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New 30 Day (or longer) Experiment
So I decided to give this a try for at least 30 days if not longer. Ideally, I'd like to run my experiment for 90 days, but I make no promises. I want to shoot for 90 days because I get a large set of blood tests twice a year and the July timeframe happens to line up with following this plan for a little over 2 months. The blood tests include testing for things like vitamin D, thyroid (TSH, T3, T4, rT4), liver function, kidney function, ceruloplasmin, zinc, copper, ferritin, vitamin A, bile acids, and more that I will not bother to list in this post. I can put before/after results in a summary post in July if I stick with this experiment for that long.
For those you do not want to read the entire post by @dino, here is a summary of the diet and lifestyle changes he recommends for rapid vitamin A and other toxin depletion.
Diet:
- Alternate beef/rice (brown, white) one day, then rice only the other day, then beef/rice, etc.
- Eat a lot of real sea salt
- Drink 2-3 liters of fresh coconut water every single day
- Drink 2-3 liters of Volvic water daily
- Drink approximately 2 liters of San Pellegrino/mineral water
- EAT/DRINK NOTHING ELSE, i.e. no coffee, no wine, no tea, etc.
Lifestyle:
- Breathing exercises 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the evening every day
- Sun exposure for a FEW HOURS every day when possible to boost the internal vitamin D production
- Slight walking in a near forest every day (for approximately 20-30 minutes)
- Do a "meta-loving" kind of meditation every single night before going to bed
Some notes on my plan:
First off, I plan to be as strict as possible, but will not beat myself up over things outside of my control.
From a dietary perspective, I will not be limiting myself to beef, but will only be eating lean meat from ruminant animals (venison, elk, beef, bison, lamb) raised organically/grass-fed/using regenerative farming/etc. I will be eating predominantly white rice and white rice flour (all organic) and will allow myself one cup (measured dry) of organic wild rice each week. Wild rice has a decent amount of lutein, so I want to keep that intake low. I also want to avoid brown rice due to the oxalates, which I have an issue with in large quantities. I want to see if avoiding essentially all oxalates and almost all lutein will have any benefits. I also currently use psyllium husk, but supposedly (and surprisingly), 2 L of coconut water provides 22 g of fiber. The white rice/white rice flour will provide, at minimum, roughly 4 g of fiber. I will try not to calorie restrict whatsoever, but because protein needs to be somewhat limited on this diet, I will be stuffing myself with additional rice if still hungry. To avoid going too low in fat, I will likely eat at least one fatty piece of red meat weekly, but eat it away from rice and coconut water.
I will not be drinking Pellegrino, but instead will drink reverse osmosis water that I will carbonate myself using a Soda Stream. Going back through Dino's original post, the purpose of the Pellegrino is not for minerals, which I originally thought, but for more additional CO2 aside from whatever increase the breathing exercises provide. I want to save money and potentially avoid undesired metals/toxins in the Pellegrino. I will consume 2 L of each beverage as outlined, but will use Fiji water more often than Volvic since Volvic is hard to find in the US compared to Fiji water. I will give up the coffee and water kefir I have been including in my diet, as well as any vinegars I use. I am currently doing a 24 hour fast once or twice a week and plan to continue this as long as my weight remains stable. As a final note for all things diet-related, I listed the supplements I plan to take below, all of which are based on some form of testing, i.e. hair, blood, stool.
- Custom probiotic from Flore
- 30 mg zinc on meat days, 60 on non-meat days
- 300 ug molybdenum
- 200 mg selenium on meat days, 300 mg on non-meat days
- 200 mg Lactoferrin
- Topical magnesium, especially when tanning
For lifestyle, I plan to add some Wim Hof breathing and/or breath stacking exercises to the one Dino recommends, as I want to increase the length I am able to hold my breath. I have a low EMF IR sauna with near-IR LED chromotherapy that I plan to use 3-4 times per week at home. I will aim to sunbathe for 2-3 hours each weekend and use a Sperti vitamin D sunlamp for 10-15 minutes when I cannot tan. I will also aim to do a 20-30 minute walk every day, but weather will likely affect that. I already exercise every day of the week (mix of powerlifting and kettlebells with a focus on power and strength) and do not plan to change anything there. I wear EMF blocking clothing when possible and sleep in EMF blocking pajamas and sheets/covers at night.
I will try this plan for 30 days. At the end of the 30 day period, I will likely begin eating meat every day rather than alternating meat and rice and rice only depending on how I feel and whether I begin to lose weight. I am currently sitting around 110 lbs (5 ft 2 in female) and do not desire to lose weight, but I have a feeling that lowering protein and keeping fat intake low will make me lose weight regardless of how much rice I shove down my throat to increase energy intake. I will try to post every week to summarize what I did, my experience (if notable), and the plan for the next week. At the end of the experiment, I hope to summarize the good, the bad, and anything I could suggest if someone else would want to try this as well.
Finally, I start on this Sunday, 1 May 2022, with a "rice only" day since I currently eat meat every day. My latest serum vitamin A levels, drawn on 07 April 2022, are 32.7 ug/dL, which is the lowest I have seen so far after more than 3 years on a low vA diet following supplement dosing suggestions from Dr. Smith. My original serum vitamin A levels, drawn on 26 Jan 2019, were 59.4 ug/dL.
I'm very interested in your results, I too have issues with Oxalates that low vitamin a hasn't resolved.
@jiri I will probably drink the minimum of 6L unless thirsty; I agree that forcing a high fluid intake is not good. I think the point of the rice only days is to 1) help lower the burden on the kidneys due to protein consumption and 2) lower the acidity of the diet, i.e. less energy from meat compared to rice overall. I am personally not looking forward to those days, but they might not be that bad; we'll see.
@luisa My diet is currently red meat and white rice with some low vitamin A vegetables such as onion, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and cauliflower. Other foods I eat from time to time include oatmeal, brown rice cakes, macadamia nuts, turkey deli meat, white corn flour, and egg whites. I am also currently taking psyllium husk as a fiber supplement. I do not have joints that crack excessively. I used to have a lot of joint stiffness prior to figuring out that oxalates were an issue. I would also get very tight muscles that would not release and, at my worst, even had my left QL spasm so hard that it would not release for about two months. Once I lowered my oxalate intake, those symptoms subsided immensely. Occasionally, my body will do weird things and I'll get odd sensations in my knees, back, elbows, etc., but I know my body well enough that I do not fear exercising or moving through it. It usually subsides in 2-3 days, especially if I take the time to massage the area.
@luisa Yes; I was experimenting with a more animal-based, high fat/keto diet for roughly 3 months back in October of last year. I ate mostly fatty meat, but did include some butter and eggs. I did not notice any immediate negative effects from the butter or eggs, but my vA intake was still relatively low overall (RAE around 110 ug). Based on reactions I have to certain foods, I think the worst offenders for me are high oxalate foods and foods high in lutein. I usually don't get symptoms if I eat a large amount of either of these once or twice in a single week, but if I go beyond that, some of the muscle tightness and/or joint stiffness starts showing up.
Week 1 Update, here we go...
Some notes on the first week of this 30 day experiment. Overall, the week was a bit interesting, mainly due to some unexpected diarrhea earlier in the week and a detox retracing/flare-up that happened. More details on this are below the short daily notes:
Sunday – all rice day, had 1 hour of walking outside, 2.5 hours of tanning, and did 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing plus 5 minutes of additional breathing exercises
Monday – meat (venison, lamb) and rice day, did 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing, and used the sauna for 30 minutes
Tuesday – all rice day, did 2 rounds of Wim Hof breathing and 6 minutes of additional breathing exercises, had 15 minutes on the vD lamp; got diarrhea at night after dinner
Wednesday – meat (venison, beef) and rice day, did 12 minutes of breathing exercises, had 15 minutes of vD lamp use, and used the sauna for 30 minutes; also had diarrhea in morning after my lunch
Thursday – all rice day, did 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing plus 4 minutes of additional breathing exercises, used the vD lamp for 15 minutes, and used the sauna for 30 minutes; no bowel movement after having diarrhea the two days before
Friday – beef and rice day, did 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing plus 3 minutes of additional breathing exercises, had 15 minutes of vD lamp use, and used the sauna for 30 minutes; had a lower left back spasm during deadlifting, which has happened before ~7 months ago
Saturday – Did salt flush in the morning with a 26 hour fast for the day, ate a small amount (4 oz) of venison and then had three smaller “meals” of rice for dinner, had a 30 minute walk outside, 30 minutes of sauna use, did 10 minutes of breathing exercises, and had 10 minutes of the vD lamp
Summary: A lot of weird stuff going on…I had diarrhea and stomach pain early last week (Sunday to Wednesday, 24 April to 27 April), but attributed it to my period, which came on Wednesday (27 April). Everything regarding my stomach and digestion felt fine and remained fine until Tuesday of this week. The bouts of diarrhea and back spasm might be indicative that I am pushing things too hard in terms of “detox”. I did want to take advantage of the weekend and do a salt flush to clear out my stomach and colon in case I did eat something that was causing the seemingly random bouts of diarrhea I have been having. On Saturday, I was able to release some of the tension in my back, but it will likely continue to be inflamed for the next few days. I can still perform kettlebell exercises, bench press, and some other movements that do not aggravate my back, so I will likely restructure my exercise to work around the back pain for 1-2 weeks, depending on how long it persists.
One thing for next week and onward: I will be lowering coconut water intake to a max of 1L per day to save money, reduce sugar intake, and lower potential oxalate load. I have no issue drinking the 6L of fluids listed/outlined per day, but the coconut water is (honestly) not very enjoyable to drink and happens to be the most expensive of the beverages.
Onto week 2! I will be starting this week with a higher fat protein meal because I do not want to potentially lose weight by keeping both fat and protein fairly low. The all rice days are kind of boring, especially by dinner. For lunches, I am making bread baked daily using white rice flour to switch up texture and flavor as opposed to eating purely cooked white rice. On the all rice days, I eat the rice at dinner with warm coconut water (kind of like mushy cereal?) to give it some flavor instead of eating it plain. The meat and rice days are definitely more enjoyable!
One minor edit: I did want to add that the diarrhea this week was the most vibrant yellow color I have ever seen come out of my body...it was along the lines of what urine looks like when you have taken too many B vitamins (mainly B2). It was a bit disturbing, to be honest. The rest of my bowel movements this week were normal in color.