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.
Hi, not trying to be antagonistic here, but please look at the actual scientific evidence on the INNUIT AND MASAI. They all end up with heart disease and clogged arteries, and in the case of the Innuit, often have strokes. The healthy carnivore diet is mostly a myth and will lead to terrible long-term health outcomes for the average sedentary western individual.
See these links:
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/omega-3s-and-the-eskimo-fish-tale/
https://nutritionstudies.org/masai-and-inuit-high-protein-diets-a-closer-look/
In contrast, if you read “The Blue Zones” by Dan Buetnner, and “Healthy at 100” by John Robbins, you will see that all of the well-studied populations of people around the world, who live the longest and have the lowest incidence of disease, eat a diet of 85-99% plants, with only small amounts of meat and dairy.
I just couldn’t help but share this info after watching the above video and seeing that this Dr. is recommending a carnivore diet in part, because he does not have accurate information on the Innuit and Masai…
If anyone wants more info you can comment and I will give you my website, as well as some other resources that can help you understand what the root of most health issues are, why sometimes a diet of plants can make you feel worse before you feel better, and also why some degree of fasting is often necessary in order to restore your health.
I’d like you to give me ANY study linking MEAT consumption to ill health. ANY study. We can go through it and I’ll point out where it goes wrong. Most of these studies either don’t look at external factors (vegetarians often drink and smoke less), or they look at dairy and meat consumption linked to ill health. I am not a fan of dairy, I don’t think we should be eating it and there is evidence it leads to health problems. I’m a huge proponent of eating meat. And linking to nutritionstudies.org… That is a terrible place to go for scientific research. They have such a bias.
Oxygen therapy can heal any damage like stroke, heart disease and clogged arteries…and pretty much any other disease.
So food grade H2O2 and meat can cure all problems. Awesome!
It looks like my shopping list just got real easy lol.
Hi!
In regards to your microbiome. I find a good starting place is having a comprehensive stool analysis? This is not offered by ohip. I’ve used Genova diagnostics and diagnostic solutions. You will get an idea of the type and variety of bacteria in your gut.
I’ve used OHIP stool test for basic things and have detected some bad bugs before. I found a naturopath to interpret and make recommendations
How many days on carnivore till your depression was gone? Have you any suggestions why a plant based diet might lead to depression? Are your diet ketonic?
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