Have you ever considered going carnivore? Is the hype around it real and does it even work? Well in this video I'm going to go over some of my favorite benefits linked to going carnivore, the biggest issues and problems with it, and how I would personally approach carnivore, but to say the least it would be a little unique. Now have you ever seen or heard of the miraculous transformations that people have experienced when going carnivore.
I'm sure you have, but more importantly, have you ever heard of any of the not so good stories? Well, here's a post from Reddit titled carnivore not working anymore. Anyone here hit a wall with carnivore?
improve their health with animal based. I've been carnivore for almost two years, but the past month I have felt completely drained of energy. My workouts have become so flat to the point where I took a break from my usual strength training last week due to fatigue. It's frustrating because I still have weight to lose and cystic acne that has never fully cleared up.
Currently only doing red meat, salt and water. I feel like I'm just stressing my body out on carnivore. But I'm worried about adding in fruit and other carbs because it could cause weight gain and may not clear up my acne.
Has anyone successfully broken through weight loss plateaus and resolved other health issues by switching from carnivore to animal-based? So there's a lot of clues here, but before we go over the biggest problems with carnivore, we should review some of the incredible anecdotal successes people experience on a daily basis, because it's actually pretty amazing what people can resolve when going carnivore. First, we have fat loss, then we have improved insulin sensitivity and elimination of type 2 diabetes.
We also have improved energy, remission of numerous autoimmune diseases, reduced inflammation, reduced brain fog, improved digestion, improved skin complexion, and a whole lot more. Now, this sounds pretty amazing, but we need to understand that there are two critical reasons why carnivore helps these issues. So, every health and fat loss journey is going to start in the gut. If you have porn... gut health, you're never going to see dramatic improvements that actually last.
Now, if a person is eating the standard American diet, approximately 70% of their food is coming from ultra-processed sources. This means two things. That person is eating food that's poisoned with additives, preservatives, and other horrible ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, seed oils, artificial sweeteners, fortified iron, pesticides and herbicides, and also food coloring. That person's gut health is very likely going to be in such bad shape. that they can't even eat vegetables without becoming gassy or bloated, especially if they're eating them raw like salads, which are supposed to be the healthiest meal on the planet, but maybe they're actually not.
So by going carnivore, a person is eliminating a ton of inferior and also damaging foods that are making people sick and fat. The second thing that's happening is that animal-based nutrition is incredibly nutrient dense. A person switching from the standard American diet to carnivore is going to be loading his body up on highly bioavailable vitamins and minerals that help support cellular energy production.
It's going to give people more energy, help people lose weight, and allow their bodies to start healing. So this combination of limiting food that destroys life and then eating food that nourishes life is going to be wildly beneficial. So to me, this is the biggest reason why carnivore can be so successful. Though this sounds pretty great, a lot of people see varying results with carnivore though.
It's not going to be perfect and that's because there are two pretty big issues with it. The first issue with carnivore is that people are eating a diet that's unbalanced from an amino acid perspective. But what does that really mean though?
Well, an animal's edible tissue is typically composed of about 25 to 35% collagen-based protein, which contains large quantities of amino acids like glycine and proline. And the other 65 to 75% is coming from muscle meat, which contains many more essential amino acids. Historically speaking though, we used to eat the entire animal and we just don't. don't really do that anymore.
So today about two to 3% of a person's protein intake is coming from collagen-based protein. And as a result, we're over consuming amino acids like tryptophan, cysteine and methionine, which can have inflammatory or anti-metabolic effects if consumed in excess. We're also under consuming amino acids like glycine. So here's some interesting articles that show some links between certain amino acids and metabolic. dysfunction.
This article right here shows that there's a link between higher methionine intake and diabetes. Here's another article that shows the link between tryptophan consumption and its inhibitory effects on TPO or thyroid peroxidase, which interferes with the synthesis of thyroid hormones, which are necessary for maintaining our body's metabolism. And then this article right here shows that even high levels of serum branched chain amino acids are linked to type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.
Now, I'm not saying that animal-based protein is problem in itself. It could just be a problem if we're consuming it in excess without balancing our amino acids. But before we get into that, the second problem is that I don't really think it's optimal nutrition, though it is nutrient dense.
It can be really easy to under consume certain amino acids via the body. vitamins and minerals. For example, glycine is required to make glutathione, which is one of the most potent antioxidants in the body.
And vitamin C also helps regenerate oxidized glutathione. So it's pretty hard to get an abundance of vitamin C and glycine if you're just doing a muscle meat carnivore plan. It could also be kind of easy to become deficient in vitamin B1 and vitamin E if you're not eating high quality pork or seafood.
Also unless you're eating beef or lamb heart there's gonna be a fairly strong chance that you're not getting adequate amounts of magnesium. Now there are gonna be some people who are doing all of this and filling in the gaps from a micronutrient perspective but I would say that the vast majority of people are probably just doing beef, salt, and water and maybe eggs too. And though this can actually work initially and potentially for years, a person might hit a wall like that person in the reddit post from the beginning of this video. Now if I was going to do carnivore, I would be very strategic with it, and here's exactly what I would do. First, I would mostly focus on consuming beef, raw dairy, and eggs, and I'd potentially even flirt with doing a lot of raw dairy since I tolerate carbs pretty well.
Second collagen based proteins are going to be higher in those non essential amino acids like glycine and proline, which have anti inflammatory properties that can also balance out or mimic methionine restriction. And this This would actually be a pretty big priority, which means I'd be eating a lot of collagen-based proteins like bone broths and beef gelatin. This would actually be extremely beneficial for someone who has gut issues, since glycine is known for its gut healing properties.
The third thing I would do is incorporate organ meats like beef liver and beef or lamb heart, since this is going to be a great source of minerals like magnesium and numerous other vitamins. I would also incorporate some seafood like shrimp, oysters, scallops, and fish every now and then, and then this would mostly be for the wide spectrum of micronutrients. nutrients that they contain.
And then if I can find some high quality pork, I try to eat that regularly to get the vitamin B1, but high quality pork can actually be kind of hard to find. So the big question is who should be doing this and is this worth trying? Well, this isn't going to be medical advice, but first I don't think carnivore should be a lifestyle. It should be used as a tool. If I was experiencing some kind of medical complication, I would definitely consider my version of carnivore and experiment with that for a few months.
Additionally, for someone who wanted to explore seasonal eating, this could be okay. okay to try during the winter when vegetation is typically pretty limited. This could also be really beneficial for fat loss too, but if you're healthy and you're in good shape, I probably wouldn't do it. So personally, I don't think I'm going to be trying it anytime soon.
Now, one of the most important things to understand is that everyone's going to be different and needs to weigh out their options based on their own individual needs. Now, if you're interested in carnivore and you want to learn more about dairy, its downside and its benefits, watch this video right here, where I talk about if you're going to be trying to get a good result, you're going to have to weigh is safe to drink.