This is probably more dangerous than politics or religion combine. People get so hostile if you challenge their assumptions on nutrition.
A year and half?!? I'm a newbie then. I've done low carb in the past with success, but eventually fell off the wagon.
I've been Carnivore since Jan 1. I've been pretty strict except for coffee (because that's just the way it's gonna have to be!), minimal spices for my chicken wings and salmon. And mushrooms. I love mushrooms and I'm making a judgement call because they are technically not plants.
They are actually closer to animals than plants. And they go well drowned in KerryGold butter piled on my steak.
I'd love to eat a large percentage of something like Elk if I could source it at a reasonable price. I started getting this grass-fed ground beef from a Texas ranch that has a mix of Beef, Beef Heart, Beef Spleen, Beef Kidney, Beef Liver. It's not my favorite but packed with nutrition. I fry up a small patty with my fried eggs in the morning.
My biggest problems was starting to get leg cramps. I was getting plenty of sodium and potassium in the diet, I was supplementing magnesium, I finally narrowed it down to calcium. Probably because I had cut out all dairy and my body was used to a lifetime of that source. So until my system equalizes, I'll supplement. No leg cramps since.
For the uninitiated, Carnivore is a restrictive diet where the intent is to only eat animal products. (Dairy/cheese is a gray area. I've dropped it but some don't.)
It is an extension of the low carb diet approach, and can be similar to Keto, but does not require the strict fat/protein ratios. But you can if you want.
The basic idea is that plants generally don't want to be eaten. By us, or insects, or molds, or fungus. While animals have teeth and claws to defend themselves, plants use chemical warfare. Different people may have different sensitivities to the chemicals and while the reaction may not be instant and acute, the effects may be damaging over time.
A meat diet is very non-inflammatory. It can be a food tool to heal various autoimmune diseases and reset peoples system. Most people can eat most animal flesh (except maybe shellfish). Most food allergies are plants. That should tell you something.
In general, most people eat insane amounts of sugar and carbs (which is the same thing). Every traditional culture that has adopted the modern standard western diet has seen metabolic disease skyrocket. Manufactured Sugar is poison. Wheat/gluten are not much better.
There has been a sub-group of "ZeroCarb" fans since the early 2000's. So there is a fair amount of anecdotal data. No one had starved to death or gotten scurvy. Technically that name has gone out of favor because some animal products have minute amount of carbs.
More recently, the Carnivore diet has probably been popularized by Jordan and Mikhaila Perterson. (and Dr. Baker)
But, but, don't you need fiber?
But, but, what about vitamin C?
But what's wrong with vegatables?
Like I said, I'm not sure this is permanent, but I like the results I'm getting so far. The first 20lbs just came off effortlessly about 1/2 lb a day. And I'm eating butter slathered ribeyes, so I'm getting plenty of calories. Now it tends to plateau a couple of days and then boom I wake up down two pounds out of the blue. Now that the weather is nicer, and I'm over the transition period, I intend to add exercise into the mix to keep pushing the results.
The other weird thing I've noticed is that my sleep has gotten a lot deeper. I always thought I was a light sleeper, but I sleep like a dead person now. Maybe hormonal, maybe losing the weight is keeping me from waking my self up snoring.
But is is an extreme diet. Not one I'd recommend for most people. Most people would probably be better off with a traditional low carb with intermittent fasting.
$0.02.
