Wilson's disease diet

Food for Wilson disease

In addition to appropriate medications, it is very important to apply the correct diet for the treatment of this disease. It essentially consists on controlling the ingestion of food containing copper.

To know which foods contain a lot of copper is very important when someone has to choose a low-copper diet. (More information about Foods rich in copper)

RECOMMENDED AND NON RECOMMENDED FOOD FOR WILSON’S DISEASE DIET

The main recommended and non suitable food are the following:

Vegetables: They are in general very convenient. Most of them can be eaten as desired, except spinach, tomato, asparagus, beets, pumpkin, and broccoli that posses a medium content of this mineral, so they have to be eaten moderately. You have to avoid eating vegetable juice, mushrooms and potatoes.
Fruits: Most of them can be eaten as desired, except papayas, pears, mangoes and pineapples that have to be eaten moderately. You have to avoid eating dry fruits (raisins, dates, prunes, etc.), chocolate or other cocoa products. Fruit juice or lemonade can also be drank at will.
Cereals and derivatives: Packaged cereals with less than 0,1 g. of copper per serving, refined wheat flour bread or products derived from refined wheat flour with no added minerals and oatmeal (White bread, refined pasta dishes, etc) can be eaten at will. Whole bread and whole wheat flour products should be controlled since they contain medium quantities of copper. The same with cereals with 0.1 and 0.2 g. of copper per serving and dehydratated soups.

Cereals with more than 0,2 g. of copper per serving, millet, barley, wheat bran or wheat germ should be avoided.

Legumes: Legumes are very rich in copper, so they should be avoided in this diet (dried beans, lentils, garbanzos, dried peas) (Green beans and green peas can be eaten with moderation)
Milk: Milk can be drank although one should moderate its intake, because it contains a lot of fat which posses the liver a great effort to digest it. It is better to choose non-fat milk or non-fat milk derivatives (cheese, yogurt, etc)
Fats: Better to use all of them moderately.
Meat: You can eat beef, turkey and chicken or other products made with chicken meat, such as sausages. Fish in general can be eaten moderately. Do not eat other types of meat (lamb, pork, duck, etc), entrails (kidneys, brains, liver, etc.) or shellfish (oysters, crabs, lobsters, shrimps, etc) Vegetable soy meat must also be rejected.
Beverages: You should not drink mineral water containing more than 100 mg of copper per liter. Tap water is not very convenient either because it contains large amounts of copper by dissolution of rocks and water pipes. Soy beverages are not allowed

It is best to drink demineralized water which is different to distilled water. You can drink coffee or tea moderately. You must completely abandon the use of alcohol.

Vitamin E supplements may be of interest to alleviate the damage that this disease can cause to the liver.
Do not use copper utensils, since it dissolves with the heat and copper is ingested.

More information about Wilson’s disease.