He wants what he wants.
And what he wants is macaroni and cheese.
Austin Davis eats basically nothing else.
The young man admits to consuming just pasta and cheese (the Kraft version with Velveeta, mostly) for roughly 17 years. Davis lives in Keystone Heights, north of Gainesville with his grandparents. In the video, you can see Grandma defers and cooks him his favorite dish, but Grandpa is more traditional and wants Davis to eat what is put in front of him.
The 20-year-old knows full well his diet should be more well balanced but says that different types of food, especially nutritious stuff like celery and broccoli make him “gag” involuntarily. His drink of choice: water.
Though he has seen therapists in the past, none has specialized in his problem, known as Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). He stumbled upon the term while watching a video on YouTube about super picky people who only consume one food.
“Oh my God,” he remembers. “I’m not crazy. It has a name.”
The Florida man believes he craves this comfort staple because of trauma he endured as a child. He says he was removed from his home after being beaten violently by his father.
Despite his high-calorie, carb-laden diet, Davis, who is slightly overweight, boxes regularly and admits as he gets older his metabolism has slowed down.
He wants to get better.
“It’s definitely a problem,” he said. “I’m sick of it, but at the same time I don’t want anything else.”
Davis is seeing a new therapist, Ashley McHan. The video shows their first session.
“I hope it’s a stepping stone,” he says.
