I’ve ONLY been able to eat toast and butter, Shreddies and Haribo my whole life – it’s torture and I feel like a freak
A MAN with a rare condition has survived on bread since he was a toddler and goes through two loaves a day.
Thomas Sheridan, 35, dismissed as a fussy eater for years, says he’s “never” eaten fruit, vegetables or meat.
And thought of biting into an egg and sausage sandwich leaves him feeling “horrible” and would make him “throw up”.
After decades years battling his food aversions and being called a “picky eater”, Thomas was finally diagnosed with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) in 2023 at the age of 33.
The condition leaves him unable to stomach eating most foods due to their texture or taste – he feels physically sick at the thought of taking a bite of fruit or vegetable.
Thomas survives on a diet of white toast with butter, three bowls of Shreddies and Haribo sweets and takes protein supplements to get the vitamins he needs.
But he longs to be able to tuck into a bowl of scouse, a hearty Liverpudlian stew with meat, potatoes, carrots and onions.
Thomas has been prescribed antidepressants but they haven’t helped and he’s had to “become accustomed” to his condition.
He is fundraising the £6k needed to pay for private hypnotherapy, which he hopes will help him achieve his “dream” of sitting down for a shared meal with his family – the treatment has worked for others with the condition.
Thomas, from Liverpool, who is currently unable to work due to his health, said: “It’s torture.
“I’m not living at the moment, I’m only surviving.
“I want to live a normal life and be able to go to work and not feel like a freak.
“It’s closed so many doors for me.”
People with ARFID tend to avoid eating certain foods or types of food, restrict the overall amount they eat, or both, according to eating disorder charity Beat.
It’s not always clear what leads to the disorder, but sufferers may avoid or restrict certain foods as they’re very sensitive to their taste, texture, smell, or appearance.
They may also develop feelings of fear of anxiety after having a distressing experience with certain items – like choking, vomiting or stomach pain – or struggle to eat enough because they don’t derive joy from food.
Thomas’ aversion to certain foods first became evident when he was a toddler.
Born weighing 9lbs, his parents say there were no signs of unusual feeding habits until he was 18 months old. Thomas says, “one day I just shut my mouth”.
Thomas was told he was taken to the doctors – with one suggesting his parents, Tom, 65, and Sheila, 59, “just starve him” to the point he’d eat.
His dad also tried to “bribe” him with gifts but to no avail.
What is ARFID and how to get help
Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, more commonly known as ARFID, is a condition characterised by the person avoiding certain foods or types of food, having restricted intake in terms of overall amount eaten, or both.
People can have ARFID at any age – from childhood to adulthood.
They might be very sensitive to the taste, texture, smell, or appearance of certain types of food, or only able to eat foods at a certain temperature. This can lead to sensory-based avoidance or restriction of intake.
Others may have had a distressing experience with food, such as choking or vomiting, or experiencing significant abdominal pain. This can cause the person to develop feelings of fear and anxiety around food or eating, and lead to them to avoiding certain foods or textures.
Some people may experience more general worries about the consequences of eating that they find hard to put into words, and restrict their intake to what they regard as ‘safe’ foods.
In some cases, the person may not recognise that they are hungry in the way that others would, or they may generally have a poor appetite. For them, eating might seem a chore and not something that is enjoyed, resulting in them struggling to eat enough.
Sometimes it’s not clear why someone has ARFID, or there may be many overlapping reasons for it.
ARFID can be present on its own, or it can co-occur with other conditions like anxiety disorders, autism, ADHD and a range of medical conditions.
Children and young people with ARFID may fail to gain weight as expected and their growth may be affected.
When a person does not have an adequate diet because they are only able to eat a narrow range of foods, they may not get essential nutrients needed for their health, development and ability to function on a day-to-day basis.
In some people, serious weight loss or nutritional deficiencies may develop, which need treatment.
Possible signs of ARFID include:
- Eating a reasonable range of foods but overall having much less food than is needed to stay healthy.
- Finding it difficult to recognise when hungry.
- Feeling full after only a few mouthfuls and struggling to eat more.
- Taking a long time over mealtimes/finding eating a ‘chore’.
- Missing meals completely, especially when busy with something else.
- Sensitivity to aspects of some foods, such as the texture, smell, or temperature.
- Appearing to be a “picky eater”.
- Always having the same meals.
- Always eating something different to everyone else.
- Only eating food of a similar colour (e.g. beige).
- Attempting to avoid social events where food would be present.
- Being very anxious at mealtimes, chewing food very carefully, taking small sips and bites, etc.
- Weight loss (or in children, not gaining weight as expected).
- Developing nutritional deficiencies, such as anaemia through not having enough iron in the diet.
Get help for ARFID
If you think you might have ARFID, you should make an appointment to discuss this with your GP.
If you are concerned that a family member or friend has ARFID, it is important to talk with them to support and encourage them to seek the right help and support.
You can learn more about ARFID through information pages on the Beat website.
You can also visit ARFID Awareness UK.
If you need support now, Beat’s helplines are open from 3pm to 8pm Monday to Friday.
You can also use their one-to-one web chat or send Beat an email at help@beateatingdisorders.org.uk
Source: Beat
Thomas said he can’t even try most foods as his mouth “just closes over” and previous attempts have caused him to be physically sick.
When he was at school, Thomas’ parents allowed him to go home at lunchtime to eat toast – instead of trying to force down school dinners.
He said: “It [the disorder] didn’t really affect me until I was about 18, because I had a small bubble of people I was around.
“When you become an adult, you see people’s opinions change of you, when they know you’ve got an eating disorder.
“Because the school didn’t know anything about it, when they gave me work experience, they put me in a college, in the catering department.
“I was prepping all the foods, I was quite good at it and then I thought about going to college, maybe about food.
“I mentioned it, and then people were just like ‘what’s the point of that, you can’t even eat a chip?’.”
‘Isolated’
Thomas struggles with socialising when plans are based around going out for food and often feels “isolated”.
He said: “There was one time when we started drinking and everyone used to talk about bacon sandwiches when they were roughed up.
“I attempted to make an egg and sausage butty one day and as soon as the egg touched my mouth I vomited about 10 feet across the room.”
Thomas is currently unemployed due to his condition which, he says, leaves him physically unable to work.
“The last time I worked over a 10 day period, I lost a stone and a half,” he said.
He says being unable to work often means he struggles to afford foods he relies on – like Weetabix.
Thomas has also recently been prescribed food supplements to make up for the shortage of nutrients in his restricted diet.
But he can only consume specific flavours with a taste profile he is familiar with.
Thomas’ restricted diet has left him unable to put on weight and at his lowest he weighed just 8st 2lbs.
'Fussy eating' vs ARFID
ARFID is more than just ‘picky eating‘.
It’s normal for children to go through a phase of selective, called neophobic stage – the fear of trying new foods or refusing foods because they look different or wrong.
From about the age of two, you might notice a child avoiding foods they had previously accepted, or rejecting foods based on perceived flaws, like spots on a banana skin or a broken biscuit.
Most children grow out of this by age five though, some children can remain extreme fussy eaters into adulthood.
ARFID is a complex condition as there can be many different and overlapping reasons why someone may avoid or restrict their intake.
Things you may notice in a loved one who has ARFID include:
- A very limited diet, often fewer than ten foods and struggling to accept new foods. In a child with sensory specificity (meaning restrictive eating based on the sensory properties of food) these are likely to be of a similar texture / appearance / smell / temperature and / or with significant brand specificity (e.g. will only eat one brand of chicken nuggets)
- Struggling to eat sociably or flexibly including eating similar foods in different environments.
- Struggling with the food environment such as with noise levels, smell of other food or other people eating food around them.
- An extreme reaction to the sight/presence/smell of a new food. This is known as a disgust response and can include gagging, retching, extreme anxiety, and running away from the table.
- A sudden and extreme avoidance of many foods/fluids, sometimes resulting from a choking or vomiting episode.
- Intense and increasing avoidance of foods due to concerns such as contamination.
These signs or symptoms might look like a slow and persistent elimination or removal of foods, or a more sudden and rapid avoidance.
Source: Beat, eating disorder dietitians Sarah Fuller and Clare Ellison
He maintains his current weight by regularly eating his beige diet of two loaves of bread, three bowls of cereal, and a packet of Hula Hoops.
Thomas says he’s tried therapy – which patients with ARFID ma ybe referred for – but says the “inconsistencies” in treatment have meant he’s continuing to struggle with his condition.
He said: “They said ‘you’ll probably get a different person every time, we can’t guarantee you the same person’.”
Unlike anorexia or bulimia nervosa, ARFID lacks the awareness of other eating disorders and only appeared on the World Health Organisation‘s International Classification of Diseases in 2022.
The British dietetic association recognised ARFID as an eating disorder in 2013.
Thomas says he’s never met another person diagnosed with it.
He is now looking to raise £6k to pay for private hypnotherapy that may enable him to expand his diet.
You can support his fundraiser here.