Orange Hands! Too Many Carrots?

Hi Nell,

I was hoping you might have some thoughts on the current issue I'm having…orange palms! I have cut way back on my carrot habit, but for a few weeks I was eating at least a few big carrots a day. On top of that, I eat yams at least a few times a week as part of my endurance training…as well as cantaloupe. Apparently way too much beta-carotene…not to mention possibly toxic amounts of vitamin A(according to the research I read online, that is :).

Have you ever experienced this before? Eek! Time to cut back on three of my favorite things 🙁

Don't worry- and yes, this has happened to me when I was eating way too many carrots as snacks, since they're so simple to prepare (just wash & peel!).  

First off, you don't need to worry about Vitamin A toxicity from carrots; in fact, it's hard to consume toxic levels of vitamin A unless you're eating frequent servings of one of the best sources of it- polar bear liver!

The easiest thing to do is to incorporate more green veggies into your diet and perhaps consume less carrots to balance it out.

Since you're an athlete, I would not suggest cutting out yams as they're one of the few starchy sources that we paleo endurance athletes can reply upon!

Eat more kale, spinach, collards & swiss chard and you'll soon see your skin colour return to normal!