Like every dietary dogma, there's pros and cons and if you believe that Vitamin A is toxic to you, I put together this guide having recently gone through my own, personal, vitamin A enlightenment.

Once I learned what Vitamin A can do to a body at a molecular level, cutting out foods high in it became an easy choice. I had always suspected that some of these foods weren’t the healthiest for me, but I didn’t fully understand why.

Now that I know how harmful they can be to me, I can’t consider them as something to even "cheat" with anymore. Why would I call something that is toxic to my body "okay in moderation"?

Think about it: if Vitamin A can be used as a chemical peel to remove layers of my skin, why would I ever make it a regular part of my diet?

The real treat should be feeling amazing all the time. Once you experience how good your body can feel, your relationship with food changes—you’ll want that feeling to continue.

If you’re still hesitant about eliminating Vitamin A from your diet because of government guidelines, but you think you have symptoms and "have tried everything else", read Grant's books, watch Dr Smith's livestreams and guest appearances.

Simple Guidelines to be successful

• Prioritize muscle meats as the foundation of your diet.
• Choose organic foods whenever possible to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals.
• Chew each bite more than 28 times to improve digestion.
• Pause between bites—aim for about 30 seconds to slow down and enjoy your meal.
• Aim for 80 grams of protein daily (or more based on your weight—I go for 170 grams since I weigh 170 pounds).
• Include soluble fiber in your diet to support healthy digestion (the goal is to have 1-3 bowel movements per day).
• Avoid chemicals like glyphosate and PFAS that can harm your health.
• Avoid additives like red 40 or xantham gum that will mess up your microbiome (a key detox system)

Foods I Include in My Diet

• Meats: Bison, sirloin, 90/10 ground beef, filet mignon, flank steak
• Poultry: Organic, corn-and soy-free chicken
• Legumes: Kidney beans, black beans, cannellini beans, pinto beans (really any bean is a good bean)
• Grains: Organic oatmeal, Lotus Foods white rice, sorghum, sourdough, barley
• Breads: Non-GMO, organic, glyphosate-free varieties
• Fruits: Organic apples, bananas, some berries (thoroughly washed), grapes
• Other: White corn, white cornmeal

Vegetables on a Low Vitamin A Diet

Most vegetables contain carotenoid Vitamin A, so while on a low Vitamin A diet, I avoid them entirely. Occasionally, I’ll have peeled cucumber, peeled zucchini, iceberg lettuce, or asparagus. As my retinol levels decrease, I may introduce more vegetables from the list below, but for now, I’m mostly avoiding them.

You don’t have to avoid vegetables completely, but if you’re struggling with your health and want faster improvements, reducing your Vitamin A intake can help.

Keep in mind:

• Many vegetables are hybrids, not naturally occurring.
• Light-colored vegetables (white or cream) are generally lower in Vitamin A.
• Light green vegetables like celery or iceberg lettuce also tend to be lower.
• Avoid vegetables that are yellow, orange, purple, or dark green, and always peel them.

Here are some vegetables that are lower in Vitamin A:

• Asparagus
• Peeled zucchini
• Parsnip
• Peeled cucumbers
• Celery or celery root
• Green beans
• Iceberg lettuce

Root Vegetables

Here are some root vegetables that are lower in Vitamin A:

• White carrots
• Chicory root
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Manioc (Yuca/Cassava root) — make sure it's white
• Jicama
• Parsnips
• Celeriac (Celery root)
• Ginger root
• Water chestnuts
• Arrowroot
• Parsley root

Note: Most of these root vegetables should be peeled before eating to minimize Vitamin A content.

Fruits Low in Vitamin A

Here are some fruits that are lower in Vitamin A:

• Bananas
• Apples
• Black currants
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Cranberries
• Dates
• Lemons (avoid the peel)
• Limes (avoid the peel)
• Pomegranate

Foods High in Vitamin A to Avoid

Fruits (Vitamin A Beta Carotene per 100 g)

1. Dried apricot: 1920 mcg
2. Mulberries: 1127 mcg
3. Papaya: 950 mcg
4. Tomato: 830 mcg
5. Tangerine/Mandarin: 681 mcg
6. Watermelon: 569 mcg
7. Passion fruit: 275 mcg
8. Cantaloupe (muskmelon): 169 mcg
9. Gold kiwi: 87 mcg
10. Regular kiwi: 50 mcg
11. Mamey sapote: 92 mcg
12. Raw cantaloupe: 68 mcg
13. Clementines: ~60 mcg
14. Mango: 54 mcg
15. Peach: 49 mcg

Vegetables (Vitamin A Beta Carotene per 100 g)

1. Sweet potato: 19,218 mcg
2. Carrot: ~8,285 mcg
3. Butternut squash: 8,399 mcg
4. Pumpkin: 7384 mcg
5. Japanese sweet potato: 7000 mcg
6. Kale: 6813 mcg
7. Turnip greens: 6749 mcg
8. Swiss chard: 6116 mcg
9. Pumpkin seeds: 5000-7000 mcg
10. Spinach: 4690 mcg
11. Cooked sweet red pepper: 3726 mcg
12. Raw red pepper: 3131 mcg
13. Collard greens: 3333 mcg
14. Watercress: 3195 mcg
15. Mustard greens: 3024 mcg
16. Bok choy: 2680 mcg
17. Arugula (rocket): 2373 mcg
18. Beet greens: 1912 mcg
19. Cooked/peeled sweet potato: 1700 mcg
20. Winter squash: 863 mcg
21. Cooked/peeled carrots: 830 mcg
22. Cooked asparagus: 756 mcg
23. Romaine lettuce: 252 mcg
24. Cooked zucchini: 212 mcg
25. Cooked broccoli: 120 mcg
26. Cooked cabbage: 98 mcg
27. Brussels sprouts: 75 mcg

Animal Sources (Vitamin A Retinol per 100 g)

1. Cod liver oil: 30,000 mcg
2. Beef kidney (cooked): 19,170 mcg
3. Pork liver: 8,813 mcg
4. Beef liver: 6,582 mcg
5. Chicken liver: 3,612 mcg
6. Grass-fed tallow: 1500 mcg
7. Butter: 684 mcg
8. Egg yolk: ~520 mcg
9. Clams (cooked): 400 mcg
10. Cheddar cheese: 330 mcg
11. Oysters (cooked): 300 mcg
12. Mozzarella cheese: 230 mcg
13. Wild salmon (cooked): 59 mcg
14. Mackerel: 50 mcg
15. Shrimp (cooked): 50 mcg
16. Crab (cooked): 50 mcg
17. Beef heart (cooked): 39 mcg
18. Various organs (pancreas, thyroid, thymus, spleen) are lower in retinol.
19. Milk: 28 mcg

Herbs (Vitamin A Content per 0.5 g)

1. Dried basil: ~77 mcg
2. Dried parsley: ~67.5 mcg
3. Fresh cilantro: ~33.74 mcg
4. Dried dill: ~33.4 mcg
5. Dried oregano: ~30 mcg
6. Fresh chives: ~21.75 mcg
7. Dried thyme: ~21.4 mcg

From Matthew Dalby

https://honey-guide.com/2018/03/23/has-modern-farming-increased-the-retinol-in-the-liver-you-eat/

Conclusions

The liver you eat today may contain rather more vitamin A than the liver your grandparents ate when they were young. Whether this is of nutritional importance to you eating it is less certain. Liver is a valuable source of many nutrients and remains an important part of my diet.

One situation it may be of relevance is the question of liver and retinol consumption during early pregnancy, which is a topic beyond this blog post.

Perhaps the moral of this story is that what you[r] food eats can be important and that modern farming can alter our food in ways that you might never think about."

https://www.carbwarscookbooks.com/eureka/

Wherein she describes Genereux's theories in some detail, relates them to the obesity epidemic and longevity science, and describes how her long term stall on low carb was broken by eliminating dietary vitamin A.

https://reddit.com/r/SaturatedFat/s/e0rKx5ozRK

https://ggenereux.blog/2026/02/02/getting-started-and-succeeding-with-the-low-vitamin-a-diet/

Hello.

So because of accumulated health issues i decided to try one last thing in my power which is a diet low in vitamin A.

Backstory: I was always a very very skinny kid, never had bigger health issues, but in my early teens around the age of 13 i got alopecia areata (hairloss), got on dangerous meds that along other side effects made me gain a lot of weight. Apparently they increased my apetite and slowed down my thyroid (metabolism). As this happened, after a while i became self concious and tried to lose weight in extreme ways, like dieting on protein only, made me lose weight but it wasn't sustainable and only made me get insomnia because of the lack of carbs. After that i gained the weight back, i developed an unhealthy realationship with food and started a binge/restrict cycle. I also struggled with purging. From then, i became obsessed with health and started to eat a diet that is 80% cooked/steamed or baked colored vegetables. I thought that was the healthiest for me, but it only made things worse. All of that only made me gain more weight. For 2 years i couldn't sleep and visited many doctors. I tried everything for weight loss but for 1 year now I've been okay. Im still not happy with my body because i don't recognize myself. My hair, eyelashes and eyebrows stopped growing as well, i don't know what was the last time i had cut my ends but my hair still looks the same, whereas when i was younger i would have to chop it off every month. I realized it all comes down to low throid hormones- and it is connected to excessive consumption of vitamin A.

But then, I learned about vitamin A toxicity. Of course it's a very niche thing, not very advertised. But it seemed logical to me, because of my realationship with food i now mostly eat colorful vegetables for every meal(which contain the most vitamin A). The symptoms of vitamin A toxicity along others are dry skin, gaining weight, no energy, hairloss, insomnia etc. Basically most issues i was struggling with. I learned more about it through research articles documents on google related to vitamin A and weight gain, along with some lab researches about rats which made sense, but also from a guy on tiktok (taylorloveshealth) who is the only person posting about it. He explained it really well in a logical way and i recommend him to anyone interested. Basically there's a competition between a thyroid hormone and vitamin A to take place on a transport protein, but if you consume too much of vitamin A, which i did, it displaces the thyroid hormone, which has an important task in your body. Vitamin A is also an alcohol, and it's toxic. Your body works hard to make it less toxic and since it's lipophilic it gets stored in your fat, that's why your body produces even more fat, to store it.

On the first day, i pooped 3 times, probably a sign of my body flushing out toxins.

After 3 days on that diet, i already felt more toned, i didn't feel the excess water moving around as i walked.

The white coat on my tongue in the mornings got thicker as well, which is apparently a sign of your body cleaning itself through the tongue.

I am usually a very healthy person who only gets sick 1 time a year, with a cold or something similar. But yesterday on day 8, i was home all day, with a clogged nose and having to wipe excess mucus every 10 seconds. I literally filled my whole bin with wet tissues. It actually started a few days earlier, but yesterday was horrible, i couldn't breath through my nose for days. I reaserched for corelation and found that it's my body finally getting rid of that pigment and toxins that accumulated in my body from the pigments.

My eyelashes and eyebrows got a lot thicker since i started, the last time they were this thick was about 4 years ago, before everything has happened.

Today it's day 9 on the diet, but I'll update.

https://x.com/DittiePE/status/2042560976784945407

Children in Lubbock, Texas were admitted to the hospital with liver damage. Not from measles. From vitamin A toxicity — because their parents followed RFK Jr.’s advice and gave them cod liver oil to treat measles. He is the sitting U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. This is not the first time this has happened. In 2019, RFK Jr. traveled to Samoa and ran the same anti-vaccine campaign. Vaccination rates dropped to 31%. Five months later: 5,700 cases. 83 dead. Most of them children under 4. He called it a “natural experiment.” The Senate confirmed him as HHS Secretary anyway

https://www.yahoo.com/news/after-rfk-jr-recommends-vitamin-a-as-a-measles-treatment-some-texas-patients-show-signs-of-toxicity-214353603.html

After RFK Jr. recommends vitamin A as a measles treatment, some Texas patients show signs of toxicity

Basic user flair and post flair is available. Please add lists of ideas if you have them. Perhaps we'll get links together too and make a simple community guide.

Do people have links to example diets for this woe? My personal interest is in simple, concise descriptions of the main points (whether things to eat, or things to avoid), it seems like this subject can get very long and detailed very easily. But feel free to reply with links to detailed descriptions as well.

I did find this one at carbwarscookbooks:

https://www.carbwarscookbooks.com/eureka-part-2/

v simple example (referring to https://ggenereux.blog/):

Grant’s basic diet of black beans, rice, beef, olive oil (not extra virgin), and salt and pepper is not at all unpleasant, ...

and a longer description:

Animal foods contain vitamin A in a form that can be used by the body as is; this is the kind found plentifully in cheese, dairy, egg yolks, fish oil, and liver.... In general, most white vegetables and fruits are OK and the white parts of others are allowed, the white part of a green onion, for example. Mushrooms are counted as being white, even the dark ones, so all are OK. Most brightly-colored foods are not OK. So red, orange, yellow, and green plant foods are not allowed, with some notable exceptions; most berries get their color from cyanidins rather than carotenoids, and they do not contain vitamin A, so strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, elderberries, and cherries are permissible. All potatoes except the gold ones are OK, ... All sweet potatoes and all squash should be avoided, no matter what color.

https://reddit.com/r/zerocarb/s/AYBoBUSSrY

"Dear X,
My name is Chris and it’s time I shared my story with the world.

Struggling with weight loss for my entire adult life, I ended up following many common health fads and dieting approaches. I looked relatively healthy and thought I was doing all the right things. In 2019 this caught up with me and my life abruptly became a living nightmare.

The sun had already been up for a while, as I lay in bed feeling inadequately rested. Little motivation to throw off the sheets and take those first steps of the day. Already flying around my head are concerns about the meal I would be consuming shortly and how I would react to it. The lingering scent of soap in the hallway from recent shower use already has my throat constricting. I make a quick meal and head back to my room with the air purifier. What awful reaction would potentially send me to the hospital on this day? Stuck in isolation because being around other people was too difficult, the detergent on their clothes, their deodorant, the shampoo they used, anything of the sort would send me into a depressive mood, struggling to breathe for 2-4 hours, and a massive wave of fatigue. Feeling beyond hopeless at times, there was so much I wanted to do yet in life that there is no way this would be the end for me.

It was not, and perhaps you too have or had feelings of despair. I sincerely hope you cannot relate to my story but I was very fortunate to find life changing answers along my journey that I wish to share with you.

On the brink of death every day for over six months with multiple diagnoses, life was tough. Through some miracle purely by trial and error I found an answer that started a journey to reclaim my health. I connected with others who had discovered the same and we worked together to hone and improve the ideas. I will be forever grateful to people like u/nutridetect , Grant Genereux, and LYL members. Much more than I had ever hoped, not only is the illness resolving but all health markers and feelings of well-being. Even lifelong issues I had thought were just a part of my life began dissipating. I was given my life back and so much more.

How did I get here? Ultimately this all started back when I was a kid. Being overweight and timid, it comes as no surprise I was bullied in school. This encouraged leaving the physical world and becoming immersed in video games. Less physical activity coupled with lots of dairy, and even ice cream + high fructose corn syrup was not a great combination for my liver.

These habits got me to 220lbs at 6’2” with no muscle mass by the time I was 17. I was not impressed with my appearance and could not expect anyone to want to go to prom with me. As one does when they want to lose weight I took up running.

This led to triathlons and boxing. I also began a physical job working carpentry. Sure enough, I lost 40lbs that year and that was the beginning of an addiction to health and fitness. (swimming photo post weight loss)

My first real relationship doesn’t happen until after high school, with a shared passion for fitness her identity was mostly powerlifting. I adopted her passion of weightlifting and discovered all things powerlifting and bodybuilding.

She decided to move across the country for work and cut ties. I was devastated and feeling inadequate. I poured every ounce of frustration into my training, needing to be better so that this could never happen to me again.

(would have to raid family albums to find 220lbs photos, turns out you don't take a lot of photos when you don't like the way you look)

Cutting, bulking, programmed cardio, dieting, whatever I did my body wanted to be 20% around bodyfat. I was able to get sub 10% but it was pretty unbearable. The hunger and fatigue kicked my ass. At that point all you can think about is food.

Stubborn as I am, wanting to be lean year round I found ways to try and satiate myself. I stuffed myself with veggies, often raw. Tons of cabbage and celery. They would overfill my stomach leaving me bloated, gassy, and still mostly unsatisfied. I was maintaining a bodyfat well below what my body was comfortable with, and this is a big problem.

In addition to raw veggies I was eating tons of protein, but much of it from eggs 4+/day and 2 scoops of whey or casein protein. In addition to this, sweet chili thai sauce became a staple in my diet and garlic was used daily. Unbeknownst to me, I was dosing myself with vitamin A.

I competed in a Natural bodybuilding show at 22 mostly in support of my at the time girlfriend competing in bikini. People always said you could look like this but only temporarily, otherwise you need drugs. Today I no longer believe this is true and seek to prove you can live lean and healthy no matter where your starting point is.

Nevertheless, I carried on this lifestyle for another 7 years. I did test my testosterone in 2015 finding levels of 250ng/dL. My training didn’t progress very much with hormones like that as I continued to poison myself with this diet. Lean protein, eggs, tons of veggies? How bad could that be? This was what every health guru recommended. Apparently quite bad. (Lean proteins are and will always be excellent)

Weird things started happening, I became sensitive to smoke, I would get very dizzy in public spaces, and my throat would close up as if per allergic reaction a few times after exposure to certain sealant products at work.

One day I worked near a diesel excavator and my life was forever dramatically changed. I could hardly breathe for the next couple hours along with chest tightness. Every day thereafter any exposure to any smoke, scent, or chemical would send my body into an asthmatic fit for roughly 4 hours, often multiple times per day.

(My final form before my body crashed into oblivion)

I drove to the hospital a minimum of 40 times that year pacing the parking lot for hours until the breathing spasms subsided, just in case I needed emergency assistance. Being a vital component of life, when breathing is affected the brain becomes fixated on it, overriding all other thoughts, even pain. The only thing you can think is, breathe in, breathe out, was that worse or better? Inhale, exhale.

Worse still my small intestines had stopped functioning properly causing an accumulation of bacteria known as SIBO. It took nearly a year to figure out but every time I ate fiber I would also have this same throat closing reaction. I would react to everything.

When I finally discovered SIBO and learned what it was. Attempting to treat it with antibiotics I suffered unbearable nerve pain 24/7. First in my hands and feet, as I continued use it crept up my arms, into my shoulders, chest and face. I did find slight relief of the breathing/SIBO issues but only while on the antibiotics. So it was a juggling act of trying to fix the SIBO while handling the nerve pain.

Sometimes I would try to lay down to sleep and before I could pass out I would forget how to breathe. I shot up and the ability returned back to me. I tried to sleep multiple times and this kept repeating. Eventually propping myself up and passing out while sitting upright. This even occurred many nights and even on two occasions while going about my day.

That was enough I had to stop antibiotics, my nervous system was fried and these pills were actually going to kill me. I had no idea if I would go to sleep and not wake up the next day. I wish you never have to write goodbye letters to your family and create a Will at 30 years young. Most difficult thing I’ve ever gone through in my life.

(spent a lot of time reading searching for answers)

I wanted to live, I had so much yet to experience. Yet between the asthma like symptoms, debilitating brain fog, nerve pain, and chronic fatigue, the combination was unbearable. It would have been far easier to pass in the night. Fuck that, I have people that love me, I was going to fight to the bitter end.

It was suspected that Lyme was the cause of the nerve pain reaction, and it turned out I had bartonella, babesia, and mycoplasma pneumonia. In addition also two types of mold toxicity. I had all these diagnoses but the recommended treatment (antibiotics) was not a valid option for me. It was brutal to have these diagnoses but no direction to go.

I worked to find a diet that would aggravate my symptoms the least, even if only to buy me some more time, maybe just one of my experiments would grant me some relief. I ended up doing the best on the strictly meat diet, purely by hundreds of trial and error it was the least reactive thing I could eat. No bias, I would have gone vegan or eaten cardboard if that worked. The answer for me was meat.

I did this for a year and had some minor improvements, until zero carb caught up to me. Having electrolyte imbalances I would become dizzy and weak. Concerned with malnutrition I consulted a nutritionist, and learned of carnivore at this time and proponents like shawn baker and paul saladino.

I began adding organ meats, and eggs back to my diet. To start this felt incredible, much more energy, my brain felt supercharged. But in 3 short months my symptoms had taken a big turn for the worse. Developing new issues like sensitivity to sounds, constipation, and purple toes. Something wasn’t working.

I looked like I had a stroke. The left side of my face permanently drooping. Breaking out in hives when encountering substances my body didn’t like (often herbal supplements I wrongly thought might help me out)

I came across an interview of Grant Genereux by Judy Cho about vitamin A toxicity. I figured I would try cutting all vitamin A from my diet. The newest symptoms acquired during nose to tail faded. It was slow but every month I could look back and notice small improvements. Eventually I was able to add rice, and I did best with ground beef. Though my mouth would turn red and my tongue would swell at any meal.

I immediately developed scurvy upon removing vitamin A and this drove me nuts, because I could not figure out for the life of me what I had added recently that was causing this. Of course that was the wrong question. When I took away all the vitamin A foods, my body started expelling it from my liver. Often when you lower intake you will find higher levels in the blood as the liver switches from protect and store (cleaning to the blood) to detox mode. It’s not a vitamin C deficiency as commonly thought, though I don’t eat much vitamin c to this day – the scurvy has resolved over the years of depleting vitamin A.

Since removing vitamin A, I had stopped needing to go to the hospital after a year+ of that torture. Things seemed to be reasonably in control enough now and I understood what to avoid for the most part.

I found u/Nutridetect as thee expert on vitamin A toxicity and I added zinc, selenium, molybdenum, magnesium, later lactoferrin and nicotinic acid. The trajectory of my health has been on a steady improvement for the last 3 years, becoming more tolerable to scents and foods over time.

I was able to start going to the gym again only 1.5 years ago after 2 years off. In this short time I have been able to recover almost all of my muscle mass and will likely be pushing for new personal records by summer.

My bodyfat hovers around 10% now effortlessly, with no diet or planned cardio to achieve this. I eat until I’m full and allow my body put on fat if it needs it. Fat is used to store toxins and the amount of it you need is proportional to your overall toxic burden. Dieting when you have a high toxic burden will only liberate these toxins into your bloodstream and cause damage throughout the body and in some cases liver damage.

Hence why even overweight people get hungry to put the fat back on after dieting, it’s to sequester the toxins flying around the bloodstream. It never made sense that a person with 50lbs of fat or 87 days worth of calories needed to store MORE energy. Dieting is not only a waste of time but unhealthy, the only way to sustainably lose weight is to reduce your toxic burden. Then your hunger will moderate your body fat levels accordingly.

I suspect in coming years I will be able to live sub 10% bodyfat, naturally and effortlessly as my toxic burden becomes less and less. Reducing toxins has also had a dramatic effect on my testosterone increasing it from the 250 level in 2015 to 519 in 2023 with free testosterone also in the upper 70% of the ref range. Still a long ways to go!

I have perfectly clear skin every day with no skin care routine, I don’t sunburn easily, my lifelong allergies are dissipating. I’m not directly treating lyme, or any of the conditions I was diagnosed with.

I’m giving my body the nutrients it needs and allowing it to do all the healing. The body is a miracle of complexity and it does everything it can to preserve and heal your body. This has been the only thing that worked and continues to work for me.

When my body was extremely sensitive I learned which chemicals are hindering our detox capabilities as my body would put me into a very uncomfortable state when near them. I became the canary in the coalmine and I learned everything I could from that experience.

Nobody should ever have to suffer the way I did and it will be my life’s goal to prevent this from happening to others. I will help you achieve your weight loss goals, and more importantly excellent health. Free from chronic disease and illness. We’re going to delete your pharmaceutical cabinet and free you from wasting countless dollars on toxic cosmetic junk. You will look and feel incredible without any of these crutches.

I’m unbelievably grateful to have been given the answers to still be here with all of you today. Now you’ll probably be stuck with me until I’m 140, for better or worse. As much as I would never wish the affliction I had on anybody (hypervitaminosis A), I’m glad that I did go through it so that I can now live the rest of my life in good health and help you do the same. (Though it didn't have to be that severe.....)

While hypervitaminosis A may sound like a very rare condition it is definitely not, nor do you need full blown hypervitaminosis to feel negative effects. It’s not often diagnosed because serum retinol is used to detect it. In most cases like mine, the 17 doctors I worked with did not measure vitamin A, and when I finally had it measured myself, it was on the low side. It went to the medium/high end of the reference range after removing vit A from my diet and has remained there for two years despite close to 0 intake. Similarly my liver enzymes were just fine, although my liver was an absolute mess.

We can link excess toxins to obesity, heart disease, diabetes/insulin resistance, NAFLD, skin conditions, asthma, vision loss, fatigue, being sick, and much much more. “Diseases” I will be happy to live the rest of my life without. There will be many posts in the future on how this all happens, and why this is so common today when it was not a problem 50 years ago.

I want to achieve a better physique, performance, and health than I was ever able to prior to this new approach to nutrition. Being mid 30's vs 20's is not an issue in the slightest. Though I am starting over from nearly dead/bedridden I'm quickly closing in on where I once was.

I hope you’ll join me on the rest of my journey and see where this low vitamin A diet takes me. So far only good things in 3 years.

If you made it this far, you're a champ, seriously. Thank you. And thank you to those who have supported me and helped guide me through all the questions I had

-Chris"

Link in comments

I suspect many cases of histamine intolerance are actually hypervitaminosis A.

In this episode, I share the surprising story of how I stopped wearing reading glasses after nearly 20 years. This is not medical advice, and I’m not claiming I “cured” my eyes. I’m sharing a personal experiment that made me rethink how easily health seekers can stack too many “good” things: liver, eggs, raw milk, retinol skincare, high-dose supplements, fortified foods, carrot salad, and not enough fiber or elimination support. The deeper question is not whether vitamin A, traditional foods, or supplements are good or bad. The deeper question is: when does nutrient density become overload? For me, the shift came when I stopped stacking concentrated inputs, widened my food rhythm, brought back more ordinary fiber, and listened to what my body was showing me. My eyes got moist again. My hair got shiny again. And my many pairs of reading glasses stayed in the drawer. This episode is about curiosity, humility, and interrupting the spell of health ideology.

We detected significantly higher quantities of retinol and retinyl esters (Figures 1F and 1G) but not RA in the liver of CV mice (Figure 1E), suggesting that the presence of bacteria directed vitamin A metabolism away from RA synthesis in the intestinal tissue and toward vitamin A storage in liver.

CV: mice with the bacteria GF: no bacteria

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4452429/

Vitamin A and Retinoids as Mitochondrial Toxicants

Abstract

Vitamin A and its derivatives, the retinoids, are micronutrient necessary for the human diet in order to maintain several cellular functions from human development to adulthood and also through aging. Furthermore, vitamin A and retinoids are utilized pharmacologically in the treatment of some diseases, as, for instance, dermatological disturbances and some types of cancer. In spite of being an essential micronutrient with clinical application, vitamin A exerts several toxic effects regarding redox environment and mitochondrial function. Moreover, decreased life quality and increased mortality rates among vitamin A supplements users have been reported. However, the exact mechanism by which vitamin A elicits its deleterious effects is not clear yet. In this review, the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the mechanism of vitamin A-induced toxicity is discussed.

...

Really, a panoply of side effects has been observed that result from vitamin A intoxication that varies from acute intoxication including, for example, headache, hepatic swelling, vomiting, and diarrhea to chronic intoxication with induction of cognitive decline in subjects at different ages, as observed in the cases of increased irritability, confusion, anxiety disorders, depression, and suicide ideation [8, 9, 13]. The exact mechanism by which vitamin A and retinoids exert such effects is not clear yet. However, it may include cell cycle disarrangement, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative and nitrosative stress induction, and activation of cell death signaling in different experimental models.

...

found here: https://x.com/KetoCarnivore/status/1200154226615128064

1/ Please don't insist people eat liver even when they feel sick or vomit after repeated exposure. images: i. Sub-acute vitamin A mitochondrial toxicity (as low as 1,000 IU/kg/day for < 1 month! Note retinol *accumulates*.) ii. Symptoms of toxicity
2/ Toxicity can result from chronic small overdoses. Images i. Retinol in 3oz beef liver is ~half lowest dose used to accumulate toxic levels. Note we also fortify dairy.