Hemochromatosis and losing weight
Posted , 9 users are following.
I was diagnosed with hemochromatosis 10 months ago. I have phlebotomy's every two week and am strict on the diet.. no greens, tomatoes, few veggies or fruits. Also no beef, shell fish only white meat chicken and white fish. I feel I am starving, I've lost weight and had no weight to loss. A huge part of my diet has been lots of greens and love tomatoes and tomatoe sauces. I take tons of herbs and vitamins that supposedly help the HH. Any other food suggestions?
1 like, 25 replies
valerie06033 Barb1028
Posted
Barb it doesn't sound like a good idea to me to cut out greens. Most of non-heme iron isn't absorbed anyway--UNLESS eaten with meat or vitamin C. Just eat greens separately--everyone needs them! Fruits too--why no fruits? (altho avoid citrus maybe). And drink tea with "iron" meals (calcium helps bind iron too). Don't know what vitamins are supposed to help other than general nutritional support--but careful about vitamin C. Even when taken alone--it will release iron from storage which raises transferrin saturation level. MSM does too even though so good for other things! You're right about tomatoes though I would trim those--though maybe the lower acid orange ones are better. Or if do eat maybe eat alone... BIGGEST thing to watch for is ADDED iron--especially high in breakfast cereals!! And for the longest I wondered why my iron was rebuilding so fast--not realiing my protein powder had 25% RDA Iron--WAY too high for us--especially since a supplement (more absorbable than as an example the iron in spinach). K best wishes!!
mike80628 Barb1028
Posted
Hi folks. I'm in maintenance..and I pretty much eat what I want! Few little rules...have calcium with each meal, milk or supplements. Tea with meals. Less red meat. No cereal with added iron. No vitamin c supplements. So, pretty much eat normally. We can only really control this with our regular blood donation. A big red steak is 2 grams of iron...a pint of blood taken from us is 250g of iron.....so, no need to overly worry. Calcium, tea, turmeric and IP6....just have plenty of these when eating....
Mike.