A WOMAN nearly died after eating nothing but CRISPS
for three years.
Gina Gough, 22, was rushed to hospital with severe stomach pains after
scoffing 15 packets a DAY.
She suffered jaundice and her weight had ballooned from 9st to 14st.
Doctors first thought she had picked up the highly infectious liver
disease hepatitis and sealed her in an isolation ward.
But they later discovered her condition was a result of an addiction
to high-fat, chemical-rich potato snacks.
Gina, a nursery nurse, from Cannock, Staffs, needed four-and-a-half
hours of emergency surgery to remove a massively inflamed gall bladder.
It had swollen to the size of a tennis ball and could have exploded
at any moment. After the operation, surgeons found gall stones almost
1½in across.
Talking about her crisp addiction, Gina said yesterday: “I’d
start off with a packet for breakfast and then I’d have a second
one. I wasn’t tempted by any other food.”
Gina began snacking on crisps after losing her job in 2000. She said:
“I was depressed but felt good after crisps.
“My mum used to tell me that all the crisps I ate would make me
ill but I shrugged it off.
“I didn’t think anything this bad could happen to me —
but I could have died.”
Gina insists she got high on the fat and chemical additives in the
crisps. She is calling for health warnings on packets.
Gina is now eating low-fat meals, regularly exercising and has lost
more than 20lb.
She said: “I used to be a very happy-go-lucky person but I started
to get mood swings and became very snappy.”
Research by US scientists suggests fat and sugar in high quantities
have a similar affect on the brain as heroin and cocaine.
Dr David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said Gina
was lucky to be alive.
He added: “Crisps should be eaten only once every couple of weeks.”
A HI-TECH implant that fools obese patients’ brains into thinking
they are full is set for UK trials.
The £12,000 device, inserted into the stomach wall, confuses digestion
nerves.
Dr David Haslam said: “We don’t know how it will work. The
proof is in the pudding.”
THOUSANDS of women refuse to quit ciggies for fear of putting on weight,
say researchers.
A poll by NiQuitin CQ found 68 per cent had been put off.
But nutritionist Rimi Obra said: “Quitting is the best thing smokers
can do for their appearance.”
