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People Eating Too Many Of Wrong Kinds Of Vegetables Can Lead To Copper Toxicity

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Eating too much of a good thing can cause a rare condition.

There's a mineral in food and water that when you consume too much can make you miserable.

Vegetarian diets are more popular than ever and doctors say they can be very healthy if people are careful to get the right nutrients, including enough protein.

However, too many of the wrong kinds of vegetables can cause an overload of the mineral copper.

The condition is called copper toxicity.

"If you had six cups of coffee and you're feeling jittery, that's the feeling to describe copper toxicity," said Dr. Svetlana Kogan.

Kogan says patients with copper toxicity have a variety of vague symptoms.

"People will come in with very non-specific symptoms. They feel moody, have depression, difficulty falling asleep," Kogan said.

Certain foods, like shellfish, leafy greens, cashews, and chickpeas, are naturally high in copper.

"If somebody is consuming excess, they could certainly be at risk," Kogan said.

There's also environmental exposure to things like copper in water pipes.

Plumbers say if the PH of your water is not within a safe range, it will start to deteriorate the lining of copper pipes.

While you might not be able to taste the copper in your water, other telltale signs it's there is seeing bluish or greenish stains in your bathtubs.

Water filters can remove excess copper from water and a balanced diet is the other way to avoid copper toxicity.

"Full of rainbow-colored vegetables and fruits and avoid focusing on one group," said Kogan.

Prolonged use of estrogen can cause an increased level of copper in the body and there is some evidence excessive cooper can lead to Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

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