I was collecting some papers from a student yesterday and she noted that my palms were orange. Upon further examination, and consultation from several other students, indeed my palms were orange. I never even noticed. I drink a glass (about two cups) of carrot juice every morning, and without even realizing it, my body was slowly building up toxic levels of Vitamin A (beta-carotene). Vitamin A, along with D, E, and K, is fat soluble, thus too much of it can be toxic to the body. I learned this during a nutrition class while in college, but I never even thought to think how much is too much. According to the Mayo Clinic, adults and teenagers should limit beta-carotene to 6-15 mg per day. One cup of carrot juice has about 22 mg of beta-carotene, thus, I was taking about 44 mg of beta-carotene every day for some time. Hmmm...I guess that's pretty good cause for my orange palms.
This incident, along with some recent news I learned about vitamin E, led me to think about vitamins and supplementation in general. I've long stopped supplementing with vitamin E, but for awhile, I was taking vitamin E supplements during its hey-day when it was touted as being a powerful antioxidant. At some point, maybe during the nutrition class, I learned that vitamin E wasn't all that and could actually be dangerous, thus I stopped. Well, the Mayo Clinic just uploaded a video about some current findings with vitamin E, which I've shared on here. This brings me to vitamin D. I've been taking vitamin D supplements per the advice from a friend who is a physician, based on my low vitamin D levels which I had tested. I also blogged about vitamin D, and I find it (scary) ironic that I wrote "Vitamin D is the new vitamin E". I hope not! I am now going to take a conservative approach toward supplementation and cut back my dosage of vitamin D, and most likely cut it out altogether, and get all of my vitamins through a well-balanced diet.
It woudl be SO great to be THAT intune with what you need on a dail basis. Better yet if you could put your finger on a reader and it said you need _____ today so make sure you are eating lots of ____ this! I agree with Beth though - the more you can get naturally the better! Let's see pics of the orange palms!
I'm basically interested in all things funny, health and triathlon related, and sustainable living. This blog used to accompany a website I built to raise awareness about cancer as well as raise money for different causes.
2 comments:
Good thinking Kiet! Diet is always the way to go. Our bodies like real food and not pills! :)
It woudl be SO great to be THAT intune with what you need on a dail basis. Better yet if you could put your finger on a reader and it said you need _____ today so make sure you are eating lots of ____ this! I agree with Beth though - the more you can get naturally the better! Let's see pics of the orange palms!
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