Are you sick and tired of Yo-Yo Dieting? Then try something new.

You’re not overweight because you’re lazy. You’re not overweight because you were cursed with bad genes.

New science shows that you’re overweight because junk science and junk food have messed up your natural hormonal mechanisms. 

Weight loss all comes down to two things…and the carnivore diet might be a great way to tackle both.

Many people on the carnivore diet are eating steaks to satiation and effortlessly burning body fat. 

And the most shocking part is that people are losing 50-100lbs WITHOUT EXERCISE. 

How is this possible?

Quick Summary: Why You Gain Weight

There are two predominant theories on why you gain weight.

(1) Calories in, Calories out (CICO for short)

(2) Hormonal theory of obesity.

The caloric theory of obesity is not the correct way to think about weight loss. It’s a tool made for train engines, and pushed by processed food companies. It allows processed food companies to absolve themselves of any responsibility when you gain weight.

Instead of people realizing it’s their junk making you gain weight, you think it’s because you’re lazy and don’t exercise enough.

CICO is faker than imitation meat.

The hormonal theory of obesity is a much better explanation of why you gain weight. 

It’s Hormones, Not the Calories

New evidence shows that weight gain is primarily hormonal. Similar to your heart beat, your body fat % is not under conscious control. It’s more tightly regulated than Fort Knox. 

Why? During evolution, if you were too fat you wouldn’t be able to hunt and you’d die. On the other hand, if you were too skinny you wouldn’t be able to survive a few days without food.

If you gain weight, it’s because you disrupted the innate mechanisms that regulate this process. Let me briefly touch on why.

Chronic Hyperinsulinemia Torches This Mechanism

This is where the turf wars begin over what foods to eat. What do you eat to control weight gain?

Here’s a claim that may be shocking to you: I don’t think carbs necessarily cause weight gain. Persistently high levels of insulin do.

Carbohydrates alone are not the devil. Neither is any one macronutrient. 

In fact, there are a number of very healthy societies that subsist on high carbohydrate diets, like the Kitavans. And it’s possible to feed someone a diet of pure sugar where they do not gain weight.

The same goes for high fat consumption and societies like the Inuit and Maasai. Neither high fat diets nor high carb diets necessarily cause weight gain. 

The real enemy is persistently high insulin levels. 

Chronic Hyperinsulinemia Causes Weight Gain

Insulin is necessary for survival. But persistently high levels of insulin is a recipe for disaster.

Why?

When insulin is released, it shuts off all fat burning. This is normal. Insulin signals that you’ve taken in energy and puts it into the cells that need it. It doesn’t make sense to both create fat and burn fat at the same time, so when insulin levels are high, you don’t burn any fat

However, issues arise when insulin levels are persistently high. If insulin is always elevated, you can never burn the fat that insulin pushed into storage. Therefore, every time you eat you end up dumping more and more energy into your system that you don’t actually need.

Remember, body fat isn’t just a fashion statement. It serves a purpose. During evolution when we didn’t constantly have an IV drip of food all day long, we needed to store food for times of famine. Insulin is what regulates this process. 

When insulin levels are high, you’re in what’s called the fed state — using ingested food for energy. When insulin is low, it signals that food is scarce and you should mobilize your body fat for energy. 

But unfortunately, most people today are always in the fed state, preparing for winter and never burning body fat for energy.†suga

In fact, if you want to make people fat, the easiest way is to inject them with insulin. This study showed that Type 1 diabetes patients who received a higher dose of insulin gained 10 pounds more than participants who received a regular dose . 

The proof is in the (carb) pudding. If your insulin levels are constantly high, you will gain weight. 

Over time, your fat cells become less sensitive to insulin and require more insulin to open their doors and let energy in. Chronic hyperinsulinemia leads to more chronic hyperinsulinemia. It’s a vicious circle that ultimately leaves your endocrine system looking like Chernobyl. 

High insulin levels lock body fat into storage and prevent you from ever burning it. 

Leptin Resistance

When insulin is persistently elevated, fat cells become overstuffed with energy. In response, they secrete leptin which tells you to stop eating. But if leptin is persistently high, its efficacy will decrease over time. Ultimately, you approach a stage of leptin resistance.  

Now strap in for the roller coaster. This habit of constantly eating insulinogenic foods creates persistent hyperinsulinemia and an ineffective leptin response.  

Leptin is like a stop sign. Because it no longer works, this makes you even hungrier for the same foods that destroyed your health in the first place. 

I describe this process more here.

Therefore, any diet that increases your insulin levels persistently will lead to weight gain. And the best way to reverse the weight gain is to lower your insulin levels. The carnivore diet is the best way.

8 Reasons Why the Carnivore Diet May Accelerate Weight Loss

Weight loss comes down to two things. What to eat and when to eat. A properly formulated carnivore diet might be a great way to tackle both.

#1 The Carnivore Diet May Reduce Insulin Levels

In my opinion, the best step to reduce insulin levels is to cut the foods that significantly spike it. It seems obvious, but given mainstream nutrition is like an ostrich with its head in the sand. It’s not yet common practice. 

For most of evolution the foods we were eating did not raise insulin much at all. Everything on Mt. Rushmore of the glycemic index is a new addition to your diet: grains, cereals, sugars and starches.

A properly formulated carnivore diet is the least insulinogenic diet in the world that’s nutritionally complete. Protein and fat do increase insulin. But the impact is negligible compared to the response to carbohydrates.

However, as Ben Bikman shows below, in the context of a low carb diet, protein does not raise insulin levels. 

Ultimately, the first simple step of lowering high glycemic foods, will dramatically reduce your hyperinsulinemia. Virta health has shown that when people with Type 2 Diabetes are put on a keto diet, almost 100% of them decrease or eliminate their insulin dosage.

The Reduction of Insulin Burns Body Fat as Fuel

When insulin falls, you’ll start to use your body fat as fuel instead of the sugar in your diet. Because, as described above, low insulin puts you in the fasted state. And the fasted state signals that it’s time to eat your body fat for fuel. 

This is a big reason why low carb diets are powerful for weight loss.

The low insulin signals to your body that it should use body fat as fuel. 

A weight loss study called “A to Z” examined this relationship. 311 participants were randomized into four dietary groups. Subjects who ate according to the Atkins diet, which is a low carb diet, lost around twice the weight of any of the other higher carbohydrate groups.

An analysis of 13 randomized controlled ketogenic diet studies came to a similar conclusion: that restricting carbohydrates increases weight loss.

The carnivore diet helps to lower your insulin levels and increase how much body fat you burn.

#2 Ketosis Increases Your Metabolism

Instead of fighting your body, the keto diet is the best way to work with it. 

One of the other main benefits of going low carb is that your metabolism actually increases. (This is another reason why approaching weight loss from the CICO perspective is so backwards.)

The calories you burn on a daily basis is not constant. Your metabolic rate fluctuates based on what you eat. And when you’re in ketosis, your metabolic rate increases. 

How? Your body upregulates something called mitochondrial uncoupling and creates brown fat. Brown fat wastes energy as heat, burning more energy than you require for normal use.

It’s like a cheat code.

This study showed that participants on a low carb keto diet actually burned 300 calories more per day at rest. That’s like jogging for 30 minutes, just because you reduce carbohydrates.

This gives you more wiggle room in your caloric intake and allows you to eat to satiation and still lose weight. This is a big reason why people on the carnivore diet have lost 50% pounds without exercise.

Insulin has the opposite effect, shutting off fat burning. This study showed that Type 1 Diabetics had a faster metabolic rate when they went off insulin “>*].

#3 Carnivore Diet Can Reset Hunger Mechanisms and Improves Satiety

As discussed extensively, controlling hunger is one of the most important aspects of weight loss. The carnivore diet is able to reduce your incessant hunger and improve satiation through several mechanisms.

Fat and Protein Satiation

The carnivore diet is high in fat and protein, which are the two most satiating macronutrients. As discussed below, humans have a strong protein drive and will eat more calories than necessary if they don’t get enough protein. Protein also releases peptide YY which signals that you’re full. Fat is also highly satiating from the CCK release in your gut. 

Many people report that when they up their fat on the carnivore diet, their overall caloric consumption drops substantially. 

May Reverse Leptin Resistance

Additionally, by reducing insulin levels you may be able to reverse your leptin resistance. Leptin is a satiation hormone, and obese people are uniformly resistant to its action because it’s persistently high. 

The carnivore diet will help to increase the Leptin signal. According to Virta Health, the brain’s response to leptin goes way up on keto . 

Ketones Improve Hunger

This study showed that a Ketone Ester lowered ghrelin, the hunger hormone . One explanation is that beta hydroxybutyrate — the main ketone — is a very efficient fuel. When levels are elevated, you need less exogenous fuel to power your metabolism. 

The carnivore diet will lead to elevated ketone levels as you switch your metabolism to fat powered. 

High Nutrient Density

The carnivore diet is the most nutrient dense diet in the world. It has every nutrient you need in their most optimal ratios and without the antinutrients and inflammatory factors from plants.

One reason people are hungry all the time is because they’re nutrient deficient. Most people are extremely deficient in vitamins. Some common ones are below:Vitamin D: 77% of American’s are deficient in Vitamin D

• Vitamin B12: 3% of adults over 50 have extremely low vitamin D levels. 20% have borderline deficiencies. . Amongst Vegan’s and Vegetarians vitamin b12 deficiency is much more common
• Vitamin A: Vitamin A is only found in sufficient amounts that your body can absorb in animal products. It’s likely that if you’re not eating enough animal products, you’re deficient. Deficiencies amongst children and women are the most common. Approximately 127 million preschool-aged children and 7 million pregnant women are vitamin A deficient.
• Iron: 25% of the world is deficient in iron . Anaemia is even more common amongst vegan
• Calcium: Over 20% of moen and 10% of women over 50 are deficient in calcium
• Zinc: 1.1 billion people are deficient worldwide

When I eat liver, I find that I’m less hungry because of how many nutrients it provides. 

Low Glycemic

The carnivore diet is also low glycemic. Carbohydrates have been shown to decrease hunger initially, but increase it more later on. 

This is referred to as biphasic hunger.

Think about bread at a meal. Every wonder why restaurants always serve it to you at the beginning? Does it ever really fill you up? No. Most people turn into a bottomless pit, deeper than the Grand Canyon when they start eating bread. 

The carnivore diet is a shock to you system that resets your broken satiety. 

Whereas the SAD weight gaining diet puts you on a treadmill of constant hunger.

#4: The Carnivore Diet is Low in Omega 6 LA

One of the most disastrous recommendations from the USDA and AHA was to increase seed oil content. This flooded people with inflammatory, unstable and toxic omega 6 fatty acids. 

Recent studies have shown that exposing mice to a high omega 6 diet results in the accumulation of body fat across generations. This study showed that each generation that consumed omega 6s became fatter than the previous.

HNE, a byproduct of excessive omega 6 consumption, triggers fat accumulation by altering fat tissues. 

Omega 6 fatty acids also suppress fat oxidation . Add them to the list of foods that raise insulin. This study showed that seed oils increase insulin concentrations in rodents

Seed oils, which are part of the Mt. Rushmore of foods on the western diet that lead to weight gain. 

#5: High in Protein & the Protein Leverage Hypothesis

Humans have a protein drive. But protein has been massively diluted in our diets because it is one of the most expensive inputs. Carbohydrates and fats (largely from seed oils) have been dumped into our diets over the last 30 years, but protein has not increased. 

Now, over 40% of Americans don’t get enough protein . It’s fallen to 10% or less of calories.

But, without knowing it, humans search for 15%+ protein intake. When we lower it, even just slightly, our body massively overcompensates with lower satiation and increased carbohydrate and fat  intake. This study showed just a 1% decrease in protein led to 14% increase in CHO + Fat intake

One of the fastest ways to lose weight: Increase protein

This study showed that a 5% increase in protein led to a 3 TIMES decrease in fat mass

#6 Glucagon to Insulin Ratio

The carnivore diet increases your glucagon to insulin ratio, which can help burn more body fat. 

As I constantly preach, obesity is a hormonal disease not a caloric one. The two major hormones that regulate body fat storage and mobilization are Insulin and Glucagon. The two are antagonistic …like Carnivore Aurelius and the Vegans.

Insulin tells your body to store away nutrients. Glucagon signals to your body to mobilize them out of storage for energy. When the glucagon : insulin ratio is high, you burn your body fat and enter ketogenesis.

Protein increases both insulin and glucagon. Whereas fat is the only macronutrient that only increases glucagon. Remember, to burn more body fat you want to increase the glucagon to insulin ratio. The more fat you eat, the higher this goes. 

If you’re already metabolically unhealthy, this is especially pertinent. Your fasting insulin is likely abnormally high, so your body most likely releases even more insulin in response to protein than what’s normal. 

If you want to learn more about insulin and glucagon, watch this great presentation by Dr. Ben Bikman. 

#7: Fasting Can Help Burn Fat 

We covered what to eat. What about when to eat? 

Fasting is one of the most effortless ways to eviscerate body fat. 

You can only get energy from two sources: Food or body fat. But you can’t get energy from both at the same time. When you’re getting energy from food, this is called the fed state. When you’re getting your energy from body fat, this is called the fasted state. Insulin regulates this process.

When you eat insulin levels increase, which signals to your cells to suck in energy from your bloodstream. And when you sleep, insulin falls, telling your body to use stored energy to run your vital organs. This is why you don’t die when you sleep. 

But most people are eating all day, and not giving their bodies enough time to lower insulin levels and burn body fat. In fact, it takes ~12 hours to lower insulin far enough to actually burn body fat. But instead, most people shut this natural process off by eating a high carb meal first thing in the morning.

Insulin shuts off all body fat burning, so all the fat you eat goes straight to storage, instead of being used for energy. 

In a fasted state, you can finally unlock your body fat as fuel. This was a vital mechanism for survival when we didn’t have constant access to food. But most people have trained their bodies to lose this mechanism. If you don’t use it you lose it. 

In this study, participants were encouraged to intermittent fast for 18-20 hours. They were allowed to eat whatever they chose. After just two weeks, the mean fat loss was 3lbs . 6/10 stated they’d continue fasting after the study.

Additionally, fasting triggers epigenetic changes in your body that promote more fat burning. This study showed that fasting increased UCP3 gene expression by 5x at 15 hours of fasting This gene is responsible for fat burning in muscle cells. 

My favorite way of eating is one meal a day. 

#8 The Carnivore Diet Allows You To Eat Until You’re Full…No More Fighting Hunger

The carnivore diet doesn’t fight your hunger mechanism. It works with it.

What do I mean? 

Well the assumption with most weight loss is that your caloric expenditure remains constant. Thus, if you lower your caloric intake, you’ll lose weight.

Yes, it’s true that caloric intake needs to be below caloric expenditure to lose weight. However, attacking weight loss from this perspective by simply reducing calories will lead to disaster.

Why? Our body’s are too smart to fool them with calories alone. 

If you cut calories but do not reduce your insulin levels, you can’t burn your stored body fat for fuel. One of two things will happen as a result. Either you’ll get so hungry that you’ll increase your intake back to baseline. Or your basal metabolic rate will slow down and meet the lower caloric expenditure.  

What happens next is something we’re all too familiar with. Jason Fung puts it well:  

“Weight plateaus, and you feel like crap, because you are used to burning 2000 calories and now are only burning 1500. So you are generating less body heat (feel cold) and are more tired”  

Without cutting carbohydrates sufficiently, you can’t actually burn any fat. Your body fat is frozen in place by the insulin.  

Instead, however, if you tackle the elevated insulin levels first, you’ll be able to utilize your body fat to make up for the caloric difference.  

When you drop your calorie intake to 1500, you can still burn 2000 a day, and the remaining 500 will come from stored body fat.

Why do you think nobody loses weight on their diets? Because when you fight your innate mechanisms, THEY WILL WIN. It’s almost like trying to slow your heart beat. You can’t win over the long run. 

Whereas if you leverage your innate mechanisms to bring you back to body fat homeostasis, fat will melt off your body. 

Conclusion

The real Bigger Loser TV show needs to be remade. It shouldn’t follow people as they starve themselves eating like rabbits and running on the treadmill for 5 hours a day.

They’d… Eat meat. Drink water. And fast.

It’s as simple as that.

Don’t believe me? Try it yourself and you may be surprised. 

This  article was originally published at www.carnivoreaurelius.com.

Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.

If you like what I am about, check out the below.

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Carnivore Fit Expanded edition – my eBook and Paperback looking at why meat is good for you, why plants are bad, and how to exercise on zero carbs.

Low Content Books – Carnivore & Keto inspired Journals, Notebooks, Diaries, and Planners.

Media

• The majority of my personal journey is documented on Instagram.
• Carnivore Diet Success Stories Facebook group.
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Millions of people suffer worldwide from psoriasis. Many more suffer from related skin issues.

I was one of them.

The medical industry did not help me. But some of these tactics did.

Forget about expensive creams and lotions. How much sense would it make to water the leaves of a dying tree? Not much, right? The solution is going underground and taking care of the roots.

Read on to learn more about some of the tactics I used to help my skin issues

Autoimmunity 101

The cutting edge of psoriasis research is focused on tying it to autoimmunity.

Experts estimate there are 80-100+ different types of autoimmune disease (*), and psoriasis is one of the most common. Autoimmune disease occurs when the body’s immune system is hyperactive and starts to attack tissues and organs of the body. In the case of psoriasis, the immune system is attacking the skin and can sometimes progress to attacking the joints as well; this is known as psoriatic arthritis.

Research shows that poor gut health is associated with psoriasis. And this makes sense since the gut is essentially the mothership of the immune system. A chaotic and confused immune system can be tamed by taking care of the gut.

Chronic inflammation is also a hallmark of psoriasis and other autoimmune conditions. Acute inflammation is a protective response of the immune system that can be lifesaving in a car accident or traumatic injury but when chronically activated it can lead to more disease and increase risk of death.

Our daily habits heavily influence both our gut health and inflammation. Taking control of diet, sleep habits, exercise and stress management are the best way to heal the root cause of psoriasis.

Symptoms and Sub-Types of Psoriasis

Psoriasis is an umbrella term that encompasses several types of autoimmune disease. Symptoms of psoriasis can vary based on the type and may include:

• Reddish patches of skin covered with painful and itchy scales.
• Dandruff
• Nail fungus and detached nails
• Discolored, dry, cracking skin
• Emotional distress, anxiety

There are several different subtypes of psoriasis:

• Plaque psoriasis: The most common type and typically manifests as patches on the elbows, knees and scalp. Nails may become thick and separate from their nail beds.
• Inverse psoriasis. A type of plaque psoriasis that affects skin creases such as those around the groin, under arms and/or under the breast. The patches may appear moist rather than scaling.
• Guttate psoriasis. This type causes small red papules to form all over the body. This is the second most common type of psoriasis and is more likely to start in childhood or adolescence. Guttate psoriasis can often develop after a strep throat infection.
• Pustular psoriasis. This type of psoriasis has a unique feature of small white pustules that commonly appear on hands and feet but can also appear all over the body (generalized pustular psoriasis).
• Erythrodermic psoriasis: This is the least common type of psoriasis and results in red, peeling, itchy, and burning rash covering the entire body.

What Causes Psoriasis?

So back to the root cause discussion. There are several causative factors for psoriasis and all contribute to an overactive and confused immune system:

• Gut health (leaky gut, dysbiosis). Sounds crazy, right? A 2008 study found that individuals with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) were ten times more likely to have a skin condition like psoriasis than those with normal gut bacteria.
• Chronic inflammation
• Your genes. A note about genes, sometimes people resign themselves to the fact that their genes predict their health destiny. This could not be further from the truth. Your lifestyle can turn on and turn off specific genes.
• Nutrient deficiencies
• High-stress levels

Enough of the WHAT and WHY, let’s get to the HOW you can start healing today. Because, let’s face it, that’s why you are here.

Psoriasis Diet: 7 Things to Try for Psoriasis

Before going further, I’d first like to underscore that this is not medical advice. These are things that I’ve tried and that have some circumstantial evidence in the literature for why they may work. This is all based on my reading of the loose evidence.

(Yes a porcelain statue, can read).

Psoriasis isn’t a skin problem. It’s a whole-body problem. Skin is the canary in the coal mine, so to speak – an indicator that something is going on at a deeper level. Skin replaces itself every 6-8 weeks, which means you have an opportunity to replace the skin you have with radiant, healthy skin every two months.

Now, things don’t get rosy overnight but, start today by taking care of your gut, calming inflammation and feeding your skin what it needs, and before long, you’ll see an improvement worth all your efforts. 

#1 Remove sugar

Dude, are you still eating sugar??? Sugar is more addictive than cocaine and literally makes you fat, sick and tired. Eliminate sugar and other inflammatory foods like processed, packaged junk food, soda, industrial oils, fruit juice, deep-fried foods, etc.) for literally an immediate improvement.

Not sure what constitutes an industrial oil or processed food? Industrial oils like soybean, corn and cottonseed oil are high in inflammatory omega six fatty acids and are found in most foods in the grocery store. Salad dressing? Check. Granola bars? Check. Mayonnaise? Check. Crackers? Check. You get the idea. Obviously, I’m not here to promote granola bars and crackers, and while you’re at it – avoid everything else in the center of the grocery store. Its all junk.

Processed food usually comes in a box, can or bag has more than three ingredients and would be unrecognizable to our great grandparents as food. Think of breakfast bars and cereals, wraps, pop tarts, twinkies, goldfish crackers, etc.

#2 Increase Omega 3 Fats

Think of omega three fats as the opposite of omega six fats. Omega 3’s calm inflammation and soothe skin. Where can you find them? Great sources include wild fatty fish like salmon, sardines, trout and cod, the fat of grass-fed animals like cows, eggs of pasture-raised chickens as well as butter and ghee from grass fed cows. If you can incorporate some items on this list regularly throughout the week, you’ll get a nice dose of omega 3s.

It’s worth noting, if you follow these steps in order and increase your omega three intake and decrease your omega six intake you will gain an even better advantage.

#3 Eat Protein

The skin needs protein to rebuild itself after damage. Protein is, in fact, a building block of all of the body’s tissues. As psoriasis affects the skin more than any other organ, sufficient good quality protein is essential. Not only does protein help the skin repair but it also helps the lining of the digestive tract repair.

For both skin healing and gut healing benefits include muscle meats like steak and fish, gelatin (hydrolyzed collagen), and bone broth.

#4 Boost Skin Repairing Vitamins and Minerals 

Vitamin A has many important functions but its role in producing healthy skin is paramount for individuals with psoriasis, a disease that literally attacks skin. Vitamin A protects and repairs the skin through a variety of mechanisms including:

• Production of new skin cells
• Promoting collagen production
• Preventing sun damage
• Supports oil glands around hair follicles 

So where can you stock up on vitamin A? I’ll give you a hint, you don’t need to down supplements to get what you need.

Humans and animals make retinoids, the active form of vitamin A, and also store it in the liver and fat, making animal liver and animal fats the best sources. Beef liver, for example, is the world’s best natural source of retinol vitamin A in the world. Just 100g of beef liver contains over 15,000 IU of Vitamin A.  

Beside liver, foods that naturally contain the highest amounts of vitamin A are those that are meant to sustain young animals through development like milk and eggs. The highest natural sources of retinoids include:

• Liver
• Cod liver oil
• Butter
• Whole milk
• Egg yolks

 In addition to vitamin A, the mineral selenium is connected with skin health and psoriasis in particular. Selenium is an essential nutrient that functions as an antioxidant (protecting cells from damage) and also plays a role in healthy immune function.

One study found that a decline in selenium in blood was related to increased severity of psoriasis (*). Another study found that supplementing with selenium, in addition to other antioxidants like coenzyme Q10 and vitamin E resulted in a decrease in oxidative stress markers as well as an improvement in psoriasis including patch inflammation, joint pain and nail dystrophy (*). Although the study only had 58 participants it was a double blind, placebo controlled trial – this is the gold standard for study design in terms of weeding out possible influences.

The trial included 48 micrograms of selenium daily – this amount or more can be obtained through food, by adding one of the below to a meal:

• 3 oz of halibut, tuna, shrimp or sardines
• 4 oz of beef steak
• 4 oz of beef liver
• 6 oz of chicken

#5 Avoid Gut Damaging Foods

Remember the gut is the mothership of the immune system so if you’ve got a leaky gut, you can expect the immune system to be constantly misfiring. In fact, it is not uncommon to have more than one autoimmune condition. Why? Because the root causes are the same – the immune system is simply attacking different parts of the body.

So, avoid foods that damage the lining of your gut and promote inflammation. These include:

Lectins: lectins are plant proteins that are designed to steer bugs and other animals away from eating them. Think of them as natural insecticides the plants use for defense. They are designed to make bugs sick so that they steer clear the next go around.

Lectins are a sticky protein that bind to carbohydrates and interfere with cellular communication, particularly in the brain, gut and nervous system. They wear down the walls of the small intestine (*). They can also bind to viruses and bacteria, making it more likely for you to get sick from those invaders as well.

Common food sources of lectins include: beans, lentils, peanuts, grains (particularly gluten containing grains) and potatoes.

Saponins are bitter compounds naturally found in some plant foods like quinoa. The bitter taste of saponins is designed, much like lectins, to be a natural repellent to animals. Saponins can also damage the lining of the gut and bind to nutrients you actually need (*,*). If you want the immune system to be calm, cool and collected, protect the gut and stay away from saponin containing foods: beans, lentils, peas, peanuts, nightshade plants (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant).

#6 Get your Vitamin D Status in Order

Studies show that psoriasis and vitamin D deficiency are connected. Many people in the US are deficient in vitamin D due to lack of sunlight exposure and obesity. Your body makes vitamin D from cholesterol but it needs sunlight to do it. Because skin cancer is also a health concern we’ve been trained to cover up with clothes and sunscreen. The other obvious issue here is that most people are sedentary and do not leave indoors for much of the day.

Vitamin D is stored in fat so if you are overweight or obese, so in addition to the above issues, if you’re storing fat and never burning it your vitamin d may remain sequestered.

Recent research recommends around 2000 IU of vitamin D daily or enough to keep your levels in check (*).

How? Vitamin D relatively scarce in food but the best naturally occuring sources of vitamin D are:

·       Cod liver oil

·       Trout

·       Salmon

·       Sardines

·       Liver

Supplements may also be warranted here, particularly if you are deficient. In general, every 1000 IU of supplemental vitamin D raises serum levels by about 10 ng/mL.

#7 Clean Up Your Habits

This is a bonus, not diet related, but still intimately connected.

Finally, clean up your habits to reduce inflammation, calm the immune system and up regulate the body’s own repair system. What does this mean exactly?

Make sleep a priority. Sleep is literally the mind and body’s repair time. Less than 6 hours of sleep already impairs immune function, 8 hours is ideal. But, everyone is different so if you feel well rested on 7 hours of sleep that may just be your biology.

Manage stress. Stress promotes inflammation, impairs gut function and can even lead to premature aging. There are so many way to promote relaxation and reduce stress – even a simple thing like taking a walk in nature or inhaling a few deep breaths can turn on the relaxation response.

Get rid of booze and tobacco. Alcohol and tobacco increase oxidative stress to cells and tissues and increase inflammation. I know, I know, what about red wine??? When you have an autoimmune condition, you’re on a new playing field and the rules of population health don’t apply.

It’s Up to You, Start Healing and Start Living

There are so many lifestyle factors that can contribute to healing – diet, sleep and stress to name a few. A carnivore diet can help with this – in fact, it simplifies healing into one single intervention that provides all of what you need and none of the toxic inflammatory promoting foods you don’t. 

This article was originally published at www.carnivoreaurelius.com.