong to avoid. Many actual anemic people are driven to eat some pretty odd things as a result of these cravings.
Even if the report about her diet is factual, she has a diet that contains protein, starch, grains, some fruit/vegetable products, sugar and fat, plus other nutrients. Maybe not in the ideal proportions, but obviously sufficient to maintain clear skin, good color, and better than average body fat proportion.
I smell a publicity stunt, or an incompetent reporter, or both.
Comment by Tom Kelley — January 26, 2012 @ 16:25
Yes, the Daily Mail isn’t quite the bastion of accurate reporting one looks for in this kind of topic … or indeed in any kind of topic.
I found the idea of a parent too weak-willed to ever resist a 2-year-old’s demands for specific food to be too amusing not to post.
Comment by Nicholas — January 26, 2012 @ 16:32