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Progress Report - Viktor
Hey y'all, I might be a bit unusual here, as I didn't come here because of bad health (but see below), but I stumbled across a VA toxicity thread by GS on fitness twitter. At one point he also mentioned the work done by Grant, so I checked out all three ebooks (I'm quite a health nerd, so I couldn't put them down, lol). Turns out, quite a few points matched my life so far, so I gotta try this out. Sorry, wall of text incoming!
I was born and live in Germany, where food (except some Margarine) is not VA-fortified (but AFAIK animal feed is). I was born yellow, so there may have been some initial liver problems. My parents also decided it was a good idea to feed me cod liver oil in I think toddler age (which wasn't very common, more of an alternative health thing). I was one of a few kids in my school who developed pollen allergies as a child. Interestingly the mainstream theory I've always heard was that this happens to city kids because they don't play outside much. Well, I usually slept with the windows open, and did quite a bit of playing in the dirt. I developed an allergy to the tree right in front of our house - ouch! So obviously, I buy the VA theory much more than the mainstream one.
When I was 19, I started developing some mild hyperhidrosis (which has become a bit better, but overall I still sweat quite heavily). Not sure if this is VA-related, but it matches a common age of some VA-related problems. The last 10 years or so (I'm now over 40) I've suffered from more and more fatigue (in between also quite a bit of job-related burnout), and brain fog that has become worse. I've also noticed my one finger joint (which I had hurt at some point) getting quite huge / inflamed after having soup for a few days (carrot or pumpkin soup). I suspected the potatoes, but generally I do very well on them, so now I know it was the carrot / pumpkin. After a week or two, the inflammation mostly receded each time. I've always been very prone to catching colds, and sometimes I have a cold for three weeks, until it finally gets better slowly.
Nutrition-wise I started eating mostly vegetarian when I was 12 or so, with a short attempt at veganism at ~25. In my 30s I have started eating more and more dairy and also meat, because I feel better on it. In the last few years, I've eaten much more fatty (butter, heavy cream, 10% Greek yoghurt, cheese). Also I like fatty fish (pickled herrings, mackerel, salmon).
So all of this is pre-detox. I started detoxing in December 22, right after reading Grant's books. My wife isn't quite on board, and I haven't done much explaning yet, but I told her I'm not eating orange veggies anymore (nor peppers), and trying to reduce my tomato intake. Her and the kids could also probably profit from a detox (that's another story), but I'm trying it first, so I have a bit more "evidence" that it's legit. Right now this isn't really a low-VA diet, but I try to reduce in all areas (not to zero, also to keep getting nutrients from different foods). So I still have some milk in my large morning oatmeal (but mostly water), I still eat some cheese (but much less than before), I try to eat lean beef (like corned beef, which over here seems to be mostly lean meat, gelatin and a few spices), but also eat some pork salami or other meat. My wife tries to eat very little meat, so we are a bit at odds there. Most common meals are vegetarian, and most of my meat is processed meat on bread (I eat a lot of different breads, some full-grain, some with rye - I like the taste). I also have two eggs a day (pre-boiled) and 1-2 apples or bananas (after hearing GS say that they supposedly help). Sometimes when I know I'm eating something bad (like kale or tomato sauce) I'm adding some activated charcoal. Generally I'm also eating lots of rice (whice rice, 3-4x washed, mostly Basmati) and potatoes now (yellow, never really seen white ones).
So what did I reduce? Lots of red, orange and yellow peppers, carrots, pumpkin. Trying to have spinach not too often. No mango or khaki/sharon fruit. No heavy cream or Greek 10% yoghurt anymore. Reduced butter. Initially I left out the eggs (quite a sacrifice), but re-added them after reading here about Choline. Also, fatty fish not quite as often.
Supplement-wise I get 25mg of Zinc, about 100mg Mg (bound as Mg-glycinate) each 5x/week, and I've lately added some Vit-B complex (300% RDA of each; most complex pills have B12 at like 100000% RDA, which I wanted to avoid), about 3x/week, which sums up to 9x RDA per week, some Taurine, some Selenium.
Especially now with reduced dairy intake, I think I might have some Vit-B deficiencies, and I seem to feel a bit better on days where I take them, not sure yet. I'm also taking the Zinc because I probably do not get much, and because it supposedly helps detoxing.
Detox symptoms: joint pains in fingers and feet, but usually the other hand (not the joint where I previously had VA symptoms), kidney pain, brain fog (this one probably not worse than pre-detox). All not fun at all. I'm also just recovering from a cold that took about 4 weeks, with some throat and tonsil inflammation in between (a heat lamp / IR works wonders!), so I guess my immune system also took a hit.
Improvements: after two months I already feel like my brain fog is improving quite a bit (although still there most days). I also lost 3kg of weight (I think mostly fat, but the last few weeks I also cut back on exercise since I was sick). My belly fat has shrunken noticeably (I used to be skinny fat, but in the last few years built a tiny bit of muscle as well), and now I'm officially normal-weight BMI again.
By the way, what's the best way to "pause" a detox for a bit? I'd like to give my fingers and feet a bit of time to recover. I've read that Zinc increases detox, but I also feel that as someone who doesn't eat a lot of meat, I should supplement it. I also really crave the eggs, and they give my Choline and protein in general. Cutting something like butter completely also probably wouldn't help I guess.
Does anyone here also eat a lot of bread? Did you replace butter with something else (I'm scraping it very thin now)? I'm thinking Margarine (there are probably one or two without added VA) wouldn't really be better because of all the PUFAs. For cooking I mostly use Olive oil these days, although I guess it also has some carotenoids (it's quite green).
I've also had a toenail that was quite crumbly on the inside the recent few years, i thought it was nail fungus, but a test came back negative. It also never responded to anti-fungal lacquer.
After two months of detox it's now almost back to normal. There just a slight yellow discoloration left underneath (more to the front).
@viktor2 Well done ! You're making sensible changes and keeping it varied which I think helps a lot. I would reduce butter (fat) and the zinc capsules to slow things a bit say for week or two. Not much harm in that. Sunflower seed butter or cashew nut butter might be something to try for more nutrients and more choline than the butter but the fat content would still be high in terms of slowing things down. I ate plenty of mushrooms for B vitamins. Plenty of cruciferous vegetables and onions help the gut.
Thanks Andrew, i appreciate the advice! I will leave out the zinc for a while and see how it goes. Nut butter is a good idea, not sure if the stores here have sunflower, but cashew might be there.
Onions are nice, I always include one when frying something. Broccoli is interesting, as it seems to upset my digestion for some reason. Cauliflower seems better in that regard.
Update, it's been more than 5 months now! I guess I don't feel very different overall.
In detox, much of the time my right foot still hurts, but it's not that bad overall. When I take zinc, like when I catch a cold, it gets worse, but then improves over time. My brain is a bit clearer overall, although in the morning i still have some fog after breakfast. I thought it was the coffee, but I have it regardless, so maybe it's the carb input or VA moving around my bowels.
Nutrition is rather normal, but much less cheese than usual, only a bit of milk, tomato sauce only on pizza sometimes.
I eat far too much chocolate (i.e. sugar), maybe 50-100g per day, plus fruit, but the low fat just makes me hungry... Not sure what to do about it. I tried coconut butter on bread, but it's too solid and crumbly. Maybe more olive oil? I eat almonds, cashew or peanuts sometimes, but it's nothing I like all the time.
Protein shakes also help keep me full, but overall I really need to make sure I don't overdo there sugar.
What's better most of the time is my reflux, which became rather bad when I did the high fat diet (but low fat nights were not better). I have a hernia, so my stomach doesn't close very well, but this year it's much better most of the time and I can go without neutralizers or omeprazol.
I also noticed my allergies are a bit better overall, I only took the loratadin when season started very hard after the cold spring, but now with grasses I only sneeze sometimes, I'm fine without medication. Maybe it's the B vitamins? I still take those a bit, plus Magnesium and now a bit vitamin C because i feel my diet is a bit low, and pretty much all plants that have it are highish in VA.
Overall I'm thinking about eating more veggies, though, to get more fiber and other vitamins. Sometimes I get mushrooms, but I really need to eat more fresh food overall.
Egg-wise I'm on 2-3 per day now, GS is right that they are addictive, lol.
@viktor2 Sounds like some progress. Perhaps if the chocolate is high sugar content then it's keeping things a bit slower. Darker chocolate might be more filling and less craving for more. A bit more fat from sunflower seeds, brazil nuts, cashews and/or peanuts. Fibre from cruciferous veg like broccoli, cauliflower, white & red cabbage, brussels sprouts, onions, swedes and fennel root.
Yes, I like sunflower seeds in my oatmeal, or bread with some seeds on it. Dark chocolate is great, but kind of constipates me, so I try not to eat too much of it.
Fresh foods that I turn to are home-made lacto-fermented kraut, peeled cucumbers, fridge pickles, and the occasional iceberg salad.
Yeah, cucumbers and pickles are staples here, them kids also like them. I've never made sour kraut myself (even though I'm German, lol), but the occasional Kim Chi. Now I'm a bit more careful, since it has a lot of Asian paprika in it, so we only have it sometimes.