Woman must eat 60 meals per day

Sykk

Sky news Edit: Pics may be disturbing, click as your own risk.

A student who weighs just four stone has told how she must eat up to 60 meals a day to stay alive.

Lizzie Velasquez says she is overjoyed her story has been picked up by the media
Lizzie Velasquez has a rare and undiagnosed syndrome that prevents her from putting on weight.
She has to eat every 15 minutes and consumes up to 8,000 calories every day.
Despite her huge intake, the communications student from Austin, Texas, has never tipped the scales over 4st 3lbs.
Today just might be the best day of life!! Just can't wipe this smile off my face!!
Lizzie Velasquez after her story was picked up by the media
Lizzie, 21, who wears size triple zero clothes, eats small portions of food all day long.
Her favourites are crisps, sweets, chocolate, pizza, chicken, cake, doughnuts, ice cream, noodles and pop tarts.
She said: "What the syndrome causes is that I'm not able to gain weight.
"I have 0% body fat as well. I eat whatever I want all day long and just can't keep the pounds on.

Lizzie, pictured on her website, is releasing a book about her life in September
"I get pretty upset when people accuse me of being anorexic."
Lizzie was born prematurely, weighing just 2lb 10oz and is also blind in one eye.
Doctors now believe she may have a form of Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome (NPS) which causes accelerated ageing, fat loss and tissue degeneration.
People with NPS often have triangular and prematurely aged faces with a pointy nose.

Lizzie, pictured on her website dancing, must eat every 15 minutes to stay healthy
Despite her condition Lizzie is hugely positive about the future and has written a book about her life which is due out in September.
She said she was overjoyed her story had been picked up by the international media.
"Today just might be the best day of life!! Just can't wipe this smile off my face!!" she wrote on her Twitter page.
"Sharing my story with the world is very close to my heart!"

Poor girl...

I hear Harney has the same disorder.. But she eats 120 meals a day to keep the weight on. :pac:

toiletduck

A Mary Harney joke? How fresh and original!

Dancor

Lucky bitch

pickarooney

What difference does it make to her that she's featured in Sky News? How does that help her?

chin_grin

I really wish I didn't click on the link...........won't be able to sleep for a while........

Kiera

I get that she has to eat to stay alive but eating all that crap is just going to give her a heart attack.

Canard

her smile is gorgeous - why would you want to wipe it away....

Oh_Noes

toiletduck wrote: »

A Mary Harney joke? How fresh and original!

They don't get old though to be fair. :pac:

phill106

Scared the bejaysus outta me, should put a warning on that.

ScumLord

Kiera wrote: »

I get that she has to eat to stay alive but eating all that crap is just going to give her a heart attack.

I would have thought that her body isn't digesting even the bad (well good in moderation) parts of the food like fat. The fact she's so thin shows she's not getting enough of that stuff to keep her healthy never mind so much that it's unhealthy.

Knifey Spoony

toiletduck wrote: »

A Mary Harney joke? How fresh and original!

Not as bad as the Thin Lizzy pun used in the headline of the artical in the OP, "Thin Lizzie":(.

Anthony Walsh

Oh good lord, now i'm blind in both eyes

Dravokivich

Read that in sky news yesterday... bastárds made a joke using "Thin Lizzie"

John Lynch Ph.D

she must be passing solid food literally, how often is she on the toilet? no mention of that in the article, not 'PC' enough

Myrddin

toiletduck wrote: »

A Mary Harney joke? How fresh and original!

Someone who dislikes Mark Harney jokes? How strange and weird!

Zen65

pickarooney wrote: »

What difference does it make to her that she's featured in Sky News? How does that help her?

I don't think she has ambitions of being famous. Her condition probably leaves her somewhat isolated from the world, and she may feel that people judge her on first sight as being anorexic. While that may seem like the least of her troubles, it can be very difficult for anyone who is "different" to think that they are being perceived as mentally ill, with little opportunity to set the record straight. So the media picks up on it, and maybe people who see her from now on will have a better understanding of her condition and be less judgmental.

Any illness of this type is tough, especially on a young person. But isolation from fellow humans is a greater burden for them, and perhaps through this story becoming public she feels a greater association with the people who read it, and as a result, a little less lonely.


Be at peace,

Z

Dravokivich

John Lynch Ph.D wrote: »

she must be passing solid food literally, how often is she on the toilet? no mention of that in the article, not 'PC' enough

It don't think the issue is that it run's through her... the problem is that it gets used up quickly...

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

John Lynch Ph.D wrote: »

she must be passing solid food literally, how often is she on the toilet? no mention of that in the article, not 'PC' enough

What business is it of anyones how long she is on the toilet for... ffs.

Poor woman, it's a pretty ****ed up disease...

starbelgrade

She looks like the Mexican Sarah Jessica Parker.

easyeason3

She looks wretched in that photo.
Poor girl.

prinz

pickarooney wrote: »

What difference does it make to her that she's featured in Sky News? How does that help her?

Perhaps it's something to do with the likes of this...

"I get pretty upset when people accuse me of being anorexic."

Her story was on MSN recently too, so I am guessing she wasn't strictly referring to Sky News but media in general.

Zen65

Kyle Unkempt Hermit wrote: »

What business is it of anyones how long she is on the toilet for... ffs.

Poor woman, it's a pretty ****ed up disease...

Poor woman indeed, this condition is cruel beyond words.

The point of the article (leaving aside the sensationalist tendency of tabloids) is to inform the public of the condition, and to help people empathize with the sufferers. The article paints a picture of one aspect of the condition i.e. the regular eating, but to truly understand the impact of this condition you should appreciate the consequence that has for her whole digestive system, including bowel movements.

Kiera wrote: »

I get that she has to eat to stay alive but eating all that crap is just going to give her a heart attack.

No. You or I would suffer ill health because that diet would cause your body to store fat and eventually the fatty deposits in your blood would/could clog the arteries supplying your heart, and hence the heart attack. But this girl's condition is causing her body to strip out the fat (that's why she's so thin, and why her veins are so prominent) so she is eating a diet to try replace the fat as quickly as she is losing it.

If genetic scientists ever discover the cause of her condition it could lead to medicine which has the effect of a liposuction by taking a pill. That might be a good thing, but I can see terrible abuse of that kind of medicine (one free pill with every take-away meal).

Be at peace,


Z

Kiith

Fair play to her for staying optimistic. I'm not sure i could in her situation.

ejmaztec

Zen65 wrote: »

Poor woman indeed, this condition is cruel beyond words.

The point of the article (leaving aside the sensationalist tendency of tabloids) is to inform the public of the condition, and to help people empathize with the sufferers. The article paints a picture of one aspect of the condition i.e. the regular eating, but to truly understand the impact of this condition you should appreciate the consequence that has for her whole digestive system, including bowel movements.



No. You or I would suffer ill health because that diet would cause your body to store fat and eventually the fatty deposits in your blood would/could clog the arteries supplying your heart, and hence the heart attack. But this girl's condition is causing her body to strip out the fat (that's why she's so thin, and why her veins are so prominent) so she is eating a diet to try replace the fat as quickly as she is losing it.

If genetic scientists ever discover the cause of her condition it could lead to medicine which has the effect of a liposuction by taking a pill. That might be a good thing, but I can see terrible abuse of that kind of medicine (one free pill with every take-away meal).

Be at peace,


Z

Yes, it certainly gives one food for thought.

smellslikeshoes

Dancor wrote: »

Lucky bitch

You should click on links before posting, nothing lucky about that condition.

pickarooney

Zen65 wrote: »

The point of the article (leaving aside the sensationalist tendency of tabloids) is to inform the public of the condition, and to help people empathize with the sufferers.

Call me a cynic but it looks more like glorified freak-pointing. The condition is so rare that virtually nobody reading it is ever going to meet someone who has it. If anything, the cretins who feed on the Sun's dribblings will take to diagnosing every anorexic in sight with this disease.

SV

that's tough...
feel sorry for her, talk about a tough task =/

Dublin_Gunner

Would her stomach physically be able to break down all of the food she supposedly has to eat?

I mean, surely it will just fill up at some point?

It don't think the issue is that it run's through her... the problem is that it gets used up quickly...

Not true, there will be waste from everything that she eats, that her body doesn't need. If she is eating that much each day, there much be a ridiculous amount of waste generated.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

pickarooney wrote: »

Call me a cynic but it looks more like glorified freak-pointing. The condition is so rare that virtually nobody reading it is ever going to meet someone who has it. If anything, the cretins who feed on the Sun's dribblings will take to diagnosing every anorexic in sight with this disease.

Raising awareness for these things is very important. Many "weird" illnesses have been helped in this way. Some expert somewhere in the world might be aware now thanks to the media (however much I hate the media). You see it a lot on the Discovery channel. Somebody has a fcuked up disease, it's covered by the news or a documentary, some expert is made aware of the illness and person and then pays for the costs and what not.

prinz

pickarooney wrote: »

Call me a cynic but it looks more like glorified freak-pointing. The condition is so rare that virtually nobody reading it is ever going to meet someone who has it. If anything, the cretins who feed on the Sun's dribblings will take to diagnosing every anorexic in sight with this disease.

Yes and no. The original news piece was probably in this lady's local paper so yes, in that instance people reading it probably would know her and she was making a point to them about being 'written-off' as anorexic or whatever. So it's very relevant.

It gets picked up as a 'newsitem' and is carried by a bigger paper, and so on, until it has spread around the world, and at that stage yeah, it's highly unlikely 99.9999% of the people reading will come across someone who has the condition.

questioner

reminds me of russell brand

Dudess

But if her stomach is that small, where the hell is she gonna put the food? I'm well over twice her weight and I'd just about consume 2,000 calories a day.

pickarooney

Kyle Unkempt Hermit wrote: »

Raising awareness for these things is very important. Many "weird" illnesses have been helped in this way. Some expert somewhere in the world might be aware now thanks to the media (however much I hate the media). You see it a lot on the Discovery channel. Somebody has a fcuked up disease, it's covered by the news or a documentary, some expert is made aware of the illness and person and then pays for the costs and what not.

Maybe, but she's one of only three people in the world with the disease and it doesn't even have a name. I've never really understood this whole 'awareness' jive.

thetonynator

Can you imagine the cholestrol levels she'll have!!! Can she not just eat healthy foods regularly???

GLaDOS

I wonder if she can sleep properly, or if she has to get up every few hours for a snack or something

prinz

thetonynator wrote: »

Can she not just eat healthy fooda regularly???

It's the fat that she needs. She needs a massive calorie intake.

thetonynator

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I wonder if she can sleep properly, or if she has to get up every few hours for a snack or something

or every few minutes???

you're the science nerd here, you should know!!!