carotenemia ? too many carrots?

squishprincess
squishprincess Posts: 371 Member
in Food and Nutrition
ok so i know as a kid i was told too many carrots would make me orange (much like how swallowing a watermelon seed would make one grow in your tummy) but i didn't actually believe it were true until a few months ago upon research. anyway, just in the past two weeks it's been on my mind more often.

i eat lots of veggies, a lot of them are high in beta carotene, like broccoli, sweet potatoes, carrots, bellpeppers, peas, etc etc. i'll spare you the long list, you get the idea haha. but the thing is i eat broccoli just about every single day along with carrots, or switch it up for peas and carrots. i eat pretty normal serving sizes of each, 1-1.5 cups a day of each. but what i wanna know is, paired with taking my normal multivitamins a day and these veggies, am i at risk for carotenemia? i know it's not a lethal ordeal, but i don't wanna be turning into an oompa loompa, ahaha. my diet's pretty much been the same for a year, would this phenomenon have already set it, am i safe? :p

Replies

  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,284 Member
    do you have any links to the research you are basing this fear on?

    anyway, it would seem to me that the dose of carrots required to become toxic would be VERY large and anyone eating plenty of veggies, including carrots, is very unlikely to have a problem unless they are eating absurdly large quantities.
  • squishprincess
    squishprincess Posts: 371 Member
    yeah i don't think my daily intake is outrageous but i am bad about snacking on a lot of raw veggies and sometimes eat too many maybe. i don't have any links right away, just from googling and looking at random articles on the subject of too much vitamin a/carotenemia..
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    The amount needed to turn yellow varies from person to person. If you have been eating like this for a whole year then you have nothing to worry about because the condition only takes a few weeks to show symptoms so if you aren't an oompa loompa yet, then you are not exceeding the threshold for your body with your current intake.
  • tiddles_yeah
    tiddles_yeah Posts: 117 Member
    This has actually happened to me twice, but from eating too much pumpkin.

    I really wouldnt be worried if i were you. You have to have a HUGE amount of it, and the leaves you are describing arent enough to cause it to occur. I was eating multiple kg of pumpkin everyday (it was all i could eat at the time due to illness) and thus was an out of the ordinary diet.

    I am also currently studying medicine, so i assure you that your body will manage the levels quite well, and it takes quite an extreme excess to cause carotonaemia/carotenosis.
    Even if it does eventuate, it is a purely aesthetic condition and causes no harm to your health. It will make you lok a bit orange, and mainly only around places you sweat more - eg palm creases, limb creases) but if you reduce your amounts of the offending food it quickly goes away

    In short - i dont think you need to worry at all! :)
  • tiddles_yeah
    tiddles_yeah Posts: 117 Member
    Keep in mind, though, that too much vitamin A is a completely different thing, but i still dont think you are at risk of this
  • happydaze71
    happydaze71 Posts: 339 Member
    Hun, I love carrot juice, and maybe have 10 carrots in one juice, and have never been orange in my life. You aren't eating excessive amounts of any of those veggies you stated. When they say people have that problem, it's either people who have liver issues who can't process things through their system properly or people who are truly excessive in their intake.
    Don't freak out, eat your veggies, your body will love you, I promise!
  • squishprincess
    squishprincess Posts: 371 Member
    hahahah that's a relief to hear! i will continue to eat veggies without prevail.

    also yes i understand the vitamin A thing is another issue entirely, and i do get a little paranoid about that, but i think it'll be okay? if i did want to get my levels checked on vitamins/iron etc and all that, what type of testing would i need? bloodwork? i forget about these kinds of things..
  • apparations
    apparations Posts: 264 Member
    Unless you are turning orange I think you are totally fine. But it is true that you can get too much of certain vitamins and minerals, usually it happens when people take too many multivitamins. One a day is all you need, I would not take more than that!
  • y00b0y
    y00b0y Posts: 5
    Stop taking multivitamins, you are wasting time and money. If you eat fruits and veggies you don't need them
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  • squishprincess
    squishprincess Posts: 371 Member
    i take two multivitamins because that's the serving size on the bottle, otherwise it would be only half of what i need daily. so i'm good i'm not going overboard! also i'm not going to stop taking a multivitamin, also i sometimes take calcium supplements as i do not eat dairy or meat..

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