It’s one thing to get by on ramen packets when you’re short on cash — but quite another to eat nothing but instant noodles for more than a decade.
Georgi Readman of the Isle of Wight, U.K., has an extreme aversion to fruits and vegetables and subsists on the salty, preservative-laden snack. She became hooked 13 years ago and now, at age 18, claims to eat nothing but noodle packets, which her mother buys for her by the dozen.
Readman estimates she eats 30 miles of noodles every year, and said even the thought of other foods makes her sick.
“I hate the texture of fruit and vegetables,” she said. “I can’t go to my friends’ for dinner or go out for meals because I don’t want them to see me freak out if the side salad touches the stuff I eat.
“Mum goes to the supermarket and brings back as many packets as she can afford.
“I always fancy noodles and could easily eat two packets at once. I’ve even eaten them dry and uncooked before!”
Readman first tried ramen at age 5 and gradually phased out other foods.
She shows signs of selective eating disorder, a little-studied and not formally recognized condition in which picky eating persists into adulthood. Selective eaters feel they physically cannot stomach most foods, which may lead to problems in their social, work and love lives.
Recent studies have shown that picky eating may be the result of genetics.
Other picky adults may be supertasters, who are more sensitive to flavors than the average person.
Readman’s doctors said she is malnourished and has the health of an 80-year old. She weighs about 98 pounds at 5’3″.
She doesn’t appear worried, though.
“I just love noodles!” she said.
