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I have a friend who has been diagnosed with Wilson's disease, and needs to go on a low-copper diet.

There are plenty of websites that spell out which foods are okay and which to avoid. (some are more complete or more detailed (2) than others ... but there isn't the wealth of information as with other food restrictions (lists of specific brands to prefer over other ones for given items, recommended substitutions (eg, for a non-soy soy sauce), recipes tailored to the restriction, etc.).

The only thing that I've found with any deeper information is a thread on a discussion board. (which requires logging in to read easily)

Is anyone aware of any other resources with advice / menu planning recommendations for dealing with this situation?

update: I was trying to not explain the health side of things, but as most people aren't familiar with Wilson's Disease (I wasn't until a couple of months ago; and it's not Wilson's Syndrome): the issue is your body absorbing too much copper, which causes liver failure (and then death). I didn't ask specifically about 'low copper diets', because although a low copper diet is part of the treatment (<1mg/day initially, so about 50% of the US FDA Daily Recommended Value), you also have to avoid anything else that would stress the liver (so alcohol is out)

Joe
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  • I think putting a specification of what makes food acceptable or unacceptable for a sufferer from Wilson's Disease (if it is copper content, how much content of which copper compounds is acceptable in which meal size?) would help.... making food to match established criteria is a cook's and/or chemist's work, establishing the criteria is best left to medically trained sources though... – rackandboneman Jan 24 '17 at 18:36
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    @rackandboneman : it depends on what stage you're at. When you're first diagnosed, the goal is 1mg per day. (you're on drugs to try to expel copper from your body). Once it's under control, they change the drugs to ones that reduce absorbtion, and then the goal is closer to 1.5 to 2mg/day. (but can vary with other things like body weight, existing liver damage, etc) – Joe Jan 24 '17 at 18:44
  • I'm wondering why this question doesn't fall under the "no discussion of health" rule. – verbose Jan 25 '17 at 01:42
  • @verbose, I see it as close to the mark but on topic. We've got pretty plenty of questions about reducing sodium in recipes, and other medically-advised adjustments to diet. Maybe it's also close to being off topic as a request for resources. But in any case nothing a minor tweak to the emphasis wouldn't fix – Chris H Jan 25 '17 at 07:48
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    @ChrisH : there have been a few questions on here over the years asking about cookbooks on a given topic. I specifically didn't ask about tips for reducing copper, as then the answers would come out more like a 'poll' question, and certain people on here would close it. (Things were so much easier before that idiotic suggestion went through, as there are lots of cases where the 'accepted' answer only applies to a very specific case, and there's a better answer that applies to many more situations ... so it *is* possible to have more than one correct answer) – Joe Jan 25 '17 at 12:25
  • Not sure what idiotic suggestion you're referring to, but questions with more than one correct answer are fine, it's questions with many correct answers and no real way to decide which is better that tend to fare badly. Happy to discuss any of that on meta; we certainly don't want to be shunning good questions. – Cascabel Jan 26 '17 at 13:17
  • @Jefromi : when StackOverflow decreed that the only good questions are those that only have one answer (which is never true ... at least in Perl), and banned 'poll' and other open-ended questions. This was about 5-6 years ago. One of the last discussions on meta that I'm aware of was http://meta.cooking.stackexchange.com/q/1860/67 – Joe Jan 26 '17 at 13:36
  • Talk to a proper dietitian or nutritionist. – Max Jan 26 '17 at 13:43
  • @Joe There is no "only one answer" policy on StackExchange as a whole, and certainly not here; the standard is more "not zillions of answers" and "some reasonably objective ways to evaluate them." That's what bad poll questions are, not just something with a few good angles of attack. – Cascabel Jan 26 '17 at 13:48
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    @Jefromi : Shortly after the 'poll question' decree on ServerFault and StackOverflow, we started to get a bunch of overzealous people voting to close questions that had even the slightest bit of openness to it, and some people insisting it was a StackExchange-wide thing. It was a big part of why I gave up being a mod. We still have people closing restaurant-mimicry and uses-for-what-would-be-waste questions (that used to be explicitly stated as on-topic in the FAQ, even if they're a sub-class of recipe-request) – Joe Jan 26 '17 at 14:00
  • Please bring up questions you don't think should be closed on meta. If it's just a couple misguided voters, not the worst result and hard to address, but if things are getting closed that shouldn't, I want to fix that. – Cascabel Jan 26 '17 at 14:06
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    @Joe I admit I have been using a "we want questions with a single right answer" statement now and then to explain to newbies why I have to close their big-list question, while knowing that the truth is more complex and it is OK to have questions with a few alternative answers. The discussion here made me realize that the oversimplification may be doing some damage, I will have to think about alternative ways to word it. Thank you for pointing the problem out. – rumtscho Jan 27 '17 at 12:47
  • Perhaps try the nutritionist/dietitian of your local hospital, where they should be able to both understand the medical issue and understand the dietary issues. Good luck. – dougal 5.0.0 Feb 04 '17 at 06:41
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    Late to the party guys... it seems like people are circumventing the 'rule' by providing a numerous various answers in the comments and seemingly being afraid to submit an actual answer. I for one feel this is a discouraging practice. There are often multiple solutions to a problem (e.g. Ruby, and certainly cooking) so what's the BFD anyway :/ – kettultim May 22 '17 at 08:57

1 Answers1

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When I saw this question a few months ago, I didn't want to answer it because:

cooking for people with any kind of nutritional disease is not only difficult, but also dangerous,

therefore, before you move on, please ensure:

  1. You have to have more than a basic understanding of (bio)chemistry
  2. You have to have more than a basic understanding of nutrition
  3. You have to have more than a basic understanding of Databases
  4. You have to consult your physician (in this case: your friend's endocrinologist) with any recipe that you come up with using the below method:

The best freely publicly available scientific source for nutrition is the United States Department of Agriculture's SR28 Database so start with reading the manual!

In this particular case of Wilson's disease, the NUTR_DEF 312 Cu is the one to look out for, so load the raw data files into your favourite RDBMS, delete all references in FOOD_DES that contain 312 and presto: you have a USDA database customised to your friend's disease!

Select any of the ingredients that are left in the database, and start coming up with safe and yummy recipes that you have to give to your friend's endocrinologist to vouch for them before actually making them... :)

Note 1: If you have multiple friends with multiple allergies and intolerances, you leave everything in the database and SELECT * FROM Food_Des WHERE Nutrient_No NOT IN (Nutrient, Nutrient, ... );

Note 2: I answered your question because I feel sorry for your friend and no one has even tempted to answer your question in the last few months that I can notice.

Note 3: No, Seasoned advice is not a recipe-writing service so don't bother asking for recipes, they're off-topic here!

Note 4: Yes, I'm a chemist and I help my cousin, who's a professional chef, come up with recipes for sick children's birthday parties, but I have her run any recipes by the child's doctor...

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