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Joe's Progress
I am not sure where I wrote I only eat red meat? I do only eat grass fed meat as grain fed meat - specifically corn fed - rips my gut in two!
When I started low A diet, I craved beef and had to force my self to eat other meats.
I also grow my own and eat white meat. Usually in the form of chicken, turkey or duck. While my feed is organic - corn and soy free, it does contain added vitamin A. I have spoke to the manufacturer about just leaving out the added vitamins but you would have thought I asked them to jump off a building. So in reality, my grain fed poultry who also free graze on grass probably has more vitamin A than my home grown grass fed beef.
Unfortunately, I can’t just take some synthetic zinc pills. Typically synthetic pills do more damage than good! When I run my food intake through a nutrient calculator it shows I am 300% + of the RDA of zinc. Which is also higher than my copper in take, from my understanding is a good thing.
Joseph posted he was looking for a place to buy beef. I was only giving him another idea of where to look. My apologies!
@joseph-6 Sorry for hijacking your thread.
I suppose that the reason many people here go in for beef (and traditionally raised) so heavily is because they are emulating Grant. Although I do think he ate buffalo for a long time.
Too much iron is a bad thing that can catch up with certain people, and Jiri has a point... Iron is just like vitamin A in that it is a thing we are all taught is needed, but can overload and cause some wicked problems.
We mix things up here at my house and include lean pork too. (not fatty, as it gives several here a tummy ache)
Its very interesting to me that Joseph detects something wrong with the supermarket meat. I hope it is just because he craves something that is healthy in the trad-raised meat, and not because there is something seriously wrong with the supermarket meat!
@ginny I mentioned your name when I talked about grass fed beef as you mentioned grass fed meat, but you didn't mentioned that grain fed beef gives you issues. So I pointed out that grass fed beef has decent amount of vit A.. But yeah I craved beef as well when I started vit A detox. I think it is due to high zinc/B vitamin content that helps with detox while all that vit A is coming out.. Btw yeah poultry can be high in vit A as well. That's why I was talking about breasts specifically as it is almost fat free so basically zero vit A..
@lil chick, I got sick maybe two days after visiting with them. However I also salvaged a truckload of purlins and red lead roofing sheets off an old house down the street the very next day. Woke up feeling a little off, then went my round in a drizzling cold rain taking care of the animals and that pushed me over the edge.
I'm always attempting to figure out what precipitated the issue, and when I ponder it enough I usually figure out the likely cause.
I still credit the changing season - not just that kid is sick in my tiny circle, but my boss's cancer has flared up and taken a turn for the worse.
I wish this problem with the store beef were all in my head because then it could be overcome and I would save thousands. It's likely that I'm hypersensitive to the difference due to eating strictly local $$$ beef for 6 months before attempting the switch. If I used spices and sauces like normal folks do I probably wouldn't pick up on it.
Perhaps I am emulating Grant. He is a heck of a guy.
Lean white meat sounds good to me, but from my experience of store beef it will have to be from local farmers.
@Ginny, I'm also getting the dry lips - I used coconut oil on them before bed last night because it was getting painful.
@Jiri, the turkey breast is a good suggestion. Next time I'm at the farmer's market I'm looking into it.
I was able to harvest more boards from another building in our small town today. While I don't feel the best it doesn't seem to be slowing me down much. There's always a tradeoff. Feeling like this gives me a gentler, softer affect when, for example, seeing my friend at the grocery store today. Humble pie isn't so bad.
We had a cute little grocery ham this week and the texture was different. Mealy. (as opposed to meaty) Maybe the brand is using more "meat glue" than in the past.
I think you've inspired me to go back to shopping semi-local. The nearest farm to me is very boutique, which has discouraged me from shopping local. I might have to instead go and buy somewhere slightly farther away, and in bulk.
The change of seasons *is* a stressor... and for the animals too. Toughens you up, LOL
Coconut oil doesn't seem to help my lips or hands very much. A long time back I read about a baby with rosacea and his mom would bathe him and coat his rosacea (while still damp) with a thin coat of vaseline. This is what helps me, but I haven't experimented much (as a lazy person when it comes to "beauty"). I would like to try other things like shea and especially a good waxy tallow. My friend was non-lazy and she would make a balm in her blender. Her balm had everything that would be needed, a fat, water, and melted beeswax. I think those three things are key. 1.Water (to hydrate), 2.a fat or oil (to replace what you aren't making enough of) and 3.something waxy and impervious to protect from the dry air. The word for a super-blended fat/water combo is "an emulsion". (mayonnaise is an example of an emulsion). I try to create an emulsion with water and vaseline in my hands when I use a bit of it to help with cracking lips or heels.
Final update (I've revealed too much on a public forum and regret it).
I've given it up. I peaked at a point, plateaued and realized slowly that there are fates worse than death. Like eating as if I were a POW in Vietnam for the rest of my life. Worse, taking pride in it.
To keep simple, hypervitaminosis a (along with the other fat solubles) is an insidious catastrophe which is systematically ignored. The masses are intentionally poisoned every single day in the West, by their food, water, AIR, injections, "self-care products", "literature", "films", education, etc. The eugenicists who have been pushing for population reduction for over 200 years are not the type of people to make wish lists, pine and then do nothing about the fulfilling. They have been fulfilling.
This diet forcefully reminded me that our food is poisoned, but A only factors into fortification. I was after sweets recently and you would be shocked (maybe not, with the crowd) at the amount of vitamin a palmitate which is stuffed into freshly baked sweets.
There are also emulsifiers like carrageenan, aluminum every which way (especially in coloring) GMO, pesticides like everyone's favorite Roundup, canola oil as a food group and just plain "food" that isn't anything more than chemicals and gmo grain.
God didn't intend that food make anybody sick; man had to step on it repeatedly in the heat of a tantrum.
My gut improved to the best it has been my entire life on beans, beef and rice, but I was also pooping like it was a paid job. The fact is that grains and legumes don't hold a candle to a superfood like beef. Energy, ok, moving old bile, ok alright, but you are not satiating the substance of your being with that gross bulk of plant matter. You can feel that you aren't if you actually pay attention to your body. You will lie down stuffed with grain and in a few short hours be starving.. Your colon will scream at you that it would prefer quality over quantity if its all the same, thanks so very much.
I felt the lack of butter, cream, cheese, eggs, through this brutal winter. I'm a few inches over 6" and yet I can't break 150 lbs. I'm drowning and yes I've thrown this diet down. Beef, beans and rice.. I have to ease back out of this and go slowly unless I want more pain.
To simplify and sum up, I never was overburdened with A, not to my knowledge. I also never ate liver, took accutane, ate supplements or participated in hot sauce eating contests. This isn't a problem a person gets into, in my view, without either liver, accutane, supplements or fortified food being factors. It's a problem created by man because he happens to hate his fellow man and wish him dead. For genetic reasons..
I still have work to do before I have a stocked kitchen again, and choices. I deeply regret throwing out all of my spices and teas and also every time I turned down an offer of food because it didn't meet my criteria. I've ate gallons of pickled figs from my corner cabinet since I threw in the towel and my strongest feeling was regret for not having done so sooner. For the cook, you need sugar/honey, apple cider vinegar, lemon slices, and the pickling spices (cloves, star anise, cinnamon, allspice, etc.) along with cleaned whole fresh figs.
I let all of the figs from my several dozen trees go to the birds this past year due to an IRRATIONAL fear of caratenoids. I will never pass up a good thing like that ever again, God willing. And this is not to throw shade on those who did eat liver, take accutane, supplements, participate in hot sauce eating contests and etc. Grant is right about what he is on about - I believe he is. But when the bone is healed the cast comes off. If you leave it on you doom the new bone.
Man you can write. Thank you.
Hope you are feeling better. Glad if you are.
Reminds of talking with a guy who had it hard a year into low vA. He did have high vA input problems and felt similarly "done." He was unhappy with lack of progress. He was kind of plateaued or just not improving. Suggested to him to blow it off. Splurge or whatever. Watch what changes. Like it or not we all are, have been and always will be experimenting. Try eating this way and see what changes. Switch to that way and see what changes. A bit later he noted that he had not deteriorated for a long time while on his plateau either. He felt a little better about his plateau after he fell off it. Took a bit to climb back up on it but he was glad when he got there.
My Mom was in her 80's when she broke her hip. Previous to that she watched decades of me in various diet regimens. This was the woman who fed me "vegetarian lasagna" that tasted strangely like sausage in my vegan year. Her whole life her gut wracked her with colitis, ulcers, back pain,..... My whole life she criticized, sometimes mocked and pretended to not be curious about my choices.
Sat with her in her weeks of rehab after the hip surgery. I had been eating paleo / keto about 7 years. I long since stopped evangelizing her and kind of welcomed her mockery. Constantly asked me if cavemen ate this or that. Nurse brought her lunch. I sat and watched. Noticed she did not eat her bread nor dessert. They were her favorites. She only at the meat and green beans on her plate. No grains. Chuckled - told her she was paleo now. It hurt to argue but she did. She finally relented with compromise. Said she was not eating paleo but it just hurt too much when she ate any of the grains.
After her hip healed (amazing into her 90's) she went back to eating bread and dessert. No where near as much. And from then on, she watched me every meal and asked questions about various foods.
I never met a Viet POW. Somehow I bet their diet was not so luxurious as our low vA diet. You do sound like you are rightfully out of patience with high bean intake. I can get that way after eating huge portions of rice or oatmeal. Slamming beans was something I only wanted during my lacto/ovo years. A spoon or two is enough for me in a meal now. They seem like a lot of work and planning. Even more so than grains.
Curious for me now in month 39 what balance is coming lately. I eat far less, sleep far better with far less time in bed and gained 5 pounds in last 3 months. Amazing range of motion and overall strength improvements in last month too. Everything is just much easier, hurts less and feels better.
Crazy thing is I feel like I am settled into a kind of adapted Zone diet. I am not eating the exact ratios and quantities. I am not bothering to measure portions or limit this macronutrient or add in that one. I am just eating. Sure it is plain. But I feel no need to pack it in. I am missing desserts, flavor enhancers and treats/snacks not at all.
I grab whatever item from this list as I feel like it and feel fine. Beef, chicken, chicken broth, swiss cheese, lemon, salt, kiwi, apple(sauce), blueberries(frozen), rice, oats, dates and sometimes banana. I am not eating much of any of them anymore. Not counting but I would be surprised if my calorie count reaches 2,000 daily. My supplement intake is negligible. A little calcium/magnesium, charcoal and psyllium husk every week.
My best guess is the latest big change is what is filling in missing gaps for me. I started cheese about a year ago. I hit the chicken broth (bone in) a bit more often too. Hope has done some great stuff outlining all the ways calcium is an issue. I tend to agree more daily with her. Feels like we all have suffered over it. Calcium gets used up hard dealing with toxicities. It also gets used in almost every other vital process.
Whether you do give up on the low vA or not, please do check in here and say hey occasionally. Will be curious to see what you do, where it gets you and how it goes. Thank you again.
And yeh, I am a skinny old 6'2" but coming up on 150# fast. Had to buy bigger pants last month. First time in decades.
I never did do the prison food diet. I was already done with special diets. I just let vitamin A knowledge "inform" my choices but not to the point of being a pain in the ass. I recently went too far with vitamin A and other things that bother me (like amines) and had a food attack! Eeek. Your body will tell you when you've gone too far, IMO. I don't expect to be perfect, but I do work toward a minimum of suffering. A balance.
Like joe2, I hope you come back! If you want to leave this persona behind for privacy reasons, at least come back in some other form! :'). Or maybe a yearly update?