Hello....just found this newsgroup because I've run into some unusual symptoms
since I've modified my diet.  I'm hoping someone can give me an idea of what
might be happening.

Very quick background.  I used to have a horrible diet, but in the last few
years have improved it alot.  I've been interested in doing cleansing diets to
clean me out becuase i feel that i need it and have been significantly
increasing veggies in my diet so i can go on a special cleansing diet.

About 3 weeks ago, I started getting into carrots.  I bought the 5 lb bag of
the little  precut variety and figured I'd munch on them every time i got
hungry....which started to be to the tune of a 5 lb bag about once a week.  

After the second week, i started to get little bumps on my body.  They are
relatively small and itchy.  They seeem to be spread randomly over my body,
with maybe slightly more under my armpits and across my back, but for the most
part they seem to be everywhere.... probably about 150 of them as a rough
estimate.

I'm trying to figure out what it could be from.  I was thinking Vit A toxicity,
but from what i can find, those are not symptoms.  The other thoughts were just
a general cleansing reaction or(and hoping not) could it be parasites?  Ugh.
Hope not, but I know that carrots are very antiparastic, especially with the
high sulfur content.  

Well, that's my dilemma.  Figured I wouldnt waste my time at my doctors office.
 If anyone has any ideas what it might be or what I should consider doing, I
would really appreicate it!!

Bill

Moses here: I remember reading a report some 40+ years ago that
during WW2 in England some British who had grow huge quanities of
carrots in their victory gardens and hence consumed huge
quanities of carrots had a problem with a reduced white {*filter*}
cell levels. The report claimed that carrots contained a toxic
compound. And they were not talking about carotene!! Do not
confuse carotene which is a provitamin and vitamin A. All
carotene will do to you is turn you carrot color whereas vitamin
A can be toxic if taken in large enough doses for long enough.
This latter effect is more marked in older individuals.

Sincerely Moses Clarke

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Who knows, ... who cares?

A good diet is a varied, and a balanced diet.

Cut back on your consumption of carrots, and eat a variety of more foods.
Eating a varied diet effectively reduces the amount of NEGATIVES that you
receive from any one cooking.net">food item.

John Gohde,
   Natural Health Advocate of the Healing Power of Nature.
   http://home.att.net/~johngohde/

Health Expert, with a rank of Silver & a 5 Star average rating, at
www.expertcentral.com.
http://www.expertcentral.com/search/ratings.cfm?expert=johnhgohde

Very good quess.  I wish that I had thought of this possibility when I saw this
post.

Insects are not much of a problem for root crops but fungus is (and
nemotodes?).  Antifungal agents and antinemotode agents can be applied to the
soil where root crops are grown but these chemicals are very resistant to
baterial breakdown and are generally water insoluble or poorly water soluble.

They are contaminating ground water sources where farmers use them.

Washing produce removes most of the pesticides but it can not remove what is
used for root crops because this stuff is not water soluble.  You have to use a
nonionic detergent to get it off and even them there will be significant
amounts left behind because you can only get it off the outer layer, the inner
layer is not impacted by washing with a nonionic detergent.

The general advice is to never eat the skin from anything grown in the ground
(and this includes potatoes).

The other possible explanation is that all root crops will respond to nemotode
attack by producing pesticides to kill them.  Potatoes produce a glycoalkaloid
to kill nemotodes and this chemical will cause cancer in mice and rats and it's
also suspected to cause cancer in humans that eat potatoe skins, especially if
the potatoe came from fields that were heavily infected with neomtodes.

Because of this, most farmers are now told to use an antinemotode spray on
their fields.  Yield does go down in infested fields but not enough to offset
the high cost of the application process and the raw material.  Because this
stuff is not very soluble in water, one application can protect the field for
many years.

It's kind of a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation.  As I
understand it, the natural pesticide is much more dangerous than the man made
pesticide.

For carrots, they do the same thing but it's a different chemical.  The
chemical that carrots produce can not cause cancer but it can cause nerve
damage.  I don't remember if bumps on the skin is a sign of this particular
carrot toxin.  If you remove the skin, plus several layers under the skin,
there should not be a problem with either the man made pesticide or the natural
carrot pesticide.

Carrots that are already processed just have the very outer layer removed.
Some of the inner layer also needs to be removed to get the best protection but
this would decrease yield and cut into the profit margin for the processed
carrots.  If processed carrots are a regular part of your diet and you eat a
lot of them, you might have problems with the natural carrot plant pesticide.

Marty B,  "You are what you eat."

I remember reading some years ago that eating Polar Bear liver can cause
death from the toxicity of the extremely high content of vit.A; if this is
true, then couldn't toxicity of vit.A at various levels cause varying
reactions in the skin? I also remember reading that too much vit.A can cause
a yellowing of the skin, so isn't a reaction of bumps or pustules also
possible, depending on the individual?
Stu

You are NOT the person who originally asked this question.  The original
question and my reply  was directed at a person who ate 5 pounds of raw
carrots a week.

You are NOT likely to get very much carotenes out of eating raw carrots.
Carotenes in foods have very low bioavailability.  To get any vitamin a
indirectly from eating carrots, the carrots have to be A)cooked and B)you
have to consume them in a meal that contains a little oil or fat.  Hence,
toxicity from vitamin A is NOT likely to have been the problem.

The signs of acute vitamin A toxicity are dry, fissured skin, brittle nails,
alopecia, gingivitis, anorexia, irritability, fatigue and nausea.

My original reply is still good advice.  Cut back on your consumption of
carrots, and eat a variety of more foods. Eating a varied diet effectively
reduces the amount of NEGATIVES that you receive from any one cooking.net">food item.

John Gohde,
   Natural Health Advocate of the Healing Power of Nature.
   http://home.att.net/~johngohde/

Health Expert, with a rank of Silver & a 5 Star average rating, at
www.expertcentral.com.
http://www.expertcentral.com/search/ratings.cfm?expert=johnhgohde

I'll buy that john. What about carrot juice? Does that improve bioa?