Here are my new thoughts about the carnivore diet since Dad’s improvement
1. If you are quite sick (by quite sick I mean you have an autoimmune disorder or autoimmune symptoms, or mental health issues) – going straight carnivore might save you a lot of pain and suffering. I went extremely low carb and basically fixed my issues and dad’s, and my husbands, but basically, everything we reintroduced made us incredibly sick, and the last 3 years have been hard. Not as hard as being really ill, but quite emotional, and quite frustrating. I never lost hope that food was the answer (and it is), but it was difficult. If you’re really ill, you might want to start with: meat and water and salt for at least 30 days. Then see how you feel, and decide what to do next. You need to get healthy before you can start listening to your body and learning what you need. I really believe all meat can do that the quickest. 30 days isn’t much if a time commitment to solve something seemingly unsolvable.
Obviously, there are no scientific studies on an all meat diet, not really anyway. You’re not going to be able to go to a doctor and have them tell you it’s a good idea. They’ll probably tell you you’ll die. Who knows. Everyone will judge you. Everyone judges you when you stop eating gluten or dairy, try not eating vegetables and see what kind of judgment you get.
But it’s only a month, and man is it effective. Then you can reintroduce different plants (I’d probably start with berries and greens I guess), wait a couple of days and see how you feel. But I think this is the fastest way to stop suffering. You can do step by step elimination – gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, etc. But honestly, fuck being sick. Get rid of it fast. Who cares about the foods you like.
2. If your only symptom is weight gain or problems gaining weight, I also think the easiest thing to do is to go carnivore and see how you feel. But this seems to be less of a complicated issue than mental health and autoimmune problems. Going low carb should help you lose or gain weight anyway.
3. I’ve been worried about suggesting an all meat diet to people (for obvious reasons). All I can tell you for sure is: I feel great, Dad is getting better, mom’s arthritis is gone, and it seems to be extremely effective for basically any health problem. Check out meatheals.com to see a ton of testimonies. There are no studies to back this up, so going the science route isn’t going to help. Maybe in the future, there will be. I believe there’s a company in Hungary testing out the meat diet to treat autoimmune disease so hopefully those studies will be available asap. I’m not worried about cholesterol. I was worried about dying from the multiple autoimmune disorders I had. I was worried about suicide from the depression that runs in my family. I was worried about my mom eventually needing her knees replaced. I was worried about my skin basically falling off my face. Idgaf about cholesterol, and I don’t think there’s enough evidence anywhere to claim any health problems related to eating meat. (Feel absolutely free to comment below with links to articles that show what your concerns are.) Being sick is horrible. Being alive is amazing. Not being exhausted all the time, not trying to cover up acne, not being miserable, bloated, overweight, arthritic, angry, and hopeless is awesome. Not waking up and laying in bed waiting for the doom to envelope you is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. You can try it out and go back if you want, but if you’re suffering, what is there to lose?
4. For those of you who have had only moderate success with removing things from your diet, I see absolutely no downside (except socially) to eating meat for a month.
5. All this being said, I do believe you can solve most (and some people may be able to solve all) of your food problems going low carb. I’m going to write a post roughly outline what I believe are the worst foods to the least damaging foods. Cutting out the top ones will improve you. I’m just starting to believe that carnivore might be best for really sick people.
Thanks for the support. It’s so nice to hear from people who have managed to fix their anxiety. Going the food route is a hard road, and you get a lot of flack for it. So good for you guys. Keep it up. And if it’s not working, try carnivore. Good luck to everyone.
Also, I will post more testimonies, if yours isn’t up, it will be.
More soon!
Bravo Mikaila!
If it’s working for you then who cares what anyone says! The results you and your family have gotten are the only proof you need.
Keep spreading the word. Keto is awesome!
If you eliminate everything except meat, how do you get all the other nutrients that you can get only through vegetables and fruit? Supplements?
There are none that are needed when you go carnivore. This is the case for two reasons. First, when you remove harmful items from the diet (see Dr. Georgia Ede’s material), your micronutrient need changes. Fundamentally, all our nutrient need analyses have been done on populations eating a substandard diet, and so cannot be trusted. An easy example is vitamin C – there is enough in muscle meat to meet our needs *when it’s not competing with glucose for entry into our cells*. (See Amber’s info at http://empirica.ca.)
The second reason is that fruits and vegetables actually increase our need for some nutrients because they degrade our ability to absorb nutrients, especially minerals, from other food. It’s effectively a double-whammy – you get less when you need more, in both cases because you consumed those plant materials.
There are thousands (literally) of people eating straight carnivore, and seeing health improve – check out the Facebook group Zeroing in on Health.
Also see Meatheals.com for testimonials.
Overcooked meat loses vitamin C, keep a pink line in the middle.
Great info.
Herbivores have already done the assembly of those nutrients. Witness the Inuit and Masai. Plus genetic variations will influence the type of diet one is best suited to. Perhaps the Peterson’s have a lineage not too far from Ice Age peoples, so their nutritional needs skew almost entirely to meat. “Primal Body, Primal Mind” (Gedgaudas) is a good place to start.
and continue with “Primal Fat Burner” also by Nora Gedgaudas (a Canadian by the way)
Inuit people have an extremely small life-span.
Long lifespan = More plants.
Statistical citations would be helpful. What are your stats on Inuit lifespans in what era, what group of “plant eaters” are you talking about and when? Is that lumping in death by accident? Infant mortality? Stats need careful parsing when you cite them. The same thing is used to say ancient humans didn’t have long lifespans. There was a problem with infant mortality, but if a kid made it past five, barring accidents, they seemed to have lived as long as “modern” humans.
This is a supportive article, with good references:
http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/all-meat-diets/
What is the relaxation between anxiety and low or no carb?
*relation*?
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