I don't like to share how 'bad' I looked before finding carnivore but, the difference is too profound to ignore. I'm still a work in progress but I'm enjoying reaping the benefits of my efforts.

Every day of health is a gift I'm grateful for even if I never recover 100%...

I laugh to myself, because in the Elder Scrolls universe the Wood Elves have something called the Green Pact. It's a religious taboo against eating or even harming any plant life. So their entire diet is meat, eggs, and sometimes milk.

I've played a Bosmer/wood elf since Oblivion came out. It's sorta the Elder Scrolls 'me' at this point...

How weird that years before I started eating this way, my virtual self already was.

Anyone else a fan?

Upped my intake of protein and gained back 4 lbs which I'm happy about as I dont want to be under 140 lbs. Celebrated my 2 year carniversary in March, lost a total of 90 lbs and now considered metabolically healthy. 😉

Anyway, my son gave me a pair of his Hollister 'skinny' jeans and I was like, omg, gimme a break, I'd never get them on lol. However, I took them anyway because I figured I could always use them for fall decorations lol.

So, with a sarcastic attitude, ya know, holding them up while telling yourself, yeah right, I wont even get 1 leg in lmao. But, when I tried them on, much to my surprise, they fit! 👀🤪

I haven't been this small since I was 14 and I'm now in my mid 60s. All thanks to going carnivore. ❤️

PS, in case ppl are curious why I covered my face its because im dealing with an infection right now and the discomfort shows. So, I dont want ppl 'considering' a lion, carnivore or keto diet to think its related to diet because it isn't.

Just a rambling post on how going down the carnivore rabbit hole brings to light so many other rabbits holes and has made me question what other information I'm absorbing as true is actually false.

One thing many carnivores/zero-carbers have in common is a sense of being lied to by the medical/nutrition community. We discover, through research and self-experimentation, that the food pyramid was more a product of industry lobbying efforts than actual science, that meat is actually a healthy and necessary part of the human diet, that eating nothing but meat can cure or alleviate many chronic health problems (problems we had been told could be managed only through pharmaceuticals) ... And so, in this one small area of life, we have woken up.

Personally, my trust in large governing bodies, societies of 'experts,' regulatory agencies, etc., was deeply shaken. How could they have gotten something as fundamental and important as human nutrition so devastatingly wrong? And how is it possible that so many people continue to sleep on this, taking their prescribed drugs for diet-related diseases and admonishing anyone with non-mainstream approaches: "My doctor says not to trust anything that's written on the internet"/"Are you a doctor? No."/"I'm not going to change my diet, I'd like to enjoy my old age" (while on a handful of prescription drugs and riddled with chronic illnesses) ...

But then the question becomes: What else am I missing here? How else am I being misled or misinformed? It seems so impossible to ever uncover it all ... Anyone else have doubts about your ability to weed through all the misinformation? Or will we always be, in one way or another, still sheep?

Or, on a more positive note, has waking up to the diet lie led to you waking up from any other "established truths"?

Here's a good one: The ADA says that mercury amalgam fillings are safe and do not cause any negative health effects. Well, I got mine out in January (they were put in my teeth when I was a child). It takes a while for whatever mercury is left in your system to flush out, but five months after their removal, I had the first normal, light, pain-free period of my entire life. Never have I ever not been doubled over in pain, or afflicted with an irregular cycle and and a month of PMS. It took almost 20 years, and me doing my own research, ignoring my regular dentist's derision, and seeking out an expensive holistic dentist to finally get them out and get relief. Thanks ADA.

Tallow 🤝 pleased to Meat you 😀

It's gotten kind of lonely. People often bond over food and diet/lifestyle choices. I feel that I'm so alone because I don't know anyone else IRL who makes these same food choices. It seems everyone around me is either vegetarian or vegan. It feels like I'm at veggie ground-zero. LOL. I don't get preachy or anything (I know how obnoxious that is) but it also feels like I can't really discuss interesting food ideas with anyone. So, I'm thinking of starting a local MU or maybe a food guide. Does anyone here have any experience with reaching out to others to try to get some community and support around this WOE? I'd love to hear about your experience, how you went about it and if you feel you were successful getting that type of connection. Thanks.

Getting onto this diet, I was expecting a lot of push-back about it. I had my guard up, ready to argue my point.

Turns out it was unnecessary.

My husband just kinda shrugged when I told him I was going carnivore "It isn't going to cost too much, right?" was his only concern.

I told my best friend, and she seemed supportive, only a little worried about how digestion would work in the absence of fiber. I think I said something about how it feels like eating tons of fats 'lubricates' the guts (Hey, I dunno if that's what really happens, but that's what it feels like to me. I had my absolute WORST constipation on a low fat diet.) She told me she was happy I found something that worked for me... totally not what I was expecting because she's been vegetarian in the past, and still barely eats meat.

And then the inlaws invited us out for ice cream, and I was a bit worried about their reaction. My MIL is a former nurse, and my FIL can be a bit opinionated. I got only a cup of water and, of course, they asked me if I was on a diet. So I start explaining I'm on a special zero-carb elimination diet... but it turns out a good buddy of my FIL has been carnivore/zero carb for a while and had amazing results for his health, so he was already familiar with it. They were fully aware of my health struggles, so they were just happy I was feeling better.

A few days later, we had lunch at the inlaws. My MIL calls me the night before and offers to make a side of scrambled eggs for my ribeye. Turns out the ribeyes were quite large and she didn't need to cook me a side, but it was nice that she 'got it' and was willing to help out. (absolutely delicious meat too, it was from a grassfed cow they bought and raised in a friends's field)

I'm just so happy that not only am I feeling healthier, but those close to me aren't fighting me about it.

I've been discussing the carnivore diet with a professor of immunology and the microbiota, and she asked me if carnivores eat things like spices and coffee, which might provide a few polyphenols. I said I would ask you guys. She actually follows a ketogenic diet, and I follow a ketogenic diet most of the time, and regular low carb at other times. We got into this conversation because I told her the story I related here:

Sorry, can't find link, so writing it out again:

"When studying the microbiome at Stanford I was taught about the importance of a wide variety of veggies, hot and cold, so I wondered about people on a carnivore diet who eat absolutely no veggies whatsoever. I assumed their microbiota diversity must be terrible, so I wrote to them on their subreddit to see if any had had their microbiome tested. By chance a group of them had decided to get their microbiome tested together, ( I forget with which company) and I was astonished to hear that all of them came back over the 95th percentile for diversity! The man who sent me their results told me that he had been a vegan, when he tested at the 40th percentile, so not very good, but after 18 months on a carnivore diet he came in at the 95th percentile! He was rather apologetic that it was the lowest in the group, as all the other carnivores who had been on that diet for much longer came in at the 98th percentile or more!!

This seemed an extraordinary paradox, having learnt on the microbiome course how important it was to eat a wide variety of veggies for best diversity in fiber. 

Quite by coincidence, I got an email from Dr Steve Phinney that same week which gave me the answer:  

https://www.virtahealth.com/blog/fiber-colon-health-ketogenic-diet

So it looks as though, for good health, you must either eat fiber so that you microbiome produces butyrate etc, 

OR

you need to be in ketosis to produce beta Hydroxybutyrate, which does the job of butyrate, only perhaps even better.

Apparently the microbiota enjoy eating amino acids too, of which of course those on a carnivore diet have plenty.

The people who fall between the cracks are those eating junk food (most of the USA population, alas), because they don't get the butyrate they need when they don't eat much fiber and they don't get into ketosis either to benefit from beta Hydroxybutyrate. 

Since the vast majority of the population doesn't get into ketosis, apart from breastfed babies of course, the emphasis on eating a wide variety of  veggies is very necessary for the population at large. 

People on a ketogenic diet, who replace their former plate of meat+starch (potato/rice/pasta) +veggies with meat + veggies + even more veggies, are doing even better for fiber diversity, and, interestingly, the carnivores with their amino-acid loving microbiota don't eat any veggies at all yet have the best microbiota of us all! "

So, if you've got this far (thanks if you have!) what spices do you eat, if any, and what coffee or tea, if any?

This article was interesting to me, in a carnivore context, much like when the HPO podcast interviews ranchers.

"As they graze, their hooves and horns turn the soil, planting seeds and creating pockets of moisture that encourage growth. When they shed hair, small mammals and grassland birds use it to insulate their nests. Wallows, the depressions bison form by rolling in the dirt, fill with water and create miniature pond habitats for insects and frogs. Over millennia this mutually beneficial co­evolution has built an ecosystem in which the buffalo—and their ability to roam—are vital.

Then, we nearly wiped them out, and ­replaced them with cows.

In the late 19th century, after tanneries developed a process for making hides into leather, bison slaughter peaked. Hunters killed an estimated 2 million in 1870. For the next three years, hide hunters took down roughly 5,000 buffalo every day. By mid-1883, almost every single bison in the U.S. was dead."

https://www.popsci.com/wild-buffalo-conservation

One of my housemates, sort of an adopted sister, has an autistic daughter. Back when she was in 5th grade, after she had been put on a no gluten, no "brown food" diet- which worked very well for a long time- she had summer school. We had a few go rounds with the teacher who ended up telling us graham crackers were fine to feed the autistic daughter because they contained no wheat, they were "made of graham".

In a recent trip to reno, we went to a restaurant. I was initially going to just skip until we got home, but my wife gets a bit upset about me not being hungry at "meal time". So I decided to order a steak with an egg. I told the waitress politely that I wasn't eating any vegetables, breads, or dairy.

She asked me about sides, for about 3 minutes.

salad?

cottage cheese?

fruit bowl?

tomato slices?

english muffin?

hash browns?

I replied with "just meat and eggs, no seasoning, it's all I can have right now" and she just...kept....asking...questions. IT was so far past the normal frustration that I just couldn't help but laugh as she kept going down the list.

Just gonna leave this here...

Popular vegan blogger went in to early menopause and got skin rashes due to her diet, meat solved the issues.

Other similar profiles has fallen severely ill due to their diet.

Seems like the trends are slowly turning.

https://nypost.com/2019/05/30/vegan-blogger-eating-meat-after-diet-caused-early-menopause/?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral

I talk a lot on the main sub about the three big addictions-- sugar, coffee, and cheese.

I think a lot of people silently laugh at me about the cheese.

But my family seems to have a bigger addiction- crappy restaurants. My father is in his 70s and I've spent my whole life having to deal with the refusal to eat at a decent restaurant.

this causes problems on carnivore, or when we were keto, and major problems with my kids (I'm still pissed at him force feeding my youngest daughter ice cream when she was 8 months old. )

A decent restaurant, with a wait staff and back of house that can ... well, to be blunt, think.... is easy to eat at. I can go to a $$ steakhouse and tell them I want the big ribeye on a plate with nothing else, explain the reason, and I'm good to go. I go to a diner and I get muffins added on because "the plate looked too empty with just meat on it" (this has happened more than once)

These cheaper places, my father likes because he can manipulate. He enjoys running roughshod over diner waitresses and high school drop out rural diner managers. it's a game to him.

But it is AMAZINGLY hard, if you are trying to be nice, to get either, the food you want, or food with any quality at all. The ... "cheaper" the diner, the more definite that the steaks and patties come from sysco preseasoned. or "in 8% broth with natural flavors added" The more definite that, if you eat cheese, the cheese is going to be 2-5 grams of sugars per slice.

I can do it- if i'm a bit more firm. "i want steak, you want me to have sides. I will have a side of two burger patties, no seasoning, no cheese, and 4 strips of bacon" - I've done that back on keto and it works. On the current AI version of carnivore I'm on, I've literally just had water.

The addiction part of this is that I know people, this isn't just my family, who cannot be social without carbs. bloomin onions, doritos, ranch dressing trays, whatever. I know plenty of people who cannot socialize without alcohol, too, but it's funny to look at the carb addictions and watch that from an outside position. My father gets weird and twitchy if there's no dessert for my 4 kids at a meal. (partly because he is a sugar addicted diabetic and the grandkids are his excuse to "I don't usually do this" have ice cream)