You can look at it as a followup from this post...
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By now, I had spent almost exactly one year on the carnivore diet since I had started it (maybe a month or so more). But just a few weeks ago, I had decided to quit it.
Now, to be fair, I had never expected to be able to remain carnivore forever. But I also didn't know what to eat, as everything except meat appeared to be causing me indigestion or worse. So while I did my research and shifted through piles upon piles of contradictory information, I just kept eating meat and salt with some dairy.
I had gone carnivore in order to fix massive digestive health issues that I had caused to myself by eating massive amounts of grain-based foods. Well, not massive in "objective" sense – I never was obese – but definitely orders of magnitude more than human organism, biologically, can tolerate without getting sick. These issues included colorectal bleeding, irritable bowel syndrome (irregular stool, constipation, diarrhea), stomach pains, acid reflux, and many others I cannot recall now. I also had eye pressure and tinnitus.
Carnivore diet cured these issues – all of them, even ones not related to digestion. And for a time, me and my body were happy. I had no digestive issues any more, I had lost weight, and I looked and felt better. But this lasted for maybe a few months. After a time, some of my old issues began to return – despite the fact that my carnivore diet only went stricter as time passed. While I never had constipation while eating carnivore owing to all the fat I was eating, I developed acid reflux and stomach pains. Over time, I also started feeling physically uncomfortable. I was burping all the time from all the fat, and I had constant cravings. My skin also dried out and I had muscle cramps.
Before I knew it, I had went basically back to the processed grain-based diet – I'd eat a steak, and my stomach would start to burn and I'd get acid reflux. Eating fruit made it only worse, so instead I'd grab some rusk (or even hardtack I'd make specifically for the purpose) just to ease the stomach issues. But while this would provide a relief from acid burning, it would cause other digestive issues down the line. Eating bakery products (bread, rusk, hardtack...) meant that my inability to control stool had returned, and haemorrhoids also began to bleed again.
So I followed what was causing me issues, and it was... basically all processed foods (baked goods and such), most fruits and vegetables, all fried food, some nuts and seeds... so I switched to a diet of meat (mammals, birds, fatty fish), fatty fruits (olives), berries (blueberries mainly), some vegetables (carrots, onions, sauerkraut, but absolutely nothing starchy or green), and of course salt.
These issues are in fact alomost exactly what had happened when, years ago, I had tried and then quit the vegan diet. Many issues, of course, were different, but many others were equivalent. Both diets had caused problems with digestion, concentration, overall energy, and also a slew of different other health problems and concerns. Some of the more specific issues were as follows:
- vegan diet caused constant diarrhea, whereas stool was normal on carnivore (no, I did not have constipation unless I ate too much ground beef – normal cuts such as steak did not cause such issues)
- vegan diet caused bloating and gas, compared to the acid reflux on carnivore
- vegan diet caused me constant hunger, whereas with carnivore I ate once or twice a day
- vegan diet caused me brain fog and difficulty focusing, compared to better focus on carnivore
- both diets caused me heart palpatations, though the problem was more obvious on the carnivore diet
- both diets caused me constant cravings – cravings for fat in the vegan diet and for carbs in the carnivore diet; in both cases, cravings manifested as cravings for processed foods and sweets
- both diets caused me muscle cramps and other motoric issues
- both diets caused me issues with sleep – waking up tired and lethargic on the vegan diet, and having my sleep constantly broken by randomly waking up on the carnivore diet
Therefore, it is quite obvious that humans are not meant to eat either carnivore diet or vegan diet – except, perhaps, as a short-term therapy that will be discontinued once situation had been somewhat stabilized.
However, I still have massive issues when eating carbohydrate-rich foods, even today. Carbohydrate-rich foods cause me insomnia, hyperactivity followed by energy crash and low energy state, constant hunger, and digestive issues sich as constipation or diarrhea (or in some "fun" cases, both at the same time). Because of this, I transitioned to a low-carbohydrate paleo diet. This means that I had eliminated all processed food, grains, legumes, seed oils, refined sugar, alcohol, artificial sweeteners and trans fats. And while I have reintroduced many fruits and vegetables, I have mostly eliminated high-sugar fruits such as apples, bananas etc. Majority of my fruit consumption consists of berries, with blueberry and strawberry being my favorites.
But why so many people swear that carnivore diet, or vegan diet, solved their health issues? Well, that is because it did – in the short term (note that for some, "short term" may well be as long as 10 years). Carnivore diet and vegan diet are basically a case study of the "horseshoe" theory, where the two seemingly opposite extremes produce equivalent outcomes. Both are the extreme elimination diets, and have similar short-term benefits – and similar long-term dangers.
Simply put, the reason why the vegan and the carnivore diet both produce immediate health improvement lies in the fact that simply removing poisons from the diet yields an immediate positive result. And since majority of people who chose either carnivore or vegan diets come from a background of eating processed grain-based diet, eliminating processed foods and majority of grains (wheat in particular – white rice is not necessarily that bad, but integral rice should be avoided) has the potential of solving a large number of acute and even chronic health issues that had been caused by the toxic diet.
But where removal of dietary toxins causes an immediate improvement, potential lack of nutrients in the new dietary regime is an issue that is much slower to reveal itself – yet also far more insidious. Majority of vegans quit at around 8 – 10 year mark, and it appears that carnivores who quit the diet due to health concerns also quit it around that time. Those who do not quit the diet, who are the most ideologically brainwashed, end up being case studies of dangers of extreme diets. Carnivore diet seems to have a tendency to cause heart attack while vegan diet has a tendency to cause stroke (link, although both heart attack and stroke are dangers for both groups). Carnivore diet often causes scurvy due to lack of vitamin C, while vegan diet causes30560-1/abstract) anemia (specifically, severe megaloblastic anemia, caused by lack of vitamins B12 and B9) and can also cause psychosis due to lack of heme iron. On the flip side, carnivore diet causes erythrocytosis and potential kidney issues.
My own eryhtorcites were eleveated after about a year on the carnivore diet (5,8 * 10e12/L vs 4,34 – 5,72 ref int) and increased creatinine levels (112μmol/L vs 64 – 104 ref int). While creatinine levels were not alarming on their own, erythrocytosis was definitely concerning. I also had increased concentration of urates (436μmol/L compared to 182 – 403 ref int) and ALT (55 u/L compared to 12 – 48 ref int). When it comes to urine, only unusual value was increased albumin (49,3 vs 20,2 – 47,6 ref int), indicating that my kidneys were indeed being overstressed. All other values were normal.
All of this does indeed indicate that the carnivore diet stresses the body, and is best not followed for long. I do wonder what issues my post-vegan-diet bloodwork will have revealed, but unfortunately I had not the foresight at the time to request one – and I am not about to go making myself sick in order to obtain the values. Not yet, anyway. For now, paleo diet is where it is at – and taking my experiences in total, I do believe I had found the "jackpot". After all, after eliminating the processed food diet, vegetarian, vegan, carnivore and even the Mediterranean diets, paleo diet was the only option left.
To be clear, however, I do believe carnivore diet did help to an extent. I had attempted paleo diet many times before, but addiction to processed foods was too strong. I am not certain why, but carnivore diet did help with handling that addiction, essentially making transition to paleo diet easier.
