I am becoming more and more certain that the hand weirdness is more likely due to my high intake of veggies loaded with beta-carotene over the past 10 months than to a precursor of my imminent demise. I'll be seeing the doctor again tomorrow to get full blood checks to put my mind at rest (and also to work out how to get rid of this!), but today P was sick with an ear infection and wanted to go to a walk-in NHS centre for antibiotics; while he was there, I decided to take the opportunity to panic a little at a nurse, and she agreed with me that while the colour is really quite startling, I'd be a lot sicker than I am if it was anything Really Nasty. So I hope so.
Mara's comment about the same happening to her with pumpkin while her fat intake was quite low is very interesting. I've been lazy about fat recently; I eat my almonds daily, but I've been neglecting my olive oil and my flax. Most of my dairy is fat free. So maybe that's a reason why the tint has appeared over the last few weeks, or become more noticeable at any rate. I also realised today that my lack of appetite for Big Salads might also be connected - my body has just had enough leafy greens for the time being! :-)
Out of interest I just did a report out of CoM for the last year's average on Vitamin A (I don't eat meat therefore I am assuming most Vit A recorded in CoM has to be beta-carotene). I'm averaging over 1000%, and I don't have a CoM report for each day of the year, so the average is likely to be higher.
P has said that if I have made myself yellow by eating broccoli, he will never let me live it down. But then if one is going to become yellow through excess, I suppose leafy greens are the best thing to have as the culprit.
This week will tell, I hope.
And then, it's back to reassessing my diet. It's not a failed experiment yet.
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5 comments:
Sara-
I had yellow hands and feet (and my face was quite yellow too)- when I first started CRON 3 years ago- It was at its worst when I was at my lowest weight and on a cleanse... I still tend to turn yellow a bit when I eat a large proportion of veggies high in Vit A.
I'm sure it's the beta-carotene... I saw a couple of doctors about it- Western, naturopath and Chinese doctor- none of them thought it was anything other than the beta carotene..
It is a bit ugly- which is why I try and avoid eating in a way that makes me yellow anymore..
I find if I turn yellow- its in conjunction with my appetite going down too...
Hope some of this helps... :-)
It helps a lot, as has everyone's comments. Thank you! It is indeed a bit ugly - well, that is in fact an understatement. It's a shame that lacy, 80's style, Goth gloves aren't in style this winter... yet. :-)
Hi Sara
What about the female intuition part playing a role here? As a female, you may be looking at things such as that your hands are turning red or yellow from beta carotene intake. As a male, I probably don't pay attention to that. Now that you made me look, my hands and feet (on the feet, the ball of the feet, on the hands, the palms) are yellow orange. And yes, I consume daily pates made with carrots and sweet potatoes at lunch; for snack - megaleather, which has spinach and kale, and in the evening pumkin or sweet potato soup. I was reflecting recently on how all of my lunches and dinners look orange. And now you've made me think what it's doing to the color of my body. Did P start asking you about a change in color? MR has April to observe him. I don't have anyone at home remarking on a change, so I haven't paid attention to it.
Cheers,
Arturo
Ahhm, Sara, sorry to take up more bandwidth space, but a thought occurred to me also, and I have no scientific data to back this up, that my diet, according to COM is very high in copper (475% of the daily RDA.) So if it's not just the beta carotene that makes us yellow, could it be that the high copper content in our diet contributes to the color? I think my high copper content is from spinach. After all copper is golden colored. I have not idea. Someone more knowledgeable than I, like Tony, could clarify with a statement like, "but the copper content in food is not the same as the metal alloy mined for use in industry because it's of a different chemical chain." Until such a clarification, my thought might not be so stupid.
Cheers,
Arturo
Hi Arturo. :-) Feel free to comment all you want!
No, P didn't notice until I pointed it out; he doesn't pay much attention to things like that, neither in me nor himself. I, however, am very much aware of my body (possibly hyper-aware) and rather paranoid about illness going undiagnosed by ignoring symptoms. I'm sure this is beta-carotene, but will have the doctors check today and will endure the mocking if so! :-)
The yellow really is quite pronounced, especially if I hold my hands up to my face. Or if my hands are cold, or bloodless from holding heavy bags. Or if I put them next to a "normal person's" hands - that was the test that got me completely freaked out, when I compared them to my mother's!
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