My Carnivore Experiment

My 3-month Carnivore Experiment, Turned Lifestyle Change

In March of 2020 I got carnivore curious and by May 2020 I had started a mostly carnivore way of eating. Carnivore for me is 100% of my food coming from an animal (meat, eggs, dairy, fish, etc.). Before my carnivore experiment, I was a “clean”, whole-foods eating person; no alcohol, no caffeine, no gluten and very little sugar, but lots of variety in a general omnivore way. My journey with discovering the most nutritious way of eating started in my teens, so I have a long history of trying different foods and different healing protocols. My thyroid disorder diagnosis was my first step to a gluten-free life, but then my father’s cancer diagnosis really brought home the idea of food as medicine. I had already tried AIP Paleo and by the end of 2019 had landed on mostly eating a low oxalate, Paleo-ish with some goat dairy. I still wasn’t feeling great and was back to having horrible headaches much of the time. My Hashimoto’s was “managed” with 60mg of NP Thyroid, but I wondered if I could heal and reduce that dosage. One of the assessments I use in my nutritional therapy practice is a self reported symptom burden questionnaire. I decided to take it myself (again) and see what systems in my body might need some help. Mind you, I had already been working on my gut health for years at this point. The two high priority areas for me at that time turned out to be fatty acids and small intestines. Now, looking back, this makes perfect sense, but at the time, I just decided to go on a carnivore diet and see if anything would improve. My Symptom Burden Graph (SBG) below shows my Feb 2020 results in orange and my June 2021 results in blue. As you can see from my SBG comparing Feb 2020 with June of 2021 (just past my 1 year eating mostly carnivore), lots of things improved, but I still had some healing to do. More importantly than lines on a graph, I felt really good most of the time after a year on carnivore and wondered what would happen if I cut dairy and kept going.

You can take a look at my symptom burden graph (SBG) above to see the improvements. Dairy snuck back into my diet in May 2021 and sugar was sneaking back in after my 50th birthday. I think that’s where you can see, even though only medium priority, sugar handling was up a bit on the SBG. It was a stressful time, but I feel like I was able to handle the stress best when I only ate carnivore. What was hard to digest was accepting that I am an addict. I was realizing that I have an allergic-addiction to dairy as well as discovering that I have more of an addiction to sugar and carbs than I ever would have thought.

I spent the summer (June 24-Sept 1) completely focused on my own healing. I stopped taking new clients and moved to a new state (Florida) in May. The summer was a time of getting settled, enjoying time with my family and improving my own health. I had started adding some veggies and discovered ANY carbs increase my cravings for specific foods (foods that contain sugar, dairy and chocolate). It continues to be an interesting journey - recovery. I respect that everyone has their own journey and beliefs - for me - food addiction is real. I have come to realize I am a smorgasbord addict in recovery. I am an abstainer. When I realize something is in the way of my feeling my best or my healing, I have to drop it. Drop it like it’s hot - and abstain. It’s what works best for me and when I stay on an animal-based diet, I feel good/sober/healthy. What started out as a three month experiment has turned into a lifestyle and an important aspect of my recovery. I love that SheRecovers™ talks about how we are all recovering from something - heartbreak, addiction, loss, trauma, health - all kinds of recovery. For some, food is not part of their recovery story. Some of us have food as a central part of our story. In my experience eating mostly carnivore (not super strict but passionately committed to healing) has been life saving. I advocate for food freedom - including animal-based, if that’s what heals you. I don’t think I ever would have stopped promoting fruits and veggies as king if I had not experienced first hand the healing benefits of a carnivore way of eating. What has been especially helpful is studying animal-based eating for healing in mental health. So, not only has this way of eating improved my life & health, it influences the way I work and advocate for amino acids and fatty acids in mental wellness. Meat heals, sugar kills. I’ve yet to meet a human that doesn’t have some level of addiction to something. Whether that’s their morning coffee or their favorite seat - we all get attached to the things we love. Most people struggle with some level of addiction to sugar. Sugar is insidiously addictive. If you feel that sugar and/or carbs are addictive for you, you may want to explore a three-month carnivore experiment for yourself. If you are carnivore curious, see the resources page in Animal-based Eating for information and support. Best of luck to you on your journey my friend.