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Brooke Goldner: Goodbye Autoimmune
Quote from puddleduck on February 11, 2024, 8:05 am@anon33 Since I posted about Dr. Goldner here last summer, I’ve been following some of her advice (eliminating oils, eating lots of flaxseed and cruciferous veggies) and reading the anecdotes shared in her private Facebook Group. There are many people seeing remarkable recoveries on her program and thriving for years, but some members also report continued sensitivities to certain fruits and vegetables (in some cases, carotenoid foods: mangoes, sweet potatoes, in others, oxalate foods: spinach, chocolate, or high histamine foods: avocados, bananas), and when this happens, Dr. Goldner advises removing fruit from the diet until the sensitivities improve. There was also an unfortunate case of an individual who ended up in the hospital from oxalate poisoning due to drinking spinach smoothies every day for a few months.
It’s important to emphasize that Dr. Goldner says patients must avoid all foods high in omega 6 (including that found in whole foods like nuts and seeds) in order to recover.
Grant doesn’t eat much omega 6, either, and I recall him mentioning he did have ground flaxseed for the first year or so of his experiment. In one of his books, I think he mentions the omega 6/3 ratio—or at least excess PUFA consumption—and wonders if that could be one piece of the autoimmune disease puzzle.
In this article for Hormones Matter, dietician Meredith Arthur says MUFAs and PUFAs (I dunno if she means omega 9, 6 and 3? Probably?) increase the conversion of beta carotene into retinaldehyde:
https://www.hormonesmatter.com/oxalate-a-potential-contributor-to-hypervitaminosis-a/
Could this be one reason those who are strictly avoiding MUFAs/PUFAs in favor of saturated fat feel better doing so?
Now, though I agree with @armin in theory, my experience does lead me to believe too much beta carotene can cause serious problems. I do not personally feel beta carotene is a poison, though.
When I was a kid, I ate carrot juice powder on my oatmeal porridge instead of sugar. This wasn’t nearly as disastrous for me as Cod Liver Oil would later turn out to be, but I believe it did set me up to be more sensitive to retinol later... This is why I think that turning orange, while arguably much safer than taking accutane, isn’t benign: some may remember I have posted here a few times about lipofuscin, a pigment of aging, which I had in my sweat since I was quite young. Now, this is important, because it wasn’t just me. Others of my family members eating the carrot juice powder and drinking the fresh carrot juice, who turned orange from doing so, also had lipofuscin in their sweat (and serious health problems of their own). And they were not drinking Cod Liver Oil. That’s really quite alarming, eh?
If you look at the image in Meredith’s article above, you see that excess retinaldehyde can potentially produce lipofuscin.
And it seems individuals who have genetic weaknesses with regards to their ability to produce the appropriate enzymes necessary to metabolize vitamin A efficiently would have more problems with this:
http://weakthereforestrong.com/altered-vitamin-a-metabolism-and-neurological-decline/
I have thought for a while that is makes sense beta carotene would generally be beneficial when consumed in whole foods, for most people, but since I still can’t eat watermelon without breaking out in a rash I don’t think it’s entirely harmless, either.
Context is everything.
As @lil-chick always reminds us, we should remember there are many environmental toxins. Antibiotics seem to have led to increased oxalate sensitivity. Growing up surrounded by glyphosate didn’t help my lipofuscin situation, and I think glyphosate must be hurting most of us now that it’s contaminating our food supply as much as it is. Would beta carotene not cause as many problems if glyphosate weren’t dirtying up our genes? I’d like to hope so.
I definitely ate foods high in oxalates. Carrot, spinach, chard, avocado, sweet potatoes being the main ones. Not sure if I ever turned orange. It wasn't until I started eating for animal foods and especially cheese (cow and goat) that my symptoms really increased. I'm not planning on eating high oxalate foods for the points you've mentioned above but I may test broccoli and cantaloupe, without any oil added.
I do all right with oil-free broccoli and cantaloupe in moderate damounts, @armin. Let us know how it goes for ya. 🙂 My experience with animal foods aligns with yours: I didn’t eat dairy or eggs growing up, and only a year after I found the Weston A. Price Foundation at age 15, I got very, very sick.
However, I did eat oxalate throughout my life, what with rhubarb crisp and beet borscht and unlimited carrots from the garden. I still have beet borscht sometimes, though I try to avoid having high-oxalate foods on a daily basis. I want to try low-oxalate green peas and butternut or acorn squash sometime soon, to see how that goes now.
I agree with you 100%, @jessica2! 🙂 Well said. I meant to say I agreed with your point about jaundice in my first response. Orthorexic paranoia can be a counterproductive trap, no doubt. (Oh I started eating peaches and nectarines again during summer, and I so enjoyed them. 🍑 Mmm. Definitely keeping them in my basket.)
Here is my response to your questions about my omega 6 consumption adjustments over this past year:
https://ggenereux.blog/discussion/topic/essential-fatty-acid-omega-6-experiment/?part=16#postid-27166
Another group of people, worth mentioning here, who claim to be able to put cancer into remission with loads of raw fruit and vegetable juice:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/gerson-therapy
One teacher, who appears to be thriving on such a diet, and has many testimonials, too:
Quote from puddleduck on February 11, 2024, 8:05 am@anon33 Since I posted about Dr. Goldner here last summer, I’ve been following some of her advice (eliminating oils, eating lots of flaxseed and cruciferous veggies) and reading the anecdotes shared in her private Facebook Group. There are many people seeing remarkable recoveries on her program and thriving for years, but some members also report continued sensitivities to certain fruits and vegetables (in some cases, carotenoid foods: mangoes, sweet potatoes, in others, oxalate foods: spinach, chocolate, or high histamine foods: avocados, bananas), and when this happens, Dr. Goldner advises removing fruit from the diet until the sensitivities improve. There was also an unfortunate case of an individual who ended up in the hospital from oxalate poisoning due to drinking spinach smoothies every day for a few months.
Interesting and thanks for adding this info as it's important to see the good with the bad. Also thanks for everyone else's input as well even if it disagrees with mine.