Sophie Ray,the 19 year old girl from Wrexham,Wales has been eating nothing but only Tomato and Cheese Pizza for the past eight years.She has not had a proper meal since she was two years old after she suffered from rare condition called Selective Eating Disorder(SED) which means she has phobia of food leaving her in fear to try new dishes apart from Pizza.
Following her illness when she was 2 years old where she was struck down by a stomach bug,Gastroenteritis,she beagan to fear food apart from cheesy pasta,chips and lemon curd sandwiches.
By the time she was 11 years,she would eat nothing but only piping hot plain pizzas with no additional toppings and sometimes she even grabs three pizza a day as breakfast,lunch and dinner.
'I love Pizza,each brand offers a new flavour,but its all the same food so I dont have to try new foods.'said Performing arts students.
'I began selective eating when I was two. My mum said after I was ill, I became frightened to eat, I thought food had caused my illness.
'I began eating cheesy pasta or chips and then moved on to lemon curd sandwiches, which I ate every day for four years.
'I plucked up the courage to try pizza when I was 11 and I’ve eaten it every day since - sometimes I have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
'If I don’t have chance to eat pizza before I start college, I go all day without eating, because there’s nothing else I can eat, so I wait until I get home and have one or sometimes two pizzas.
'It has to be cheese and tomato and it has to be cooked, I can’t eat it cold and I can’t have any toppings on it.'
This 19 year old girl has not touched any fruits or vegetable in years and she further says that eating varied meal will only make her sick.Sometimes, occasionally she tries pasta and chips and sometimes packet of onion and cheese crisp but now she is solely at the mercy of junk food and even slight variation in diet can make her sick.
She said: 'The thought of trying other foods makes me very anxious, I feel sick and really clam up.
'The taste the texture even the smell of some foods can make me gag.
'A lot of people think I’m just a picky eater but SED is a phobia. Asking me to try new foods is like asking someone who hates spiders to hold one.
'The more ingredients a food has in it the more terrifying I find it, a full English breakfast would be my worst nightmare, I feel really sick just looking at one.
Miss Ray visited Specialist 2 years ago which help to reduce her fear over trying new food to some extent but she is still unable to add new food to her diet.
'My favourite pizza is Pizza Express but I also like Dominos and supermarket pizzas, I eat all brands of pizza as long as it’s cheese and tomato.
'I can have a pizza from ASDA and it will taste really cheesy and then have one from Pizza Express which has more flavour from the tomatoes.
'But if a pizza had any other ingredient on it, I wouldn’t be able to eat it. I wouldn’t even be able to pick it off.
'Selective eating disorder makes me feel quite low, I get depressed at times and going out for meals with family or friends is a nightmare, so I often don’t go.
I know my diet isn’t doing my health any good and I’d really love to eat normally but it’s really hard to change my diet after eating like this for so long.'
Nutritionist Carina Norris said: 'This is by no means a balanced diet, she's going to missing out on a lot of vitamins and minerals.
'Her health care team is going to have to work with her to gradually introduce different food into her diet. This is definitely a problem, not just a fad.
'She could start with different toppings on pizzas. She needs to start as soon as possible, however, because what you eat when you are young has huge effect on your health in later life.'
