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Tag: zero carb (page 2 of 5)

Optimizing Carnivore: Eating only when hungry

It’s been a while since I posted about my adventures with carnivorous eating.

The word “adventures” makes it sound like I’m wading through some unknown landscape, maybe a swamp or a jungle, fending off alligators and giant mosquitoes or whatever. That’s not true.

At this point, eating only animal products is pretty much second nature. This way of eating has become somewhat routine, and for a long time I didn’t think much of it at all. Shredded beef for lunch, lamburgers* for dinner, maybe some eggs or a natural beef stick occasionally, the eternal battle with cheese (my only love sprung from my body’s only hate).

A few weeks ago, I realized that I was eating dinner without being hungry. It was time to eat, so I ate. But when I scanned my body’s signals, I wasn’t hungry.

So right then and there I decided to only eat when I was hungry. I’m not going to starve myself–not interested in going past hunger into hanger and stupidity–but listen carefully to what my body actually needs.

The first day, I ate a big lunch. Afterwards, I went on a hike, fully expecting to be hungry when I got back. Nope. I drank a lot of water, but that was it.

The second day, I woke up not-hungry. My cousins were in town, so naturally we went on another hike and played some board games. A few hours later, I was finally hungry and ate a huge lunch.

A 24-hour fast without trying.

In the next 24-hour period, I only ate one other meal. It was a little bit trippy and still messes with my head a little bit, but I simply wasn’t hungry.

From then on, I’ve alternated between one and two meals per day.

I haven’t noticed any weight loss, or any magical healing (that’s all because of the Omega-3 fish oil I’ve been taking), but my body feels a lot better.

It’s weird and nice getting a “mental break” from food. For a long time, when I was really sick, I wished (truly WISHED) that I could survive on Nothing Sandwiches for days at a time. Now, it’s not days but I certainly don’t have to cook or eat for long stretches of time.

One of the nicest things of being hungry is the food is so delicious. I am always happy to eat (to feast!) and everything tastes so good. Hunger is truly the best sauce.

Every once in a while I eat when I’m not quite hungry, and the food doesn’t taste as good. Nor do I feel any better.

One thing that’s weirder about this way of eating, at least this early in the game, is that I’m not always sure when I’ll be hungry. It might be at 9:30 am, or it might be at 9:30 pm. There’s not really a set “schedule” like the breakfast-lunch-snack-dinner-snack routine that I grew up with.

Hunger-on-demand hasn’t been an issue when I’m on my own, but for “social” food events (like dates) I try to make myself as hungry as possible and then just roll with it.

If you at all thing of food as entertainment–as pleasure–this method will clue you into it. Sometimes I catch myself wanting to eat carnitas with a fried egg over (my current fave)…but I’m not hungry. I just want to pleasurable experience of eating the food.

Being fat adapted, my blood sugar is steady as anything, so going long distances without eating hasn’t been an issue for mental or physical performance. In fact, it’s been rather freeing.

Overall it’s been a good experience getting back in touch with my body and its needs (and not my head and its demands). I’ll keep doing it for a while, mostly because I love going long stretches without food.

 

 


*Lamburgers: Lamb + burgers

A hodgepodge of thoughts

  • Despite the embarrassing kerfuffle about Zina Bash making an “okay” sign in the hearings today, I’m quite amused to find that the okay sign still shocks the pants off the left. The meme is still going strong, and it’s one of the older ones from the 2016 meme magic cycle.
  • Recently I made a decision to eat only when I’m truly hungry. I’ve been unhappy with my weight gain as I’ve only eaten meat, and think that perhaps my hunger signals have something to do with overeating. Instead of thinking “It’s after work, obviously I need to eat dinner,” I’m waiting until I actually feel hunger. The first two days of this mindset, I ate 1 meal each 24-hour period. Today I ate 2, but there was a solid 8 hours in between meals. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I lost a half-inch from my waist.
  • I’m planning a trip to Hawai’i and man, is it some FOMO. Going to Hawai’i will give me more experiences than not, and yet I’m stressing over which islands to visit and what to do and where. Mostly I want to go on hikes and crash on the beach.
  • WordPress has me over 400 views for the month of August (woohoo!) but I got an email from Google Analytics citing over 500. Usually Google is stricter than WordPress on view count, so I’m confused as to which is more accurate. Either way, I’ll take it. (And I’ll try to have some better content for y’all who actually do come to this site.)
  • More people need to listen to Ted Naiman.

 

They’re trying to scare you away from the carnivore diet

There’s a saying around my parts of the internet: “If you’re taking flak, you know you’re over the target.”

Well.

A spurt of articles cropped up this week warning us all of the dangers of only eating meat. At one point I would have said it was a conspiracy, but at this point I think it’s just a knee-jerk reaction from the parts of the universe that are a) just now hearing about carnivory and b) no conception of living a life that isn’t what they’re told to live.

Here is a good place to remind you that carnivores tend to have a higher-than-average tolerance for risk.

Here is also a good place to remind you that I have yet to find an instance of a carnivore with scurvy. At this point, if somebody had the balls to stick with this diet long enough to get scurvy at all, they’d surely post about it. (If only for the clicks.)

Now I wish that a media figure would do it: quit plans out of spite to give himself scurvy and prove us all wrong, only to find out 12 months later that he’s healthy, happier than ever, and in possession of a spine for the first time in his life.

Anyway.

I’m not interested in debunking the nutrition science of the articles–that’s not my jam. There are plenty of other blogs that cover the nutrition stuff.

I’m much more interested in the rhetoric and mindset techniques. Once you see how they do it in one article, you start seeing it everywhere.

Jordan Peterson Says Meat Cured His Depression. Now His Daughter Will Tell You How It Healed Her Too — For A Fee.

You don’t even have to get past the headline on this one to run into a fallacy:

  • Capitalism is bad and anybody who is trying to sell you something is lying

What’s going on is Mikhaila Peterson is now offering online consultations, and expecting to be compensated for her time. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, especially when a lot of people want to talk to you, and you have to figure out some way of mediating that.

The same people will tell you to go see a therapist. But it’s ok to pay a therapist because they’ll keep you within the medical system.

Sentence number one: “Mikhaila Peterson eats beef three times a day. She fries or roasts it, adds some salt, and washes it down with sparkling water — and that’s it. No fruits or vegetables. Just meat.”

Notice the word choice. FRIES.

Sure, if you’re putting a steak into a frying pan, you’re frying it. But does anybody really refer to cooking a steak as frying? No. “Frying” conjures up associations with deep frying: lots of grease and heavy, unhealthy food. (Which in itself is a slander of a good deep fry.)

Most carnivore steaks are cooked up in a cast-iron skillet with some butter. If you want to call that frying, whatever.

Then we launch into more attacks on making money: “She said she simply can’t afford to blog all the time, while raising a child, for free. (Her husband is a business consultant.)”

Why, exactly, is her husband’s profession relevant to this conversation? Unless you’re trying to imply that her husband is pushing her to make money like the dirty capitalist shark he is. Mikhaila is very up front about her intention with the consultations, and it’s definitely not along the lines of “snake oil salesman take your money and run.”

Now it’s time for battle of the inane expert quotes from people who are 200% vested in keeping their spot in the top of the expertise hierarchy.

“I don’t see any health benefits of a diet focused primarily on red meat,” said Kristen Smith, a registered dietitian nutritionist with the Academy of Nutritionists and Dietetics, who said she’s seen the carnivore diet’s popularity grow on social media. “There’s currently no research to support that this type of diet has favorable long-term health outcomes.”

vs

“Especially for somebody who’s untrained and not very knowledgeable, I think it’s dangerous for her to be pushing this as a lifestyle,” said Ethan Weiss, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “People are very impressionable, especially people who are sick and they want to be better, and they’ll try anything. I worry that this kind of thing is taking advantage of some people who are really struggling.”

There’s that word again. Dangerous. I think I’ve heard that word spoken about her family before….

Anyway, we have two arguments from medical authority that warn us to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. We also have a lot of unspoken assumptions:

  1. I can’t see the benefits so obviously they don’t exist
  2. Only peer reviewed research is valid and you should never listen to anybody’s story, especially not when the stories repeat themselves
  3. Only approved authorities are allowed to push things as a lifestyle
  4. You’re not smart enough to think for yourself
  5. Someone selling a $75/hour consultation is totally taking advantage of people

I’m getting tired of this article. It’s not all bad–a pretty good primer of carnivory if you overlook all of the DON’T GO OFF THE PATH messaging.

 

Please do not try to survive on an all-meat diet

This next article is funny in the pity-laugh kind of way. The author either cannot fathom the idea of doing something out of the norm, or is heavily handedly trying to scare you away from doing it, too. Or maybe both.

First of all, we have to revoke all shreds of authority from the people on Team Carnivore. The standard arguments: Shawn Baker’s medical license was revoked (he was reinstated), neither is Mikahila Peterson isn’t a real doctor (she never said she was), and psychologists like Jordan Peterson have no training in nutrition (neither do doctors, FYI).

This line kills it:

  • Mikhaila Peterson reportedly had arthritis—now she doesn’t (or at least, she thinks she doesn’t, and that’s really what counts when it comes to pain management).

No, hun. Not just arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis–an autoimmune condition that caused her joints to deteriorate so badly she had two joint replacements by the age of 20. For those of you out there who are unfamiliar with the relentless darkness that comes with having an incurable illness, it has a HUGE impact on daily life. This isn’t just “tee hee I stubbed my toe,” this is life-altering levels of pain.

The article goes on to “debunk” in nutritional terms why the carnivore diet is totally bad for you.

I’m just gonna list my favorite words and phrases.

  • totally forego flora
  • your microbiome seems to impact everything
  • most of which fad-dieters are not consuming
  • Red meat is problematic
  • Nutritionists like Teresa Fung, who also served on a panel of experts evaluating diets for U.S. News & World Report, are scared
  • which can be especially problematic
  • seem to generally be better for you
  • could get pretty monotonous
  • make it hard to find random things to snack on throughout the day
  • Pretty much any extreme diet is going to be problematic

Except for this paragraph. This one is my favorite.

You could, arguably, take supplements for all of the deficiencies that eating only farm-raised animals brings on. Many of the diet proponents, including all of the people mentioned earlier in this article, do not promote taking supplements because they believe that meat is nutritionally complete. But if you were being smart about it you could certainly improve the diet by adding vitamin pills and fiber powder. Neither of these is as good as getting those nutrients from real, whole foods, but it’s better than nothing.

I do get my nutrients from real, whole foods.

Those foods are meat and eggs.

What are you gonna do about it?

Carnivore Eggs Benedict

Gordon Ramsay’s at it again. Not to imply that this is new, or that he ever stopped.

And no, he didn’t go full carnivore. (At least that I know of.)

What he did was make eggs benedict with crispy parma ham.

I myself would also like to make eggs benedict with crispy parma ham.

Or, since I don’t eat English muffins, drape the parma ham over the bottom of some muffin tins that I then stick in the oven to crisp up into little parma ham baskets. That way I can contain the goodness of hollandaise sauce and poached eggs inside the crispy parma ham.

Lemon juice is also off the table for me at the moment, so I’d probs just leave it out of the recipe and deal with a hella rich hollandaise sauce. *shrug* There are worse things.

(Super-citrusy hollandaise sauce is rly delicious, to be fair. Lemon juice positively sparkles up against high-quality butter.)

The fat content in this thing will be off the chain, but who doesn’t need a little fat in their life every now and again? Gotta have something in your back pocket for feast days.

Realistically speaking, all of this will be balanced over a ribeye.

Because it isn’t a carnivore recipe without some steak. 😉

Carnivore Update, 13 Months In

Back in May, I passed the 1-year anniversary of the day I ate my last vegetable. [yaaaaay.wav]

It has been a surprisingly easy year. My journey from paleo to SCD to SCD/low-FODMAP to SCD/Low-FODMAP/no nightshades to all-of-the-above-but-also-keto was either going to end in me going crazy and eating all the vegetables again (and probably juicing), or in no vegetables at all. I’ve never been happier with a decision.

Mid-May of this year, I could sense that my body was in a healing mode, so I decided to take the final plunge and quit all “zero carb” foods that weren’t meat or eggs. That meant no cheese and no coffee, my last two vices. Even though I had been eating supposedly zero carbs, I experienced SIBO die off about six days in. (Herxheimer reactions are real, y’all.)

Bacterial overgrowths are really difficult to eradicate. You have to be extremely consistent with your food and lifestyle choices. Otherwise, the colony kicks right back into multiply-mode and you’re overrun again.

It’s been interesting what eating just animal products has revealed about my food addictions and the factors leading to my Crohn’s disease. I function so much better without dairy, and yet I have absolutely no self-control with it. There are other carnivores with digestive problems who find it helpful to eat one ounce of cheese per day. I cannot do that.

I suspect the reason why may be lingering intestinal permeability. I still have some active eczema patches which I believe directly mirror the permeability of my gut. When those patches are healed, I may start experimenting with other types of foods again, or adding back some seasonings.

The lack of variability in my diet, however, has exposed the fact that there are other things that contribute to my autoimmune disease. Things that I knew in theory, but that my lived experience now bears out. For example: getting enough sleep and effectively managing stress.

Both of these things are essential for keeping inflammation low, but they’re easy to ignore when the food part of your diet is more on fire. Now that food is pretty much locked down, I can’t ignore the fact that there are other things that I’m doing that contribute to my state of disease.

I know that Crohn’s disease isn’t my fault, but it’s become abundantly clear to me that some of my habits contribute to the development of this disease and its symptoms. Maybe I didn’t beget this in myself, but I certainly contribute to it.

There are things that I never would have learned about myself and my body if I hadn’t gone carnivore. The diet shift has been an essential part of my growth as someone who takes charge of her own health, and has allowed me to see things that I may not have otherwise seen.

At the moment I’m eating mostly beef burgers with a side of shredded beef, some eggs, and some wild-caught salmon. I’ve cut out all pork in an attempt to lose some fat, which makes me a little sad, but I can live with it for now.

There’s some smoked chicken in my fridge, but I can’t decide if I like it or not.

One of the nicest things about carnivory is that I don’t have to make many choices about food anymore. There was a time in my life that I liked making decisions about what to eat, and cooking elaborate meals, but I was also a complete slave to my palate. Now, I keep things simple.

Life is good and the healing is real.

 

PS. And I should add that one of the greatest side-effects of this diet is that my skin is no longer hella sensitive to the sun. I used to burn in a flash, and one of the first things I noticed last year was that my skin could tolerate a lot more sun–and it sprouted a lot more freckles! This summer, it’s even better. I’ve gotten a few light burns, which have all faded in a few days to something that might even resemble a tan eventually. We shall see–but I love it.

Physiology Lessons

I have been fat adapted for over a year now and had no idea how my body really metabolizes fat. Good thing that head-knowledge isn’t required for one’s body to function correctly.

From an interview with Jean-Pierre Flatt, a highly respected researcher in the fields of energy metabolism and weight regulation:

Is dietary fat burned immediately after it is consumed, if needed?

No. Dietary fat is not absorbed in a form that utilized immediately for energy. First it must be deposited in adipose tissue. Then later, between meals or during exercise, fatty acids are released to be burned.

All the articles I had read previously about fat adaption and why the LCHF family of diets are actually better for you than the standard diet touch on the high-level benefits of fat-adaption and its effects in the body, but not how the fat is actually digested and metabolized. The talking points, but not the biochemistry.

Sounds like I need to find myself some better sources.

Okay, here we go: The Science Behind Fat Metabolism. I’m waaay over simplifying here, but as fat is digested, it’s broken down into fatty acids. Those fatty acids are then transported into cells where they can be oxidized into fuel or turned into storage. So when you are fat adapted, you are not just using fat for fuel, you are using your own fat for fuel. Even if you’re skinny.

That blows my mind. And I can see why our bodies would prefer to run on glucose. It’s easier.

You are literally more self-sufficient when you’re fat adapted. You don’t just “burn fuel,” you use your own fat stores–which you’ve already put in the work to process and store–to fuel yourself.

Maybe this is the explanation of the mindset shift that happens when you become a carnivore. I am much more confident in my health and in my body as a carnivore than I ever was as a vegetable-eater. That shift in attitude I’ve always attributed to the fact that my health is improving on this diet, but that doesn’t explain why I committed to this blog after only a few weeks of carnivory* before any of the healing began.

I’m not dependent on my supply of glucose/glycogen from the outside, but instead everything I need is already within me.

 

 


*I feel it in my bones that the two go hand-in-hand but that’s not what science would say.

Eating Beef in Japan

That sounds like a new goal? Eh?

I, like many people, had this vision of people in Japan (and Korea and wherever) eating a TON of rice and vegetables and very little meat and fat. Something like the complete opposite of how I eat: high carb, low fat.

I thought that it would be difficult to travel in Japan because of the prevalence of rice and soy in the food culture.

When I saw Koreans or Japanese on YouTube talking about how much they loved beef, I figured it was because they didn’t eat that much of it unless they were out at a restaurant.

Apparently that is dead wrong. We have been fed food lies once again.

Not only do Japanese people love to eat meat, it is difficult to be a vegetarian or vegan while visiting Japan because so much of the traditional and modern foods contain meat or fish.

I’m really impressed with what I’ve seen so far from the Food Lies film. The video production is high quality. The filmmakers have answered questions I never even thought to ask. So even though I’ve read books and listened to podcasts with many of the speakers listed in the film, I’m pretty sure I’ll learn something new.

I’ll be backing Food Lies on IndieGoGo soon, as well, since they are doing the work that needs to be done in the world.

 


I was never really into travel much in the past (maybe because I had no energy) but now it’s becoming more and more appealing. Asia travels with Batfort in 2020: y/n?

The Reader: 6-26-18

Funny that I posted yesterday about having no energy when you’re sick, because today I’m sick. So instead of posting some incomprehensible and low-energy article, I’ll post all the open tabs in my browser.

 

Read

 

Unread

 

Not Reading Material

 

Weirdest Takeaway

Even bees should be eating more protein (fromThe Great Nutrient Collapse):

[The researchers] found that the protein content of goldenrod pollen has declined by a third since the industrial revolution—and the change closely tracks with the rise in CO2. Scientists have been trying to figure out why bee populations around the world have been in decline, which threatens many crops that rely on bees for pollination. Ziska’s paper suggested that a decline in protein prior to winter could be an additional factor making it hard for bees to survive other stressors.

I hate Crohn’s Disease

It’s not the having of the disease.

I’ve mostly made my peace with the fact that my immune system is at war with myself, manifested in the sleeping monster that lies in my gut, and that my life will never be “normal.” The physical stuff, that’s fine. I can deal.

It’s all the stuff surrounding this disease. The culture. The way people talk about it. Even the stupid name is awful.

Unlike “ulcerative colitis,” which basically describes what’s going on, Crohn’s disease is the most undescriptive name ever. Even something like “Hashimoto’s thyroiditis” has a clue in its name. “Hydentritis supportiva” sounds intimidating and mysterious, and “lupus” has such a reputation. Even “Rheumatoid arthritis” sounds more interesting than regular arthritis.

But no. Crohn’s disease is named after the dude who “discovered” it. I thought “Crohn’s colitis” was a weird name for a while, but at least that gives people a fighting chance of guessing what it’s about. The word “disease” is so generic.

Let’s not forget the fact that nobody (including myself half the time) can spell “Crohn’s”. So we get Chrohn’s and Chron’s and maybe sometimes Crone’s.

Another thing I hate about this disease: poop jokes sound so funny when you make them self-deprecatingly about yourself, but so awful and crass and unimaginative when you read them on the internet or in a book. If there’s one upside to this disease, it’s the fact that I can make unlimited poop jokes–and that’s not much of an upside.

(There are other upsides, but they are all indirect.)

Nobody really wants to talk about poop, ever, so I can’t even be completely forthright about what my disease is about. With other problems, you can explain symptoms in full with no social repercussions. Not so much with Crohn’s. Nobody likes to talk about diarrhea. I’m convinced that the thought gives some people cognitive dissonance.

When you have cognitive dissonance, that’s when you get the worst of the platitudes and the pat little answers.

Nobody really knows what’s going on, but everybody’s going to be super nice about it.

That’s where you get this victim-culture surrounding Crohn’s (and likely other diseases as well, although I haven’t researched them). Lots of writing in the style of “woe is me” or–better yet–from a third party, “woe are ye.”

There’s this attitude of “aren’t we courageous for living with this disease” and “here are some ways to make your life suck less but you should just resign yourself now because it’ll be less painful for you.”

The aesthetic is bright white and sterile, just like the doctors office. The empty words of encouragement are sterile, just like the doctor’s office. Everything takes a cue from the modern medical system, which is broken and inefficient and is what got most of us to this spot in the first place.

It’s like Stockholm Syndrome, but in the medical community. People cease to be “a woman who has a disease called Crohn’s” and start to become “a Crohn’s patient.” Whole identities are built around this medical construct. It’s sick.

I reject that. I refuse to let my life and my identity be defined by an illness that I did not choose. I refuse to stay tethered to conventional insurance exorbitant medical bills and drugs that are so expensive they give me anxiety. I refuse to fall into the victim mindset. I refuse to let the medical establishment dictate my future.

That is why I’ve gone off-road with my health, why I went full carnivore, and why I’ve learned a lot about nutrition and inflammation and alternative lifestyles.

The paleo-for-good-health crowd comes at things from a place of relative health, and has very little to offer in terms of support and ideas for those of us who have had to dig ourselves out of very deep holes.

The autoimmune-disease-is-my-homie crowd refuses to look beyond the bounds of peer-reviewed evidence and thus traps itself in its own modern ignorance.

I choose a third path. I would like to help more people find this path. It is very difficult to get to, but once you’re on it the view is spectacular.

The Princess and the Soy

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were princesses enough, but it was difficult to find out which ones had autoimmune issues for real and not just for show. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess.

One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.

It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a real princess.

“Well, we’ll soon find that out,” thought the old queen. But she said nothing, went into the kitchen and put some soybean oil in the salad dressing; then she took twenty strips of bacon and laid them on top, and then twenty hard-boiled eggs on top of the bacon.

This salad was all the princess had to eat that night. In the morning she was asked how she had digested.

“Oh, very badly!” said she. “I have had a histamine reaction all night. Heaven only knows what was in the salad dressing, but my eyes puffed up, so that I scarcely look like a human being. It’s horrible!”

Now they knew that she was a real princess because she had reacted to the soy right through the twenty strips of bacon and the twenty hard-boiled eggs.

Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.

So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess; and the soy was outlawed from the kingdom forever.

There, that is a true story.

 

 


With apologies to Hans Christian Anderson.

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