00:00My name is Ben Sutter, and I can't eat food.
00:11I got a feeding tube when I was three years old and had it all the way up until I turned 18.
00:16In high school, I transitioned to drinking the juice boxes, the formula, full-time,
00:20and so I would just carry around this little black bag, and it just had a whole bunch of juice boxes in it,
00:26and that was just my food.
00:30You sort of realize how much society is built around food.
00:34Like, kind of, you know, birthday parties and every event and everything that's like,
00:39oh, food will be provided or, you know, good pizza or something.
00:43There's always some aspect that involves food,
00:46and I think you don't really realize that until you aren't able to participate in it.
00:50I have met so many people, I'm like, I don't know how to put it around food.
00:53Well, what's the other option, you know?
00:56I used to be allergic to milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, soy, and red dye.
01:00So the foods I could have from a very young age were potato, rice, and corn.
01:04Prior to Dupixen, if I wanted to try all the food, it would be I had to eat one food consistently for a month,
01:09changing nothing else about my diet.
01:11With Dupixen, they said,
01:13you're good to try all meat, all fruits, and all vegetables, excluding seafood.
01:17I expected to go into this, I'm like, all right, I'm making a lot of progress.
01:20Six months, eight months, I'll be like, fully normal diet.
01:24And I'm like, I haven't even built the habit of sitting down eating food.
01:28I haven't built the habit of preparing food.
01:29I don't know how to cook.
01:30I don't even know what spices are.
01:32Like, this is a lot more than I expected to take.
01:34Like, there are some days I don't eat anything new.
01:36There are some days I just drink the juice boxes, and there are some days I try and do only food,
01:42and partway through I end up in a juice box, or I have to stop for whatever reason.
01:46And, you know, one, there's hope, there are other people who are going through it with you.
01:51But even if you're making progress and you feel like it's, you know, two steps forward, one step back,
01:57like, a slip doesn't have to turn into a slide, you know, you can fall down and still get up, like, that's okay.
02:02I've lived an incredibly blessed life, and I've traveled a whole bunch.
02:05I've played a whole bunch of different sports.
02:06I've gone skiing.
02:08There's not a lot that I haven't done, and I'm incredibly thankful for that.
02:11But, you know, yes, I can't eat food, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy life.
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