A teen who survived on beige food – like cheese, pasta and biscuits – has finally beaten her fear of other grub.
Grace Tickle was diagnosed with a rare eating disorder called ARFID after years of refusing to eat anything else.
The condition – full name Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder – meant Grace would “rather starve” than touch fruit, veg or meat.
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She suffered from it from when she started eating solids, age of 15 months.
As a child, her daily menu was cheese, chocolate chip cookies, pasta, Warburtons bread and potato smiley faces.
“I would have such a tantrum if my mum tried to feed me anything else,” Grace, 19, from Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, told What’s the Jam.
“I’d rather starve than eat anything else.”
Mum Claire, 45, even hauled her on to the Supernanny Roadshow in desperation – but telly guru Jo Frost’s parsnip trick failed to work.
Grace said: “Supernanny told mum she’d got me into bad habits and to try root vegetables, but it didn’t work.
“Mum wasn’t going to let me starve.”
Doctors eventually diagnosed ARFID a year later, thought to have been triggered by emetophobia – a fear of being sick.
Grace tried hypnotherapy with no success, but after years of pushing herself to try new foods, she now has a far more balanced diet.
She said: “My diet is so much better now, and I’ve recovered a lot.
“I’m not an adventurous eater, but I can go to a restaurant now and pick something from the menu.
“I’ve got so much better with age, and it’s changed my life massively.
“I don’t have to worry about going out for dinner.
“I’m not sure what clicked in my brain.
“I just started trying more things.
“The phobia of being sick is still there.”
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