Re: is 3 lbs of carrots a day too much???? help, please!!!!

[Guest guest]

Hi Kim,

>positive difference in 50 % of bm's but we're seeing some die off,

which i'm hoping is a good sign.

That is a good sign!

Is he getting any form of probiotic? Powder, capsule or yogurt?

> soooo, my question is: my son is still eating a TON of food,

especailly between 6 AM and 2 PM. Durring this time, he ate:

> 1/4 lb pork tenderloin

> 4 slices crisp bacon

> 3 lbs cooked carrots

> 2 pears, cooked and peeled

> 1/4 pound cooked turkey

> 1/4 pound ground chicken

> 1/3 cooked avacado

> 1/3 cooked zucchini

> 2 bananas, really ripe

> 1 whole cantaloupe, cooked

> lots of water

>

> he will then have a big dinner and continue snacking (on carrots,

pears, melon) for the rest of the evening.

>

> prior to cooking his veggies, he was eating a lot, but now seems

to be eating even more, possibly because it is easier to chew all

those carrots, now that they are cooked!!! should i worry about

giving him so much food especially the carrots or melon? he is not

gaining or losing weight on this diet.

Peeling the zucchini might help. Even cooked some find the peels of

zucchini a bit hard to digest.

That does seem like a lot of carrots. Are there any other cooked

vegetables like green beans, squash, spinach etc. that you can use

to replace some of the carrots? If not I would just keep plugging

along for now and gradually try to increase the amounts of other

foods that he can/will eat and simultaneously decrease the carrots.

Eating a ton of food at this age is not uncommon and he also is

healing his body so he probably needs more than the average kid. I

have seen kids a little older than him pack away far more food than

that. My husband tells me at about that age he was an eating

machine.

Sheila 45 mos SCD, 20 yrs UC

mom of SCD 30 mos

[Guest guest]

Hi Kim,

There is actually such a thing as too many carrots: It is possible to overdose

on Vitamin A.

According to one source, " consuming mega doses of fat soluble vitamins,

especially A and

D, can lead to a dangerous buildup in the body. " (Another " food " that can lead

to overdose

is an excess of cod liver oil.) I have read in the past of this happening to

health-food

faddists who drink way too much carrot juice. It's not a concern for most

people, but we

have to be more careful because our diets are so limited and our kids are SO

hungry.

It takes time for the Vitamin A to build up, particulary from food rather than

from

supplements, so he's probably fine, but I'm guessing that three pounds of

carrots daily for

an extended period might be a lot for an 8 year old.

> soooo, my question is: my son is still eating a TON of food, especailly

between 6 AM

and 2 PM. Durring this time, he ate:

> 3 lbs cooked carrots

>

> kim

> mom to charlee ( 8, autism, scd 6 months)

[Guest guest]

You make an excellent point: The type of vitamin A you consume does make a

difference,

and fresh carrots do not pose the same danger as vitamin A tablets. Also, you

are more

likely to overconsume when drinking carrot juice. Having said that, here is a

quote from

the carrot web site (www.carrots.com):

" Do not overdose - your skin will turn yellow! - It's called Carotenemia!

Consume too many carrots or drink too much juice and your skin, mostly the

hands, will

turn yellowish-orange. There are two possible reasons why your skin is turns

orange.

Either your body is unable to process all the carotene properly in the carrot

juice you are

drinking , or your liver is toxic. "

There's a good way to know when you've had too much! (This happened to a food

writer at

" Saveur " who was researching carrot recipes--can't find the issue.) I doubt if

anyone

would die from eating carrots, but eating too many does tax the liver. My

thought was that

beginning this diet is already somewhat taxing for the liver as toxins are

purged, so it

seems prudent for such a child not to eat an excess of anything that might make

the liver

work even harder.

> I don't know about that, . While 3 pounds of carrots IS an incredibly

> large amount of Vitamin A, the TYPE of Vitamin A might not be toxic. I

> don't know. The perinatologist who did my amniocentisis assured me that a

> lot of beta carotene was not a problem; I ate a lot of carrots while I was

you might want to check with an additional source before taking

> my local perinatologist's word for it.

>

[Guest guest]

www.megson.com Dr. Megson is doing work with high doses of vit a.

Marla

If anyone has any good, documented info on how much vitamin A is too

much, I'd love to read it.