This way for the Darwin Awards

The headline on one of the papers yesterday was "Killed by chips!". Intrigued, I read further, and was mildly disappointed that someone had not been killed in a freak accident incolving a 5-tonne shipment of chips falling out of the back of a transport plane as it was flying overhead, but instead a man whose diet had consisted of nothing but chips, supplemented by occasional slices of buttered bread and baked beans, had died.

You can tell it was a slow news day, can't you? "Man who lived on chips dies shocker". Scott Martin, 20, had refused to eat anything except his preferred diet in spite of doctors warnings and even in the face of instructions for a varied diet because 'He didn't like anything else'. When his diet irrevocably damaged his liver he refused transplant surgery because he was 'scared', but he still didn't change his diet. The phrase 'self inflicted' could have been coined for this man.

There have been cases of people eating themselves to death before, but these tend to have been gourmands and royalty (Henry 1 of England died of eating 'A surfeit of Lampreys') who have gorged themselves on luxurious foods, even tasty foods. Even lottery winners have got into the act with less fatal results, such as Boyd Neill, Australia's fattest man. What is most striking about Mr. Martin's diet is that it was so bland and tasteless and still he ate nothing but.
I reckon he's a shoe-in for winning this year's Darwin Awards.