It is an inflammation issue of the lining of the colon, which causes ulcers.
It is said to be chronic, progressive, and greatly increases your risk of colon cancer.
What are the symptoms
It is a bit like a roller-coaster, you can have spells in remission where issues are mild or non-existent. Then you have flare-ups where the issues get more intense.
There are a whole host of potential symptoms like chronic diarrhoea, stomach pain, always needing the toilet, joint pain, ulcers all over the body not just in the colon, bad skin, irregular heartbeat, blood in your faeces. UC can also lead to primary sclerosing cholangitis, developmental issues in children, and very high risk of bowel cancer.
How many people have it
Around 1% of the western world have UC. Which you might not think is much, but when you add in Crohn’s, IBS, Leaky Gut etc. There is a definite pattern showing there most be something seriously wrong in the Standard Western Diet if so many people are getting digestive diseases.
How to treat UC
Mainstream medical treatment uses an assortment of steroidal and immunosuppressants to try to keep the remission periods for as long as possible, whilst lessening the impact of the flares.
Then as this disease is said to be incurable, and as you spend many years on a cocktail of drugs… eventually there is a pretty high chance you are going to need some sort of surgical procedure eg the removal of parts of your colon.
If you need drugs and surgery obviously take them, but your goal should always to be to find ways to manage any disease without the need for drugs and surgery.
Why I think the Carnivore Diet helps
I am no doctor, and I don’t have UC… but if I did I would probably do 2 thing.
Eat only ruminant meat and do daily + extended fasts.
Why.
Meat – the digestive system can be simplified into 3 main blocks. The stomach. The small intestine. The large intestine. If UC is mainly a problem in the large intestine, then I would want to eat as much food as possible that digests in the stomach and small intestine. I would want my large intestine to do as little work as possible. Over 98% of beef digests before the large intestine, so that’s what I would focus on. I would definitely avoid sending fiber down my large intestine, as that is like sending a Brillo Pad down an already sensitive area.
Fasting – If I had UC I would want to limit the amount of work my digestive system was doing. I would want to eat some food, let it digest, then I would then like my digestive system to have a long period of time to rest and recover. If I had any digestive disease, I would not want to be sending food down my digestive system constantly. So I would incorporate intermittent and extended fasting.
I have a few carnivore diet success stories relating to colitis, check them out here –
Rose “Hmmmm it might seem unbelievable if I list all the benefits I’ve experienced since adopting Carnivore, but I will do my best. Firstly relief from constant gastric discomfort, colitis, ibs, intermittent constipation, bloat and interstitial cystitis. Manageable monthly cycles instead of debilitating cramps.”
Gabe “Major relief from my autoimmune condition – Ulcerative Colitis. I am lean and continue to gain muscle mass. Great sleep, energy, happiness, and simplicity. I feel the healthiest I have ever been and I am much more disciplined in my approach to life.”
Nicole “Better sleep, mood, leaner, much better digestion, reduced inflammation and colitis symptoms are nearly gone.”
Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.
“Would you rather be right? Or happy?” This was the question I had to ask myself when I made the transition to the Carnivore diet 3 and a half years ago. My name is Rose, I’m 35 years old and I am an autoimmune warrior of over 10 years. I have fibromyalgia, celiacs and arthritis. Luckily I also have an answer to my earlier question that has given me an extraordinary improvement in my quality of life.
How did you eat before Carnivore.
My diet before going Carnivore was full of extreme choices. I became vegan when I was 14, not a junk food vegan but whole food based “super food” obsessed vegan. Autoimmune conditions run in my family and I thought if I adopted an “ultra healthy” way of eating and avoided modern medicine I could avoid developing an autoimmune condition of my own. Unfortunately I was wrong, as I got older I developed many symptoms we now relate to plant intolerances and inflammatory reactions. I tried many different extreme versions of elimination plant based diets over over the next 11 years. I spent thousands of dollars on supplements and detoxes and natural treatments to cure my reactions, not understanding the reactions were directly related to what I was eating. It didn’t make sense to me at the time…because I was “doing everything right”. Finally by the time I was in my late 20s I was beat down. None of my choices were providing lasting relief, so I gave up and adopted the SAD diet. I felt like at least if I was in pain I could enjoy a cupcake! Of course that choice only inflicted further harm to my sensitive system, and I became very sick. That health bottom led me to try Keto and opened my mind to Carnivore.
Why did you try Carnivore to begin with.
I always had an intuitive sense there must be a way of eating that could optimize health. It seemed rather sensible to me that eating less processed foods might give ones health an advantage. I just happened to be very wrong about my choice of unprocessed food for a long time. Trying Carnivore for me was like grasping a life raft right before going under. My health was eroding and my metabolic system was clearly out of whack. Beyond that depression and anxiety I had been dealing with since I was a teenager was starting to really make coping with my physical experience difficult. I became very open to any change that might give me any way out of that cycle. Thank goodness!
How do you personally approach the Carnivore Diet.
I personally approach Carnivore like its an adventure. I like learning, about biology, about hunting and field-dressing/butchering, about different cultures, about animal husbandry and my role in it as a Carnivore. As a vegan I did the same thing, I read a great deal about Biodynamic farming and rotation farming during that phase of my life. I understood animals had a part to play in sustainable farming. But I’m happy now to have a healthier relationship with the circle of life which I believe is a great advantage to life and a greater understanding of how much respect I have for food that heals me and the stewards of that care take that cycle.
What benefits have you seen since starting the Carnivore Diet.
Hmmmm it might seem unbelievable if I list all the benefits I’ve experienced since adopting Carnivore, but I will do my best. Firstly relief from constant gastric discomfort, colitis, ibs, intermittent constipation, bloat and interstitial cystitis. Manageable monthly cycles instead of debilitating cramps. Reliable muscle strength and relief from chronic muscle exhaustion and cramping. Full range of motion without pain in my hands and other joints affected by arthritis. Relief from myofascial pain/ nerve pain in trigger points. A reliable reduction in my inflammatory response overall. Much more energy. Reduction in my overall anxiety and depression. Balanced endocrine hormones. More joy. More desire to be active and seek out challenging physical activity. More hopeful mental outlook. Better memory, focus and overall mental clarity. Clear, younger looking skin and healthier hair. Weight loss over all but more importantly dramatic body composition shifts without much effort. I’ll stop there!
What negatives have you found with the Carnivore Diet.
Any negatives of the Carnivore diet that I’ve noticed don’t really have so much to do with the diet so much as how practicing the diet outside of the home can impact me personally. I’m still very sensitive to polyunsaturated fats like canola or soy oil, so if I eat out and my burger or steak gets contaminated that can really negatively impact me. How diligent I have to be can be annoying to waitstaff and awkward socially. But its a small price for health. They don’t have to be in my body. I have noticed the diet does illicit strong reactions from people. Far more frequently than when I was vegan, I have had to stand my ground with people who care about me who want me to eat a few veggies “to make them feel better”… but again they don’t have to live in my body. I’ve learned to have firmer boundaries about that kind of exchange about my food. Those are negatives of perception, not that diet itself. Honestly I can’t think of any!
Do you exercise on the Carnivore Diet, if so how do you find it and what do you do.
I do exercise on Carnivore. It’s one of the many joys of the lifestyle to me. Because I have much more available energy and the stress of activity doesn’t send me into a flare straight away I can actually enjoy being active. I can freely follow the natural impulse to move and build strength. I dance, I love resistance training, plyometrics and hiking.
What piece of advice would you give someone who is interested in trying this diet, but hasn’t taken the leap yet.
Meat is not bad for you. It doesn’t make you a bad person to eat it. And it doesn’t make you a bad person to prioritize your health by eating what will optimize it. Get to know a rancher or farmer through a meat CSA or farmers market if you feel any shame about eating animals. Learn about regenerative agriculture if your worried about the environment. Otherwise… dive in! Let the diet do what it does best by breaking the carb/sugar addiction. Eat till you’re full! Your pallet will change naturally, just wait and see!
Do you think Carnivore will ever be accepted as a mainstream diet.
Gosh its hard to say if it will go mainstream. I think as more people catch on to regenerative agriculture it might be possible. I hope so. I think with the hard work of people like Shawn Baker, Nina Teicholz, Peter Ballerstedt to name just a few Carnivore luminaries anything is possible.
Anything you would like to add, and where can people follow you.
Just try it for 30 days. Seriously. And come see me over on MeatRX.com where there is heaps of research and support available. I just recently became a coach. I will be debuting a cooking channel called “Rose’s Recipes” on Youtube later in June and You can also find me on instagram at www.instagram.com/wild_bk_alchemy
Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.
If you like what I am about, check out the below.
Amazon
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.
I am an ambassador for the lifestyle brand Descended From Odin, have a look at their apparel and accessories: Click here and get 10% off with the code “ketogenicendurance”
My name is Gabe Gilleran. I am 26 years old and live in Northern California.
2) How did you eat before Carnivore.
Standard American diet. I have always eaten meat but ate plenty of grains and sugar for 23 years.
3) Why did you try Carnivore to begin with.
I developed an autoimmune condition, Ulcerative Colitis at 23. I had never paid close attention to nutrition until this point in my life. Eating such a wide variety of things made tracking any sort of pattern very complicated. I happened to listen to Dr. Shawn Baker on the Joe Rogan podcast. Steak was already my favorite food so it made sense to give carnivore a shot. I immediately experienced relief from my symptoms and then began noticing benefits in most other aspects of my life.
4) How do you personally approach the Carnivore Diet.
I am currently eating 2-3 lbs of beef, 7 eggs, 4 pieces of bacon, 2 chicken thighs, and a cup of plain yogurt a day. Originally I was just eating beef twice a day but I have recently been training and putting on muscle so I added more food and spread out intake throughout the day. I occasionally have black coffee. On heavy training days I have experimented with half a cup of white rice around the workout.
5) What benefits have you seen since starting the Carnivore Diet.
Major relief from my autoimmune condition – Ulcerative Colitis. I am lean and continue to gain muscle mass. Great sleep, energy, happiness, and simplicity. I feel the healthiest I have ever been and I am much more disciplined in my approach to life.
6) What negatives have you found with the Carnivore Diet.
Most people don’t understand why I eat this way even though the results are undeniable. Family, friends, girlfriend think I’m a little crazy. I’m not sure this is really a negative it’s just that most people do not fully consider the importance of good nutrition.
7) Do you exercise on the Carnivore Diet, if so how do you find it and what do you do.
I have played team sports almost my entire life. With all that activity I had an athletic frame but did not desire to workout outside of sports. Once I went carnivore my body “woke up” and I was full of energy. Out of the blue I had a desire to improve myself physically. I currently lift weights 5 days a week, high rep body building style. I am seeing tremendous results. After 6 months I plan to switch to powerlifting to see just how much weight I can move.
8) What piece of advice would you give someone who is interested in trying this diet, but hasn’t taken the leap yet.
Embrace it and give it a fair shot. The only person that will know whether or not it works is you. If you experience the same results I have chances are you will stick with it. It is a really eye opening experience.
9) Do you think Carnivore will ever be accepted as a mainstream diet.
Our society has gotten so out of tune with real nutrition that it is going to be hard to get us back on track. My view is that carnivore is our species appropriate diet. Our best bet is to influence those people who just simply want to answer “what are we supposed to eat?” After that the results will speak for themselves.
10) Anything you would like to add, and where can people follow you.
I am just really grateful that I have figured this out at a relatively young age. You can find me on IG @carnivore_usa. Thanks!
Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.
I am an ambassador for the lifestyle brand Descended From Odin, have a look at their apparel and accessories: Click here and get 10% off with the code “ketogenicendurance”
I love doing the Carnivore Diet Success Stories, I find it very rewarding to share peoples progress. So I am going to try to catch up with people once a year to see how they are getting on.
Will they all still be Carnivore, probably not. However, I believe they will have an appreciation of the benefits of a meat-heavy diet and will use that knowledge as a tool to further their health.
Meat Up with Nicole
1) How would you currently describe your current way of eating?
Still strict carnivore with the exception of a pint of Revel ice cream before my period.
2) What have you learned regarding nutrition over the last year?
Wow.. so much! So much out there we DON’T need. Meat really does have it all. I feel best on grass-fed. Dairy makes me bloated AF, and I went back to monk fruit in my coffee after 3 months of no sweeteners bcuz it’s yummy.
3) What health & Fitness improvements, and/or setbacks have you experienced in the last year?
I am still holding steady in body comp and lab tests, status quo.
4) What are your health and fitness goals in the year ahead?
I’d like to get even leaner and manage my perimenopause symptoms.
5) Anything else to add? and where can people follow your journey?
Healthy With Nicole on Instagram and YouTube
Here is the original post from 3rd October 2018
1) Introduce Yourself.
I’m a consultant to a large health care company in California and have been a health coach for 15 years. BA psych MEd Health Promotion. Mom of 2, live in Laguna Beach.
2) How did you eat before Carnivore.
Keto 1 year, plant-based prior, former vegan of 15 years.
3) Why did you try Carnivore to begin with.
To heal colitis and get leaner.
4) How do you personally approach the Carnivore Diet.
I try to be flexible but also listen to my body when it comes to food choices. I eat almost exclusively beef with occasional eggs and bacon days. No dairy. Coffee but trying to quit! IF daily, periodic extended fasts for healing.
5) What benefits have you seen since starting the Carnivore Diet.
Better sleep, mood, leaner, much better digestion, reduced inflammation and colitis symptoms are nearly gone.
6) What negatives have you found with the Carnivore Diet.
Going out is a bit more limited, socially unaccepted as of yet. People think it’s bad for the environment and don’t understand its health or environmental impact at all.
7) Do you exercise on the Carnivore Diet, if so how do you find it and what do you do.
Pilates, barre, kettlebells, walking, and surfing. Something every day.
8) What piece of advice would you give someone who is interested in trying this diet, but hasn’t taken the leap yet.
Transition slowly, don’t rush this or you will have a ton of fatigue and diarrhea. Let go of old ideas with regard to hunger. We tend to get used to a very full feeling eating plants, so a lot of people overeat and gain weight in the beginning until they get used to a less bloated belly still feeling full and satiated.
9) Do you think Carnivore will ever be accepted as a mainstream diet.
Yes! Too many good benefits to ignore.
10) Anything you would like to add, and where can people follow your journey.
I think the inclusion of various forms of fasting along with a carnivore diet can cure almost anything.
Follow my journey on instagram @Healthy_with_nicole and my website has some online coaching options at www.healthywithnicole.com
Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.
I am an ambassador for the lifestyle brand Descended From Odin, have a look at their apparel and accessories: Click here and get 10% off with the code “ketogenicendurance”
My name is Tani, @taniblue_artist on Instagram, I am a 46 yo mother of a 15 yo daughter. Widowed for 10 years this May. I am an artist and dancer, have been an aerialist and am currently retraining in classical ballet with a view to teaching and journalism in dance.
How did you eat before Carnivore.
B.C. Before Carnivore.
I was raised a vegetarian by my parents in the 70’s. I am fairly certain my mother was vegetarian while I was in-utero too. I was born anxious, I was also born with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome but I was not diagnosed until I was 42. It is a collagen disorder. It seems that vegetarianism was probably the worst dietary choice my parents could have made for me, outside of full veganism. As a child I was extremely hypermobile per EDS but I had a myriad of issues not connected with the syndrome. Migraines, I remember having a blinding ‘sore heads’ from about 4. I thought it was normal, because my mum also had headaches. I had insomnia as long as I can remember. I had extreme tantrums that would be accompanied by out of body experiences right through to adulthood. My hands always shook. I would see auras and feel like I was a giant balloon at school, and all sorts of odd hallucinations and imaginings. I had weird learning issues, they thought I was dyslexic, but I was not. I just couldn’t quite remember things right, I guess we now know this as brain fog. I found ingenious ways to keep up with the other kids. I would have extreme wheezing attacks if we did lots of running at school, nobody noticed, I thought it was just normal puffing as I doubled over unable to breath. I had stomach aches. All the time.
Sanitarium (the 7th day adventist company) is big in Australia, I remember, pre-primary school, eating sloppy weetbix soaked in reconstituted powdered soy milk. I would have the worst tummy aches. My mum would make the most amazing home made stone milled whole wheat bread, it was nearly indigestible for me and made my tummy hurt. But I ate it. We fortunately ate home grown veg so that was toxin and glyphosate free. My favourite food was egg yolks with salt. I hated eggwhites. My little brother liked the whites so we would swap.
When I was between 9 and 11 my parents split. My mother was diagnosed as anemic and so we started eating some lean meat, mostly skinless chicken. We were veg focused though and had nuttelex (margarine) as our bread spread. By 14 I had pretty severe depression. I didn’t really know why. (we did have some very bad life experiences but still it didn’t make sense). I had constant bouts of conjunctivitis, mouth ulcers, and chronic hay fever. My stomach was always a bit bloated and I was nearly always constipated in my teens. I was diagnosed by a friend at ballet (I started dancing at 3, on a doctor’s orders for the hypermobility) with scoliosis. At 16 I had a spinal fusion and had to quit ballet. This saw a rapid decline in my physical and mental health. At 17 my eyesight began to rapidly deteriorate (I was studying fine art) so I had to get glasses. In my early 20’s I developed cystic acne, still had constant migraines and started to seek help for my stomach which was switching between diarrhoea and constipation. I was self medicating (alcohol mostly) to try to deal with the migraines and depression and insomnia and pain.
An allopathic naturopath got me off wheat and kept me away from dairy. It helped a bit. At 20 I joined the circus. I trained as an aerialist. I was very strong. But, I injured my ankle and kept performing on it for a few months. I left after a year and had a severe limp for several years. I thought it was normal to take years to heal, it always took me so long to heal from anything (this is partly due to the EDS) At 22 I was medicated for depression, I took the meds for about a year. By 25 I was on crutches from severe hip pain. A specialist wanted to do surgery. I said no. I put it off for 17 years and had my hip replaced at 42. The initial damage to the hip would have been from the scoliosis and the ankle limp, impacting on the hip causing spurs and then osteoarthritis, I treated it with chiropractic. For EDS and scoliosis chiropractic has been an absolute godsend. I was also diagnosed with osteoarthritis around this time, I have it everywhere.
I lived off grid in my late 20’s with my partner, we ate all sorts of hunted foods like hare and rabbit and duck and deer. My gut was quite a bit better and my migraines less and sleep better, but I was still drinking frequently and eating tons of veggies and vegetarian meals.
I had a baby at 30. My pregnancy was perfect, which is astonishing, a drug free and fast delivery (perhaps because of all the dance training and high pain threshold I developed over decades of chronic pain), while I was pregnant I could eat as much dairy and pastries as I wanted with few ill effects bar constipation. All my food reactions came back after delivery. By my mid 30’s my migraines were so bad I would have them 6 days out of 7. I had chronic diarrhea, I was medicated for cystic acne with a type of hormonal pill and had severe PMT. My stomach would swell so bad and the gas was utterly horrific. I was tested for celiac but it was negative. I stopped eating all grains around this stage.
In my later 30s I had a bone test done at a chemist. She said my density looked extremely low and I should get it looked at by a doctor. The doctors refused to believe I could have anything wrong with my bones ‘so young’. So it was 7 or so years more before I got a dexa. When I was finally tested I was diagnosed with full blown osteoporosis in my spine and osteopenia in my hips at 42. I was still eating a ‘whole foods healthy fats low protein’ diet at this stage. My husband (we broke up but were still very close)passed away when I was 36. I developed severe PTSD. I kept a business running, just. But within 2 years my body had deteriorated so much that I had to close my business. I had shingles. I could barely walk. And my gut was getting worse. I was mostly in bed for nearly 4 years.
At one point I was eating Keto, I loved it, no one knew about it then. My brother introduced me to it. My peers told me I was insane, that I needed soluble and insoluble fibre to be healthy. But I felt incredible! For the first time in my life my toilet experience was “normal”.Of course eventually I was convinced to go back to LFHC after about 3 months. HUGE MISTAKE. I was so sick I also dabbled in a bit of juicing, a bit of raw vegan, but mostly just stuck to the usual veg and fruit laden low meat diet. I had got rid of legumes by now though, they would just kill me.
After I had my hip sorted by cutting it out and putting in a metal one, I went to a gp and talked of my stomach ills (by this stage I had been bleeding from my rectum for about a year) and of my concerns about my bones. Miraculously she listened. I was tested. I had pylori, we got rid of that. I had fructose and oligos malabsorption and I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. The bones of a sickly 90 yo. I was put onto FODMAPS diet. It helped, quite a bit. I did FODMAPS for about 2 years. Plus insane meds for ulcerative colitis/proctitis. I had a friend tell me about EDS, I was genetically tested and found to have the syndrome at the same time.
Then I stumbled back on to keto just through looking up foods constantly on the internet.I experienced even more improvements. I did that for about 8 months. Then in November 2018 I stumbled upon and started with Carnivore. I had heard of it years before and thought it was insane but I am pretty much willing to try anything now I am in so much pain and so sick of it.
Why did you try Carnivore to begin with.
So I started ‘dirty’ carnivore. BAM game changer! I had developed rosacea acne after a stressful incident a year before. That was the first ailment to go, in about 3 weeks. I had also developed sjorgens syndrome when I was little, that also went (it is just dry mucous areas, eyes, mouth, privates)I had migrating tongue and severe ulcers even on Keto, gone in a few weeks on Carnivore. All migraines, gone. Insomnia, gone. I sleep solidly for at least 7 hours a night, for the first time in my life. The ulcerative colitis is still healing, and I still have small flare ups but it is so much improved. I am getting rid of egg whites at the moment and this seems to be helping (only been off them 4 days). Severe memory loss, is so much improved. My healing time is improved. Trauma reactions have been reduced. I am still triggered by the same things, filling forms, loud noise, crowds etc but so much less so, I am able to navigate these things so much better, although I suspect there might be a bit of ADHD as well, but of course ADHD can also be treated with HFLC. Depression is gone. That went with Keto. Anxiety and “overthinking” is gone. I think I even need to get a new glasses script, my eyesight seems to be changing. And there is probably so much more, that I will think of after I submit this. Oh and I already look 5 years younger and as a pale redhead, I don’t sunburn at all any more.I literally do not need sunscreen even at the height of Australian summer. This is incredible to experience. I used to burn in 5 seconds of sun exposure.
How do you personally approach the Carnivore Diet.
What do I eat at the moment? Mornings I have coffee blended with 2 egg yolks, a huge chunk of butter, a few tablespoons of colostrum and some gelatin. I usually have two of these. Lunch I will have a burger patty, or steak, some sort of seafood and recently added in a variety of cheeses high in K2. When I first added these in a few weeks ago, I had a HUGE oxalate dump. It was intense and painful. I drink lemon water to help with the oxalate overload. For dinner I will have some more meats. I also have a bit of whey protein isolate. Eggs done different ways. LIVER! I have been eating a little raw liver pretty much the whole time, it is incredible. I am coming at this from a very medicalised point of view. I am eating a ton of calories. I dont track, because I think I would be horrified. I suspect I am eating about 2000-2500 cal a day. I am 4’11 (stunted growth plus scoliosis, my mother is about 6 inches taller than me, my daughter is about 4 inches taller) and I weigh 53kg.
I have recently stopped eating – blueberries, cacao, sugar free sauces including tomato sauce, black tea and egg whites and I have very little stevia. This is because of my suspicion that oxalates have been my biggest problem all along. I have only recently found this information. I drink a bit of milk kefir and goats milk and yogurt. I try and get the best quality and grass fed when I can. I am extremely low income so I seek out direct bulk and plan very carefully.
Do you exercise on the Carnivore Diet, if so how do you find it and what do you do.
I do about 15-20 hours a week of dance classes and am studying a certificate in dance, I walk outdoors every day and do a small amount of cross training at home, if I stop training my EDS symptoms – chronic pain etc go nuts. I am looking down the barrel of more surgery, on my foot this time, my ankle is bone on bone and cysts have formed. This was from a twisted ankle 18 months ago (just before Keto). So I am still dealing with extreme arthritic pain in my ankle, my knee is playing up. I still see a range of specialists for EDS symptoms, BUT I am actually in the best health of my entire life. I think that it is going to take a long time to heal 40+ years of damage but it has started and I am so excited, but I am also so sad and angry. I was never ever meant to be this sick. Yes, my genetics have had an impact, but the healing I have experienced this past 6 months had been utterly profound. Life changing. I can now actually start looking at gainful employment as my health improves, because I am not on the toilet all day every day. Telling people you are unemployed because of your bowel movements is pretty bloody mortifying.
Weight has not played any part in any of these choices and changes for me. My weight has been pretty consistent all my life, but my health has always been awful. What I have noticed since carnivore is my muscles are denser and I don’t get tired from exercise and I rarely get sore muscles.I have lost a lot of adipose tissue from my hips and upper arms that I thought I was stuck with due to aging and my boobs have changed shape, still small but firmer. All my skin is looking better!
I also had to nap every day up until starting carnivore, sometimes for hours or even all day. I no longer need naps, another improvement that means I can look at gainful employment. The impact to my capacity to make any kind of living has been devastating. I think this is so important to note. My quality of life as an adult has been severely messed with, and I am seeing this more and more in young adults now, people who should be in their prime!
What piece of advice would you give someone who is interested in trying this diet, but hasn’t taken the leap yet.
My main advice, if you are really unwell and looking at this, is start slow. Go Keto first, gradually remove foods. Oxalate dumping is painful and can be dangerous (I recently found out). The transition is easier too. There was a mild transition period with FODMAPS, then for Keto it was about 3 months of adapting for me (most people it is about 2 weeks) and then carnivore came pretty easy overall from there.
If your gut and skin are playing up, I believe this is a sign of deep underlying damage. You have probably been sick for years but it is starting to show on the surface. Carnivore type diets may not be for everyone, but as far as my ancestral history is concerned, and my reactions to the changes, it is definitely for me. And probably for life by the looks of it.
Do you think Carnivore will ever be accepted as a mainstream diet.
I do think carnivore will end up mainstream. Even as the big multinationals push for more fake food and earth destroying monocropping, I think the pushback is going to be huge soon. Too many of us are getting too sick from the last 60 years of BS food guidelines and crap on the shelves (which I never ate!). They nearly killed me for goodness sakes, which is bonkers! I ate the “healthiest” diet on the planet my whole life and I nearly ended up with bowel cancer (still at very high risk) and mush for bones. I do think that ancestral diets will return with force, maybe sooner than the multinationals can reckon with! I certainly hope so, and this is why I am sharing my experience.
Anything you would like to add, and where can people follow your journey.
I post regularly in my stories and feed on instagram. My focus is ballet, health, diet and art. @taniblue_artist is where you can see what I get up to and how I am progressing.
My final word is please feed your children ample quality meat and animal fats. I was the experiment in the 70’s and the experiment failed, terribly.
Thanks for reading my story.
Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.
I am an ambassador for the lifestyle brand Descended From Odin, have a look at their apparel and accessories: Click here and get 10% off with the code “ketogenicendurance”
My name is Arla! I am 44 and the mom of two teenagers. I love essential oils, hiking, yoga, traveling, and hanging around positive people. I have my own business in health and wellness and love it!
How did you eat before carnivore?
I grew up not liking anything “green”. I didn’t like the taste or the way it made me feel. At the age of 18 I ate my first salad after gaining weight in college. I was told this was what I had to eat to lose weight. When I was in my late 20’s I ate the standard American diet. When my children were young, overnight I went vegetarian at the age of 32. It wasn’t because I didn’t like meat it was for the animals. It was a long seven years. I started off as a terrible vegetarian. I learned later to make salads the way I liked them. I began to add back in meat after I continued to break out in miserable itchy rashes. I went on an elimination diet my doctor put me on. In the end, I was down to apples and all my body wanted was meat. I listened to my body and incorporated it back in my diet over the next few years. I became a Holistic Health Coach and began to eat what I considered “healthy and clean”.
Why did you try carnivore to begin with?
I heard about this way of eating from one of my best friends who was having great success with her colitis. We had been friends for many years and I have seen her struggle first hand. I decided to “try” this insane diet for 30 days.. because I love a good 30-day challenge! I had also decided this would be great for research. The first few weeks were a disaster. My body went into freak out mode going from eating carbs/sugars to no carbs/sugars. I was determined to do this challenge like a BOSS! By the third week, I had feelings of clarity and euphoria. By day thirty I was beside myself with how much better I felt. This way of eating was against everything I had ever learned. I decided to continue.
How do you personally approach the carnivore diet?
I began this way of eating last year. It turned into a lifestyle. I begin my day with coffee in the morning and heavy whipping cream. My favorite foods are grass fed beef, eggs and ribeye with salt (these were also my favorites as a child). I usually eat a few times a day and do a natural daily intermittent fast. I have to say I love the way I feel! It is important to me to have so much gratitude for the animals that provide us with these nutrients!
What benefits have you seen since starting the Carnivore Diet.
Some of the benefits I felt were:
My cravings for carbs and sugars went away
My anxiety levels were dramatically reduced
The bloating had disappeared (this was incredible to me)
No rashes
My body became leaner
My poop was normal
A sense of clarity
Minimalism
Feelings of peace and calmness
More energy
I used to have daily stomach aches and it was “normal” to me. I realized this was NOT NORMAL. Since going carnivore, stomach aches are a thing of my past.
What negatives have you found with the carnivore diet?
At times it has been awkward to go out to eat but I usually have a big meal prior to heading out with friends. Other than that it’s very simplistic. I enjoy doing so much in life. I feel like this gives me more time freedom. I used to spend tons of time food prepping, chopping and stressing about what to make. Now it’s just simple. I have to admit I’m still scared to use a grill but it’s on my list to learn.
Do you exercise on the carnivore diet? If so how do you find it and what do you do?
Of course! I feel it’s so important to move the body! I love to hike and practice yoga. I am starting to incorporate weights. This is a very new venture for me and I’m excited to begin.
What piece of advice would you give someone who is interested in trying this diet, but hasn’t taken the leap yet?
I would say if they are ready for a change to give it a thirty-day trial! GO ALL IN! They can decide from there to continue with carnivore or add certain foods back in and see how they feel.
Do you think carnivore will ever be accepted as a mainstream diet?
I don’t know. I think more and more people are having massive positive changes in their health with this way of eating. The word is getting out and people are curious. I’m interested to see where it goes and how the research evolves. I will continue to honor my body and do what feels right for ME.
Anything you would like to add, and where can people find your journey?
Feel free to follow my journey on Instagram @carnivarla
Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.
I am an ambassador for the lifestyle brand Descended From Odin, have a look at their apparel and accessories: Click here and get 10% off with the code “ketogenicendurance”
I’m a consultant to a large health care company in California and have been a health coach for 15 years. BA psych MEd Health Promotion. Mom of 2, live in Laguna Beach.
2) How did you eat before Carnivore.
Keto 1 year, plant based prior, former vegan of 15 years.
3) Why did you try Carnivore to begin with.
To heal colitis and get leaner.
4) How do you personally approach the Carnivore Diet.
I try to be flexible but also listen to my body when it comes to food choices. I eat almost exclusively beef with an occasional eggs and bacon day. No dairy. Coffee but trying to quit! IF daily, periodic extended fasts for healing.
5) What benefits have you seen since starting the Carnivore Diet.
Better sleep, mood, leaner, much better digestion, reduced inflammation and colitis symptoms are nearly gone.
6) What negatives have you found with the Carnivore Diet.
Going out is a bit more limited, socially unaccepted as of yet. People think it’s bad for the environment and don’t understand its health or environmental impact at all.
7) Do you exercise on the Carnivore Diet, if so how do you find it and what do you do.
Pilates, barre, kettlebells, walking and surfing. Something every day.
8) What piece of advice would you give someone who is interested in trying this diet, but hasn’t taken the leap yet.
Transition slowly, don’t rush this or you will have a ton of fatigue and diarrhoea. Let go of old ideals with regard to hunger. We tend to get used to a very full feeling eating plants, so a lot of people over eat and gain weight in the beginning until they get used to a less bloated belly still feeling full and satiated.
9) Do you think Carnivore will ever be accepted as a mainstream diet.
Yes! Too many good benefits to ignore.
10) Anything you would like to add, and where can people follow your journey.
I think the inclusion of various forms of fasting along with a carnivore diet can cure almost anything.
Follow my journey on instagram @Healthy_with_nicole and my website has some online coaching options at www.healthywithnicole.com
Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this interview post.
My wife is experiencing similar benefits to me, that is N=2.
This series of Carnivore Diet Success Stories, shows it could be N=Many.
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Now for the marketing bit haha.
You can read my newest book Carnivore Fit which is available on Amazon.
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Crohn’s and Colitis are both considered chronic diseases. This means they cannot be cured, you will have periods of good spells and then periods of flare ups. That is a pretty depressing prognosis.
So in one respect this is an extremely arrogant blog post, which looks like I am suggesting I know more than Doctors and Scientists. I do not, but I do believe the root cause of most diseases is diet related and when you apply that logic you view things from different angles. Also I bet someone suffering Crohn’s or Colitis could read this and think, who the hell is this guy to suggest I have been suffering with colitis for 20 years for no reason. Completely understandable, but bare with me. Actually you can take this paragraph as a disclaimer, I am not giving medical advice. I have just wrote down some thoughts I have on the subject.
The way medical science works is that someone has a theory, which gets turned into a Randomized Controlled Trail, the results get passed down to medical bodies and they pass it down to the doctors. So if the doctors use whatever methods they are told to then they are less likely to be suspended, sued or peer reviewed. Unfortunately RCTs are nowadays just generally about what drugs can be used for a disease.
So classing Crohn’s & Colitis as incurable, really just means there is no available drug to cure them.
On top of this nutritional science is like the wild west based around observational studies, vested interest and guess work. T2 Diabetes is also classed a chronic and progressive disease. Through anecdotes and my knowledge of Low Carb diets, I know that Diabetes is easily reversed. It is only chronic and progressive when it is within the foundations of a Standard Western Diet.
So I am wondering if a simple dietary change to Zero Carb/Carnivore could cure/reverse Crohn’s & Colitis just like T2 Diabetes.
Crohn’s & Colitis
“Crohn’s Disease is a condition that causes inflammation of the digestive system or gut. Crohn’s can affect any part of the gut, though the most common area affected is the end of the ileum (the last part of the small intestine), or the colon.
The areas of inflammation are often patchy with sections of normal gut in between. A patch of inflammation may be small, only a few centimetres, or extend quite a distance along part of the gut. As well as affecting the lining of the bowel, Crohn’s may also go deeper into the bowel wall. It’s one of the two main forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).” – Crohn’s & Colitis UK
“Ulcerative Colitis is a condition that causes inflammation and ulceration of the inner lining of the rectum and colon (the large bowel). In UC, ulcers develop on the surface of the lining and these may bleed and produce mucus.
The inflammation usually begins in the rectum and lower colon, but it may affect the entire colon. If UC only affects the rectum, it is called proctitis, while if it affects the whole colon it may be called total colitis or pancolitis.” – Crohn’s & Colitis UK
What is the Conventional Treatment
No shocks here the standard treatment is usually anti inflammatory drugs, autoimmune repressing drugs and unfortunately surgery to remove infected areas.
Now I am being crazy? but would you not think the first step is a dietary change, or at any step? They are diseases of the digestive system after all, would not overhauling the diet be vital here?
The Crohn’s & Colitis UK charity, basically just say eat the EatWell plate from the NHS and go from there. This is especially disheartening because I have raised money for these in the past.
The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation goes a bit further but is still a little baffling to me:
“While your diet is not a cause of your disease and changing your diet will not cure you, paying special attention to your diet can help reduce and control your IBD symptoms.
One of the best ways to begin understanding how your diet affects your condition is to start keeping a Food Diary. By recording what you eat every time you eat and also the symptoms you experience as a result can help you identify foods that may cause distress and then limit or eliminate them from your diet.
Although Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are not the result of food allergies, many patients and doctors recommend a few simple suggestions to help control symptoms during flare ups:
Eat smaller meals at more frequent intervals
Reduce the amount of greasy or fried foods in your diet
Limit consumption of milk or milk products
Restrict your intake of certain high-fiber foods such as nuts, seeds, corn, and popcorn” – Crohns & Colitis Foundation
Firstly they say your diet isn’t the cause, surely diet is a massive factor? In my opinion your diet is either directly causing the inflammation or is weakening you to such an extent that your body isn’t able to heal your body sufficiently.
I do believe a food diary is a good idea.
However then the say eat smaller and more frequent meals. I am not sure about this, to me if you are not eating good foods. By eating them more frequently but in smaller meals, this would just mean your colon and digestive system would just be constantly processing food, without any rest periods. This would likely increase your chances of inflammation. Then they say limit greasy food. I would agree with this as long as they don’t mean fatty foods, a steak cooked in butter is completely different to chicken wings cooked in canola or soybean oil.
Limit diary would likely be good for some, but not all. Some people just don’t handle diary well that is true.
Finally interestingly they say limit some high fiber foods. Why just some, why not limit all fiber? Well because that would contradict the fact that they recommend you eat your “healthy” wholegrains.
I do appreciate that it would be risky for organisations like these, to suggest diets that differ from whatever food pyramid or plate is recommended in their country. However I have no such burdens placed on me.
Inflammation
So to take Crohn’s & Colitis to its logical core, is that they are diseases of inflammation. So your aim is to reduce the chances of having inflammation in the body. Now it is important to note that inflammation is actually a method your body uses to heal itself. So everyone will have varying levels of inflammation at any one time. However having lots of inflammation constantly, leads to chronic disease.
Going off the digestive system picture and the explanation of the diseases above. To me it seems sensible to think that diet is a major contributor, and that a correct method of eating would cure the disease. By cure I mean where medication is not necessary and there are no flare ups. Obviously if you them went back to eating what you did before the diseases could come back, as a patient clearly doesn’t have a robust digestive system. My general rule is the less robust you are the more meat and less plants you should eat. That rule apply’s here in my opinion.
So what am I really saying here?
Well to me it would mean eating food that mainly digests in between the Stomach and Small Intestines, and avoiding food matter that passes through the Ileum, Large Intestines and Rectum. This would decrease the chances of inflammation causing problems where these diseases are mainly found.
You would also be best eating food that does not promote inflammation in general. This will mean your body is not constantly fighting fires all over the body, so if an issue arises in the digestive system it can be dealt with.
What Digests before the end of the Small intestine?
Well you are reading a post from a blog, from a person who follows a Carnivore Ketogenic Diet. So guess what I am going to say here!!!
Meat and the fat attached within the meat is around 98.8% digested between the Stomach and Small Intestine. The human digestive system is incredibly efficient at digesting meat, it is what we have evolved to eat for over 2 million years. All that is left of meat after the small intestine is some brown liquid. Therefore this stands to reason that meat would cause very little inflammation or damage anywhere between the Ileum and Rectum.
We know this because people who us Ostomy Bags can see exactly what is going on:
“Because I had such an extremely short bowel, my output was very high because no water absorption had taken place. I was fed and hydrated by infusion and could literally live without eating or drinking at all. Because of my excessive output, we had to make a rig that had a hose extending from the ostomy bag that drained into a one gallon jug. Often the hose would get clogged and my wife or sister would have to use a coat hanger wire to unplug it. Now if this vegan pseudoscience is right, we would suspect that the hose was being plugged by pieces of meat.
Never once did we see any solid chunks of meat. I became so curious about this that I once swallowed the largest chunk of meat I could possibly get down without choking. Because of the shortness of my bowel, it only took about twenty minutes for my stomach to empty into the ostomy. Better than two hours later, there were no signs of any meat chunks. What was always clogging the ostomy tube were pieces of vegetables that were not fully chewed.
Entire pieces of olive, lettuce, broccoli florets, grains and seeds were found. Yet, large pieces of fat were never witnessed. As a matter of fact, all the fat from the meat was already emulsified by the bile into solution within the duodenum. Over time, fat would coagulate on the side walls of the ostomy bag, but never were there any solid pieces observed. Certainly we are getting a lot more nutrition from our meat than from our vegetables – unless you can chew your cud several times like a ruminant.” – Intestinal Transplant Survivor
Limit the quantity of Food Matter getting to the Large Intestines?
Wait doesn’t meat rot in the Colon for months on end? Nope, that was probably some ridiculous advertisement from PETA that caught on.
What does rot in the Colon? Ironically everything PETA recommends you eat. Whoops. The definition of rotting is the breaking down of food by bacteria, aka plant matter by our gut flora. Yet even a cow designed for eating plants can only get about 60% of the nutrition from a plant, this is why they are constantly eating and also why they eat their own turds so they can recycle even more nutrition. So just think how much nutrition we can actually get from plants, with a digestive system designed for meat. Its LOW, very low.
“It’s easy to tell when your gut bacteria are doing the work, instead of your digestive enzymes: you fart. That is why beans and starches make you fart, but meat doesn’t: they’re rotting in your colon, and the products of bacterial decomposition include methane and carbon dioxide gases. Here’s a list of flatulence-causing foods, and here’s another:
A partial inventory: “Beans, lentils, dairy products, onions, garlic, scallions, leeks, turnips, rutabagas, radishes, sweet potatoes, potatoes, cashews, Jerusalem artichokes, oats, wheat, and yeast in breads. Cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables…
One side benefit of a paleo diet is the elimination of the biggest, stinkiest fart producer—beans (due to the indigestible sugar raffinose)—and several smaller ones (wheat, oats, all grain products). And it sure seems like my gut bacteria have less to do now that my amylase and sucrase supplies aren’t being overwhelmed by an avalanche of starch and sugar.” –J Stanton.
It doesn’t take a scientist or nutritionist to work out the above could potentially irritate the digestive system.
Then we get to fiber, where somewhere along the human time line we decided it was a health food. That is is necessary to keep us regular. I eat no fiber, and my digestion is far better. I poop regularly plus I have far less gas and bloating.
“In conclusion, contrary to popularly held beliefs, reducing or stopping dietary fiber intake improves constipation and its associated symptoms.” – WJG
We get told we need fiber to speed up our digestion, but then get told we need fiber to slow things down. Like the breakdown of sugar in fruit. It is ridiculous.
“Foods high in insoluble fiber include grains, seeds, nuts, vegetables and certain fruits. Insoluble fibers pass through our digestive system practically untouched, because even bacteria can’t easily digest them. Why expose the smooth inner surfaces of our intestines to these abrasive indigestibles?” –Georgia Ede MD
The above should ring alarm bells for anyone with Crohn’s or Colitis. Fiber at it’s core is really just something we cannot digest, we are using to push along other things we cannot digest to poop it out of our system. How can you not think this will irritate your colon. Is it not better to not eat indigestible food matter in the first place, therefore not requiring more indigestible food matter to push it out.
“Does fiber protect the colon from cancer, constipation, and other diseases? No. In the World Journal of Gastroenterology in 2007, Doctors Tan and Seow-Choen published a review of medical studies conducted over the previous 35 years about fiber and colon health and concluded: A strong case cannot be made for a protective effect of dietary fiber against colorectal polyp or cancer. Neither has fiber been found to be useful in chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome…” – WJG
Plants have the potential in numerous ways to irritate the colon. So in my simple mind, to help prevent the need for medication and flare ups for Crohn’s & Colitis is to simply avoid all food that is digested or partially digested in the Large Colon. This means all plants. So grains, sugars, vegetable oils, vegetables and fruits. Especially anything high in fiber, but why mess around just eliminate it all.
“Vegetables (as well as some fruits) are often high in insoluble fiber. While soluble fiber can be soothing for the gut, consuming large amounts of insoluble fiber when your gut is inflamed is a little bit like rubbing a wire brush against an open wound. Ouch.
Vegetables that are high in insoluble fiber include:
Maybe you can get away with some of the above, but is it worth the experimentation.
As well as avoiding food that could irritate the gut you should also look to decrease general inflammation. Probably the biggest inflammatory issue is Omega 6, we are eating far too much of it. This is because Omega 6 is the main fatty acid in vegetable seed oils like Soy and Canola. Vegetable seeds oils are unfortunately found in all packaged, fast and restaurant food. On top of this stress, sleep and environment play a role. If you can keep control of general inflammation, then you will be much more likely to be able to deal with triggers that could cause a flare up for example.
Conclusion
If you are in any doubt about what our bodies are designed to eat, then eat a Ribeye Steak and some Sweetcorn. Then have a look to see what comes out of the other end into the shiny white toilet bowl. It won’t be the steak. It is only logical to then think eating what our body is designed to eat, would cause less stress on the body, and therefore you would be less likely to suffer from digestive issues and disease. Hence you would then not need drugs or surgery or at least reduce your chances of needing them…. in my opinion.
On top of everything I have mentioned I haven’t even touched on benefits of meat only diets in relation general health and well being. Or the destructive properties of high carbs and low fat diets in general.
You see news stories all the time, oh Polar Bears/Sharks/Crocodiles don’t get cancer so we are studying their blood. Well guess what, feed them Cornflakes for Breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, pasta for tea and fruit for dessert…. they will get cancer. They don’t get cancer because they are eating what they have evolved to eat.
A good rule of thumb for humans is:
Eat no food created in the last 200 years.
Be very very very careful eating food created between 201 & 15,000 years ago.
Eat as much as you want of food available over 15,000 years ago. Which is basically Meat.
Before you say we were Hunter Gatherers, so we would have gathered vegetables, berries, tubers etc. This is true but only when meat wasn’t available. Remember Vegan and Vegetarian diets have only become possible due to fossil fuel transportation logistics and supplements over the last 50 – 80 years. Before that fruit and vegetables were only available regionally and seasonally. I am from the North East of England, please enlighten me to what fruits and vegetables were available year round to my ancestors 50,000 years ago. There would have been no option other than to live months on end, on meat only. Luckily we would have been very happy doing so. Also remember fruit and vegetables in the past had much less sugar and much more fiber in them, so it would have been impossible for us to gatherer enough food to live on. Never mind the issues I have already brought up regarding fiber. All this great range of plants you can get in the Supermarket are created by humans, they did not exist to our ancestors. We have spliced Kale, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage and Cauliflower from a mustard plant for example. Do not get caught up in the all plants are good hype, or think Gluten Free pasta is a better option…. well it will be but not as good an option as not eating any pasta obviously.
I am sure a doctor, scientist or nutritionist could pick through this post and say, what about this pathway, what about that chemical, what about this gene expression, and what about aliens that live on Mars. What I am seeing from real people day after day, is meat only diets reversing disease both physical and mental. Like their natural state is being restored. To me the question isn’t should someone with Crohn’s or Colitis go Zero Carb/Carnivore or not? The question is how long should they do it for. Do you stick with it long term and never deviate, or do you eat meat only for 1 or 2 years to allow your digestive system time to heal itself then slowly reintroduce foods and see what effect they have. I am personally of the opinion that Zero Carb is a long term viable healthy option, so I wouldn’t personally reintroduce any plants if I didn’t have to…. and you don’t.
I am not naive enough to think there is a chance that in 5 years time, the standard practice for Crohn’s & Colitis patients will be the Carnivore Diet. The best we can hope for is that whilst the mainstream medical organisation and charities continue to muddle along, small groups will rise up. These will be organised by people from the ground up who have actually got their own Crohn’s & Colitis under control without medication or surgery, and want to help others. This is currently happening in the UK in relation to Diabetes. Diabetes UK is looking extremely old fashioned and out of touch, whereas the up and coming Diabetes.co.uk is looking progressive and adaptable.
Thanks for sticking with this post for so long.
Just to clarify, below is what I consider to be a Zero Carb / Carnivore Diet and why I believe that.
It seems obvious to me that diet can have a massive impact on both disease for good and bad, I believe the more meat you eat and the less plants you eat the better. The question is have other people came to the same conclusion, in regard to Crohn’s & Colitis? Well a lot of people have, here are some examples. These are just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more examples.
“Crohn’s disease is regarded as having no curative treatment. Previous reports on dietary therapy of Crohn’s disease indicate no major success. Case Report: Here we report a severe case of Crohn’s disease where we successfully applied the paleolithic ketogenic diet. Dietary therapy resulted in resolution of symptoms, normalized laboratory parameters as well as gradual normalization of bowel inflammation as evidenced by imaging data and normalization of intestinal permeability as shown by the polyethylene glycol (PEG 400)challenge test. The patient was able to discontinue medication within two weeks. Currently, he is on the diet for 15 months and is free of symptom sas well as side effects. Conclusion: We conclude that the paleolithic ketogenic diet was feasible, effective and safe in the present case.”
Note here that their name Paleolithic Ketogenic Diet is a carnivore diet consisting of red meat and animal fats only at a 2:1 ratio of fats to protein.
“So what does all this say? As always, I’m at a loss to explain it. N=1 is a horrible epistemic position to occupy. I don’t even know what I want to know anymore. I’ll retreat to some bare facts:
In AUG 2009, I started eating a meat-only diet. I crapped my brains out for three months until stabilizing in OCT 2009.
In NOV 2009, I stopped taking my medication.
In AUG 2010, I had a polyp removed from my intestine during my yearly colonoscopy and started drinking milk.
In Jan 2011, I started eating small amounts of potato starch.
In AUG 2011, I had a clean enough colonoscopy to warrant a two year gap until my next one.”
The good thing about this story is he went strict Carnivore. This allowed time for his
digestive system to heal. However someone would just say, yer but if you ate bad again you would get it back so you are not cured. Well after he finished his carnivore protocol, he started reintroducing fruit and vegetables and he has been fine. So once you have allowed your body to heal itself you can go back to a sensible standard diet. Not that I would risk it personally.
“I have tried all kinds of diets and treatments and I wish I knew then what I know now and I might have avoided surgery.I’ve had Ulcerative Colitis since 18 years old in 2005, and after medications all failed, that caused me to lose my colon.I now have an ileostomy and I was told to avoid meat and fat throughout my entire life of this disease. Even after the ileostomy I was told to avoid too much meat and eat a balanced diet, but the interesting part of this, was I also should avoid roughage due to its difficulty to pass through the small intestines and out the ostomy. (This should have been a red flag right away.) If it’s so difficult to digest, why are we eating it at all? Especially in my case with an inflamed colon which brought me here to this ileostomy.After eating poorly with an ileostomy, I decided to take control of my weight and diet. I attempted the keto diet and lost 70 lbs or so, but that diet consists of a lot of dairy, and allows for some nuts and insoluble fiber. This fiber tends to be a problem for people with an ileostomy due to the fact that it doesn’t really break down at all. I now only animal fat and meat and it’s a delight. The output of the ileostomy is simple to manage. It’s all liquid with little to no by products from the food I’ve eaten. I do not eat any dairy either. This is mostly due to the excess cravings that dairy tends to cause in me. Anyone that wishes to debate how red meat doesn’t digest well, can come with me to the restroom and I’ll show them that the only output I have is bile and water. The meat and fat are fully absorbed by the time it reaches the end of my small intestines.The biggest change I’ve experienced on a diet of this restrictive nature, is the freedom, not the shackles. I control my appetite, I have no cravings for poor food choices, and I don’t find myself yearning for the next snack or meat.I also think that this diet has revealed that I am a food addict, and I was chained to the drug of sugar. With most studies on addiction complete removal is usually the best medicine.I plan to keep this up for the foreseeable future, and I hope to see how low I can go in terms of body fat, waist size, and weight. I’d like to maintain strength, but I want to know my limits.The numbers:
5 months (Starting on Dec 31)
Lost 14% body fat (56% to 42%)
Lost 100lbs (385lbs to 285lbs)
Lost 6-8 inches in my waist (48-50 pants to 40)”
Nathaniel Champion“I was diagnosed with IBD (Irritable Bowel Disease) when I was a senior in high school (2011). Had a colonoscopy and was put on a low-dose Lialda (Mesalamine) to control the inflammation. For those of you that know about IBD, you know that there are certain “trigger” foods – spicy, fried, large amounts of alcohol, fresh vegetables (if in acute stage). Diet became everything for me. So much that I cut out all meat for 6 months. (There are articles/literature relating processed meats to higher incidences of colon cancer and this was the logic I used – true or not, I was desperate – I just wanted vitality and I already had risk factors). I had labs performed around the same time (insurance does yearly panels) and they showed I was anemic and had high LDL. I remember being very weak and tired all of the time. I concluded that I was taking steps backwards and not forwards – listening to my body holistically. I got back on my meal prep spread and started feeling better. All of this time I was rehabbing a back injury I got in college and was severely depressed because I was in pain every day – doing lots of rehab, diving into regenerative medicine as well. Was back on track for about 4 months until I heard about the carnivore diet.I began straight carnivore mid-January 2018, about the same time I started a fast-bacc 1 year nursing program down in Houston. Everything was new for me. New city, new curriculum, less time, no social life, less sleep. In my mind, I needed optimal nutrition in order to function at my peak levels and make the grades I wanted in such a fast program. I considered all factors – I knew I was going to be sitting a lot (8-10 hours per day), getting less sunlight, not getting social interaction. At this time I stopped taking my Lialda because the cost went from $10 a month to $250 a month.It’s been approximately 4 months on carnivore and I haven’t had an IBD flare, I sleep throughout the night, my mental and cognitive functioning have increased (I know this is subjective, but I’m able to sit through 12 hour lectures 2x a week, study 8-10 hours per day on the weekends and do 12 hour clinicals every week as well). I only have time to work out 1-2x per week and when I do, I just get my legs moving as much as I can, lift heavy, and work on mobility. Since I’m in school, I haven’t been able to afford all grass fed, so I just go to HEB or Kroger and pick up steaks, hamburger patties, eggs, and butter. I have not had labs performed, but I plan to do that in June, 2018, but I feel better than I ever have.”Wolverine“I now had less than 10 inches of intestine, not nearly enough to live on. Over the next six months I was kept alive by intravenous feedings of TPN and hydration. I didn’t have enough small bowel to even absorb water. When I became dehydrated, instead of drinking, I had to turn up the pump on the hydration fluids. This sounds simpler than it was. When you’re thirsty, every instinct you have tells you to drink. But drinking would raise the ostomy output and only dehydrate me more. I lived in a perpetual state of thirst.
After returning home, I was assigned a home nurse who would attend to my TPN, hydration and care of the surgical wounds. With each visit, she would marvel at the rate at which my surgical incisions were healing. She began to refer to me by the pseudonym Wolverine, after the Marvel character from the X-men, who possesses the ability to quickly regenerate from mortal wounds.”
Twitter, I see almost daily tweets like below.
“My ulcerative colitis disease completley cured after going carnivore. For 13 years I tried a plant based approach vegan, raw vegan, fruitarian etc nothing has worked except carnivore” @adnabdv
