General guidelines

• Have your home tap water checked to be sure that it doesn’t have high levels of copper.

• Don’t cook with copper-lined bowls, pots, pans, or cooking utensils.

• Read food labels. Note the copper content if it's available.

Making food choices

• Choose breads, rolls, cereals and pastas made from refined flour, and white rice. Don't have wheat germ, bran cereals, or bran breads.

• Eat vegetables, but avoid vegetable juice cocktails, mushrooms, and potatoes with skin. Canned sweet potatoes are OK, but not fresh sweet potatoes.

• Don't have beans, including peas, lentils, and lima, garbanzo, pinto, red, black, or soy beans.

• Don’t eat tofu.

• Don’t eat commercially dried fruit, fruit leathers, raisins, or prunes.

• Don't eat avocados.

• Limit mangos, papayas, pineapple, kiwi, and pears.

• Don't eat foods that contain chocolate, or cocoa.

• Don't eat nuts, peanut butter or other nut butters.

• Don't drink any soy or chocolate drinks, instant breakfast drinks, or meal replacement drinks or bars.

• You may drink milk and eat dairy products that don’t contain soy or chocolate. Choose milk, yogurt, cheese (including cream cheese and cottage cheese), custard, eggs, or coconut milk.

• Eat small portions of animal protein. Don't have pork, lamb, dark-meat turkey or chicken, or organ meats. Don't have shellfish.

• Limit your intake of licorice to 1 ounce or less per day.

• Don't drink alcohol. It can be harmful to your liver.

• Talk with your healthcare provider before taking a multivitamin.

Follow-up

Follow up with your healthcare provider, or as advised.

When to call your healthcare provider

Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following:

• Nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite

• Yellowing of the skin and eyes

• Dark urine

• Bloody, black stools or unusually light-colored stools

• Vomiting blood

• Abdominal swelling

• Itching that doesn’t go away

• Swollen feet or legs 

• Red palms

• Trouble sleeping

• Confusion