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!
What about organ meats? You say you eat a lot of ribeye (which I totally understand, as it’s amazing), but do you include organ meats in your diet at all? I personally find that beef heart and liver have helped a lot with my fatigue and anxiety attacks, and I eat about 12 oz of liver and 20 oz of beef heart per week (I make my own organ sausage and eat it for breakfast). However, I’m wondering if less would be needed on a zero carb diet, assuming some/all of my anxiety and fatigue is coming from carbs. Any thoughts?
I don’t eat any, I haven’t found the need to? I feel fine as is and I prefer the taste of ribeye. I really like the fat, so I’m loathe to eat the organ meats 🙂
Do you get all your fat from the steak? I see that your father also eats low fat meats along with beef, so I was just wondering if I should include olive oil. Thanks!
(also, do you take vitamins?)
Mikhaila Peterson, if you read this, please respond. I watched the interview in which you talked of your sicknesses and diet etc; I’m impressed, and wish you and all your family the best. I got fixated sort of on the phrase “autoimmune” because my husband has sclerosis multiplex, which is also autoimmune disease. Do you think that diet can fix him too? In general, everywhere you go, you hear it is an untractqable disease; and ofcourse the interferons don’t really help. Sorry for my English btw, I am not a native. Right now he decided to drastically reduce carbs, cause he is addicted to sugar… So he is overwheight, has tendency to naps, like he switches off. And I didn’t believe he just collapses on the bed, I was sure he went to bed to late (which might partially still be true). Have you heard of any cases of SM being kinda “cured” by diet? I can’t really go through all the testimonials, it’s a lot. Please help, if you can, and have some time, cause with a little baby I’m sure it’s rather difficult to have time for oneself. Anna
It’s so good reading all these stories. I have been struggling with my health for years. It started off with mental health issues like severe mood swings, aggression, exhaustion, confusion, depression. In the last few years I developed problems with my gut, which the doctor reckoned is IBS. Recently my partner came across Mikhaila and her meat diet. I’ve been on it for 2 weeks now and am pain free for the whole 2 weeks! Such a incredible feeling after feeling pain in my guts or being nauseous continuously for the last few years. I even think I feel a bit more energetic. The judgement is sometimes quite hard to deal with, but because of my good results so far I just leave everyone be. The ones that judge me never had any debilitating problems, so let them judge, for they don’t know any better. A very few are actually supportive (they do exist :), those are the ones I cherish. Thanks Mikhaila for sharing your story! I think a lot of people in the future will need this information!
Mikhaila – do you generally eat fatty meats or do you try to go lean? Any idea what percentage of your calories are coming from fats and whether you are in a state of ketosis on your diet?
Leave a comment