Giving new meaning to the words “beer belly” this amazing story is as unfortunate as it is true…

Adam Stump can’t have bread, can’t have cake or pasta, in fact he can’t have any carbohydrates at all unless he wants to get so drunk that he’ll eventually pass out.

Stump suffers from Auto Brewery Syndrome, a very rare condition where his body ferments carbohydrates and turns them into alcohol in his stomach. The more carbohydrate he consumes the drunker he gets.

Stump, a pastor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was at first bewildered and his drunken behavior which led his wife Jana to worry that he was secretly an alcoholic.

“At the start, Jana didn’t believe I hadn’t been drinking. She thought I was sneaking it somewhere. I had to convince her that I hadn’t been drinking.

“It was terrible for her to think that I was living a double life. When I was diagnosed, she collapsed and said she couldn’t take any more stress,” Stump explained to LAD Bible.

“I would slur my speech, black out and walk around talking but not remember any of it. I was quite belligerent and combative. I didn’t hurt anyone but once I threw the dining room table and had to get a friend round to calm me down.

“There were a few times where my wife would be looking for me and I’d be in strange places like the garden or laying on the basement floor with no recollection of how I got there.”

After extensive tests, doctors discovered that the father of four was suffering from a very rare condition where carbohydrates became fermented in his stomach. He’s now given up carbs almost completely and lives on a high protein diet consisting of meat, eggs and cheese.

Auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), also known as gut fermentation syndrome, is caused by an overgrowth of yeast in the gut that turns excess carbs from food into alcohol. The alcohol is then absorbed into the blood stream and sufferers become drunk.

According to Healthline you can’t be born with ABS, but other genetic conditions such as Crohn’s disease which can generate excess yeast in the gut, could lead to an attack.

But unfortunately for Stump and others who suffer from Auto Brewery Syndrome, the condition is so unusual that a cure is not yet known.

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