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The Human Carnivore FAQ

I wanted to write a post about my own personal experience with carnivorism and answering questions I’m frequently asked. As a disclosure, I’m not a physician nor am I suggesting this diet for anyone. This is just an informative piece to create awareness about a topic that is near and dear to my heart. If you guys have any questions, please comment below, and I will include links for further reading and information.

What do you eat?

Anything and everything animal-based. No fruits. No vegetables. No bread. No sugars. Just like vegetarianism, there are varying degrees of carnivorism that include different foods according to personal preference. Some people eat dairy, meat, and eggs. Some only chicken and eggs. Some include artificial sweetners. Some include very small amounts of low carbs plants. Some include any and every food that has no carbohydrates. The main focus is that the main bulk of your diet comes from animal derived foods.

Me, personally, I eat beef and salt. That’s it. If it comes from a cow, like steak, liver, heart, brain, marrow, or bones, I will eat it. I’ve tried several times introducing other foods like chicken or eggs, but they don’t fill me up and make me feel healthy the way beef does. My absolute favorite food is a medium rare bone-in New York steak cut really thick with the tendon still attached. The bone when cooked is soft enough to gnaw on, which annoys the life out of my husband. And, yes, there are bones in the rib area that grow really soft when slow-cooked that add a huge burst of saltiness and umammi flavor to meat.

How are you not dead?

Ha! I’ve been eating this way for almost a year, now, so if I were to have serious health complications, they would have shown up. Also, I’ve done a ton of research on the carnivore diet, as well as a blood panel after 8 months on the diet. If you break my diet down to purely nutritional information, I get all of my energy, macronutrient, micronutrients, and electrolytes from my diet.

The micronutrient aspect is particularly interesting, because the standard RDA of vitamins and minerals is based on the standard American diet which is rich in carbohydrates and fiber. Dieticians have found that many micronutrients are in competition with carbohydrates when being absorbed. For example, oysters are very high in zinc. If you eat an oyster, your zinc levels will increase tremendously. If you eat an oyster on a cracker, your zinc level will only increase a small amount. The same with orange juice. Because of the high glucose content of orange juice, only low levels of vitamin c are absorbed.

Now, if my body digestion has no carbohydrates present, there is no competition for nutrient uptake. My RDA as a no-carb eater is different from that of someone with the Standard American Diet. The same goes with my blood glucose levels. My A1C is 88 from the last blood panel I recieved, and my cholesterol ratio is perfect. I will say that my cholesterol level is considered high, but my triglycerides and LDL are both a normal level. I’m actually researching into a theory I’ve come across that women are actually supposed to have higher cholesterols than men due to our reproductive system and hormone cycles.

How Do You Go To The Bathroom?

Don’t worry. No icky details. I go like everyone else. I wanted to include this question, because everyone seems to be obsessed with getting enough fiber in your diet to avoid constipation. Here’s the thing, though, there are scientific studies that show a high fiber diet actually increases your chances of digestive inflammation, constipation, and bowel irritation.

Something many people don’t take into account, too, is that meat is completely digestable. There’s no part of the food product that the human gastrointestinal system can’t break down and use for energy. The only waste product is from overeating or ceartain chemicals in dairy that naturally just pass through the system.

On a final note, you don’t have to have a bowel movement every single day. As a matter of fact, it’s toally normal to only have a BM every other day to every two days. The only time it’s considered problematic is if you are having a lot of bloating, pain, or spending long periods of time in the bathroom.

Aren’t You Worried About Scurvy?

This is a mildly ironic question. My mother and I both started our respective diets somewhat close to one another. I had my beef and salt diet, and she had her diabetic diet. She ate a lot of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, artificial sweetners, and even allowed herself the occassional treat. She was diagnosed with scurvy after a few months on the diet, and she became insulin dependent to help manage her diabetes. I have never been sick except for the flu last year, which I got over in two days.

I don’t share this to demean the medical advice my mother was given, but rather to give perspective n a flawedsystem of nutrition in the medical field. My mother did everything right, but she still recieved poor results. This was not her failure, but her medical advice’s failure. Because of the information that currently held as dietary gospel in the medical field (whole grains, lean meat, tons of vegetables), we are making the general population sicker.

But that’s a post for another day. What I want to focus on is the horrible misrepresentation of USDA approved muscle meat. There are tons of nutrients and beneficial components of meat that aren’t recorded in modern nutrtional information. The tests done on foods to break down their nutrtional value and precentages have excluded nutrients in meat and animal products. In official reports, there is a foot note that says “not tested for.” In the early 1900s, it was widely known that fresh meat was a common cure of scurvy for sailors. There are charts that show meat having vitamin C, Calcium, Folic Acid, and ADA (which is a precursor to DHA).

Do You Ever Have A Cheat Day?

Nope. Never. And it’s not because of stubborness or pretentiousness, there is a chance I could go insane. Literally. I originally began the diet as a means to help myself lose weight and help manage my depression. What I found is that not only did my health get under control, my depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder also went into complete remission. I was convinced I would live my entire life chained to my mood disorder, but I have entire weeks where I’m so joyful, not just happy. I become optimistic, more ambitious, focus on tasks, and even overcame a lifelong social anxiety. I freaking started up conversations with people in line at the grocery store. I never do that!

Whenever I reintroduce foods or try to take a multivitamin, the symptoms include my skin breaking out, muscle soreness, fatigue, compulsive flexing, teeth grinding, and a wave of anxiety that knocks me on my backside for weeks. Have you ever burst into tears because your husband told you to do the dishes? I have. Bless my poor man, he is a saint for putting up with my crap. I am very strict with this diet, because it’s the only way I have discovered to live a life without a mental disorder.

Does Your Husband Eat This Way?

No, and it doesn’t bother either of us. We don’t eat out as much, but we can tell you all the best steakhouses and BBQs. I will say it did get some getting used to eating before social events, or bringing in a two pound steak to throw on the grill, but our family and friends have long accepted my weirdness and don’t think twice about it. My mother-in-law has even gone so far to keep a few steaks in the freezer for when we come over to visit. She lovingly calls it my “Weirdo Diet.”

My husband has tried several times to eat a carnivore diet and has even tried to eat a low carb diet, but the symptoms he got were the same as when I would introduce foods. It’s a conundrum we still puzzle over, and it’s very interesting to us how one of us can thrive on just one type of food and the other one needs a plethora of foods to remain happy and healthy. We even come from similar ancestory. I’m German/English/Inuit, and he is German/English/Irish. We even kind of look like one another, which is absolutely hilarious when we meet new people, and they think we’re related. Maybe it’s that extra amount of Native American genes that makes this diet perfect for me, but that’s very shaky evidence to try to rely on.

Aren’t Vegetables Healthy For You?

When you are predisposed to digestive issues and autoimmune disorders, absolutely not. One of the biggest issues I have with the recommended diet from the medical community is that it’s based on multiple studies of rats to simulate the lifestyle of the averagest average human who ever averaged. No pre-existing allergies, complications, disorders, or genetic anomalies. It doesn’t take into account your ancestory, genetic background, or even possibilities of underlying conditions.

What this means is that you are given a diet to try, and when it doesn’t work, you must be the one doing something wrong. This is why a diet will work for one person but not another, and why it seems there are so many obese people compared to 50 years ago. Which is the more likely story? Millions of people struggle with obesity because of lack of personal responsibility or incorrect health information?

Coming back to vegetables, there are many aspects which are beneficial to health, such as nutrient density, phytonutrients, and antioxidants. However, when someone is intolerant or senstive to these chemicals, it reaps havoc on the entire body. In order to protect itself, the body will trigger inflammation causing many chronic conditions to intensify and increase the risk of injury and metabolic syndrome. The bottom line is if you are able to eat vegetables and feel amazing, then by all means, continue to eat the way you do. But if you have been following the generic diet of whole grains, vegetables, and lean meat and never seem to lose weight or recover from a condition, then it’s not you who is screwing up, but your diet.

Aren’t There Hundreds Of Studies Showing Plant-Based Diets Are Healthy?

I’m hesitant to go too deep into this topic, because I’m still reading through the material. What I’ve found with the help of people much smarter than me is that a large amount of these studies were done by special interest groups or funded by vegetarian advocates. Much of the information is misconstrued by reporters, and scientists will even go so far as to fudge the numbers in order to achieve the result they want.

For example, researchers will lump fresh animal products into a category with cured meats, sausages, and preprepared animal products with high amounts of chemicals and preservatives which have been proven to increases chances of cancer and cardiac issues. This group of people, which if they are eating high amounts of salt, preservatives, and chemicals are more likely to be sedentary and not care about their health, are compared to vegetarians who as a demographic tend to be healthier and make a point to exercise and take of themselves. If you compare a low-carb diet to a vegetarian diet, the numbers of obesity related illness are almost equal.

There are even research studies into obesity related deaths included overweight patients who died of reasons other than diet related. For example, if they had died in a car crash or an animal bite, that was considered a death related to obesity.

I can only share what I have discovered for myself, but I would encourage more people to stop relying on journalist and fake news interpreting data to whatever they choose to mean, and start learning how to read these studies and documents for yourself.

Are You Fat?

I don’t mind at all answering these types of questions. I talk up the benefits of my mental health, but I really don’t focus that much on my phyisical appearance, because it really doesn’t bother me that much. I’m 5′5″ (167 cm) and 160 lbs (72.6 kg). I have a BMI of 26.6 which is considered the overweight category. Medically, I’m considered overweight. However, I had an interesting discussion with my doctor.

I strength train 2-3 times a week, a have a job where I’m on my feet quite a bit, I’m not currently taking any medication, and I’ve lost a total of about 65 pounds. My doctor told me that because of my current activity level and overall health, I should not worry about being overweight in the slightest. As a matter of fact, she said she prefered her patients to carry a little extra body fat, because it helps protect against illness and malnourishment. For example, if I were to come down with a terrible flu that would have me hospitalized, my extra weight would help fight off the illness and give me more energy compared to someone with a low body fat index.

Society has taught us to fear body fat and has even made us covet for a very lean frame that isn’t attainable unless you are gentically built that way. Thigh gaps don’t exist, my dear readers. Being fat isn’t just some punishment for enjoying donuts too much, it’s an evolutionary miracle that helped our ancestors survive for millenium, grow insanely intelligent brains, and protect us from many harmful diseases and toxins. What’s happened is that we have been given the incorrect nutritional information, and our bodies built by evolution are in a constant state of survival.

What About The Ethics Of Animal Slaughter?

I'm not on a mission to prove vegans and vegetarians wrong. I'm not on a mission to prove anything, except that I'm very happy living this way. On my journey to health, I tried veganism for about three months. I felt great in the beginning, but I saw my health declining even when supplimenting. It truly broke my heart that I couldn't live a lifestyle that advocated doing no harm and supporting animal rights. I still am hard driven to help reputable farms and shelters in my local area, and I do a lot of my volunteer work at these places. And I'm fully aware that it doesn't make up for the fact that I am eating another living being. I do care about that.

My choice to eat animals is based on my own health, my own conscious, and what I believe is most helpful to the environment. I eat beef from pasture-raised cattle from humane farms and slaughter houses, and I buy locally to support my community as much as possible. If I hear even rumors that a farm mistreats its cows, my entire household stops buying from that company and i encourage my friends and family to shop elsewhere, too.

But there is still the pain of looking into another living being's eyes, knowing that they will die to fill my belly. The best way I've been able to deal with this is to accept that we live in a very cruel world where something must die for someone else to live. There's is a circle of life, and I will do all in my power to respect and show gratitude towards the animals who have died. I don't partake in cruel and dark humored business practices, I don't support big business, and I still tell the cows I pass on the way to work thank you for giving me a life worth living.

Further Resources

There are many wonderful speakers, blogs, articles, books, interviews, and podcasts created by all these individuals, and they have been a huge influence on my research. I highly recommend looking more into these sources and exploring for yourself.

Shawn Baker:

Doctor, Blogger, Speaker, Writer, Podcast

https://www.shawn-baker.com/

https://meatrx.com/

https://twitter.com/SBakerMD?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Charles Washington

Blogger, Speaker

https://www.reddit.com/r/zerocarb/wiki/faq

Mikhaila Peterson:

Blogger, Speaker, Researcher, CEO

https://mikhailapeterson.com/

https://twitter.com/MikhailaAleksis?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor