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!
Really like your blog and looking forward to the post mentioning the most damaging foods to the least. Thanks!
While I’m happy that this has worked for you and many other people, I’m skeptical about the low carb thing working for everyone. I personally never was able to feel full eating a high fat diet, and anyway, it actually worsened my depression in the past (think mental fog, feeling hopeless, and feeling very dull and stupid for not being able to think quickly). It wasn’t until I started eating a relatively high carb diet (at least 60-70% calories from carbs) that I started having enough energy to not nap and think clearly.
By the way, I completely agree with you about dairy – I think it’s horrible, and you can’t even realize how awful for you it is until you completely ditch it. I would also agree that grains and beans (though split lentils, oats and pseudo-grains like buckwheat seem to be perfectly fine, for me at least) are not great for digestion. However, I find that I feel my best when I eat ample amounts of starchy fruit and vegetables, honey, palm sugar, and fruit, especially sweet tropical fruit. I eat meat extremely rarely for no reason other than it smells awful to me, especially the fat (pork is the worst, followed by beef and duck). I do eat fish, again, for no other reason than it smelling appealing to me and me feeling well after eating it.
I’m only writing this here because I feel like it’s the other side of the story. I really don’t think that carbs are a problem for most people, unless they do have some awful autoimmune diseases (you being a perfect example of that), especially carbs coming from fruit and starchy vegetables.
I think it can be the problem: a low carb diet can cause weakness, anxiety, maybe depression… and then, blaming the carb, people cut them all, when what they have to do is to eat more carb.
just goes to show you folks, that we are all different. If you need to eat carbs, try to eat organically grown if you can, and enjoy!
Mikhaila, congratulations and all the best to you and your extended family!
I understand your concern about scientific backing for your diet (especially considering your dad’s(and others) science based thinking), and I myself still browse through pubmed looking for items of interest. But it is such a pain once I find a study, to determine who funded it, examine the actual food (eg. there is a rat food company that manufactures what they call a ‘high fat rat chow’, and I looked into it and it is a high fat AND high carb chow! so it is designed to get rats fat (works for humans too! ;-), the length of the study, the participant numbers, etc.to determine if it valid or not. I know social science is poorly done, but it is that way for most sciences! eg. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/rigorous-replication-effort-succeeds-just-two-five-cancer-papers
I haven’t given up on studies, but the field seems so corrupted. The way I look at it now is WE are the experiment, and WE have been around for what, a million years, through how many ice ages? and we survived and thrived on the only food available in an ice age, and that is animal protein/fat.
I think I have mentioned Jack Kruse before, and my take on him is that he basically recommends that people follow a lifestyle as similar as possible to our paleo ancestors, focusing on cold, light, circadian rhythm, animal protein/fat. He pulls info from current research and papers/books that have been forgotten, consilience in action! You’ve got the diet right. Maybe, or maybe not, you’ll want to look into the other aspects as well.
I guess I am trying to say not to worry about the science so much, your body knows, although if you just want to try and understand what is happening, more power to you!
I have no autoimmune disease or anything; And whenever I eat carbs, my mental acuity drops massively. I also have a harder time falling asleep. That’s the only problem I have with carbs, but that’s more than enough reason for me to get rid of them, as my brain is the most important part of me. If I cut out carbs for a day, and then start the next morning with high fat and protein, not only is my body able to handle more, but it seems like my IQ raises dramatically. I no longer stumble for words or have to stop and think. Processing carbs takes way too much out of your body
This blog is great, I am a big fan, thanks a lot for the information! I I’m still experimenting with this diet, introducing and getting rid of different foods to see what works for me and what doesn’t. I follow it for mental health (I’m on medication for insomnia), chronic back pain (because of the extra weight) and weight loss (I gained weight very fast as a side effect of the medication for insomnia!). About 36 days ago I started this way of eating and it’s great! A few days ago I got the courage to cut in half the medication and I’m doing quite well, thank God for that! I also lost a few pounds and I’m very happy about that. Two days ago I had the stupid idea to reintroduce dairy and it was really bad. Anyway, I’m done eating cheese or any other dairy products for good. I do eat berries from time to time and I’m OK with them. I also eat only fish, chicken and turkey, no other type of meat. I actually think that I started to have health problems because I used to be a lacto-ovo-vegetarian for such a long time (11 years). After reading this I will definitely eat more meat and less veggies/fruit etc. I just want to see how I feel. Mikhaila, thank you again for this blog and in a few months I hope that I’ll be able to write a happy testimonial. All the best to you and your family and take care!
i’ve got nothing but love for what your doing, your coming from the right place and its very easy to see the negative comments as pure misguided hate and aggression. I know you won’t let this get to you as you’ve been through way more than most of us will ever know. Please know what you are doing is more important than perhaps any of us even know. Get involved in none corporate medical trails, I think its something you could crowd fund for sure. I work in film and tv so can help with that side of things if you ever need a hand. Big love anyways you’ve already done amazing things 🙂
I exercise everyday. I think I need carbs. I am needing to change something because my arthritis is ruining my life. Does anyone have enough energy to exercise while on a low carb diet?
Well, you have convinced me. I am going to do 1-2 months of meat only starting tomorrow. Been having chronic problems for a very long time. Very excited about trying this and think it is going to work very well. Thank you for your honesty and hard work.
Let me know how it goes! Good luck!
Well, the latest problem I am having is a spinal stenosis diagnosis in the lower back and also a diagnosis for a right hip replacement. I believe this problem started out very innocently over 20 years ago as just a subtle “knot” in my right adductor and has progressed rapidly the last couple years into sciatica and trouble with my walking gait. Definitely feel this is all soft tissue dysfunction and improper circulation creating muscle imbalance.
Your writing and videos with your dad has been a HUGE help in giving me more insight. Want to add that with this subtle disease that anxiety is a physical symptom that has not originated from emotional problems. The tension and stress that this disease creates is similar to being tortured or interrogated under bright lights. Where to be subtly under this “stress” 24/7 is obviously going to bring out depression and fear somewhere in this process for the body can only take so much continuous stress.
You and your dad are awesome, there is a great place in heaven reserved for you both. KEEP BRINGING IT!!!!!
Have you thought about getting some bodywork to help with the sciatica and gait problems? Rolfing, Alexander Technique, and other modalties can go a long way to giving you relief from symptoms. As a former athlete, I really recommend them, especially Rolfing.
For about a year I have been going to a really good deep tissue massage therapist and have gotten significant relief but the symptoms haven’t completely gone away. Also I have had periods where the back and hip improve then a relapse. Have had digestion problems for over 25 years and believe these problems are connected. Just getting started on the zero carb diet and feel pretty confident that my inflammation and tension will be solved. Fingers crossed.
Never heard about the Alexander Technique I will look into it. TY
That’s great to hear. You might really like Alexander as a followup to the deep tissue work. Even when the body has good deep work, the adaptive movement patterns you developed to get around the pain can persist. Something like Alexander Technique or Aston Patterning (a rolfing followup) would help develop new, more efficient ones.
Hey Mikhaila,
Ridiculous and surreal improvement on only 8-10 days of carnivore diet!! Haven’t felt this well in over 25 years!!
I want to start a monthly payment plan like your dad’s Patreon program. Are you going to start something like that???
Gratefully, Steve
The disclaimer: “…going straight carnivore might save you a lot of pain and suffering.” …… or it might make you very very ill.
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