Quote from Kay-toe on May 25, 2019, 11:41 pm

Huge thanks to Grant for coming up with this wacky idea, publishing your experience and making it available at no cost. Also big thanks to everyone who contributes to this forum. I've been following it closely for 6 months and its been quite motivating.

Back in November 2018 I reluctantly mentally committed to trying a low Vitamin A diet for 3 months. It's now 6 months on and I'm still eating this way and seeing improvements. Indeed I'm enjoying my meals and this journey.

A short history: I was a sick child and had a lot of antibiotics. I had asthma, but it wasn't severe and I grew out of it. (Grant's theory is the only explanation I've ever heard of how and why this could happen, but to be fair, I wasn't seeking explanations out.) All my life I thought I ate "healthy". Whereas my mother grew up eating a traditional diet ("meat and 3 veg"), I grew eating a modern multicultural diet. It was all homemade, and all low-salt. I chose to eat pesco-vegetarian from age 16. My first surgery in my mid 20s was to reopen a blocked gland. (Again, Grant's theory explains this.) Occupational stress culminated in a health crisis in my early 30s. It led to about three years of eating an organic vegan low salt diet with lots of vegetable juices. My energy levels slumped but I pinned it on my surgery. The following few years I ate a diet inspired by the Weston A Price Foundation, including occasional liver and a few (maybe 2?) bottles of Fermented Cod Liver Oil. Fibroids, benign growths of the uterus, started to grow. Trying to address a sensitivity to the cold led me to Matt Stone. About a year later (Jan 2018, age 44) trying to avoid surgery on my now large fibroids I started supplementing vitamins and minerals as a client of Garrett Smith.

My initial motivation to start eating low Vitamin A was to avoid surgery. I'm not sure there's been much change on the size of my fibroids, but I have seen many positive changes from starting low Vitamin A:
* Moodlift, coinciding exactly with stopping supplementation of Vitamin A.
* Little aches and pains disappeared in the second month. This change would be reason enough for me to keep with a low A diet. There's a short steep hill near me. Stiffness in my knees used to make me walk  down it quite slowly. Now I can walk down at any speed and even trot if I want to.
* More energy (from a very low base). A very welcome change. Since starting Low VA I've surprised myself with how much more I can work, including consecutive full days on my feet! I've had a few days when I've felt so good I've felt like jumping up and down. Incredible!
* More stable blood sugar, noticed after about a month.
* Weight loss. I went up two dress sizes during 2018 when I was supplementing Vitamin A. It's pretty much all gone now.
* Sleep: vivid dreams and much warmer. Never have pins and needles anymore. Easier to get up in the mornings.
* There's been ongoing improvement to the softness of my skin. Dry patches on my hands have disappeared. More even colour in my face. The natural colour of my lips has naturally reddened.
* Even the plaque build up on my teeth is disappearing without a dental visit. I've just noticed this change.

It's quite a good list, isn't it? What a headspin though, to think that carrots and greens aren't health foods. I would not have believed it, nor tried it except I was desperate to avoid more surgery. And there's not much downside to giving it a go.

Here's an idea of my typical meals:
* Breakfasts - Porridge made of rolled oats, sultanas, sugar, nuts, seasonal low A fruit (currently pear).  I have 1000mg Vit C.
* Lunch - Rice (cooked at breakfast if I work that day), slices of cold roast beef, sunflower seeds, diced peeled cucumber or globe artichoke, salt.
* Dinner - Sourdough bread (sometimes homemade, sometimes bought - not fortified here in Australia) with butter, berry jam and vegemite. I've checked with the artisan baker that the wheat is not dried post harvest with glyphosate.
Snacks are potato chips, shortbread, chocolate or fruit. Every day I eat a piece of chocolate slice (made with 1 egg).  I do go out to a cafe once or twice a week and have a "latte" (milky coffee). Vitamin A is not added to milk in Australia.
Drinks are black tea, water and homemade water kefir. I'm not teetotal, but I rarely drink alcohol.

Thankfully my progress has been quite linear. I've wondered why I haven't suffered detox cycles. Was it timing, starting out in late Spring? I love getting sun and did get some each day until recently. Or was it because I was following Garrett Smith's personalised advice for me (like zinc, boron, molybdenum) for nearly a year before? Or maybe it's something else. I didn't start with so many indications of Vitamin A poisoning. I'm just speculating. I'm not particularly clued into how my body feels.

There's plenty of room to improve still. My current symptoms are:
* Hormone disregulation - large fibroids as discussed above. At least they are not growing. Very heavy periods (menorrhagia).
* Allergic rhinitis in the mornings (except some mornings in high summer)
* Feeling the cold more than other people (daytime)
* A small amount of white hair that came on while supplementing with Vit A.
* Energy still at modest levels.
* A few other minor things.

So I'm sticking enthusiastically with eating Low Vitamin A. The meals are satisfying and eating Low A feels easy. (Eating No A would not feel easy to me). I have hope I'll see more progress over time on the symptoms above. Winters here have unending grey skies. Or at least that's how it feels: I'm looking forward seeing the sun again in a few months. I'll probably get Garrett's program to get a feel for my other options.

Thanks again to Grant and everyone. And thanks for reading.