(rock music)
- [Narrator] 34-year-old Nikki
loves to eat corn starch all day long.
- What?
(graphic beeps)
Raw meat, must have extreme french fry fascination,
and pizza parties every day?
Huh?
Today we are breaking down
and reacting to all of the medical components
from a highly requested new show called "Freaky Eaters."
Also, remember that some of these food addictions
may appear shocking
and humorous to some,
but it's important to lead with empathy
and remember that these are real people
who are oftentimes suffering from real
and serious medical conditions.
All right, let's dive right in.
(graphic beeps)
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] 22-year-old Josh Eats pizza three meals a day.
- Some good stuff.
- [Narrator] A total of 1800 pounds every single year.
(record scratches)
- Pizza every single meal every day?
Heaven. (heavenly music)
No (buzzer buzzes) no, no.
It would be heaven for me,
but it's not healthy for you.
- That sure sounds unhealthy to me.
- Not a balanced diet.
Let's see where this goes.
- [Narrator] 80 times more than the average person.
- Josh's pizza consumption is to excess.
It's gotten to the point where it's a compulsion.
- I crave pizza every time I want a meal.
Right now I want pizza.
I don't know what made me want it, I just want it.
- [Narrator] Josh's only nutrition comes from
the 2000 cups of white flour,
250 cups of tomato sauce,
and 230 pounds of cheese that he eats every year.
- Wow.
- When I wake up in the morning
I have about 10 to 30 minutes of hell.
- Pizza in itself is high fat, high carbohydrate.
The combination of the two give a feedback to our brain,
and like a reward that kind of increases us
to wanna have it more.
Add in sugar, sugar into the tomato sauce,
or sugar into the the dough, the bread,
that will also give you cravings,
and feelings that you want to binge on the food,
and it hits a type of addiction in our brains.
(photo clicks)
- I'll have a massive headache,
my heart will be palpitating.
- Whoa.
- I have about 10 to 30 minutes to throw out.
- A lot of different things can actually trigger headaches.
Stress can trigger headaches,
lack of sleep can trigger headaches.
He's also complaining of nausea.
Headaches can cause nausea.
He also gets palpitations.
So palpitations could be multiple different things
what people are describing.
Sometimes there's fluttering in the chest
where your heart is skipping beats
or it's going super fast,
or it could be related to your blood pressure
pounding really hard 'cause it's so high.
Electrolyte abnormalities, dehydration, anemia,
those things can cause different types of palpitations.
Obviously nutrition plays a part in electrolytes,
and kidney function,
so he definitely needs to get checked out,
hopefully he does.
- Mentally just agonizing, you know,
every morning waking up like that.
- [Narrator] Josh was passed from doctor to doctor
over the course of three years.
After countless tests and scans,
not one could diagnose him.
- So this actually is quite common,
it happens to lots of people.
I see it so often in the emergency department
where people will come in
with an ailment that's been going on for a while,
we'll do the classic workup,
and everything comes out normal
but you're still feeling horrible.
Food is medicine in itself.
If the food that you're ingesting in your body
is not making you feel good,
you probably need to assess the situation that you're in
and maybe try different foods
and see if they actually make you feel better.
(photo clicks)
- Have you actually sat down
and told the doctors how much pizza
you actually eat every day, every week?
(dramatic music)
- I told 'em I eat a lot of pizza,
but not exactly.
- If you came to me
and told me you eat a lot of pizza,
I'm thinking like a pie once a week,
not multiple pizzas daily
with no other food source.
If that were to occur
and somebody told me that,
we'd sit down and have a long conversation
about healthy eating habits,
and that this could be potentially
causing significant injury to your body
and malnutrition.
- [Narrator] 29-year-old Daniel
has a typical varied diet,
except for one freaky habit.
(dramatic music)
Daniel has been obsessed with raw meat
for the past six years.
He feeds his habit four times a week
in pound after pound of raw beef,
eating whole steaks pulled right from the packaging.
- Wow.
- [Narrator] Even raw chicken.
- Whoa.
- [Narrator] Every year-
- I would be so concerned about illness for this gentleman.
There's bacterias that are there.
Food borne illnesses occur from raw meats,
I wouldn't recommend this.
The reason why we cook food is actually
to kill the micropathogens that are there,
salmonella, campylobacter, E. Coli, Listeria
that could actually wreak bad havoc on your system.
Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, could cause bloody diarrhea,
break down your intestinal walls, not good.
- [Narrator] 76 million people
contract food-borne illnesses.
Of these people, 375,000 are hospitalized.
(dramatic music)
And approximately 5,000 die. - Wow.
- I'm really concerned that Daniel doesn't care
that one day this could lead to death.
- There are different ways of preparing raw meats,
but typically there's ingredients in it
that help actually break it down
so you're not at risk for these micropathogens.
- [Narrator] In fact, Daniel scoffs at the thought
of getting sick.
- It's absolutely worth it to eat raw meat
even though there's consequences,
the consequences are minor.
I like to pull it, I like to see the muscles.
There's no real reason behind it
besides I like the taste and texture.
It's like butter.
- People who are typically iron deficient
will actually crave meats.
But there are alternatives to that.
Eating certain types of beans, legumes
that can actually help that craving as well.
- I don't think he does any type of preparation to it,
washing it whatsoever.
- Some products may contain bacteria
that could cause illness if the product
is cooked improperly.
Whatever.
I mean what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
(dramatic music)
I have never gotten sick from eating raw meat, ever,
and I've been doing it for six years now.
- You gotta be really careful
with how things are prepared,
and what potentially things are in them.
He's been eating this for a long time,
his microbiome, the bacterias that are already in his gut,
might have been accustom to breaking down
these raw meats,
and are actually protecting him.
(photo clicks) (rock music)
- [Narrator] 34-year-old Nikki
loves to eat cornstarch all day long.
- What?
- Cornstarch is soft, it's very fine.
It is so so good, I cannot stop eating it.
- Cornstarch is like a thickener.
I think it's put in gravies and soups.
It's adding carbs and calories to whatever you're eating.
It's not the best for you
if you're eating tons of it
out of the box.
It's a powder so you increase the risk of inhaling this,
and aspirating this into your lungs,
which can cause pneumonitis,
it can cause consolidation or infection in your lung.
- Hey honey, I'm home.
- [Narrator] Other than snacking
on cornstarch throughout the day,
Nikki only eats one normal meal,
dinner with her husband Charles.
- Cornstarch is my best friend.
I don't think I can stop eating cornstarch.
- People who eat these types of things
that aren't really nutritious for us,
and have cravings for it is something called PICA,
you definitely wanna check with your doctor,
maybe go to a hematologist,
get a blood panel, see what's going on in your body
if you're having these cravings
that don't seem to be normal.
(photo clicks) (upbeat music)
- [Narrator] 29-year-old Eric of Cincinnati, Ohio,
is addicted to French fries.
(upbeat music)
- I eat basically just French fries.
No one else eats more fries than me.
I am the fry connoisseur.
- [Narrator] Eric devours one and a half pounds
of French fries each and every day.
- One and a half pounds of fries a day.
1600 potatoes a year.
4.4 potatoes a day.
That's kind of a lot of potatoes.
(photo clicks)
- I have tried to get Eric to eat other things
like cheese, to actually take the smallest bite,
but Eric has like a panic attack
when he's trying to eat other foods.
(skateboard rolls)
- I'm very active, I skateboard once a week if not twice.
- Skateboarding once or twice a week,
that's considered athletic
and active?
I think the recommendation is like 30
to 60 minutes of vigorous activity
almost everyday is quite good for you.
- [Narrator] Because of his athletic lifestyle,
Eric hasn't become overweight,
and doesn't think French fries are damaging his health.
- Fries don't effect me.
I don't feel bad, I feel great.
Look at me, I'm fine.
- [Narrator] But Eric's mom isn't so sure.
- Even though Eric looks healthy on the outside,
things could be going very wrong on the inside.
He could die.
- French fries, they're made by frying.
Usually they're made in high temperature oil
to cook them.
Once you actually cook these fries
at such a high temperature,
they are pretty much unrecognizable on a nutrient level
to a regular potato.
This was actually really good.
They call this show "Freaky Eaters."
It's not so freaky,
it's just that people are more apt
to just focus on one food item that they like,
and then it makes them averse
to wanting to try other things.
I think if somebody's made aware of this,
and talk to healthcare professionals
that are up to date on nutrition,
they're gonna be able to get more help
than say just going to your regular
specific primary care doctor
that may not be so up to date on nutrition.
As always, if you guys enjoyed this,
definitely check out this playlist right here,
make sure you binge watch everything,
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and hit that like button for me.
Thank you so much for watching,
and stay healthy my friends.