This woman ate nothing but KFC for 3 consecutive years. This is what she looked like in the beginning. Wait until you see what she looks like now.
Georgie Scotney captured the attention of people from around the world after it was revealed that she had lived off nothing but KFC for three full years. More specifically, she wouldn’t eat anything but their french fries and fried chicken, whether it be strips or the popcorn variety, Daily Mail reports. That’s it. Her entire diet consisted solely of those two foods.
Georgie would even go days without eating if she was away on a school trip and unable to get KFC. But, it wasn’t a love for the chain that motivated her. The twenty-one-year-old was suffering from Selective Eating Disorder (SED), now more frequently called Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder or ARFID. Georgie endured the disorder since she was a child, which she says caused her to eventually be unable to eat anything but KFC.
While picky eaters aren’t all that uncommon, ARFID is much more than that. It is a type of eating disorder “where the consumption of certain foods is limited based on the food’s appearance, smell, taste, texture, brand, presentation, or a past negative experience with the food,” Wikipedia explains.
Those suffering from ARFID limit their eating and are affected by related physiological or psychological problems, but do not fall under the definition of another eating disorder. With ARFID, eating is often accompanied by severe anxiety. Simply put, ARFID takes over a person’s mind, limiting what they will eat to a very small and narrow list of menu items. When the person struggling with the disorder attempts to stray from their narrow selections, they are met with extreme emotional distress.
This type of behavior is more common in children, who are often pickier eaters, but most grow out of it by the time they enter adulthood. However, the eating disorder can be present in adults, and Georgie Scotney is one example. Her unusual relationship with food began when she was just a kid, and it persisted into adulthood. Georgie thought she was just a “stubborn eater” until she refused to eat anything but KFC for years and finally realized she had an eating disorder.
“Growing up, I’d always been really stubborn with what I’d eat, it started off as just southern fried chicken and chips, but it then got to the point where it’d only be chicken from KFC — I’d go there every day without fail,” Georgie admitted. “I was just never fed up with it, I loved to put loads of salt on it too, which I now see wasn’t such a good idea — I do think that it had a lot to do with me being scared of a lot of foods, especially sauce, that was the worst fear of mine.”
With the support and encouragement of her boyfriend, twenty-five-year-old Dean Arnold, Georgie began to realize she had a problem and needed help. But, her boyfriend wasn’t the only reason she wanted to change. The couple had plans to travel the world, The Sun reported.
Of course, they rightfully feared that Georgie’s disorder would cause them problems in places where KFC simply wouldn’t be available. “When we decided that we’d go traveling, I knew that something needed to be done. We’re going for four months, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat any of the food — I would have starved,” she recalled.
So, she sought out hypnotherapy, an alternative treatment that’s often used to help break bad habits or cope with things like stress. “My boyfriend was the one who put me forward for the session and I was very skeptical, I warned everyone that I was so headstrong and thought that I’d never be able to change,” Georgie admitted.
Luckily, Georgie was wrong. After a one-hour hypnotherapy session, the woman says she was cured and is now able to eat a wider variety of foods, including fruit. “Never in my life had I eaten any fruit or veg, and I’ve even managed to try a roast dinner now,” a delighted Georgie explained. “I can’t believe that I missed out on so much.”
It’s hard to imagine eating the same exact meal every day for years. What’s even harder to believe is that you’d still look healthy doing just that. Georgie Scotney is definitely lucky that her eating disorder doesn’t appear to have left her with any longterm side effects. It’s a good thing she got help when she did, or her story could have had a different ending.
Luckily, there is help out there for those suffering from an eating disorder, whether it’s ARFID or something else. Just don’t wait until it’s too late to get help. If this young woman can go from refusing to eat anything but KFC chicken and fries to being cured, there’s hope for everyone. Don’t forget to share Georgie’s success story. It might be just what someone who’s quietly fighting their own battle needs to see and hear. You can overcome, just like Georgie proved.
