WOW good question. I don't have the answer but I will now be paying close attention when I eat them.

Hey Chica,
What im doing is mixing it up every few months but i still have my staples, here's some possible ideas

Any apples with natural peanut butter, i choose the ones without molasses, sugar, and added oils.
Fage greek yogurt organic-very filling
I make my own trail mix, surprisingly i lose weight eating lots of this, raisins, dried cranberry, almonds,pecans, walnuts, then i bake old fashioned oats with little olive oil with local honey, i throw that in there, cracked flax seeds
Baked cabbage quarters in foil with butter pat n hot sauce, yummy
Eggplant recipes
Lots of soups homemade
Cottage cheese with flax again
Lots of fish, sorry if your not eating this but salmon, mahi mahi, sardines, and tuna do me well
Zucchini, squash, fish bake
Hummus homemade on pita
Italian slaw-chopped cabbage, grn pepper, grn olives, hot pepper cheese, grape tomatoes-very few, with a vinegar/oil dressing or any good kind you make vinegar based

I am doing a recipe from Budwig therapy because im focusing more on making omega 3's water soluble, this combo below does it by entering in all cells to include fat cells to oxygenate them, releasing the glucose, and triglgycerides helping my body heal, and my other focus is anti inflammatory diet, basically same principle with omega 3 intake.
2tbls cottage cheese 1 tbls cold pressed flax oil mix it few minutes in majic bullet i add lots of stuff after mixing.
I know its hard to completely avoid A but these foods are low in them.

Good luck,
mary

Hee is a good site to check food nutrient values in anyone is interested great reference tool to quickly look up what u suspect might make u feel bad, it helped me figure out lots of stuff

http://nutritiondata.self.com/

Thank you Mary! I have been doing a slim fast with extra protein in the morning and then greek yogart for lunch with a couple whole wheat crackers and dinner just kind of winging it with a variety of low fat/low calorie high protein things. But I really wanted to get more veggies in and kind of change up the boring routine. I can't eat fish. They don't know what it is but every kind I have eaten or been tested for makes me break out in hives. Back when I used to eat fried foods I couldn't even eat anything cooked in the same oil. So I guess that is out!
I will check out the egg plant though, not really something I ever have had that I know of lol. Trail mix is good though and something I can totally do. I really don't like to eat, so I eat to live not for fun...unless it's chocolate but who doesn't like a piece every now and then!
Thanks again for your help Mary!
Danielle

Danielle, im sorry about the fish with you, i totally understand. The same thing used to have to me but more severe with tongue and throat swelling, they identified shellfish as the culprit. Severe allergy.
I still eat my salads brussell sprouts, calliflower, brocollii, collard greens, but with protien. Have you tried chicken or turkey with your salads or veggies,, and did it help?
I tried lots of veggies alone but the tell all sign of whoosing sounded off, i dont get the noise or other symptoms when incorporating protiens. Just a thought.

Oh forgot to ask, are you eating bottled store dressing, if you are look to that possibly. Have you tried the salads with veggies with no dressing adding spices and lemon, maybe some walnut oil with vinegar? I guess im sugesting a test to try to identify the headache culprit.

Danielle,

I've been a vegetarian for years. Most of it is just plain healthy eating. I think what you are struggling with is the "eat healthier" part of the equation, not the "no meat" part of the equation.

My mainstay for protein is legumes (beans) and they are fairly low in vitamin A. I eat very few processed foods. Three processed foods I do eat for protein are Tofu, Seitan, and Tempeh. All three are low in A. Quinoa and nuts are also things I use for protein though not as much - also low in Vitamin A.

I'm a little sad to see dark leafy greens have so much vitamin A. Leafy greens are my favorite. I love swiss chard and dino kale. Crazy. It seems most of the veggies that are high in vitamin A are the ones that are vitamin-rich in general. Those that don't have lots of A seemed to have fewer vitamins of all kinds, or less food value. I have plenty of recipies that use the "Low A" group, but I have no idea how to eat a well balanced diet and avoid the foods that are high in vitamin A. Lots of vitamin pills, I guess. But where do you get those without Vit. A in them? Well, I think I'll still keep eating a rainbow every day, though it's tempting to try limiting to Low A only. I may change my mind on that in the near future.

P.S. An easy way to make sure you are getting enough protein while you are re-learning to cook and eat vegan is to make a protein smoothie for breakfast.

In a blender whir up a banana, other fruit, a little juice, ice cubes, and a couple of scoops of soy protein powder. Look at the package lables to decide how much. The result is YUMMY and has all your protein for the whole day. It took me a little time to get used to the taste the protein powder adds but now I like it.

You want a version you'll melt over? Blend ice cubes, a banana, a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter, some good melted chocolate, and a little protein powder. Add cooled espresso if you'd like. Just adding powdered Via (starbucks dry instant) is easy. Blend it all up. YUMMY! It's a coffee reese's peanut butter cup.

There is no "Vitamin A" in vegetables!!! There are only carotenes.

Vitamin A is found in meat. Meat. Meat!

thank you, that was a good point.
interesting because before I was treating my sleep apnea, I could not eat any animal protein without going into such severe brain fog I felt like I was partially under anesthesia. I thought it was from ammonia making my brain swell. but maybe it was vitamin A? I'm skeptical, because I was actually taking vitamin A a few years ago, recommended to me for my adrenals. but despite that I felt much much better when I started treating my sleep apnea. this was all way before I knew what was happening with the pressure in my head.

Danielle if your stomach reacts like that to vegetables it might be something to pay attention to. maybe it was something else about the veggies that made you have headaches, related to a food reaction. reminds me of my autistic son, telling me why he doesn't like most vegetables; they upset his stomach. he also has IIH. but his favorites are sweet potato and carrot, high in carotenes.

"In nature, -carotene is a precursor (inactive form) to vitamin A via the action of beta-carotene 15,15'-monooxygenase.

-Carotene is composed of two retinyl groups, and is broken down in the mucosa of the human small intestine by -carotene 15,15'-monooxygenase to retinal, a form of vitamin A. -Carotene can be stored in the liver and body fat and converted to retinal as needed, thus making it a form of vitamin A for humans and some other mammals. The carotenes -carotene and -carotene, due to their single retinyl group (-ionone ring), also have some vitamin A activity (though less than -carotene), as does the xanthophyll carotenoid -cryptoxanthin. All other carotenoids, including lycopene, have no beta-ring and thus no vitamin A activity (although they may have antioxidant activity and thus biological activity in other ways)."

This is not only in yellow, red, and orange veggies, but in seafood, many green veggies, not from only meat.

Yes, only from meat (or other animal products, or synthetic retinol products).

As you quoted, your body *only* makes Vitamin A ***if needed*** from carotenes. So if your body is toxic from too much Vitamin A, it will not make more from the veggies/carotenes you eat.

On the other hand, your body absorbs Vitamin A from animal products *whether you need it or not* or *whether or not you are already toxic/overdosed on Vitamin A.*

In other words, you cannot get Vitamin A toxic from veggies, but you can from animal products or from other *retinol* derivatives (like Accutane or vitamins that do not have Vitamin A in the form of carotene).

Many food companies lump carotenes and actual Vitamin A together (allowed by the FDA), but carotenes do not cause Vitamin A toxicity. If you ate a pound of carrots a day, your skin will turn orange, but that's because your body did *not* make Vitamin A out of it, and the orange skin is harmless, *not* Vitamin A toxicity.

Please do more research before you disseminate misinformation.

And this is not to say that some veggies might contain other things that cause IH to flare....salicylicates, glutamate...but it is not carotenes turning into Vitamin A if you already have enough (or too much).

Cottages this info is not disemmenated this is actual info provided by my neuro op, not meant to discredit, nor discount anyones opinion on any matter, only providing information to other members, your the one whom felt somehow offended because others dont agree with you. The same foods we know that offers vit A, research now shows certain molecules that derive from beta-carotene and meat have an opposite effect in the body: They actually block some actions of vit A, researchers predict that a large amount of this antioxidant is accompanied by a larger amount of these anti-vitamin-A molecules, as well and caused lung and other cancers in pts.
Im stating that what science thinks they know is many times wrong, and your belief may only be half right given the current info. Hell we maybe all wrong for that matter, how do we know the foods I eat to include lots of meat, the blocking agents in my fruits and veggies dont negate the meat? Maybe living strickly a certain anti this or that is what caused or adds to the origin, we dont only you, mine and scientists and Dr.s opinions that are ever changing?

I am pretty confused in this matter. i am curious to know if majority of IIHers here experience worse symptoms after eating too much green vegetables. I use to eat lots of meat and now trying to cut back and eat healthier, but hearing about Vitamin A in green vegetables gets me more paranoid about possibly worsening my IIH condition.

So far I have felt no ill effects of eating more green leafy vegetables, just weightloss. I figure absorbing vitamin A from meats is alot worse than any vegetable I am eating.

Armywife, could your symptoms be from pesticides or hungry pain headaches from eating too little calories? (not sure how long u try to be vegan) Sometimes drastic diet change can lead to adjustment headaches.

This confusion is part of the reason why I was thinking about purchasing the IHREF 7DVDs on IIH facts. Anyone ever seen these DVDs? is it worth it?

Thanks
David

David,
C here
http://www.health-alternatives.com/meat-protein-nutrition-chart.html

http://www.health-alternatives.com/vitamins-nutrition-chart.html

http://www.lenntech.com/fruit-vegetable-vitamin-content.htm

Just for us laymen, hope this helps. Dont know about dvd.