A Chinese man was recently diagnosed with “crocodile tear syndrome”, a rare medical condition that causes people to shed tears whenever they eat.
Crying is usually triggered by a strong emotional reaction, such as sadness, pain or uncontrollable laughter, but in rare cases it can be activated by something as benign as eating. Last year, an elderly man, referred to only as ‘Mr. Zhang’ by Chinese media, reportedly started shedding tears when he ate. He didn’t think much of it at first, but the crying got noticeably worse when he needed to chew for longer, and this interfered with his social life. Zhang started avoiding eating in public, for fear of tears rolling down his face in front of people, so he became isolated. Luckily, he realized that this wasn’t something he could hide forever, and decided to see a doctor.
