Of all the people in the carnivore community I have encountered,
We all invariably said the same thing when we first learned of the carnivore diet...
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"Well, that's f%*#n crazy!"
It's not until we started peeling away the layers of mistakes,
lies & half-truths we have been told for decades,
That we began to see the truth.
A Quick Note:
I wanted to take a moment prior to this section to be clear about something. My goal here is not to convince anyone of anything. I am simply demonstrating what I believe after almost 30 years of being on nothing short of a quest to find the true answers to my weight problems. I feel as though I have found a lot of those answers and feel compelled, as I go through this journey, to share that info with anyone who is interested. All I ask for is an open mind and perhaps some curiosty as to whether there may me more to the nutritional story than we've been taught. Thank you, T.K.
The Carnivore Diet
Perhaps the best part of the carnivore diet lies in its simplicity. Meat & animal products make up the vast majority of the eating plan and it's very powerful for healing & vitality. The funny thing is, while eating meat is great for health, it is just as powerful because of all the things you stop eating. Simply by eliminating processed food, sugar and so called "vegetable" seed oils, one is miles ahead of the Standard American Diet (SAD) - However, going that one or two steps
further to Carnivore can help re-set an ailing body, mind and spirit. It is the most powerful elimination diet (depending on how strict it is) and is being used globally for so much more than general health, including to treat auto-immune disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and many other conditions. While some want to discount anecdotal evidence, in my opinion that is exactly how we got into this mess; by listening only to nutrition scientists who were basing recommendations on flawed studies which are frequently paid for my the big food companies they are benefiting.
But Why Meat? What's so good about it? Animal meat is the most nutrient dense, bio-available food on the planet. It has been human's primary fuel source for 2 million years and has resulted in massive adaptations like exponential brain growth and digestive system improvements. If this is new to you, please let that sink in...our bodies have been ADAPTING & EVOLVING for 2 MILLION YEARS to eating more and more meat to not only survive this earth... but to thrive on it. I am sure you have some questions of why I am doing
this and possibly some comments on how I am how I am destined for an early grave...ie: heart disease, cancer, gout, etc. Please see the FAQ where I answer some of those. Now, let's look at some benefits of eating carnivore:
Just Some of the Potential Benefits Of Carnivore
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Anxiety Reduction/Elimination
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Mental Clarity
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Reversal of Insulin Resistance
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Reduce Blood Sugar
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Reduction/Elimination of Depression
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Prevention of Chronic Disease
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Weight Loss
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Reduced Inflammation
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Increased Energy
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Improved Mental Health
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Reduced Gas / Flatulence
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Improved Immune Function
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Clearer Skin
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Potential Reversal of Many Auto Immune Diseases/Symptoms
What I Eat...And What I Don't
Meat & Animal Foods - Unlimited
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Beef
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Eggs
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Pork
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Chicken
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Lamb
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Turkey
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Fish
I Try To Use My Brain
I talk a lot about common sense when it comes to food these days. It's simple really, our species evolved and thrived because of eating meat & animal products but now, because of some seriously flawed studies back in the 50's, we should all consider saturated fat to be evil and damaging? Red meat consumption over the past 50 years has been unfairly vilified and the result was a reduction in consumption...and yet heart disease cases continue to increase, A LOT. How is that possible? There are a few reasons which I will expound on shortly in other sections but here is some pressing info:
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First: protein. Anyone who says you can get high quality protein from plant based sources is selling something. Meat is the most bio-available source of protein on the planet. What does that mean exactly? It means what you eat is what you get. Meat gives you a complete protein with all the essential amino acids that the body needs. A plant based shake you say? Yeah, not even close and it probably has all sorts of plant defense chemicals and seed oils to boot. Hard pass.
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Second: There are so many vital nutrients found only in animal products that any diet that does not include at least some meat is severely lacking and dangerous. The vitamins & nutrients include: Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3, Creatine, Carnitine, Carnosine, Taurine & Vitamin A but there are many others and they are VITAL to human health. So what am I eating? Lots of meat, primarily beef and lots of eggs. I will show you a standard day of meals down below. I know, many people think this is extremely unhealthy, and you know what, some of them are very intelligent people. The topic of saturated fat, cholesterol and what actually causes heart disease is complicated for sure and I will be doing a full blog post on my findings so please subscribe if you're interested but in the mean time please check out some of the resources HERE --> to give you some more info.
My Common Sense Carnivore Take: How could something that has been so good for us for so long (eating meat & animal products), now all of a sudden be bad for us...like catastrophically bad if you listen to some people? The fact is, saturated fat is necessary for a healthy life. See the FAQ for a little more on this.
Full Fat / Low Lactose Dairy
- In Moderation -
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Heavy Whipping Cream
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Hard Cheeses
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Butter
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Sour Cream
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Some Soft Cheeses
Dairy is not for everyone on Carnivore, that is for sure. In fact, it may not be for me in the long run but for now, especially in the beginning it is 100% on the table. The only reason I would eliminate it is that many people have sensitivities to all forms of dairy and personally I have an eczema situation on my scalp which could be related to that. I am just not ready to go to that extreme just yet. For now, I eat dairy in the forms of heavy whipping cream, lots of butter (yay!) and some cheese. Sometimes, when I feel the old addiction beast start to rear its ugly head, a few slices of even soft cheese can put him at bay. This is most likely due to the opiate-like effects of some dairy. Luckily for me though, one bite of cheese and I can stop right there. I don't eat the whole thing. Dairy also has a lot of vitamins and nutrients as well. With that said, after a year if there is no improvement in my eczema I would have to do a more substantial elimination. For now, weight loss is the primary goal.
The Worst Offenders:
"Vegetable" Seed Oils - Total Elimination For Me*
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Safflower Oil
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Soybean Oil
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Sunflower Oil
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Canola Oil
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Corn Oil
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Cottonseed Oil
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Grapeseed Oil
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Cottonseed Oil
Forgive me my crudeness but, God, I hate this shit. If there is one thing any person in the world should consider doing for their health, giving up seed oils should be #1. But first, I will give you one guess as to why poly unsaturated fatty acid seed oils exist? Ding Ding! Money. They are dirt cheap to make and are literally found in just about every processed food, deep fryer and commercial salad dressing. When they were first created they were used as industrial lubricants for machines. What??? If this doesn't raise some serious common sense carnivore red flags I don't know what will.
These "vegetable"oils are actually extracted from seeds and the process involves high heat and chemicals like hexane. It is a severe procedure that damages the oil to the point where they are basically corrupted from the outset. These oils are VERY UNSTABLE. By the time you see the oil in the market, it is rancid from oxidation and ready to wreak havoc on literally every part of the human body. "But TK, vegetable oils sound so healthy?" Amazing isn't it. Another great publicist at work. Well, we have all been duped.
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We are all living in the world's greatest (or saddest) nutritional experiment ever. What happens when we take a chemically extracted toxic industrial seed oil, that has no business being in the human body, and then use it for up to 10-30% of our total caloric daily intake? Take a look at this chart and see the massive increase in seed oil consumption over the past 100 years. See anything scary? I do. It's a $100 Billion Dollar Business and will reach the trillions soon if we don't stop ingesting them.
Seed Oils Contribute to:
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Cancer
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Metabolic Dysfunction
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Auto Immune Disorders
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Obesity
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Neurodegenerative Disease
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Total body inflammation
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Cardiovascular Disease
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Alzheimers / Dimentia
Seed oils are TOXIC to the body. The more they are ingested the greater the risk of disease and unfortunately they take about 2 years to break down in the body. We are all different and the inflammatory consequences of seed oils will affect everyone differently. I see no reason to take any chances. My goal is to eliminate them entirely from my body but as many have found, it is nearly impossible to eat out at restaurants without taking a risk.
The one good thing about seed oils? If I do eat some now, it may cause stomach trouble but the good thing is I do not find them "addictive" in the same way as I do actual foods. Maybe that is because they are not a food at all. Just chemicals.
If you are beginning to question seed oils a bit, perhaps this video will put it over the top for you...
Processed Food
- Total elimination for me
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They Suck
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No really they suck really bad
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Run away!
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My lizard brain loves this shit
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I can't stand it.
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Looking at this picture is sending me off the deep end.
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Why do we do this to ourselves?
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First things First. I think the news is out on processed food by now. Everyone seems to know that cutting processed foods from a diet is one of the most important things to do for health... or are we still so trained by the ongoing narrative that saturated fat is the real demon? So is it Cheetos or red meat? You tell me. I would love to hear from you. But, why do so few people give them up or even try to? We think in moderation they are not harmful or is it addiction? Another good question. A little of both I'm sure.
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Just to switch gears for a moment, If you ask my kids, they with both tell you, I have 20 movies in my favorite top 5. They would agree however, that Jaws has always been in the top 3 forever. As Hooper says, "Jaws is the perfect eating machine. All he does is swim, eat and make baby sharks." Well, what would happen if we decided to feed Jaws a diet of soybean oil, Ritz Crackers and Nutrigrain bars? That's right, this is a stupid question, he would literally get sick and die, but somewhere along the way we as a human race decided that eating laboratory created franken-food was better than eating meat, what our bodies are designed to eat. I eat a steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner and people literally cringe and think I am a fool, and yet I see them drinking a 40oz sugar laden frappacino for breakfast and a cream cheese croissant from Dunkin that is packed with seed oils, refined grains, sugar, lectins, you name it.
Am I comparing the human digestive system to Jaws? Heck, I guess I am, sort of, but the fact of the matter is we are both predominately carnivores. While our big toothed buddy Jaws may not have the ability to stroll down to the the gas station to grab a microwaved burrito, a coke and some Doritoes, he would probably eat them if given no choice. And that is the thing. Do we actually have choice? That is the trillion dollar question, literally. Most of us don't have a choice. Most of us are addicted to processed foods even if we don't know it. I heard someone once give a simple test on PFA (processed food addiction). Think about giving up bread for a year. What is the next thought that enters your mind. "No, I can't do that!" There's your answer. The fact is, as a species we went almost two million years without bread & refined carbs. It wasn't until agriculture came along about 10-12 thousand years ago that they reentered our lives.
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No wonder we are sicker as humans now than at anytime in our existence. The worst part is, these foods are hyper-palatable, so much so that they overload our brains' dopamine receptors causing us to crave them in the future. Once we got past the "take it or leave it" phase just like alcohol, it is too late. Those trenches are already dug into our brain and we are hooked. And the worst part? These pricks who make this crap, know it. Processed foods are the root of the obesity epidemic as they wreak havoc with our metabolism, cause insulin resistance and are at the root of nearly every chronic disease that is plaguing our country and the entire planet.
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For me, processed foods are a big no. If I have one bite, it will be 10 and then the hijack will begin. No thank you.
Why are Processed Foods So Bad?
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Virtually All Contain Highly Inflammatory Refined Industrial Seed Oils
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Contain Highly Refined Grains
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Limited Nutritional Value
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Artificial Ingredients
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Highly Addictive
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Promotes Binge Eating
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Filled with Chemicals
This Blows My Mind
I talk a lot about how we are all part of the largest nutritional experiment in history and man, if this doesn't make you stop and think. Almost 60% of Americans' calories come from ultra processed foods. 60%! And we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic, why Alzheimer's & Dementia is ravaging our senior citizens and people are dropping dead from heart attacks way to early. In my humble opinion IT IS NOT MEAT. It is processed crap!
Source: American Institute for Cancer Research
This is a great video with an overview of how processed food is killing us
Vegetables
- Limit or eliminate for me
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Most taste like crap . I wonder why?
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Loads of anti-nutrients
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Flatulence kings & queens
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Vitamins are not nearly as bio-available as meat
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Actually I like onions so there you got me.
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Look, the carnivore diet gets a lot of press about people not eating vegetables but in my opinion the most important part is getting rid of processed foods, sugar and poisonous "vegetable" oils. If any person does that, they are going to be in a much better place. For me, however, I was keto for about 3 months last year and didn't drink alcohol the entire time and I still felt crappy and tired constantly. I was eating big salads, with olive oil and vinegar, walnuts, peppers, you name it. Unfortunately after the three months I still did not feel any better so I gave in and within a few months I was back to a Standard American diet of shit.
So, I do not eliminate or limit vegetables because I think it is funny, or it's a good sound bite, I do it because vegetables do not have legs. Ok that's funny. Yes, you read me right. Every other biological multi cell creature on this earth wants to do two things in this world, and what are they? They want to survive and procreate to ensure the future of the species. Plants are no different. They do not grow just for animals or for Joe the vegan down the street to eat them. They grow to expand their presence in the world. If animals and humans could just eat them without consequences, they would be hard pressed to survive. As I mentioned, they do not have legs and cannot evade predators like we do or animals do. They must protect themselves in the only way they can - with natural, chemical, defense mechanisms.
99% of plants in the environment, if eaten, will make humans sick and can even kill us. What makes us think that the few we tend to eat nowadays are benign? Nothing, except that is what we have been told for a hundred years and we took it as gospel. Plants are a panacea? Far from it. Plants contain lectins, phytates, oxalates, and numerous other defense chemicals that wreak havoc on our body especially as the doses increase. The green spinach juice you see someone downing at the health food store? That's just an oxalate bomb running through the body lodging it's sharp crystals willy nilly anywhere it likes contributing to things like joint pain and kidneys stones, just to name a few.
These defense chemicals will not usually harm a human in one sitting, but over years of ingesting them in large quantities they can be very harmful to nearly every system in the body, especially digestion and causing leaky gut leading to overall inflammation. Lectins literally poke holes in your gut! Gluten which gets all the front page news these days, is actually a lectin and these babies are found in nearly all vegetables, seeds, grains & legumes. Run away I say! Phytates aka Phytic acid literally binds to vitamins as you eat them causing deficiencies. These plants are trying anything they can to defend themselves so they survive and if that means even slowing down a predator then so be it. Green juice? No thanks.
Source: https://healthcoachkait.com
The fact is, humans for the past 2 million years have evolved to become the apex predator on Earth and that is because of the action of making meat the predominate food of choice and relegating plants, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains to a very minor portion of the diet. Vegetables were a SURVIVAL food for humans when there was no meat to be had and this happened over 2 million years time...until the advent of agriculture about 10 thousand years ago. Meat was our THRIVING food and still is to this day for those eating it.
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Common Sense Take: Hey if eating some vegetables is going to help me stick to a primarily carnivore diet, well then, damn I may have a sauteed onion here or there, or other low toxicity vegetables. It also depends on what one's goals are. For me, it is losing weight for good and the better I feel, the better I think I will do. Veggies just don't make me feel good. Oh, and by the way. Veggies make you fart. Meat doesn't. End of story. :)
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For more on this topic I highly recommend the podcast: The Road To Carnivore. In 15 minutes Joanne Ozug will have you seriously doubting vegetables' magical benefits. Find it here --> You may also find it on all podcast platforms.
Grains, Nuts, Seeds
& all the other stuff that makes your gut angry
- Total elimination for me -
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How's your tummy feeling? I love causing IBS!
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I also love causing flatulence and gas
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And don't forget I cause diabetes and obesity!
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You don't seem swollen enough - let's throw in chronic inflammation. Boom!
If I looked at this picture about 15 years ago I would have said, "oh yeah, those are healthy whole grains. I have to have those on a good diet." I used to run marathons even though I was overweight at the time. I would train maybe 30 miles in a week and still not lose weight. That is literally not possible if you listen to a lot of calories-in-calories-out people. I was eating lots of pasta, breads and processed food. In my opinion it's not all about low carb, in fact I do not even think about carbs anymore. High carb is trouble though for anyone with a weight problem or metabolic dysfunction. Hand raised. That's me.
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I also feel like the gig is up a bit on grains and most people are aware of gluten and other lectins that attack our gut lining and cause systemic inflammation. Cows are built to digest grasses with separate stomachs, we are not. We must heavily process wheat so much to make it edible and it wasn't even available until about 10,000 years ago. A speck of time evolutionarily speaking. Grains, especially heavily processed grains are one of the root causes of diabetes, obesity, some argue Dementia and Alzheimer's disease which is now being referred to as diabetes of the brain. At first our bodies can handle this stuff a little but then over time it really starts to add up. I used to look at those whole grain breads in the stores thinking they were health in a plastic bag. Little did I know they are basically lectin bombs just waiting to wreak havoc on the body.
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Lastly, one bite of bread and I am the mayor dopamine city and that would be the end of that. No more for me! I lump nuts and seeds into this category because its basically the same info. One of the reasons I felt bad on keto was because I was having nuts all the time in salads and for snacks. Most people's stomachs do not approve. Hard pass now for me.
This is a great video with an overview of how wheat in particular is a nasty grain
Sugar / High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Total elimination for me -
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Looks like cocaine, Acts like cocaine in the brain...
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Highly addictive
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Causes diabetes
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Causes obesity
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I taste good but have zero nutrients
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Oh yeah, and if TK eats me he will be 300 Lbs within a month
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Duh. Sugar is bad. High Fructose Corn Syrup is so much worse. Not much news here but it is definitely off my plan for the next year. Surprisingly I don't have a huge sweet tooth. I am more the heavy carb guy.
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Oddly enough I don't find pure sugar to be that bad in the grand scheme of things. If I could eat it from time to time and it would not send me into craving mode I might but that's too big of a risk now. Sugar, in my eyes, is totally dependent on the person and metabolic health.
Fruit
- Total elimination for me, but maybe not why you think -
Ok. This may come as a shock but I am not anti fruit, especially lower sugar fruits. It all depends on the person and how healthy they are metabolically. Myself, though, there is not much to be gained from fruit right now. While most of them are low toxicity the sugar can cause so many issues with insulin, blood sugar swings, weight gain, etc that it is not worth the risk. Also, after the
last time I ate fruit after two months carnivore general food cravings came back big time. For me it is a no go, at least for this year. But wait! I actually will have some lemon juice from time to time in seltzer. Its a nice variation of taste and really does not trigger me at all for sweets or other carbs. Very low sugar. Think this makes me a non carnivore? I don't care. :)
Honey
- Total elimination for me -
You will hear a lot of carnivores / animal based followers espousing the benefits of honey. Lots of hunter gatherer tribes around the world currently celebrate finding the hive and going to town... so to speak. Being pure sugar it is a hard pass for me for metabolic reasons not to mention that it will start a hard craving cycle for me. I am not sure if I will ever get over that but we will see. Those
pathways run pretty deep in my brain. With that said, in moderation for metabolically healthy people is probably fine. Just not for me.
Wrapping Up
If you have made it this far down the rabbit hole on FD&T I want to thank you. Its simple really, I eat lots of meat & eggs when I'm hungry and if I am not hungry, I tend not to eat. Believe it or not that happens a lot now. I usually only have breakfast once or twice a week. It is a common carnivore phenomenon - It is almost like built-in intermittent fasting. Beef and lamb are the most nutrient dense but chicken, pork, fish are all good options for variation too.
Lastly - I stay away from toxins (seed oils, processed food, grains, nuts, seeds & vegetables) as much as possible. I'm not perfect but many of these are zero tolerance for addiction reasons. As I say, common sense in the current nutritional landscape can take you far.
My Common Sense Carnivore Philosophy
I love music. But I especially love music from my childhood decade of the 80's. You probably know the song, "She Blinded Me With Science". It's a classic. I feel that this song keeps coming to mind when I think about the nutritional landscape over the past 50 years. So much emphasis has been put on scientific "studies" that only focus on unreliable epidemiological studies, the vast majority funded my processed food companies.
Somewhere along the way we all stopped using common sense.
So let's bring back some common sense. I hope you'll join me.
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Everyone Is Different
I love cats, but there is more than one way to skin this one. I can't stand the dogma in some full time carnivores who believe their way is the only way. Bullshit. If we do not acknowledge that we are all coming to carnivore nutrition from a different place, with different circumstances, different conditions then how can we expect anyone to have an open mind towards this way of eating? It is imperative that as a community we are accepting & understanding that everyone is coming from a unique place. with different goals. There are different levels of carnivore and we all need to celebrate all of our brethren no matter their choices.
We Use Our Brains & Our Guts 'Round Here
We are all born with an internal compass, call it a feeling, call it intuition but if we stop and listen, it will guide us where we need to go.
One of the primary tenants of this diet is using that gift to determine, for yourself what is most healthy for you. I decided quite a while ago that we were not being led down the right path but it took me a while to figure out what the correct path was for me.
N=1 / Anecdotal Evidence
The anecdotal evidence for the carnivore diet is staggering. The number of people who have improved their lives, reversed disease, increased energy and conquered obesity is growing rapidly. Nutritional scientists would ask us to discount this in favor of relying 100% on study after study. I am sorry but I cannot do that. Our cultures are built on generations passing down stories of the past and learning from them. I do not wish to put all my eggs into one basket. I am happy to look at the science but I refuse to give up my own common sense. Meat is healthy. It is my superfood. I am convinced of it. The real enemies are processed food, seed oils and massive amounts of sugar. It's that simple.