British student found dead after going on extreme diet before trip

A 20-year-old university student in England was found dead after fasting and taking tablets of apple cider vinegar as dietary supplements to lose weight before an upcoming trip, according to a report.

Lindsey Bone, a student at the University of Sussex in Brighton, had been anxious about her weight so she took the tablets of apple cider, which is advertised as a “natural appetite suppressant” and “weight loss supplement” made from crushed, distilled and fermented apples, according to the Telegraph.

The promising criminologist’s roommates found her dead in her bedroom on April 5, a day after she died, an inquest has heard.

Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley said she could not find a cause for Bone’s death, calling it a “mystery.”

When coroner’s official Claire Rogers visited the young woman’s room, she found a food diary containing rules such as “eat no more than 1,200 calories a day,” “carbs only once a day if at all,” “stay at the library and don’t eat,” “snack on fruit” and “take your f—– apple cider vinegar.”

The diary contained comments suggesting that Bone was “very negative about herself,” Rogers said.

Lindsey’s mother Mandy Bone described her daughter as “a wonderful, strong person.”

“She wanted to get through university to honor her dad and do the best she could. She had so many plans for the future and everything she wanted to do,” she said.

Bone said she knew her daughter “used to take a tablespoon [of cider vinegar] every time she ate, three times a day” but had since started taking it in tablet form for “maybe two years.”

She said her daughter had been on a 5:2 diet — restricting food intake two days a week — and knew through messages from her that she had not eaten much on the day she died.

Dr. Catherine Guy, the pathologist, said most of the autopsy results were “normal,” with just “therapeutic” doses of anti-depressant and anxiety medications found in her system.

“The only positive finding from blood tests was a slightly high acid level in the blood,” Guy said, referring to acidosis.

“It was not at a level we would normally consider as a fatal level but it was a lot higher than usual,” she said. “Your body has a natural way of balancing acid and alkali and that can be affected by diet, very high protein and low fat diets, especially if there has been fasting.

“Apple cider vinegar is a food supplement. There is not much information on the effect it could have,” she added. “Obviously the vinegar is acidic and we don’t know how many she was taking at once. The only serious effects in the past have been when people have had a lot of vinegar.”

Hamilton-Deeley said the case was a “mystery.”

“The only two conclusions would be natural causes or misadventure if we found that for some reason any supplements she was taking had a reaction with any of her medication,” she said.

“But that seems so unlikely because it’s not as if apple cider vinegar is new,” she added. “On the balance of probability I can record it is likely cardiac arrhythmia. I don’t know what has caused it.

“What might have contributed is the anxiety and depression because of what she had been prescribed. They might not be 100 percent good. Any prescription carries an element of risk. We can’t avoid the risks we don’t know about,” she said.

After last week’s hearing, Bone’s mother said she wanted to warn others about the dangers of extreme dieting.

“Please be careful,” she said.

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