12 weeks carnivore - my trial to improve my health

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The first time I heard about carnivore, I thought these people were crazy. How can just eating animal foods be healthy? Won't all the cholesterol kill me? What about all the nutrients from fruits and veggies? And don't we need fiber? You know, to keep things going. Carbs didn't even cross my mind at that time. To be fair though, this was before I learned about the health benefits of keto and carnivore and the truth about carbs and fiber.

So, let's break this up a little

How do veggies compare to meat when it comes to nutrients?

Looks like when comparing liver (the animal superfood) to kale (the plant superfood), liver beats kale by a mile. While on a carnivore diet, I don't need to supplement anything except for electrolytes.

 

Is cholesterol really bad for us?

The idea that cholesterol is bad for us is founded on flawed science and cherry-picked data, not solid evidence. Total cholesterol is meaningless. There is consensus that triglycerides should be low. Animal products do not cause high triglycerides (hint: it's the sugar). HDL should be high; everyone agrees on that. Consumption of animal products raise HDL. LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, is a poor indicator of cardio-vascular events (statistically insignificant). Better indicators are diabetes, systemic inflammation and smoking.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512433.2018.1519391

Dr. David Diamond explains in this lecture how we ended up believing that LDL and saturated fat are bad and why they aren't the villains they were made out to be.

But the fiber, doesn't it prevent constipation?

Dr. Paul Mason has a great lecture on this topic. He explains that in a trial with patients suffering from severe and painful constipation and bloating, taking away fibre resolved all their symptoms. This isn't surprising, because adding more bulk to an already constipated situation, doesn't seem like the sensible thing to do. And since carbs are not essential and fibre is a carb, logic dictates that fiber isn't essential either.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435786/

But why carnivore?

That is easy to answer. It is the least inflammatory diet. I am using it as a stepping stone, as an elimination diet. My trial will last 12 weeks.

Doing clean keto and daily intermittent fasting reversed my Type 2, GERD, NASH and I dropped almost a third of my weight (that's a small person). This got me off all meds except for thyroid meds. They needed constant tweaking, often with terrible symptoms. When I heard that carnivore could fix my thyroid, I decided to give it a try. Carnivore fixing my thyroid seems reasonable, because I reversed so many of my health conditions with keto.

This video by Dr. Ken Berry explains that many autoimmune conditions can be improved or reversed with a carnivore diet.

Big changes

With the above-mentioned concerns out of the way (cholesterol, nutrients and fiber), I was ready to start my trial. I am now almost 3 weeks into my trial. The changes have been amazing.

What changed?

1. I lost weight. I was stalled for quite a few months and now dropped 10.5 pounds since starting carnivore on August 15th.
2. Climbing stairs is now pain free. While eliminating most plants reduced my knee pain tremendously, I am now absolutely pain free.
3. Lower fasting glucose. As a type 2 off insulin and Metformin, I regularly check my glucose levels. Fasting and bedtime glucose dropped below 5 mmol (90 mg/dl) most days.
4. Full of energy. Yes, I felt great on keto already, but the uptick in energy is substantial.
5. I only eat one meal a day (used to be two meals). I am so much more satiated since starting carnivore.
6. I stopped snacking. All the convenient keto treats, nuts, chocolate, fat bombs, they were so easy to grab and so hard to resist. I know I am repeating myself, but when I feel satiated, I am not craving anything.
7. My thyroid? The jury is still out until I get my labs done. But with the blessing of my doctor, I dropped one of the thyroid meds.

What I eat on carnivore

My carnivore diet is also dairy free, so milk, cream and cheese are out. I use butter though to make hollandaise sauce. Simple and delicious.

For my coffee creamer I came across this great idea from Neisha Berry. Yes, I put a raw egg in my coffee. I was hesitant about it, but it is delicious. No eggy taste, just creamy coffee. When you think about it, it's more nutritious too.

I eat meat, seafood, eggs and butter. It seems boring, but I really enjoy my food. Somehow I am not getting tired of eggs.

Some sample meals

 

What's next

Once the 12 weeks are up, I will update on this blog. Hopefully by then I will be able to share some labs.

Anyone who would like to learn more about carnivore or keto, please join our group on Facebook.

Final thought: I don't believe in miracle cures. But a proper human diet comes pretty darn close.

 

Written by Roxana Soetebeer
Published September 4th, 2021