LD_Logo
Search
Close this search box.

Zero Carb – The Carnivore Diet

By Mikhaila

So I’m onto the next stage of food weirdness.

I’m on day 5 of only eating meat.

What is the Zero Carb Diet?
Literally, it’s people who only eat meat and animal products (this can include dairy). Obviously, it won’t include dairy for me. I still think dairy is evil. Some people have been doing this diet for 20 years. There are tribes that only eat meat as well (Inuit, Massai, etc.)

How do they not get scurvy and vitamin deficiencies?
It’s possible that some of the vitamins we need are actually vitamins we use for metabolizing glucose. For instance, vitamin c competes with glucose, so it’s possible that people who don’t eat anything with glucose need far less vitamin c. There also is small amounts of vitamin C in meat

There are a lot of questions about this diet, but people seem to thrive on it.

I’m going to try it out for a month and see what happens.

I have a couple of theories/questions:
1. People who thrive only eating meat have extremely damaged microbiomes and can’t tolerate plants. Meat doesn’t need a microbiome to be digested, so eating meat eliminates the microbiome problem. Plants need to be broken down partly with a functioning microbiome (especially carb-y plants). I don’t believe people are carnivores. I do believe that you need a good microbiome to help you digest plants. Antibiotic use, birth control use, C-sections (among many other things), over generations, is BAD. It’s cumulative too, which concerns me. I obviously have a microbiome problem (Not being able to take probiotics is a big clue). I was born C-section so my microbiome is going to be a little funky. Or a lot funky. Then my baby, born naturally, breastfed, is still going to have a funky microbiome because she inherits it from me! Generationally, through antibiotic use and whatever else, we’re screwing over our children. It’s terrible. Anyway, I think maybe that’s the reason for this new microbiome-less diet. If anyone has any info on the microbiomes of carnivorous people, comment below, that’d be really interesting.
2. Maybe people on the zero carb diet haven’t tried the safe foods. A lot of the stories I’ve read are people trying to reintroduce fruit and nuts and then declaring all plants are harmful to them. What happens if you reintroduce coconut oil? Lettuce? Is that still going to bother you?

Why am I doing this?
1. I haven’t been able to get as well as I felt before the pregnancy. I’m at an 8/10. I was able to get to a 9.5-10/10 before the pregnancy. I was able to tolerate more and now I can’t without a reaction. I feel good but not AS good as I did before. This is probably from a microbiome change. There’s evidence that your microbiome gets less diverse during pregnancy. This is something I REALLY didn’t need. (See this article for more info: “The first trimester gut microbiota is similar in many aspects to that of healthy non-pregnant male and female controls, but by the third trimester, the structure and composition of the community resembles a disease-associated dysbiosis that differs among women”… GR8)
2. Every time I try to reintroduce probiotics it fails miserably. Even baby amounts. There’s something really wrong if you can’t tolerate probiotics in any form in any amount. I can’t even do homemade sauerkraut (and I don’t have a problem with red cabbage so it’s not the cabbage).
3. I don’t seem to be getting less sensitive, which makes me think I’m not healing, I’m just not irritating myself. I need to move onto the healing stage.

Plan of action:
1. Meat for a month, see if I feel any better/different.
2. Eat lettuce after a month and see if that irritates me. (Arthritis, digestive problems)
3. If it turns out (my limited) plants are bothering me, I’ll continue with the all meat diet and theoretically allow my gut to heal. Bone broth, and meat. THEN I’ll attempt to add in probiotics and some plants once I’m healed.

I know that when I have a reaction I can’t digest plants properly. I also know that almost all plants give me an autoimmune disorder and severe depression and skin issues and makes my life literally not worth living. I wanted to try all meat a while ago but was unsure about the vitamin thing. After some research though I feel a bit better and am more than willing to give it a try:

http://www.jbc.org/content/87/3/651.full.pdf+html

https://zerocarbzen.com/resources/ – This guy really knows his stuff

http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/food/vegetables/

Nobody else is doing this that I know (dad seems to be tolerating his foods excellently, and so is my husband). So I’ll give it a try and let you all know how it goes. Next month I’ll either feel 100% or I’ll go back to what I’m eating now. I’m also going to do stool testing for my family to see if that’ll show me anything of use.

UPDATE: March 2018 – Carnivore diet still going strong. Only beef and salt and water (Lion Diet) at this point. Feeling good. Oct 2023 – Still doing the Lion Diet. Haven’t died yet.

Join the Conversation

43 Comments

  1. Hi Mikhaila,

    Here is some info that is highly likely you are already familiar with:

    http://myzerocarblife.jamesdhogan.com/wp/

    http://www.zerocarbhealth.com/index.php/zc-blogs/science/

    There is a HUGE amount of info out there — probably too much info. Not sure which figure of speech to use…chew the meat, spit out the bones. Boil down the cabbage (though probably don’t eat the cabbage) to something practical, pragmatic, utilitarian, manageable, and simple. Roughly speaking.

    The Kelly Hogan one is interesting since ate in a “boring” and “weird” way during her pregnancy.

  2. Have you looked into fecal transplant? Apparently some early experimentation yielded positive results.

  3. I’m starting on meat diet Dec 31 when I get home from vacation. I’ve been mostly keto for a while, but developed major lower back issues on vacation eating a little bit mors veg-fruit. Hoping to see overall joint improvement.
    Glad to stumble onto your site.

  4. This is interesting. Have you ever heard of Dr. Steven Gundry? He has a lot of theories and useful information regarding plant consumption and the way our bodies react to it, he really opened my eyes to some of the harm. Good luck and I hope you start feeling better! I am currently pregnant and look forward to going through your past blogs to see some of your dieting during your pregnancy.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *