All posts by Wade Baskin

My Experiment: 1 Year Off the Carnivore Diet

I had achieved something I never thought I would – superhuman status! I held this status for 5 years easily with a strict carnivore diet to start then a majority carnivore diet to sustain my results. I was 80-90% Carnivore with some dairy, a few veggies maybe twice a month. The same with fruit.

I would deviate quite a lot on monthly outing and celebrations where I was expected to partake. I did, and it didn’t bother me other than a day or so of bloat.

I was in the best shape of my life with clean energy, amazing joint flexibility and mobility, good strength, exercise felt great with minimal recovery symptoms from heavy sessions. I literally felt better than I did when I was in my 30’s! I exercised because I felt good. It was no longer something I had to make myself do.

I had no skin lesions, no more seborrheic dermatitis, was no longer getting colds or other illnesses, no addictions (sugar/sweet,) no hunger pangs, no adult acne breakouts, no joint pain or stiffness, no heart burn, no indigestion, my Heberden’s Nodes disappeared (reabsorbed,) no paresthesias from previous lumbar and neck injuries (years of full contact, jiu jitsu, and karate sparring.)

Why Stop What Was Working?

As a man of science and a healthcare professional, I had been asking the question, what would happen if I went back to the way I was eating before? How much have I healed? Was I cured of seborrheic dermatitis or was it simply not being triggered (remission,) would my arthritic lesions (Heberden’s nodes) return? Would I get heartburn with spicy foods and grains? Would I get acne breakouts? And how much bad weight would I regain? What about cravings and the signs of carbohydrate addiction? Would I get my obligatory 2 colds a year again?

The Experiment Design:

I decided to simply eat with my wife, friends and other family. This included all the Holiday and celebration foods.

This way of eating basically put back in vegetable oils, grains (bread and pasta mostly,) vegetables including nightshades, sugar, fruit, a little high fructose corn syrup, refined carbs, and diet drinks. Coffee would be put back in, also.

My wife’s way of eating is decent of the protein side, low on the fat, and moderate on the carbs. She is highly carb tolerant where I’m not. She is your classic pear shape whereas I’m an apple.

I would return to eating 2 times a day (lunch and dinner) consistently whereas before I was eating 1-2 times a day.

In a way, it’s really not a terrible diet by today’s standards as it’s a step above the Standard American Diet. I basically continued to eat steak and other meats, but not near as much as before. I ate red meat about 2-3 times a week compared to daily when I was in supreme health.

Life was great and I felt great. In fact, I didn’t know how good I felt until I didn’t …

What Happened?

In the first 3 months, I gained 10 lbs and didn’t really feel bad other than the bloat you forget about after eating meals with carbs. My small shirts no longer fit comfortably and I was back in the Mediums. Between the 7-8 month period, Large was comfortable and medium was very fitted.

My Weight:

I’m 5′ 7″ with a muscular build. As a 80-90% carnivore, my weight stayed between 155-165. Prior to going Keto then carnivore, I was 191!

On this experiment, I settled into a 178-188 range and I lost my abs about 6 months in. On average, I’ve gained 20 lbs of bad weight.

Body Fat % increased from 15% to 24.3% as measured on the Tanita TBF-410 Analyzer.

I started snoring again! This happened at 4-5 months in. I noticed I do this when over 165 in weight.

My Shape & Appearance:

My belly (at the umbilicus) circumference increased from 31 to 40 inches!

My waist increased from 29″ to 32″. My pants got super tight – thank God for stretch jeans and dress pants.

Chest measurement increased from 41″ to 44″

My neck only increased 1/2″ although I did develop a little double chin effect and lost the ability to see my platysma muscle upon contraction.

I have a patient who has no filter and follows all that I do. Her Quote, “I noticed that you’re not glowing any more.” That was 6 months in when I informed her about the experiment.

My Autoimmunity:

I have not experienced the return of the facial and sternal seborrheic redness and itching although I did have extra head itching, and intermittent mild to moderate dandruff, and these mild hyperkeratotic type skin lesions. I did have the classic redness/itching/flaking in my eyebrows a few times a month. My Heberden’s nodes did not return, but my hands were constantly stiff.

I would get significant soreness and occasional swelling in various joints after performing manipulative therapy on others whereas before I had no such symptoms.

Musculoskeletal:

I was amazed at how stiff I got within 3 months! I lost the ability to kick at head level and it almost hurt to try. I’ve been able to easily do this since being carnivore (I’m a former world champ in martial arts.) I popped my hamstring 5 months in – grade 2 tear – goofing around doing what I could do as a carnivore, but obviously couldn’t in my current state (a competition level spin hook kick.) My hands started to ache and have occasional pain after doing manual therapy techniques, especially certain spinal manipulations. My DIP and PIP joints would take several days to recover. I did slip in some collagen supplementation.

I lost shoulder ROM via the scratch test. I’m 5″ away whereas before I could clasp my fingers.

I lost the ability to sit in a full squat or sit with my knees fully flexed – I had to lean to the side.

Any attempt at exercise felt bad. I can see why most people quit! Dietary related joint stiffness and pain don’t feel good when adding more pressure!

My 2017 ACL reconstruction from skiing injury started to feel tight on a weekly basis. I had all but forgotten about this!

My hands, arms and feet lost the usual vascularity and presented as mildly edematous with occasional +1 pitting in my ankles! My fingers, wrists and ankles all increased in their girths.

Digestion:

Heartburn and indigestion returned at the 4-5 month mark and has progressively worsened to daily. I recall having this for years and thinking it was normal! This immediately resolved on the carnivore diet, and I was shocked as to how good I felt.

If I just did a carnivore meal at night, I could sleep and there was no GERD. If I ate a burger (with the bread) with a few fries – it took me hours to digest and yep – break out the anti-acids and get ready for the reflux. This started between the 5th-6th month and persisted.

My bowel movements significantly increased to 2-3 times a day from 5-7 times a week.

Immunity

I got sick 3 times! I had 4 year run with no colds, and in late 2021, I might have had Covid. It lasted about 48 hours (1 day of fever, 1 day of fatigue) then no symptoms – I treated it with all the “banned” substances.

Prior to going carnivore, I would get 2 colds a year. Now I’ve literally had 3 colds in the last year!

I also experience 2 cold sores! Again, I hadn’t experienced this in years! I used to take L-lysine during my plant-based and supplementation days because I was so prone to them. For 5 years as a carnivore, I had none!

After having the cold sores then the second respiratory cold hit, I stated to my wife, “I’ve fully returned to mortal status. I am no longer superhuman.” She rolled her eyes.

Addiction!

This was one of my primary curiosities – how long would it take for carb addiction and all the associated symptoms return?

In short – In the first month, I noticed the post meal hunger that made you feel like you needed to eat more about 2 hours later. By 1-2 months, I started having the cravings again!

If you gave me the opportunity to eat any kind of chocolate, Ritz cracker, trail mix (with the fruits,) I took it without even thinking about it.

While at work, I would text my wife to see what we were having for dinner. I would forgo some essential work I really needed to complete, and rationalize that I needed to eat more than work, because I couldn’t focus well any way – I was hungry!

I started designing my day around food and didn’t even realize it. I would also rationalize eating more of a bad food saying things like, “I have a super busy day tomorrow, and I’ll be on my feet more, so I can eat this.” HA!

I was behaving and living like an addict! And this is how most people live – it’s considered normal. You start your day with “what are we going to eat for lunch,” then “where are we going for dinner?” We must plan around food! I was back in the system for sure.

Mental Health

I found myself trying to multi-task whereas before I was very regimented in doing one thing at a time. I would start tasks, not finish, move on to the next, not finish and repeat the cycle until noting was getting done! I was experiencing a lot more frustration that I chalked up to circumstances, but in reality it was my response to those circumstances.

I’d had much more stressful situations when I was carnivore and was able to focus, remain calm and take care of things in a regimented way.

Eating carbs or a standard western diet seems to keep me in a neuroexcitatory state that’s not conducive to being focused. Concentration takes a lot of effort, and it’s easy to be distracted.

My wife also tells me frequently that I’m “edgy,” and being an “asshole” more than usual.

I can see why people who have neurological disorders do so well on a keto or carnivore diet! I can also get a sense of why many plant-based people are angry a lot of the time! Being able to feel the difference has been a game-changer for me! You can feel an immediate difference when you shift back (away from carbs – natural or refined.) There is a calm that I’m glad to return to.

What Now?

As of this writing (March 3, 2024,) I’m BACK on the carnivore way of eating x 5 days and plan with a few weeks of using some fasting strategies to knock of this uncomfortable weight and belly circumference (that’s in metabolic syndrome territory for a man.)

I already feel better! You don’t realize how much bloat you carry and how often you have indigestion until you don’t!

Steaks are great! But a ground beef bowl runs right through me! My poor gallbladder has to adapt again!

I’m set to get another calcium score (CACs) to see if I’ve incurred any coronary artery deposits – I’ll report this on my instagram account (drwade_physio) and here!I’m also doing a DNA test to see what my biological age is.

I’m excited about my return to supreme health or super human status! Having been there, I know what it feels like, and that is a strong motivator to return. Moving away from pain, misery, agitation, stiffness, cloudy thinking, poor sleep, indigestion, bloat, etc. is also a HUGE motivatory.

But the biggest motivator of all is to be in excellent health for MY FAMILY! I have a beautiful wife, amazing kids (grown) and 2 grandkids with more on the way!

Next, I have an amazing work family that depend on me. My practices, GT Physical Therapy, Fyzical Therapy & Balance Centers, and Red Hills Orthopedics are a culmination of my life’s work and we’re on a mission.

Lastly, I need to be an example of truth to the communities I serve. Talk only goes so far – showing people results is how you change lives.

Summary:

Adverse symptoms that returned being OFF the Carnivore Diet:

  • Bloat
  • GERD
  • Daily indigestion
  • 20 lb weight gain
  • Belly girth expansion to metabolic syndrome levels
  • frequent neck and face acne
  • mild seborrheic dermatitis at eyebrows and scalp
  • Reappearance of hyperkeratotic skin lesions
  • Agitation
  • Poor sleep
  • Snoring
  • Clouded thinking, difficulty focusing
  • Joint stiffness and flexibility loss
  • Loss of motivation
  • 3 colds in 1 year!
  • 2 cold sores
  • lack of energy
  • Frequent hunger
  • Tore a hamstring

The Benefits of Joint Injections: A Path to Relief and Mobility

I normally spend my time working to help people avoid invasive procedures, including joint injections; however, they are a very common and effective strategy that can be considered for some patients.

Joint pain is a common and debilitating issue that affects millions of people worldwide. Whether due to arthritis, injury, or other underlying conditions, it can significantly impair one’s quality of life.

Fortunately, joint injections have emerged as a valuable treatment option to alleviate pain and restore mobility. In this article, we will explore the benefits of joint injections, supported by references to studies that highlight their effectiveness.

I. Types of Joint Injections

There are various types of joint injections, but three of the most common are corticosteroid injections, hyaluronic acid injections, and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections.

  1. Corticosteroid Injections: Corticosteroids are powerful anti-inflammatory drugs commonly used in joint injections. They work by reducing inflammation in the affected joint, thereby alleviating pain and improving function. A study published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) found that corticosteroid injections were effective in managing osteoarthritis-related knee pain (Jevsevar et al., 2013).
  2. Hyaluronic Acid Injections: Hyaluronic acid, a natural component of joint fluid, is often used in injections to lubricate and cushion the joint. Research published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine demonstrated the benefits of hyaluronic acid injections in improving knee osteoarthritis symptoms, with a significant reduction in pain and enhanced mobility (Altman et al., 2015).
  3. Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Injections: PRP injections involve using a patient’s own concentrated platelets to promote tissue healing and reduce inflammation. Studies have shown promising results with PRP injections in the treatment of chronic tendon injuries and osteoarthritis (Patel et al., 2013).

II. Benefits of Joint Injections

  1. Pain Relief: One of the primary benefits of joint injections is the relief of pain. The anti-inflammatory properties of corticosteroids and the lubricating effects of hyaluronic acid can provide rapid pain relief for those suffering from joint conditions. A systematic review published in the journal Pain Medicine supports the effectiveness of joint injections for pain relief (Bannuru et al., 2014).
  2. Improved Function: Joint injections not only reduce pain but also enhance joint function. Patients who receive these injections often experience an increase in their range of motion and overall joint functionality. The JBJS study mentioned earlier found that corticosteroid injections led to improved knee function in patients with osteoarthritis.
  3. Delaying Surgery: For many individuals, joint injections can postpone or even eliminate the need for surgical interventions. A study in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage reported that hyaluronic acid injections significantly delayed the need for knee replacement surgery in patients with knee osteoarthritis (Jevsevar et al., 2013).
  4. Minimally Invasive: Joint injections are a minimally invasive procedure, typically performed in an outpatient setting. This makes them an attractive option for those who wish to avoid more invasive treatments.
  5. Low Risk of Side Effects: While joint injections are generally safe, it’s essential to be aware of potential side effects, such as infection or an allergic reaction. However, the risk of severe complications is relatively low. A study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine concluded that PRP injections were a safe and well-tolerated treatment for chronic elbow tendinopathy (Kaux et al., 2016).

Conclusion

Joint injections offer a range of benefits to individuals suffering from joint pain and limited mobility. Whether through corticosteroids, hyaluronic acid, or PRP injections, these treatments can provide pain relief, improve joint function, delay surgery, and have a low risk of side effects. The effectiveness of these injections is supported by various studies, making them a valuable tool in the arsenal of treatments for joint-related issues.

Ideally, eating a nutrient dense diet, such as the carnivore diet, you give yourself the best chance at controlling pain and inflammation along with possibly experiencing some repair of your joint damage. Even if you opt for injections, these are temporary improvements whereas your diet can promote more long term and permanent benefits.

Combining joint injections, high nutrient dense dieting, and a well constructed physical therapy program can give you the best chance of repairing, avoiding surgery, and returning to all the fun activities you miss.

If you are experiencing joint pain, consult with a healthcare professional to explore the potential benefits of joint injections for your specific condition.

To get information RIGHT NOW on if this could be of benefit for YOU – CLICK HERE

Collagen Supplement Reviews | Top 5 Revealed

We all want firm, supple, flawless skin. We want flexible, pain-free movement. The beauty  and health markets are saturated with lotions, creams, and serums to help achieve the baby-smooth complexion and the healthy moving body that we all crave. But what if the best solution for flawless skin didn’t come from topical products, but from within? Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body, and it is essential for beautiful and healthy skin, hair and nails. It is for this reason that more and more people are turning to collagen supplements to boost their intake of this important protein for a glowing appearance that starts from within.

Don’t have time to read the whole article?

Click Here to Check Out Our #1 Recommended Collagen Supplement

Collagen is a naturally occurring protein in the body. It is a long-chain amino acid composed of glycerin, proline, hydroxyproline and arginine. It is found in our muscles, bones, skin and tendons, holding everything together as our body’s “glue”. In fact, it is the most abundant protein in the body, making up 30% of the total protein in the body and 70% of the total protein in the skin. Collagen is responsible for giving elasticity to skin, strengthening your hair, skin, and nails, boosting your metabolism and building healthy DNA strands.

If collagen is produced naturally by the body, why do we need supplements? That’s because as we age, our collagen levels deplete, leading to sagging skin, wrinkles, and weaker cartilage in your joints. From the age of 25 onwards, our collagen production decreases at a rate of 1% per year. Unhealthy, high-sugar diets, smoking and sun exposure also leads to a decrease in the production of collagen. It is for this reason that adding collagen to your diet is highly beneficial.

Years ago, many people received collagen in their diets through eating the whole animal, particularly collagen-rich animal parts such as skin, tendons, and ligaments. However, today, most people reject these parts of the animal and for vegetarians, they do not eat animal products at all. That is why adding collagen supplements is an effective and easy way to boost collagen levels for all.

Health Benefits of Collagen Supplements

Anti-Aging: Depletion in collagen levels is the primary cause of the various signs of aging such as wrinkles and fine lines and loose, sagging skin. The bottom layer of your skin, known as the dermis, is responsible for maintaining skin elasticity. Collagen is a major component in your skin and is found primarily in the dermis. By increasing collagen levels, your dermis can keep your skin firm and supple and numerous studies have shown that regular consumption of collagen supplements even saw a decrease in the wrinkles that have already appeared.

Skin: Besides elasticity, collagen is also responsible for keeping a moisturized, even skin tone. Decreased levels of the amino acids found in collagen can lead to small veins and arteries appearing under the skin and dryer, dull looking skin. Maintaining the levels of these amino acids moisturize and diminish the appearance of imperfections, leading to softer, smoother, more supple and youthful looking skin.

Hair: Collagen also plays a significant role in hair strength, preventing hair loss and maintaining natural color. Taking collagen supplements can fight the production of free radicals, which damage the hair follicles leading to hair loss. Sufficient collagen levels strengthen the hair follicles, to improve hair growth and volume.

Teeth and Nails: Collagen is the building block of your teeth and nails. Splitting and peeling nails is a sign that your collagen levels need a boost. Collagen supplements allow for healthy, strong nails and an increase in nail growth. Similarly, collagen forms the structure of the teeth and connective tissue around it. Boosting your collagen levels will allow you to build a beautiful smile from the inside.

Metabolism: Studies have shown that taking collagen supplements boosts your metabolism. Glycerine, found in collagen, helps bring sugar into your body’s tissue, increasing energy levels and helps in muscle development. This increase in metabolism is

Scarring: Collagen is essential for healthy tissue formation. Scars caused by acne or other problems can ruin your chances at a flawless complexion. Taking collagen supplements helps the skin naturally repair itself by promoting healthy tissue formation, which speeds up the healing process.

Joints: Decreased levels of collagen can also have an adverse effect on our joints. As we age and produce less collagen, our tendons and ligaments get stiffer; our joints become swollen and we move with less ease. Taking collagen supplements can prevent joint deterioration, reduce joint pain and allow our joints to move easier. In fact, collagen supplements have also been shown to be effective in treating osteoporosis and other joint problems.

Collagen Supplement Reviews

There are plenty of choices when it comes to collagen supplements, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. We’ve managed to narrow it down to 5 top contenders and have compiled our findings below:

1) Bulletproof Upgraded Collagen Protein

Bulletproof Upgraded Collagen Protein

Key Ingredients/Features:

Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder: 1 tbsp of Bulletproof Upgraded Collagen Protein contains 8.5g of Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder. At 8,500mg of collagen per serving size, you will see fantastic results from this powder supplement including stronger nails, longer and thicker hair and plumper skin.

Powder: Thanks to its powder form, this collagen supplement is incredibly easy to add to your diet. Simply mix 1tbsp of Bulletproof Upgraded Collagen Protein into smoothies, soups, juices, teas or coffee to ingest collagen easily without adding flavor to your food and drink. This is also great for those who may find pills difficult to swallow.

Grass-Fed Cows: Bulletproof Upgraded Collagen Protein is sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised cows that are free from drugs, chemicals, hormones or antibiotics. It is FDA certified and designated GRA (Generally Regarded as Safe).

Large Size: Another benefit of Bulletproof Upgraded Collagen Protein is the large quantity of powder you get with each bag. Each 16oz bag contains 53 servings of 8,500mg of hydrolyzed collagen. This is over a month’s supply of high dosage collagen, more than the average one month supply standard. The large size ensures you get the most from your bag, while the large dosage per serving ensures you get maximum results.

Drawbacks:

The only disadvantage to Bulletproof Upgraded Collagen Protein is that it does not contain any additional collagen-boosting ingredients such as Vitamin C or other amino acids. These nutrients help with the absorption of collagen and can be very beneficial in collagen supplements. That being said, the fact that this collagen supplement comes in powder form somewhat negates this disadvantage as it is very easy to simply add this powder to a glass of orange juice to

Final Thoughts:

This collagen supplement is highly effective for healthy skin, promoting nail and hair growth and decreasing joint pain. The large dosage of collagen per serving ensures maximum results, while the powder form leaves it very easy to add to your diet without disrupting your daily routine. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who wants a collagen supplement that provides an easy way to see great results.

buy now


2) Vital Proteins Pasture-Raised, Grass-Fed Collagen Peptides

Vital Proteins Pasture-Raised, Grass-Fed Collagen Peptides

Key Ingredients/Features:

Collagen Peptides: Unlike Hydrolyzed Collagen, which comes from the bones and cartilage of animals, Collagen Peptides comes from the skin. One serving of Vital Proteins Pasture-Raised, Grass-Fed Collagen Peptides contains 2 scoops or 20g of these Collagen Peptides, to promote youthful skin, keep bones strong and healthy, support joint health and contribute to a balanced diet.

Powder: Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides come in easily digestible powder form, which is soluble in hot and cold water. This makes it very easy to add to your diet. Simply dissolve two scoops of the powder in any liquid daily to see great results. Tasteless and odorless, it is easy to add to your diet without the need for any changes and will not change the taste of your food and drinks

Grass-Fed: Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides are sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised bovine hides that have no contact with drugs, hormones or other harmful chemicals. This supplement is also Kosher and non-GMO (Genetically Modified).

Soluble in Hot or Cold Liquids: Because it is soluble in both hot and cold liquids, Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides are incredibly easy to add to your diet. You simply dissolve it in a liquid or beverage of your choice, including smoothies and soups, so your choices are not limited to the same drink every day. Especially because it is soluble in water, this makes it very easy to take collagen supplements for people who don’t drink hot liquids like tea or coffee or who prefer mixing their collagen with other ingredients such as Vitamin C to boost collagen function.

Drawbacks:

The one drawback to Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides is the size. One container is 20oz of Collagen Peptides or 23 2 scoop servings. This is below the standard one month supply of many collagen supplements. However, due to the large serving size (20g) you get fantastic results with this supplement. Within a number of weeks, visible improvements can be seen on to the skin, hair and nails and once you start noticing these amazing results, the size of the container will seem inconsequential.

Final Thoughts:

Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides is a highly effective collagen supplements that will produce visible results within some weeks. The use of Collagen Peptides means the collagen is highly bio-available, digestible and is even soluble in cold liquids, which is an advantage to people who don’t drink hot drinks like tea or coffee. The scoop provided makes it very easy to measure serving sizes and because it’s sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised bovine hides, it is free from harmful hormones or chemicals. I would definitely recommend this.

buy now


3) Neocell Super Powder Collagen

Neocell Super Powder Collagen

Key Ingredients/Features:

Hydrolyzed Collagen: Neocell Super Powder Collagen contains 6,600mg of Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder. Taken daily, you will notice visible improvements in your skin’s youth and elasticity including minimizing fine lines and wrinkles, as well as the strengthening of your hair, nails, and bones.

Super Collagen: Super Collagen contains Type 1 and Type 3 collagen, which makes up 90% of the collagen found in your body. Super Collagen are high in hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine, two amino acids that are specific to collagen and are important for collagen production. Super Collagen also uses an advanced enzymatic hydrolyzation process that makes it very bioavailable and bioactive in the body.

Powder: Neocell Super Powder Collagen comes in powder form, which is incredibly easy to add to your diet. You don’t need to make any dietary changes to take in this healthy supplement. Simply mix the powder into your morning coffee or glass of juice to see great results. It is tasteless and odorless so that you won’t notice a difference in taste to your drinks but the difference in your skin, hair, nail and joint health will be substantial.

Low Price: Neocell Super Powder Collagen contains a standard month’s supply of 30 servings. This standard amount doesn’t seem impressive until you factor into account the low price. Priced much lower than many other collagen supplements, Neocell Super Powder Collagen gives you a great way to enjoy the many benefits of collagen supplements at a lower cost than average. In fact, Neocell Super Powder Collagen comes in as the least expensive collagen supplement on our list.

Drawbacks:

Neocell Super Powder Collagen has one minor drawback – the fact the powder contains only pure hydrolyzed collagen, without any additional collagen-boosting nutrients such as Vitamin C. Vitamin C is essential for the formation and utilization of collagen in the body so it’s highly beneficial to add to collagen supplements. However, because it comes in convenient powder form, it is very easy to add to any liquid. Therefore, it is simple and highly recommended, to add Neocell Super Powder Collagen to a glass of juice containing Vitamin C for maximum benefits. If that’s not enough, Neocell also offers alternatives to the powder with tablet and liquid varieties, which are both formulated with Vitamin C.

Final Thoughts:

Neocell Super Powder Collagen is a great option for a collagen supplement. The low price makes it a great option for people wanting to try collagen supplements for the first time without committing to a product with a steeper price tag and the use of super collagen makes this highly effective and bioavailable. Easily add the great supplement into your diet to see visible results in a matter of weeks.

buy now


4) Sports Research Pure Hydrolyzed Collagen Peptides

Premium Collagen Peptides

Key Ingredients/Features:

Collagen Peptides: One scoop of Sports Research Premium Collagen Peptides contains 11g of Collagen Peptides. One serving, taken daily is packed with easily digestible, gut friendly amino acids that help counteract the degenerative effects of aging. Youthful skin, strong bones, healthy joints and improved gut health are some of the many benefits from adding this supplement to your diet.

Powder: This unflavored, neutral tasting powder is incredibly easy to add to your diet. Soluble in both hot and cold water, this powder is easily mixed into your daily coffee or afternoon juice and doesn’t affect the taste of your beverage. You can also add it to a variety of foods such as yogurt and oatmeal. Such a simple addition to your diet will lead to incredible health benefits.

Grass-Fed: Sports Research Premium Collagen Peptides is sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised cows, so there is no harmful addition of hormones, drugs, antibiotics or chemicals. It is also paleo friendly, gluten free and non-GMO, so it’s suitable for all diets.

Money Back Guarantee: In case you’re still weary about trying collagen supplements, Sports Research Premium Collagen Peptides offer a complete 90-day money back guarantee. If you see no results within 90 days and are unhappy with your purchase, you can contact the company for your money back. However, this is unlikely as by 90 days you are sure to see the noticeable, visible results from taking your collagen supplements.

Drawbacks:

As with the other collagen powder supplements on this list, the major drawback to Sports Research Premium Collagen Peptides is that it is not fortified with Vitamin C, due to it being 100% collagen powder. Collagen works best when combined with Vitamin C, so it is highly beneficial to take them together. However, as it comes in powder form, this gives you a huge variety of ways to add this collagen supplement to your diet. The most beneficial and recommended way is, of course, to take it with a source of Vitamin C, such as a juice or smoothie containing citric fruits. This way you will get the most from your collagen supplement and you will have the added benefit of increasing your Vitamin C content.

Final Thoughts:

Sports Research Premium Collagen Peptides are a hugely beneficial collagen supplement, particularly for gut health. The gut-friendly formula is easily absorbed into the body and the powder form makes it incredibly easy to add it to your favorite drink or a variety of foods so you can add collagen supplements easily without making changes to your diet. The container also contains 40 servings, which is more than the standard month’s supply so you will benefit from the extra amount. Overall, I definitely recommend this for anyone wanting a good collagen supplement.

buy now


5) Youtheory Collagen Advanced Formula Tablets

Youtheory Collagen Advanced Formula Tablets

Key Ingredients/Features:

Hydrolyzed Collagen: Each tablet of Youtheory Collagen Advanced Formula Tablets contains 1000mg of Hydrolyzed Collagen. With six tablets taken daily, your daily collagen amount will be 6000mg and within a matter of weeks, you will start to see noticeable improvements in your hair, skin and nails. Those suffering from joint pain will also notice a decrease in pain after continued use.

Vitamin C: Essential for the formation and utilization of collagen, vitamin C is an important addition to every collagen supplement regime. Vitamin C is not produced by the body but is required for the formation of collagen. Youtheory Collagen Advanced Formula Tablets are fortified with Vitamin C, containing 60mg of Vitamin C per serving (six tablets). So you will make the most of your collagen supplements by ensuring not only that your supplements are properly absorbed into the body but that natural collagen is properly formed for youthful skin, stronger hair and nails and a healthier gut.

Type 1 & 3 Collagen: Type 1 and Type 3 collagen make up the majority of collagen produced by your body and is generally found in your skin, muscles and connective tissue. Youtheory Collagen Advanced Formula Tablets contain type 1 and 3 collagen, as well as Vitamin C for the critical formation of collagen in the body and the ongoing health of your hair, skin, cartilage, ligaments and other body tissues.

Type 2 Collagen: Type 2 collagen makes up a significant amount of your body’s cartilage and naturally produced hyaluronic acid to cushion and lubricate your joints. Type 2 collagen and hyaluronic acid are vital components of the skin, leading to a healthier, glowing complexion. Type 2 collagen also contains chondroitin sulfate, a naturally occurring chemical that provides anti-inflammatory support.

Drawbacks:

The major disadvantage to Youtheory Collagen Advanced Formula Tablets, as well as other collagen tablets is the serving method. Unlike powder, which is easily added to your food or drink and therefore is easy to add to your diet, collagen tablets must be ingested daily. One serving is comprised of three tablets taken twice daily on an empty stomach. This may be a little difficult to adjust to at first. However, once you develop the habit, it is easy to remember to take the tablets in the morning and evening and the huge benefits you receive will make the small adjustment to your schedule more than worthwhile.

Final Thoughts:

I would definitely recommend Youtheory Collagen Advanced Formula Tablets to anyone who is looking for collagen supplements in tablet form. Fortified with Vitamin C, it is easy to ensure you are maximizing the benefits of your collagen by simply taking the required dose daily, without having to think about getting Vitamin C from other sources. Once you adjust to the daily serving dosage, you will start to see visible results within a matter of weeks.

buy now


What to Look For in a good collagen supplement

Topical creams containing collagen are not very effective as the molecules are too large to be absorbed by the skin. This is why the best supplemental form of collagen comes from powders and pills. It is important to note that Vitamin C is essential for the formation of collagen and it is very difficult for supplemental collagen to be activated by the body without it so look for collagen supplements that also contain at least 10mg of Vitamin C. Additionally, when taking collagen powder, make sure it’s sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised cows, so you aren’t exposed to antibiotics or chemicals with your supplement.

How to choose the Best Collagen Supplement For Your Needs

You now know how beneficial taking collagen supplements can be. Here are some tips to help you choose the best supplements for you:

  • Collagen in supplements will usually come in one of two forms: Hydrolyzed Collagen, which is derived from bovine bone and cartilage is more easily absorbed by the body or Collagen Peptides, which is derived from bovine skin and hide.
  • There are three types of Collagen found in the body. Studies have shown that 90% of the collagen found in the body is Type 1 and Type 3 collagen, which have protein compositions of nineteen amino acids, found in the skin and muscle. Type 2 collagen contains eighteen amino acids and is found in the joint cartilage. It is important not to combine Type 1+3 collagen with Type 2 collagen as they have different amino acid profiles and when taken together, will bind to form a complete protein. This way the body won’t recognize it as collagen and you won’t see the desired results.
  • When looking for pill collagen supplements, look for those that contain other collagen-boosting nutrients such as Vitamin C or Hyaluronic Acid, which is essential to collagen formation.
  • Make sure your collagen is sourced from Grass-fed, pasture-raised cows.
  • Collagen powder can be added to smoothies or other meals to provide the healthy boost and is a good option if you don’t want to take pills.
  • Collagen supplements should have a dosage of at least 6,000mg to see best results.
  • Typically, collagen powder is more bio-available than collagen pills so choose powder to see faster results.

Conclusion

As we age, our body naturally produces less and less collagen leading to a number of age-related degenerative results, such as wrinkles, sagging skin, thinning hair, brittle nails, painful joints and osteoporosis. This is why taking daily collagen supplements are highly beneficial to help prevent and reverse some of these natural effects of aging. This article has provided you with the hows and whys of the many great benefits of collagen, as well as providing you with some helpful tips to know what to look for when choosing a collagen supplement. All of the collagen supplements listed are great options to provide noticeable results, but my personal recommendation is for CB Supplements. It is the cleanest collagen supplement among all the options we tried and the ingredients come from pasture-raised, grass-fed cows and is completely non-GMO. Best of all, it mixes easy in any liquid, even if it’s cold.

Top Three Fasting Mistakes You Need to Know

Fasting mistakes can sabotage your efforts to dramatically improve your heath with the most powerful method of detoxification and rejuvenation known to man.

As you are aware, fasting is the #1 way to restore metabolic health through improving insulin sensitivity. Without insulin sensitivity, your entire health profile is affected, and you can experience a host of disorders such as skin problems, hormone problems, stubborn weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, auto-immune problems, neurodegenerative conditions, cardiovascular disease and more. Basically these conditions are all related to insulin sensitivity and subsequent inflammation – the root of most of our chronic diseases.1

Most people by now have heard of fasting and have probably tried some version of it with the most common type being “Intermittent Fasting.” This is where you simply create an eating window of 12 hours or less and a fasting time of 12 hours or more. Once started, a few key fasting mistakes occur that hinder results. We’ll cover these top 3 fasting mistakes below.

Let’s cover the basic tenets of fasting that make it a superior health restoration method vs literally anything else:

  1. No muscle loss – during conventional low calorie dieting, eating smaller meals multiple times a day (eat less + exercise more,) or undergoing weight loss injections; you lose weight, but you also lose muscle. This is the very tissue that burns fat! It is a majority of your metabolism as well as what determines a lot of your longevity! Fasting preserves muscle through hormone optimization, namely Human Growth Hormone and testosterone. In fact, combining intermittent fasting and exercise is the secret to fat loss while gaining lean mass!2
  2. Restoration of insulin sensitivity and overall optimization of hormone function. Your insulin receptors found in muscle now have a chance to rest, to re-set, and to become more sensitive allowing for more efficient handling of blood sugar. The more stable your blood sugar, the better your health.
  3. Rejuvenation and healing – fasting allows for your body to shift from digestion to reparation. Through a process called autophagy, unnecessary cells (cancerous, diseased, poor functioning, etc.) are removed. This is true “detox.” Conventional dieting does not allow your body to repair and regenerate as you’re constantly in a fed state. You’ve heard of stem cells which are those amazing cells that replace old or bad cells and re-start the clock! DNA repair at it’s finest. I cannot stress the importance of autophagy enough as it is our built in way of literally improving most all modern chronic disease – even neurodegnerative disease like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s!3

The most popular version of intermittent fasting is the 16:8 method whereby you simply skip breakfast and create an 8 hour eating window followed by 16 hours of fasting. And it works!…Until it doesn’t.

Fasting Mistakes… #1

Staying with the same fasting method too long.

Let’s say you jump on the fasting band wagon and you’ve been eating 2 or 3 times a day with maybe a few snacks here and there starting with breakfast around 7 and ending around 8 or so – pretty common. Then all of a sudden, you skip breakfast, eat the same foods, but you’re eating them between 11am and 7pm. You start dropping pounds! After about 3 or more weeks, your weight loss stabilizes, and you’re stuck.

Why? Your body has adapted to that particular hormetic stressor. No where and in no time (except now) in human history did we eat and very consistent times every day. In fact, there were many days we simply didn’t eat!

Your body is always going to adapt to any consistent regimen you do.

If you’ve been in any of my groups or my clinic, you’ll know I’m always calling for “change-up” which means alternating your feeding/fasting times. Daily is great, but weekly works, too.

For example, set your fasting times up to go 16 hours Monday, 20 hours Tue, 12 hours Wed, 20 hours Thur and 12 hours Fri. Weekends are great to let it ride with hunger as your guide, but I don’t recommend eating after dark.

Fasting Mistakes… #2

You don’t fast long enough

In order to truly get into actual fat burning, you need a good 36+ hour fast! My favorite way to set up fat burning through out the entire week is to start it with a 36-48 hour fast. Stop eating at 7pm Sunday, don’t eat Monday, and eat a carnivore (high protein) meal to re-feed on Tue at 7pm or a little earlier if it’s getting dark. As long as you don’t eat excessive carbs, you will be back into ketosis (fat burning) by the next morning. You can carry this through out the week by staying OMAD then 2MAD (2 meals a day) on the weekend.

Fasting Mistakes… #3

You eat too much bad stuff

Vegetable oils, refined carbohydrates, and other artificial foods will hammer your health. Just because these man-made foods are legal does not mean they are healthy. Initially, you can lose weight without changing your diet when you shorten your eating window, but that soon comes to a halt.

Eventually, you have to clean up your diet!

I’ve literally seen people gain weight eating 1 MEAL A DAY!

Also known as OMAD, this is the ultimate go-to for most people who want to get a guarantee weight loss and quick. Depending on your age and you metabolic health, you quickly lose weight regardless of what you’re eating. Granted, you are much more miserable during your fasting time if you consume carbs.

Remember, there are ONLY 2 essentials to an optimal human diet: 1: Animal-based protein and 2: Animal-based fat. (Ruminant animals are preferred.) We love our carbs and most are addicted. Fruit is the “safe carb,” and I only recommend organic due to the incredible amount of pesticide that fruit absorbs. If you don’t do organic, you can soak your fruit in Apple Cider Vinegar for 15 min then rinse. That can pull out most pesticide. Hope this helps!

Need Support or Want Help?

Be sure to request membership to our closed fasting support group called “Fasting Focused Lifestyle.”

CLICK HERE for FREE support

The optimum human diet

First you must understand that we are the only category of animal that does not adhere to a species-specific diet. Why? Keep reading…

Consider any other animal species, and you’ll find that they have a “diet” that is specific to their needs. One caveat to this would be our domesticated K9’s and felines – we’ve started to act as if these descendants of wolves and big cats need fresh table food much like what is marketed for humans! This adds more nutritional confusion as these animals have never had these foods in their ancestral diet. Dogs and cats don’t need carbs, veggies, or fruits – never have.

Why So Much Confusion About The Optimum Human Diet?

Yes, you are confused. Your information you have to make decisions about your diet comes from the marketplace (ads, commercials, advertised studies promoting certain foods,) and the marketplace does not inherently care about your health – it cares about profit. It’s not an evil plot or conspiracy, it’s simply demand.

Even the research many like to cite is mostly sponsored by organizations that desire profit, including research that is funded by big pharma which is used in medical school education. Most of what you have been told or taught comes from nutritional epidemiology studies which are now known to be completely flawed.

The over 800 studies the World Health Organization touts that prove meat is bad or a possible carcinogen are literally based on questionnaires that ask people about their eating habits. Interestingly, most of these studies consider eating a hamburger or slice of pizza “red meat consumption.” These two types of food have more grains/bread than meat. Moreover the ingredients in making the bread were not accounted for either. Have you ever seen the ingredients in a burger franchise bun?

Your physician is not trained in nutrition or nutritional intervention. Medical doctors are the highest trained in diagnosing and treating pathology.

Basically, modern medicine practitioners have 3 things to offer – medication, injection and surgery. This is not bad, it’s just not what’s needed to achieve and maintain optimum human health through diet. These 3 things come into play when you lose your health. For chronic disorders, the approach involves symptom management, not addressing the cause. Being that 90% of all chronic disease is related to diet, you’d think physicians would have such training, but that is not the case.

“The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease. ~ ”

Thomas A. Edison

For example, type 2 diabetes is a dietary disease. In medicine, practitioners are taught that this is a “progressive disease” for which there is no known cure. Medication management is designed to control insulin and blood sugar levels. Yet everyday, people are reversing their type 2 diabetes (restoring normal hemoglobin A1c levels) by engaging in dietary change – generally a low to very low carbohydrate approach. This makes sense – it’s a dietary disease so you fix it with diet!

Unfortunately, we in mainstream medicine are pinned into adhering to regulations set forth by governing bodies. These governing bodies have relationships with other such bodies – i.e. AMA with the USDA. When doing any nutritional counseling for Medicare patients, I have to document using the expression “per USDA guidelines.” These guidelines are what brought us to our current state of chronic illness in our country and around the world!

Myplate.gov gives you dietary guidelines and is basically a culmination of special interests that have worked deals with our government: the sugar industry, the grain industry, etc. It has nothing to do with research that is not sponsored for free of conflict of interest.

This is what the US government says your plate should look like. When in human history have we ever eaten that many grains, vegetables and fruits on a daily basis, multiple times a day? Answer: not until the last few decades!

Just looking at this plate shows that the US government wants us to eat about 70% plant-based and 30% animal-based foods. Interestingly, plant-based proteins are being promoted so you’re looking at a good 80% plant-based and 20% animal-based diet – The EXACT OPPOSITE of our healthier ancestors who had no heart disease, no cavities, no stroke, no diabetes, no cancer, no Alzheimers, and no auto-immune disease. They also had straight teeth with no cavities3, larger brains, and lived just as long if not longer!

Human Dietary Fact

For over 2 million years, humans ate mostly meat!1

Red meat is a nutrient dense food that is an important source of complete protein with all essential amino acids, highly bioavailable iron, zinc, selenium, and B vitamins, especially vitamin B12 in the diet. Some of these including iron and zinc are among the most common nutrient shortages around the globe.

Note that our brain size increased as we developed through our hunter-gatherer stages eating meat until we settled and developed agriculture about 10K years ago.

In fact, our brains have been shrinking since we settled and as meat consumption has decreased!2

Want to talk about fad diets? Veganism has only been around since the ’40’s, and Vegetarianism started in the mid 1800’s, These approaches that eliminate all or most animal-based foods yield a host of nutritional deficiencies as our species developed on animal-based nutrition for the greater part of 2 million years. These ideologies are not based sound nutritional principles, but they have a lot of support from the plant-based industry!

The Standard American Diet or the way we’re eating now is actually considered a fad when you consider it’s only been around about .01% of our entire existence on earth!

To take a step back from social media, sponsored media, dogma, and institutional-based nutrition education is a good way to see what’s true. At this time in history, we’ve essentially reversed the way we ate as early humans to get us to this point! This begs the question, “why change?!”

We did not change our diet based on problems with our predecessors. We changed our diet based on the market-place and profit. Simple as that. There is much more profit margin in grains than there is in beef or dairy. Moreover, the largest investor in plant-based initiatives and the largest farm land owner in the US is Bill Gates.

In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling more than $690m.4 With his known talent for creating monopolies, you can all but guarantee you’ll see more and more advertising and sponsored research to support plant-based eating! At no point in human evolutionary history did we eat mostly plants.

Diet & Life Expectancy

Hong Kong takes the prize as of this writing with an average life expectancy of 85.29 years! Life expectancy in the US is currently 79.11 years.5 Interestingly, Hong Kong also ranks number 1 in meat consumption!6

India, a largely vegetarian country, has a life expectancy of 69.75 on average.

Is There a Problem with Meat?

Yes – we’re simply not eating enough as meat has been unfortunately vilified over the last 60 years. In fact, red meat consumption in the US has been on the decline since the 70s as chronic disease (heart disease, atheroscelorosis, diabetes, stroke, Alzheirmers, and auto-immune disease have been on the rise.)

Meat is not the problem, and it never has been since our species developed on earth! If meat was a problem, we would not have survived as a species, because that’s mostly what we ate for 2 million years.

The Actual Cause of Most Chronic Disease

To the contrary, as obesity and diabetes rates continue to skyrocket while consumption of red meat is dropping, we see a dramatic rise in the level of seed oil consumption. Vegetable and seed oils are not healthy fats as you are led to believe. They are highly processed, inflammatory substances that are not natural to our biology. In fact, they are implicated in many of our modern diseases.7 Don’t expect them to go away anytime soon as their consumption has dramatically increased in the last several decades. This 100 Billion Dollar industry is not about to stop what they’re doing.

Optimum human diet
Picture Courtesy of Dr. Shawn Baker IG Acct: shawnbaker1967

When you finish reading The Optimum Human Diet, be sure to watch this video about all the oils you thought were healthy!

In essence, we went from zero grams of PUFA (Polyunsaturate Fatty Acid) or vegetable oil consumption in 1865 to 80 grams a day now! That is the single greatest change to nutrition in ALL of history!

In my evidence-based opinion, vegetable and seed oils are the number 1 harmful substance to our health!

Heart attacks were rare until 1912 when the first well documented one happened and was published by James Herrick, a physician in Chicago.8 Interestingly, It was 1911 when P&G hit the market with Crisco!9 This artificial fat (made from crystallized cottonseed) was meant to replace lard, butter and tallow which was all we used up until the early 1900’s when there was no chronic disease. Heart disease remained on the rise, and in 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a heart attack which brought a lot of attention and fear to this new cause of death.

Of course, animal fats/saturated fats were being blamed on this new disease, and the answer was to use vegetable and seed oils instead. Profits sored as deaths from heart disease increased.

The American Heart Association was given 1.7 million dollars by P&G to promote these oils as heart healthy. They did – they still do, and Heart disease is our #1 Cause of Death.

But what about elevated cholesterol and its association with heart disease? There is no association or causation. In fact, the problem of increasing rates of cardiovascular disease is more linked to the presence of linoleic acid that adulterates cholesterol which leads to disease. Omega-6 seed and vegetable oils (linoleic acid) are a large part of our diet now, and the stats speak for themselves – our conventional diet is killing us10.

So what are we to do? It’s fairly simple (but not easy.) It’s time to return to eating normal food – the kinds of foods that our ancestors ate during a time when there was no chronic disease, our brains were bigger, there were no cavities, no obesity, no diabetes, no auto-immune issues. The primary food of our ancestors was animal-based protein and fat. Even modern day hunter gatherer societies still revere meat as their primary and preferred source of nutrition with all else being supplementary until the next kill.

The optimum human diet is animal-based protein first, fat second, and maybe a little fruit or raw honey as optional 3rd.

For a very simple, powerful, well-studied, and comprehensive overview of human nutrition, visit Dr. Zoe Harcombe, PhD at https://www.zoeharcombe.com/. For more answers in a well organized format, visit https://www.lowcarbhealthmd.com/

References:

  1. https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-2-million-years-humans-ate-meat-and-little-else-study/
  2. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-human-brain-has-been-getting-smaller-since-the-stone-age
  3. https://www.gaia.com/article/cavemen-didnt-have-cavities-why-do-we
  4. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/05/bill-gates-climate-crisis-farmland
  5. https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
  6. https://www.atlasandboots.com/travel-blog/countries-that-eat-the-most-meat/
  7. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/are-vegetable-and-seed-oils-bad#omega
  8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3143862/
  9. https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1811.html
  10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6196963/

7 FODMAP Symptoms You Should Never Ignore

What is a Fodmap?

FODMAP is an acronym for “Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides And Polyols”.[1] They are short chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine, and are prone to absorb water and ferment in the colon. They include short chain oligo-saccharide polymers of fructose (fructans) and galactooligosaccharides (GOS, stachyose, raffinose), disaccharides (lactose), monosaccharides (fructose), and sugar alcohols (polyols), such as sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, and maltitol.[1][2] Most FODMAPs are naturally present in food and the human diet, but the polyols may be added artificially in commercially-prepared foods and beverages.

by Dr. Karen Reed Ph. D. Thursday, May 11, 2017

Everyone is different when it comes to diets. There are food groups that some of us can stand, but others will never be able to touch. And our food intolerances and allergies will develop and change over time. Scientists don’t understand it all, but they’re making headway.

What’s important is the FODMAP symptoms. Too many people ignore serious FODMAP symptoms, believing that they just have to put up with chronic pain and discomfort. Well, that is certainly not the case. The symptoms are your body’s way of telling you that there’s a problem – that you need to make some changes to be able to improve your lifestyle.

With that in mind, it’s time to look at the seven most commonly ignored symptoms. These FODMAP symptoms need you to pay attention and make changes today.

The Feeling of Being Bloated and Gassy

You shouldn’t feel bloated on a daily basis. However, people start to get used to it and forget that it’s one of the FODMAP symptoms. These are foods like fructose and other sugar and carby ingredients that line the stomach and intestines. The FODMAPs aren’t digested properly, and they start to back up in the system.

Bloating will make you feel full and big. You’ll find it difficult to pull your stomach in – possibly in pain because of it. Some people even have pain around their kidneys or their gallbladder, as the body tries to rectify the problem.

Bacteria start to grow around the intestines, and you end up with other serious problems. The pain gets worse, you can suffer from stomach upsets, and constipation or loose stools become an issue. Your muscles in the stomach start to spasm, leading to pain between meals.

This is a FODMAP symptoms that you will continually suffer from. While fiber can help to push through the food, there are some limitations. In fact, too much fiber can end up making it all worse. You can find that your weight loss efforts are stalled because of the water retention and backed up food.

It’s not just bloating, either. FODMAP symptoms can lead to other gut diseases and problems. Irritable bowel syndrome and leaky gut are two very common complaints with those who suffer from FODMAP symptoms.

The only way that you can get rid of FODMAP symptoms. This will help to get rid of the reason, rather than trying to battle the FODMAP symptoms.

You’re Constantly Battling Headaches or Migraines

Do you have a daily headache? One that just doesn’t go away no matter what painkillers you take or how much sleep you get? You may even find that your headache is more serious and becomes a migraine. This can lead to you being trapped in a dark room for a full day because any sort of movement or light makes you sick.

While many people blame headaches and migraines on dehydration and stress, they could actually be a FODMAP symptoms. This is because the foods you’re eating are causing inflammation in your body. That inflammation passes up into your brain, putting pressure on every single nerve in your body. The more serious your inflammation is, the more serious your headache or a migraine will be.

Don’t ignore this symptom and brush it off as something else. It’s easy to think that it’s just a normal part of your life that you must put up with.

A slight change in your diet could fix everything for you. Try eating foods that have more fiber and proteins. Magnesium-rich foods are certainly ones that you want to consider more in your diet. The magnesium will help to reduce the inflammation in your body and can help to take some of the pressure on your nerves.

If you can’t get enough magnesium in your diet, you may find that you need to take supplements. Consider all your options to help battle this side effect to a common problem.

You Struggle with Handling Your Mood Swings

While women will find mood swings a common complaint every now and then, some of us find the moods extremely had to control. We suddenly feel moody or down in the dumps from one day to the next, with seemingly no reason. There may be feelings of anxiety or stress, without anything happening in our lives to cause it.

Sometimes it’s not quite mood swings but changes in your brain function. You can become confused or suffer from this feeling of cloudiness on a daily basis. The problem with these symptoms is that you can overlook them and not realize they are happening. It will be your friends and family members who notice it first – ask them if you are worried about something like this.

The inflammation in the body is to blame for this – yes, inflammation again! Studies have shown that inflammation leads to the release of proteins that lead to depression and other mental health problems.

This is a symptom that you don’t want to ignore. While there may be a day where we’re just fed up with the world because of boredom or stress, this shouldn’t be a regular problem. You shouldn’t find that you’re battling anxiety or depression on a daily basis! It’s a sign that there is something wrong with your diet and your hormones.

Following the FODMAP diet can help to reduce these symptoms. You start to battle the reasoning behind the inflammation, which prevents the proteins from being released.

Even if you don’t want to overhaul your diet completely, you should look at eating more omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin B12. Both of these nutrients will help to fight off inflammation and put your body right again. Omega 3 has also proven benefits to the mental health, improving longevity, cognitive function, and moods.

At the same time, you’ll want to look at changing your hormonal balance. Reduce the stress and increase the happy hormones to get more control over your mood.

You Have Trouble Sleeping on a Night

Insomnia is not something that you should suffer from. Okay, there are some people who are night owls. Others sleep easily on a night but get up very early. That’s part of human nature.

What you shouldn’t find is that it takes you hours to sleep – if you even get sleep – that you get to sleep for two or three hours and then you’re repeating the process the next night. You shouldn’t feel like you’re constantly running on fumes one day to the next.

Like with everything else, inflammation has been linked to insomnia. In fact, around 10% of adults will suffer from persistent insomnia and feel like there is no way out. And those with insomnia and high levels of inflammation have been linked to a higher mortality rate. After all, your body isn’t getting the rest it needs, your mental health suffers, and you just don’t feel well within yourself.

You don’t want to ignore this symptom – although too many people too. You need to take steps to improving your sleeping pattern on a night. Stop using it as an excuse to get a few things done around the house. They can wait, and your body needs you to rest right now!

Try meditation and limiting your caffeine on a night. You could even try the exercise on a morning or mid afternoon to help use up some of the excess energy and get a better night’s sleep. Essential oils can help to eliminate stress, which is a common reason for insomnia on top of the inflammation.

You Constantly Feel Tired

Whether you sleep well or not, you constantly feel tired. There’s this overall tiredness that reaches every single muscle in your body. Your head is cloudy, and you just don’t feel like you can concentrate on anything. All you want to do is close your eyes and have a nap – although you know that it never solves anything.

Yes, the inflammation is to blame again. And this is one of those symptoms that is too often overlooked. The problem is that it’s a symptom of so many other problems! We feel tired because we are tired. We’re fatigued because we’re ill or because we’ve used up all the energy that we currently have.

Inflammation affects the way the whole body works. When it comes to fatigue, the inflammation affects how the liver performs. It stops the oxygenated blood getting to the body, meaning the organs don’t get everything that they need.

Of course, gut inflammation also stops the body from absorbing all the nutrients that you eat. You may get plenty of iron from your food, but your body isn’t able to absorb it. Your body can’t produce enough red blood cells to get the oxygen around your whole system.

We tend to drink more coffee or eat more sugary foods because we’re tired. It’s time to stop that habit because those foods and drinks just cause more problems. Sure, you get a slight increase in energy at first. You end up with a stronger dip, which means you will feel more tired than you did when you first started!

The best thing to do is change your diet. Reduce the inflammation and improve your nutritional absorption rate. After all, if your body isn’t getting enough iron, what else isn’t it getting enough of?

You Struggle with Breathing or Have Chest Pains

Of course, you wouldn’t ignore this symptom, right? Well, you’ll be surprised to hear just how many people do, especially if it happens on a regular basis. However, this is one of the FODMAP symptoms that you need to look out for.

Difficulty in breathing is a sign of a much more serious problem. Okay, if you’ve just runup 10 flights of stairs, you are going to struggle to breathe. That’s normal, but you should find that your breathing returns to normal quickly. What you shouldn’t have is a sudden onset when doing nothing – and certainly not every few hours of the day. You also shouldn’t find that your breathing difficulties stop you from doing activities.

Your doctor will want to rule out various complications, including asthma, stroke, and blood clots. Infections in the lungs are also commonly to blame.

Likewise, you shouldn’t have pain in your chest or this feeling of something pressing onto it. This is a difficult symptom, as you may be used to the feeling of your breathing being constricted. Sudden pain is a sign of a heart attack. While men get pain in their arms, women are more likely to feel pain in their back or stomach!

The pain may be accompanied by dizziness and vomiting. Whenever it is to do with your breathing or chest, speak to a doctor!

Your Vision Has Changed Considerably

I understand how easy it is to overlook this FODMAP symptoms. Let me begin by saying that vision changes as you get older are normal. Your cells start to die, and you can start to suffer from a short or long distance. There is also an element in the genes – those with parents who wear glasses are more likely to need them in the future. Those with parents or siblings who have glaucoma are at a higher risk of developing it.

Trauma is another reason for changes in the vision. Getting debris in the eyes or suffering a blow to the head could change what you can and can’t see – or how dry your eyes become.

What should n’t find is that you have sudden vision loss or blurred vision. You shouldn’t experience sudden flashes of light in your eyes – almost like lightning going off. This could be a sign of something severe that needs immediate medical care.

If there are any changes to your vision, it’s best to talk to an eye doctor. Seeing one will help to rule out anything more serious, while you change your diet to eliminate the FODMAP symptoms.

Keep an Eye Out for All FODMAP Symptoms

I don’t say any of this to scare you. There are many FODMAP symptoms that are left ignored. We all do it from time to time because we’re used to the symptoms or think that they’re not serious. After all, that flash of light may have just been a flash of a headlight, right? The bloating is just something that you ate or indigestion because you ate too quickly!

More often than not, the symptoms are ones that you can get rid of. By not ignoring them, you won’t let them get any worse or affect your mental health. You can get rid of the reason behind the symptoms and look after your overall health by following the low FODMAP diet.

How to do the Carnivore Diet

As of this writing of How to do the Carnivore Diet, I have been a fairly strict carnivore (meaning 99.9% of my diet) has been meat-based for 1 year and 4 months – and I’m not dead.

What you’re about to learn is a 12 week transition…BUT, you can certainly scrap the transition and go ALL in day 1, take 4 weeks or 8…It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you do what’s right for you so I’ve given you the information you need. Now it’s time for your to decide and take action – keep reading…

I’m 52 years old, and my health has surged to the point where I now feel as good as I did in my late 20’s, I move like I did back then, and I have rid myself of all the typical problems my age group has developed over the last several decades: joint aches and pains, stiffness, allergies, inflammatory problems, GERD, belly fat, back fat, neck fat, bloat, lack of energy and just a general slowing down. Sounds like a typical description of aging, right?

I practiced and preached plant-based, whole-food, complex carbohydrates, colorful diet, limited lean meats, saturated fat avoidance, whole-food supplementation, high fiber dietary approach. I experience the worst collection of ill health maladies over a decade, and I had to make a change. 

Moreover, ALL of my wellness, dietary and physical therapy clients that I worked with using plant-based approach always struggled once they got past the honeymoon phase (feeling better after eliminating junk.)  Once I found the truth and started implementing more sound, sane, species-specific dietary practices, the struggles were eliminated 100% of the time.  It was hard to believe such a simple change was that powerful. 

I document my daily/weekly diet and results on Instagram so follow along if you dare:

]

What You’ve Been Taught is Not Working

You’ve undoubtedly been taught, much like I was, that meat should be limited. You’ve learned that you need a “balanced diet” that included carbs, proteins, and a little fat (but NO saturated fat.) Vegetables, whole grains, and fruits are supposed to be emphasized with very little meat (and of that meat, fish is recommended over red meat.)

One serious result of this faulty belief is called sarcopenia – loss of muscle. And it’s why people get weaker, experience more illness, and fall as they get older. They don’t get enough protein – namely animal-based protein. It’s even know in the medical community that this is happening, but our answer is to supplement with cheap protein like Ensure:

Gotta love those “healthy” ingredients.

Another serious result of this belief is the climbing rate of obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, and auto-immune disease.

It has become so common to hear someone speak of themselves or a relative with one or more of these ailments. But it’s NOT NORMAL! It’s time to put a stop this this growing trend of illness, degeneration, and painful aging.

Your way of eating directly affects your physical and mental health

It’s time to return to a way of eating that is specific to what you need and what you’re made of as a human. You’re not a plant and you’re not processed food. When you eat foods that aren’t essential, you’ll eventually pay the price. Let’s avoid that tax.

Vegetables and grains are considered foods we’ve cultivated to help us survive. Animal-based nutrition helps us thrive.

First let’s remove some of the primary concerns about eating meat – our most natural food.

Meat Does Not Cause Cancer… or Any Other Problems

You may have even heard that too much meat can cause cancer, heart disease, kidney problems, and even diabetes! There is a reason for that, but it has nothing to do with the truth. If meat was such a problem, we wouldn’t be here today as a species as it’s what we subsisted off of for about 1.8 million years prior to settling and becoming farmers (about 10K years ago.)

There is no actual credible, valid, reliable evidence that shows meat causes cancer or any other problem for that matter.

In fact, the Standard American Diet (SAD) consists of 2 oz of meat per day on average. More calories in our western diet actually come from soybean oil of all things!  Up to 70%! The SAD has been largely plant-based for the last several decades so the fear mongers that blame meat for all these problems like heart disease and colorectal cancer apparently have it wrong.

At the time of this writing, residents of Hong Kong lead the world in longevity with an average life expectancy of 83 years. They eat on average 1.5 pounds of meat a day!..And no it’s not all fish.

India has one of the lowest life expectancy ratings coming in at 68, and they are largely a vegetarian population (source UN data 2010-2015 Life Expectancy in Years.)

There is NO EVIDENCE that meat causes any problems whatsoever. Even the World Health Organization has red meat classified as a Class 2 carcinogen, and the science they used to support this is woefully inept. In fact a close look at these studies reveals that pizza was considered “red meat” in some of the surveys! They also didn’t account other lifestyle factors such as smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and other risky behaviors. Besides, who can remember what they ate exactly last month much less last year?! That’s what these studies are – questionnaires.

In fact, beef consumption has been on the decline for decades, yet chronic disease continues to rise. Meat is NOT the problem.  Moreover, the number of cows have significantly decreased, so they can’t be blamed for climate change as some would have you believe. There are approximately ninety million cows in the U.S. today, down from a high of about one hundred forty million in 1974.

 

Many people think that diets have actually been studied by people in white lab coats running randomized, double blind, controlled studies with actual humans in large numbers, similar genetics, and similar age and lifestyles – NOPE. Never been done and never will be.

how to do the carnivore diet

There is NOT ONE GOOD STUDY that proves meat (red meat or process meat) causes cancer or any other problem

Moreover, these studies are epidemiological, and they DO NOT point to the CAUSE of cancer or other problems. Most all nutritional studies are designed like this unfortunately.

For details on problems with these types of studies in nutrition Go HERE. In many cases, the data was cherry-picked to try and show correlation but the evidence again was statistically insignificant.

However the largely vegetarian board of the WHO chose to put the word out to all the governments of the world that red meat is bad and that we should eat our vegetables and shut up. Sound familiar? Of course it does! You were told that as a child! Guess what, you were right!

Veggies aren’t so good as we thought after all!

You’ve also been instructed that you should eat less, spread it throughout the day (3 meals and 2-3 small snacks) and exercise more to be truly healthy. In fact, depending on your age, your supposed to be doing around 20-40 minutes of aerobic exercise 5 times a week and more! Whew!…Again all while eating less! Talk about suffering! Moreover, that’s the reason why we have so much obesity, chronic disease, and general health decline –

Eat Less and Exercise More DOES NOT WORK!

As a physical therapist, I know that exercise is a modality or a procedure I can use in a very specific way to improve the health of a particular part of the body that needs to heal and recover from a problem. However, if someone is simply unhealthy due to a host of systemic issues, exercise will not be very effective.

Exercise is good to enhance health where health is already present. It cannot create health if there is none to begin. Diet is where health begins. Diet is first, exercise is second.

Have you ever heard “You can’t out exercise a bad diet?”… It’s True.

What About Cholesterol?

What we know about cholesterol today is that it’s bad and it clogs our heart arteries and causes heart disease and death for those who eat too much meat, right? WRONG!

This practice is called the Lipid Hypothesis, and it’s the basis for all medical education, hence why your physician is trained to put you on a statin if your total cholesterol goes over 200. The intent is to stifle your production of cholesterol to prevent its buildup and subsequent heart disease.

Based on this hypothesis, you can keep eating your crap, take a statin, and live longer with less disease. Guess what? It’s not working. Statins are not preventing heart disease or extending life. Why? The Lipid Hypothesis was proven wrong.

Eating animal fat and cholesterol is actually healthy and does not cause heart disease! The plaques of cholesterol are a result of your body’s natural repair process to fix vascular damage from eating grains, vegetable/seed oils, and sugar! Inflammation!

how to do the carnivore diet

Cholesterol is just doing its job!

Simply quit eating crappy, damaging food and the problem is fixed, but it has nothing to do with cholesterol. Even in the famous Framingham Study from which all this info comes from, there was no difference in the mortality rates of those with a cholesterol of 180 vs 1000! You never heard this, did you? Nope. Even the director of the study reports that those who ate a higher fat diet lived longer with less problems than those who didn’t.

For a FULL Unbiased look at ALL the research, check out Dr. Zoe Harcombe PhD’s excellent work HERE

Understand that high cholesterol while still eating high carbs, processed foods, fast foods, junk, and meat is NOT GOOD! The problem is that the meat is getting blamed for the high cholesterol, not the junk! Stop eating junk, and stick to good meats, and cholesterol then becomes meaningless. In fact your cells and your brain are made from a lot of cholesterol. We need it!

It’s Time to Unlearn and Relearn

When looking at how to do the carnivore diet, it’s actually super simple. The hard part is to get past your fixed beliefs and your general knowledge that runs counter to what you’re about to learn! This is not really a diet as much as it is a return to a very normal way of eating. It’s NOT a FAD!

Meat eating for health has been around a long time, including modern times. In the late 1800’s Dr. Salisbury was using a meat-based approach (broiled meat and hot water) to address almost any medical ailment you can think of. He had an extremely successful cure rate. Of course, you’ve probably heard of the Atkins Diet by Dr. Atkins. People to this day still use the Atkins diet to improve their weight and their health!

By the way, medical doctors are not nutrition experts. They are experts in diagnosing and treating pathology. Treatment interventions boil down to medication, injection, or surgery. Lifestyle medicine is not yet a reimbursable form of treatment, but it’s getting there! However, when an MD or DO departs from their traditional mainstream training, and they put these methods into practice with results, you have a super expert. Physicians are the highest most rigorously trained health professionals, so they are still a great resource. Most are willing to listen to you and learn from you if your methods result in health improvement. Low Carb USA is a great resource in finding progressive physicians and qualified health care practitioners in your area.

The ONLY professionals that have a medical training background, who spend 45 min to an hour with a patient, use natural means of healing, and who focus on prevention as well as lifestyle changes are Doctors of Physical Therapy (PT’s.) However, not all PT’s practice at a high level. Many do not engage in nutritional education.

All Diets Work and All Diets Fail!

You can lose weight on any diet and like 99% of all diet participants, you’ll typically quit and regain the weight. They’re not sustainable. The carnivore diet was sustainable for more than a million years, so no worries on the “can I stay on this diet?” concern.

Contrary to contemporary diets, the Carnivore Diet does not reduce your calories and it doesn’t give you a complex array of rules. The more complex a diet is, the more apt you are to fail sooner!

You see so many people walking around, counting their steps, counting their macros, weighing their food, eating a lot of salads, making green smoothies, and even counting old school calories! Everyone is trying keep variety, color, and a balanced diet approach, again which has never worked in terms of achieving optimum health.

Complexity yields failure in dieting

The Carnivore Diet is disqualified as a diet by conventional standards, so it won’t fail. There is a chance you may decide it’s not for you and that’s fine. Food addiction is strong, and it does take effort on your part to break that addiction. The good news is that the Carnivore Diet is perfect for breaking food and carb addiction! Keep reading…

FACT: Carbohydrates are NOT ESSENTIAL

You learned that your primary fuel source is that of carbohydrates. You’ve probably also learned that there are healthy carbs and bad carbs. With all the talk about carbs today, I’ll keep it simple and just say that CARBS are NOT ESSENTIAL. They have no significant nutritional value other than energy, and you know what happens when you consume more energy than you use – you store it as FAT!

There are 2 essential foods in the human diet. We need these to survive and thrive! These 2 foods are animal fat and protein

Your early human ancestors (homosapiens) prior to agriculture were known as hunter-gatherers, and evidence shows that they were more hunter than gatherer. In other words, their diet was largely animal-based, and megafauna was the meal of the day – i.e. mastodons, woolly mammoths and the like. This food in terms of energy and survival made sense than trying to acquire the same number of calories by way of collecting vegetation.

The amount of time and energy it took to take down a slow moving herbivore was a lot less than spending hours and hours foraging for food with very little nutritional density. So it made sense to kill and eat the big boys that were eating all that stuff.

The Problem!

The problems is that we are now surrounded by food and most of it is carbohydrate and refined processed junk! We no longer have to hunt to survive. We can push a button on our phone and have any type of food brought to us.

We have refrigerators and ways of storing and processing food in order to store for long periods of time. And of course, with carbs as an immediate energy source, and with sugar being more addictive than cocaine, we often go for the sweet satisfying foods.

Our genetics are still basically the same as our ancestors, so we are designed to eat anything and everything in sight! There was no guarantee we’d have food the next few days or even longer.

Our bodies are designed to handle scarcity better than they are designed to handle over-feeding (hence all the problems such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, and stroke.) This is why so many people have reversed their health and weight problems using fasting strategies and ketogenic and carnivore dieting.

#1 They are eliminating carbs for the most part, and #2 they are using our inherent survival design of being in a healthy fasted state – this is to prepare you for the hunt and keep you alive until you acquire your next kill or meal. Insulin levels drop, human growth hormone and adrenaline ramp up – you are ready and focused!

In a fasted state, your human growth hormone levels elevate to 5 times their original levels and adrenaline kicks up – this is why you don’t lose muscle and you feel energized around the 3rd day and more of being fasted. Granted, most people use an intermittent fasting strategy that’s closer to a normal human eating frequency, but it’s still a lot.

More on this later, but just know that when learning how to do the carnivore diet, you don’t have restrictions on time or volume, and most end up eating around 1-2 times a day.

You Are a Scavenger

Carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore? Which one are you really?! You are actually an opportunistic carnivore but you have the stomach pH (acid and base level) that resembles more of what’s known as a scavenger – like a hyena or a crow. It’s very low (acidic.) We can handle some really nasty stuff, and that’s what such a low pH is for – to kill off unnecessary bacteria and other harmful substances. Carnivore’s like wolves and tigers have a little higher pH than us. Herbivores like our ape cousins, zebras, and cows have a fairly high pH.

Proof: look up any video on “high meat” and be prepared to be blown away. This is not for those with a weak constitution – it’s basically people who eat fermented meat, yes rotten meat, as many of our ancestors did. They call it high meat because you can literally feel a little euphoria after ingesting it.

Don’t worry! This is not a part of the Carnivore Diet. It’s allowed if you really want to be adventurous.

The Difference Between Carnivore and Zero Carb

You may hear the Carnivore Diet also described as the zero carb diet. When you are practicing a carnivorous diet, you aren’t eating carbs, so basically you are zero carb dieting. However, you can also be on a zero carb diet eating many calorie free foods and drinks such as certain vegatables, processed foods, and diet sodas. You can eat a really crappy unhealthy diet and be considered zero carb. The Carnivore Diet is NOT an unhealthy diet. In fact, it is the most nutrient dense way of eating you can practice in this day and time. Remember, we NEED the essentials and these are ONLY found in animal protein and fat. The best source for these 2 essentials is red meat from ruminant animals (i.e. cow, sheep, bison, goat, deer, mastodon, woolly mammoth – of which only the first 5 are available today 😉

The Carnivore Diet is a zero carb diet, but a zero carb diet is not a Carnivore Diet

What About Vitamins, Minerals, and Fiber?

I could write a book on this, and many already have . We now know that what we’ve learned about vitamins and minerals is mostly not applicable. The paper value of the amount of vitamins and minerals you might see for vegetables and fruits does not necessarily equate to what is actually used by your body.

In the 1950s is when the vitamin craze hit, and marketing strategies focused on getting people to buy food stuffs with the most vitamins regardless of what the food was made of.

how to do the carnivore diet

In 2007, what you know as the Recommended Daily Allowance (put forth by the USDA) of all vitamins and minerals was deemed ineffective by the Institute of Medicine. These values of vitamin C, B12, D, Calcium, etc are all basically based on “their best guess.” Not only that, but the methods used to obtain these values were based on carbohydrate-consuming populations. There is no data on populations that consume a low-carb or carnivore type diet.

Your way of eating will dictate your vitamin and mineral needs, and there is no valid set of nutritional requirements

For instance, we now know that carnivore dieters who eat meat only do not get scurvy (vitamin C deficiency,) and they do no develop atherosclerosis (hardening and clogging of the arteries.) You would think based on the information you have about vitamin C from the 1940’s (RDA for vitamin C is 65-90 mg per day with upper limit of 2000) that a meat-only diet would cause you some problems here, but it does not.  Meat actually has vitamin C in it (even though the USDA never tested for it!) and it’s why fresh meat prevents and cures scurvy. This was found by the sailors of old who would get scurvy eating dried/jerky meats on long trips. They were cured with either fresh meat or fruits like oranges. Guess which food got the credit?

Eating a meat-only diet does not lead to nutritional deficiencies

This is evidenced anecdotally in people like Charles Washington who is in his 60’s and doesn’t look a day over 35 (an over 20 year carnivore.) Joe Andersen and his wife Charlene who healed all sorts of issues and look, function, and feel amazing – they are also 20+ year strict carnivores. These people can be found and followed on Facebook and Instagram.

What you never learned is that vegetables contain anti-nutrients and other constituents (natural pesticides) that deter animals, including you, from eating it! It’s why most vegetables in their original state are virtually inedible. These anti-nutrients can prevent absorption of vitamins and minerals. Not only that, it’s now known that some of these substances cause inflammatory and other problems in humans! Did you realize that only 1% of the worlds plants are actually edible. 99% of the worlds meat is edible. Hmmm.

How to Do the Carnivore Diet

I will give you my approach as I’ve used it a few different ways in practice. Absorb this information and make a decision on how you’d like to proceed.

The 12 Week Full Elimination Protocol

This is a gradual process of eliminating any and all food substances that could be affecting your health adversely over a 12 week period. You see people doing 1 and 4 week carnivore challenges, and that’s cute, but it doesn’t do anything to actually achieve the full effect of expressing the healthiest you. It takes 3 months for new cells to regenerate and those cells will be genetically expressed based on how you fuel them.

Now that your removing all but your primal, original fuel source, these will be your best cells. Honestly, it’s a 6 month process to really see how healthy you can be although most people notice results in just a few days to weeks!

Every one is different, but we are all the SAME SPECIES! So yes, we all need and thrive on meat! Now what you’ve been eating and what you’ve been made of over the last few years is going to dictate your response.

Please note that every animal has a species-specific diet – we’re the only animals that have mucked it up. The Plant-based community and money-backed vegan propaganda machines are in full force trying to convince you that you are a plant. You need to eat mostly plants and avoid the natural order by avoiding animal based produce so they can all roam free. Yeah, that sounds sane – NOT!

Follow the money and you’ll see there is much more $ in the profit margin of grain as well as plants in general. James Cameron, has invested 140 million in a pea protein company so here come the vegans and tons of ads to support veganism and plant-based dieting!

Want to cure veganism? Take away their blenders 😉

Back to sanity – Eat meat, get healthy, live a great disease-free, energetic life. Here’s how:

The Carnivore Diet Rules

PHASE I: The first 4 weeks on the Carnivore Diet

You will eat only meat, eggs, real butter, and hard aged cheeses for the first 4 weeks.

What to drink? You can keep coffee in the mix for the first 4 weeks if you’re really an addict. I understand. I was. Your liquid consumption should be limited to water – carbonated water is fine.

Eat to satiety! There is no rule and when or how much to eat.

Use plenty of salt! I recommend Redmond Real Salt. Any good sea or Celtic salt is fine. Avoid refined salt like Morton’s. Salt is your new sugar.

If you get hungry or get a craving (more on this later,) eat more meat and don’t forget SALT.

Grassfed or Store Bought? It doesn’t matter. There is an argument for grass fed having a better nutrient profile, but for the sake of what we’re doing here. It doesn’t matter. I personally preferred grass-fed/grain-finished. There is more to this, but that’s not within the scope of this article.

For the record: I fully recommend pastured animals that were raised by a farm or farmer that practices regenerative agriculture. If you have a relationship with a local farm, farmer, or butcher that uses local resources – you’re in good hands.

The cheapest meat at the store is better than eating a bunch of non-essential foods that could be causing health issues!

Ideas: Steak and Eggs!, ground beef with shredded aged cheddar and eggs! Cheeseburger patties! Steak cuts dropped in scrambled eggs with aged cheddar shredded over it – ALL with SALT! There are super good ideas and recipes if you need at MeatRx.com

Emphasize Red Meat from ruminant animals!

Cow, lamb, deer, bison, goat are the common ones.

Economic version: just stick to ground beef and eggs! Make burger patties, mix it up, prepare the eggs any way you want – the main ingredient is SALT.

If you’re concerned about too much salt intake, be sure to read “The Salt Fix” – it’s on the banner to your right. Salt is not a problem typically – more bad info we’ve been fed for many years without any evidence.

Other meats that are fine: chicken, bacon, ham, pork, and duck – these are meats from monogastric (one chambered stomach animals) animals. These meats should not be emphasized but they are fine to include. They’re considered “neutral.”

Organ Meats are great but not required

You’ll see various “experts” saying you need to eat nose-to-tail to get the most nutritional benefit from the Carnivore Diet; however, previous carnivore dieters of 20 years and more did not practice this way and they experienced no problems. Yes, organ meats, especially the liver, contain a surplus of vitamins and minerals that are perfectly absorbed (unlike veggies and fruits,) but organ meats have not been proven “essential” for optimal health.

I personally eat liver (both chicken and beef) maybe once a month -depends on convenience. I DO NOT eat kidney – sometimes you get a nasty urea hit. Heart is pretty good and you can get it blended with beef by US Wellness Meats

Phase 2: Weeks 4-8 on the Carnivore Diet

All the rules above remain!

You simply eliminate cheese. Yes you can keep your coffee, butter, eggs, and other meats.

Phase 3: Weeks 8-12 on the Carnivore Diet

Now it’s time to go FULL CARNIVORE – Red Meat and Water ONLY. Yes drop the coffee and deal with the oncoming headache and malaise! This will not be fun if you’ve been a long term coffee drinker. You can always put coffee back in later. First let’s get all plant-based substances removed.

For the next 4 weeks it’s all about having fully eliminated any substance that could have been creating a problem. Your body can now fully repair and recover without having to deal with any foreign or non-essential substance. Meat is the most natural food to your body.

Coffee does affect your gut bacteria and your adrenals (adrenal fatigue.) This is a great time to allow for a re-set of sorts. Give your body a break. You can always return to drinking coffee perhaps on a more limited scale and without the addiction.

What to Expect on the Carnivore Diet

The Adaptation Phase! This is where your body, especially your gut, adapts to this new way of eating. This usually lasts about 3 weeks.

First of all, if you’ve entered this way of eating from a SAD, you’re going to definitely experience what is known as the carb flu (first week). You’ve been using carbs for a long time as an energy source and now you’re not. Your body will give you signals that it doesn’t approve – fatigue, headache, and a little misery. Fortunately, it’s temporary!

Diarrhea is also a fairly common initial symptom (first 3 weeks.) Your gut/gallbladder has probably never processed this much protein/fat and it has to adapt. Rendered fat (burger meat) is notorious for causing this. Leaner cuts of meat like sirloin and NY Strip are generally well accepted in the beginning – and thereafter!

Weight Loss! Keep in mind, this is not exclusively a weight loss diet. Yes, most do lose substantial amounts of weight. This is more of a health restoration diet – a way to allow your physiology to return to a more normal state without inflammation. It’s a way to set a good healthy foundation from which you will have full control.

Is the Carnivore Diet for Everyone? No. There are some people who are pleased and happy with where they are physically and mentally. I only recommend making changes in your diet when you know you need to take action to improve your health – whether it be simple weight loss or addressing a health concern.

I do not recommend beating other people over the head with this diet as the only diet a human should practice. You know it’s good, I know it’s good, science shows it’s good, history shows that it’s our reason for existing – but nutrition is right next to religion and politics in many circles. Simply lead by example and You do You.

Be prepared for criticism: NO ONE…absolutely NO ONE at the time of this writing understands how healthy this approach is assuming they have the standard education background and have some version of internet access. What you’re doing will not make sense. Either don’t engage or simply let them know you are working on a food allergy protocol. I have a video for my fasting group to send “concerned people” to, and I should have one soon for your concerned people – watch for it soon!

After the 12 Week Carnivore Diet:

You can now re-introduce foods that you choose to eat and see how you react – see how you feel. The most common food/drink that people return to is coffee. Do one at a time for several days. Don’t load up on a variety.

By now, you will have learned so much about this way of eating as well as your own body. Most people simply continue with Carnivore as their base and they eat occasional other foods.

For those who have food allergies, intolerances, and sensitivities – the re-introduction phase is very important. You may have healed and can now eat the formerly provocative food – or you may not! I was lactose intolerant. Now I’m not. I also don’t have Fall Allergies – life changer for sure!

Stay connected and involved with others practicing a carnivore way of life on social media. Focus on those who are succeeding and who have done it for over a year or more.

Be sure to opt in to my Carnivore group above! There is always more to learn!

Cheers! Now go eat a steak!

The Carnivore Diet Book!

At the time of this writing the first copies of The Carnivore Diet by Dr. Shawn Baker are being released! It’s the first book that goes in depth into the complex world of nutrition and simplifies what you need to know about eating an all meat diet. There is no dogma or zealotry and there is definitely no fuzzy science like the vegans use to try and convince you that this way is the best. You are given the truth as it stands, and you can make your own decision about how you can implement this knowledge into a way of improving your health.

A must read book about the carnivore diet

Before Carnivore was cool, there was Mike Sheridan putting out how to get healthy and fit with his book “Eat Meat and Stop Jogging.” My patients and clients will tell you that I don’t use steady state cardio or running/jogging in any of my health and weight loss plans. Why? It doesn’t work and it’s more damaging that beneficial. Mike goes into detail with good scientific references. It’s a great read and must have!

Fasting 101

You’re either considering fasting or connected to someone who is fasting and you want to know what the heck is going on? Why on earth would anyone want to go without food? Makes no sense, right? This article is a very basic run-down of fasting that will help you determine if going without food is helpful or harmful.  Watch this quick 10 minute video!

You’re probably concerned that it’s unsafe! How in the world can going without food, be healthy?!

Fasting is EXTREMELY healthy! It is the fastest way to lose extra fat while preserving muscle. NO other diet does this.

I have never been able to over feed someone into better health! However, when I remove food, their health improves! By this very simple and powerful observation, I think you can use a little common sense here and surmise that adding more food doesn’t equate to better health.

In fact, the ONE thing that the 3 most influential people in all of human history (Jesus, Buddha, and Mohamed) agree on is that fasting is good for the body and the spirit.

Fasting means going completely without food. When you are not ingesting food, your body uses it’s own food. First, it uses the glycogen (sugar) it has stored in the liver. Your body will keep your blood sugar at a certain level at all costs. When the liver runs out of glycogen (24-48 hours), your body then goes to it’s stored food (your FAT stores! Yes!) and this is what we want! Your body is now living on it’s own food that you’ve stored. You are now in a state of “ketosis,” because when your body uses fat as a fuel, it creates a new source of energy called ketones.

However, achieving ketosis is easier said than done! You ARE ADDICTED to CARBS! And once you deplete your body of this drug, you will have symptoms! Once you get past these symptoms, and your body learns how to use it’s own fat reserves for energy, this is called being “fat adapted,” and life is really good once you achieve this state. It can take several weeks to months. Most experienced fasters who remain low carb can easily go back and forth from using carbs to fats for energy, and this is called “metabolic flexibility.”

Being metabolically flexible is like being a bit superhuman. You can go with or without food. You can use carbs or not. You have no food addictions, but you can enjoy anything. You can use fasting at the drop of a hat with no drop in energy, and your health remains excellent.

FASTING IS NOTHING NEW!

Your genetics (assuming you are a homosapien) are designed to be more in a fasted state than in a fed state. Our ancestral heritage spans over the last 1.8 to 2 million years during which we certainly did NOT eat 3 times a day! Moreover, we didn’t have cavities, heart disease, cancer, digestive disorders, dementia, Alzheimer’s, obesity, Diabetes, or any of the collective autoimmune diseases that plague and perplex us. Keep in mind, the first recorded heart attack was in 1921! What we assume is a normal part of aging – arthritis, weakness, falling, heart disease, stroke, etc…IS NOT NORMAL! However these problems are COMMON!

These problems started to appear when our eating frequency increased and our food sources started to shift away from animal-based nutrition. Literally, in the last .01% of human history (the last 100 years,) we’ve managed to create a new most prevalent cause of death – chronic disease.

Intermittent Fasting Anyone?

Recently, many celebrities are jumping on the “Intermittent Fasting” bandwagon, and I applaud this effort! However, Intermittent Fasting (IF) is actually a return to a more normal pattern of eating. IF is basically shortening your feeding window with the most popular one being the 16:8 (16 hours fasted: 8 hours feeding time.) My favorite is the Warrior Fast which is 20:4 (20 hours fasted: 4 hours feeding.) Studies use terminology such as TRF or Time Restricted Feeding and they all find that the shorter the feeding window, the better your health!

Does IF work? It’s better than eating 3-6 meals a day! But most will plateau in their fat loss efforts. In order to lose fat, you have to trigger release of your extra fat reserves and IF only does this to a certain extent.

Extended Fasting! Now this is where we get into true restoration of health, rapid/safe fat loss, rejuvenation, cellular repair and all things related to the popularized concept of Autophagy! Extended fasting is going 48 hours or more without food, and most people cannot wrap their head around this concept as they still believe that going without food is bad! WRONG! Eating 2-3 times a day and MORE is BAD! EF is the best and most effective method of achieving fat loss without muscle loss due to it’s powerful ability to put you in ketosis by burning YOUR OWN FAT!

I frequently go 2 and 3 days without food just to show my patients that you wont die!

There are 2 types of fasts.

1. Liquid fast. This is where you only drink a calorie free drink like water, and unfortunately, water is not a great way to fast. It “bottoms you out!” … Water pushes your electrolytes out, and you don’t feel good. There is a solution to this, and I’ll address it below.

2. Dry fast. This type of fasting method is where you refrain from food or drink. You’re body will use it’s own “metabolic water” and this will also come from fat as adipose tissue is 60% water. Your fat literally has all you need regarding nutrition to live…including water. Dry fasting is used mostly for healing a medical problem or disorder, i.e. skin problems, illnesses, cancer and more. The most common dry fast is called a “soft dry fast.” This means contact with water is allowed such as brushing your teeth and taking a shower. A “hard dry fast” simply means absolutely no contact with any liquid – no shower, no swimming, no brushing teeth, no washing your face, etc.

[et_bloom_inline optin_id=optin_1]

Here are the top fasting concerns:

First of all, know that they are NOT GOING to DIE! Hospitalized , comatose, dying people who have the feeding tube and IV removed (no food, no water) will literally live 7-9 days! Now the person fasting may feel like they’re going to die as they begin the process of breaking their addictions to carbs, caffeine, and whatever else they’ve been pounding their body with. These “detox” symptoms are temporary! And in my opinion, these symptoms are a bit of a punishment for abusing the body all these years 😉

1. Isn’t fasting basically starvation? Absolutely NOT!

What differentiates fasting from starvation is the hormonal response. When you fast, your HGH (Human Growth Hormone) levels and adrenaline increase thus preserving your muscle. The moment you put any food substance in your mouth, you go into a “fed” state and this hormonal response stops. Your body is now waiting on food. If you don’t eat enough to meet your caloric needs, then your body will catabolize itself to achieve this caloric need – it will take from muscle and fat. So yes, you will lose weight, but part of that weight is muscle! The very tissue that burns fat. This is starvation!

ALL DIETS that have you eat multiple times a day but do not meet your caloric need are basically putting you into starvation mode. You will lose weight, but you will lose muscle and fat. Most people who can stick with it end up being “skinny fat” people as their body fat percentage remains high due to the loss of muscle.

2. How long can you go without food?

As long as you have extra fat reserves on your body! Literally. That fat on your body that you can feel plus the fat all around your organs (the dangerous kind) that you can’t feel is basically food! It has all that you need to survive when you’re not stuffing your face.

It is not uncommon for very obese people to fast for 30 days with liquid only. The longest recorded fast is 382 days! It was done in 1973 in Scotland. Fasting is nothing new.

There is a myth that you can only last 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. It’s the “rule of 3’s,” and it is simply WRONG. I do 72 hour (3 day) dry fasts while I’m working, and I have no problems doing this!

3. Why drink salt water instead of regular water?

Plain water flushes your electrolytes (mainly sodium and potassium), and you can feel really bad. When you drink an electrolyte solution, you keep your electrolytes balanced and you’ll feel as good as possible. This strategy also helps break food addiction. Many people do fast with water only, but I don’t recommend it. You only need to use electrolyte solution during a prolonged fast of 2 days or more. For those doing a 1 meal a day (OMAD) fast, water is fine. You’ll get plenty of sodium and potassium from your food.

GO HERE to see how to make the electrolyte solution!

3. When should you not fast?

Once your body fat is in a normal range and you are approaching a “lean” body composition, multiple day fasts are no longer necessary for fat loss. People who are already in a low body fat range such as 4% or below and/or have an eating disorder should also refrain from using fasting strategies without proper professional supervision.

Moreover, if you have an obvious or diagnosed nutritional deficiency, you should not fast.

4. What’s that funny smell and taste?

First of all, there is no telling what toxins you’ve been storing in your fat cells all your life and now they’re being purged, or released. That could be one reason for body or breath odor, and it is very temporary.

You will also enter a state of “ketosis” which means your body is now using fat as a fuel vs sugar or carbohydrate. This is a very natural and awesome physical state to be in! However, your body is not used to it, and the ketones produced as a byproduct of fat metabolism can be temporarily noticed in your breath – it’s a little strong, sweet, fruity type flavor. This is not ketoacidosis which is a condition that type 1 diabetics experience when there ketones reach excessive amounts. It’s not possible for a non diabetic to develop ketoacidosis.

5. Why doesn’t my doctor – trainer – therapist or other professional not know about fasting?

First of all, they weren’t trained in fasting strategies. Simple as that. They are incredibly intelligent people and they’ve most likely mastered their discipline, but fasting was not a part of their curriculum.

The lowdown on carbs…

Unfortunately, there are still professionals who believe you MUST HAVE CARBS! This is sad, because it is simply not true. They are super smart people, probably some of the smartest in the world, however they are trained to practice in a certain way with a model of physiology that requires frequent feeding. I was taught the same! Glucose is the primary fuel source of the brain so we must ingest it to keep ourselves healthy, energetic, and able to live! It is also the primary fuel for our general metabolism, right? WRONG – we got fat, and it all started in 1977 when the first food pyramid came out recommending 6-11 servings of grain per day. We then started snacking (carbs make you hungry at least every 2 hours) to keep our “blood sugar” from bottoming out – laughable! Carbs are simply not essential. Fat and Protein are essential, and carbs are simply an optional energy source.

A possible exception…

Physicians that are trained in Functional Medicine are an exception as they do work to find the underlying cause of a disorder, and they are more apt to be training in the use of fasting strategies and nutritional remedies vs toxic drugs.

Be sure to check out Low Carb USA for practitioners that are up to date on the latest nutritional approaches to health.

How to mess up your metabolism

Trainers are educated to diet folks multiple times a day and create a caloric deficit while exercising you in some way. Metabolism drops as your weight does, you feel exhausted eventually, and you quit. The weight comes back just like all the participants experienced on the show “The Biggest Loser.” Eating less calories and exercising your butt off is not a sustainable way to drop extra fat. Besides, what it took these folks about 9 months to achieve can be achieved in 3 months with fasting!…And without all the exhausting exercise, mental fatigue, drop in metabolism, loss of muscle, and ultimate failure. People who fast continue to live their lives, work, go to school, and they actually perform better!

Hard truth

You will only find a few professionals “in the know.” The food industry that is a large part of our economy, especially the grain industry that has a huge profit margin, stands nothing to gain by people choosing healthier options such as fasting. They only stand to lose. So be prepared to see the media come out in force with fake stories like …”the dangers of fasting,” “low carb kills,” “Keto Dieters Shorten Life Span’s,” “Meat Diet Causes Heart Disease” on and on!

As you read this right now, you are basing your decisions on what you believe. What you believe is what you’ve learned mostly from the media. The media is paid by the food industry to advertise it’s food. You literally believe that oatmeal is heart healthy, right? Why? Because you were told so in advertisements. It’s a lie – plain and simple. The purpose of this lie is to get you to buy oatmeal – not get healthy. No grain is considered heart healthy, and grains are a large part of the reason we have some much obesity, digestive problems, diabetes, alzheimer’s and other chronic disease.

 

6. Should vitamins and minerals be taken while fasting?

No, not necessarily. On most fasting regimens which are typically spread throughout the week, you get plenty of the essentials from your own fat and the re-feeds (when you eat.) People that fast for 30 days or more do incorporate vitamins/minerals on a limited scale. There is no evidence that vitamins/minerals should be included in prolonged fasts. Your fat cells contain all that you need regarding vitamins/minerals – and a lot of stuff you don’t need (hence the term “detox.”) The vitamin/mineral requirements are also very inaccurate as they were established back in the 40’s and based on carb dieting soldiers. When you don’t eat carbs, your requirements change. No study has ever shown that vitamin/mineral supplementation provides any benefit or protection from disease. This vitamin chasing phenomenon was popularized in the 50’s and the marketing since then has been relentless. The only vitamins I recommend giving valid attention to are vitamin D3+K2.

7. Can you lose weight too fast?

Everyone loses weight at different rates. It is not uncommon for heavier people with a lot to lose to drop 10 pounds a week and/or 30 pounds a month. As you grow leaner the fat loss slows. When you get down to the last 10-15 pounds is when you don’t need to do aggressive fasting. One meal a day and a few 48 hour fasts once to twice a week works well and is very comfortable. Exercise can also be implemented at this stage, but again, it’s not necessary for fat loss. Exercise is excellent for strength, muscle gain, and overall fitness and function.

Perspective on Fasting & Our Current Diet

Keep in mind that homo sapiens (our species) have been on earth for about 200,000 years!  Most of our time on earth has been as hunter-gatherers, and we ate animals, nose to tail to sustain us. We experienced times of feasting during a kill and fasting until the next kill. Vegetation was scarce, and virtually non-existent in many parts of the world due to the ice age. Fruit presented after the ice age when the earth began to warm about 11,000 years ago, and it was only found in a few locations. Agriculture (growing crops and cultivating grains) started about 10,000 years ago when we began to create settlements. We started to substitute vegetable oils, sugar, and grains for animal products about 100 years ago, the first heart attack was recorded in 1921.

Supermarkets started in the ’40’s, and we started increasing our grain consumption due to government dietary guidelines (the food pyramid) in 1977.  Snacking became the norm in the 80’s and obesity rates, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders began to sky-rocket. Now we are ridden with obesity and chronic disease. We turn to our medical professionals, but they are trained to treat your pathology, not fix your diet that lead up to your disease. In fact, most are trained in such a way that does not teach them that diet is in any way related to disease!

Our Modern Diet

Notice that literally within the last 100 years, we’ve managed to destroy our health and make being unhealthy and overweight the norm! Even in the 70’s we fasted at least 12 hours, and obesity was not very prevalent. We ate breakfast at 7, lunch, then dinner around 7. Repeat. Nowadays it’s breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack, dinner and dessert…maybe another snack. Refined carbs/snacks surround us, cost next to nothing, and are super addictive. Insulin spiking has never been greater, nor have our rates of type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer.

For some odd reason, our governments say we should eat a balanced diet of vegetables, fruits, grains, and low fat dairy. This combination has never been a part of a healthy human diet. First of all, this is the first time in history we’ve had the transportation and technology to ship food to all parts of the world. Our health does no require shipments of food. It requires 2 things: protein and fat (mostly animal-based).  You cannot get all your essential nutrition from plants only. Simply look at the problems the vegetarians and vegans have. It’s astounding.

We have come to the point where we’ve moved so far away from a normal human diet that it’s now unrecognizable.

You are now being taken advantage of by all the fad diets and methods meant to take your money only to have to grow fatter and unhealthier. ALL diets cause you to lose weight by caloric restriction and multiple meals a day – not fasting. ALL popular diets cause people to lose weight and regain it. There is a 99% failure rate in the industry. So yes, ALL commercial diets are basically a scam. They take your money and they don’t work.

What works?

Quit eating – it’s guaranteed. Fasting will not decrease your metabolism, cause muscle loss, or kill you. However, you will lose fat, break food addiction, resolve underlying and active diseases, and all for the grand cost of zero!

And all you really have to do is take a step back in time, take a lesson from our ancestors who did not have obesity, chronic disease, diabetes, heart disease, or bad health. They lived long healthy lives and died of injury primarily. The myth about them dying early is wrong as it uses infant mortality to calculate life span, and yes, they had a much higher infant mortality. But in general, they lived just as long as we do and in a much harsher climate.

We can simply use a fasting strategy (like we’re genetically designed to do) in order to help restore our health by mimicking the feast and famine ways.

For LIVE HELP and SPECIFICS on HOW to FAST in a way that’s best for you all while getting support, GO HERE to Join my Live Fasting Focused Lifestyle Group.

How to Maintain Being Lean

Once we are back to a natural, lean body, we can eat a more normal caloric load usually once or twice a day in a small window of time. That may sound foreign to you, but once you are lean, healthy, and happy with tons of energy and vitality; frequent eating is simply not desired. You can still eat bad foods, and you’ll know how to “fix it with fasting!” Life is good, and now you’re in control. You can live without being a prisoner to food addiction and always wondering when and what you’re going to eat next.

Your physiology will have changed. The way you think and feel about food now is not what it will be when you are lean. It’s hard to imaging for some, because you have certain feelings and thoughts about food. Therefore, when people talk about freedom from addiction and full control of their diet, that may sound completely foreign to you! And it should! More than likely you’ve never had complete freedom from food addiction, and you’ve eaten more days in your life than you haven’t eaten.

The ones who don’t fare well on a fasting regimen (they lose weight then gain most back pretty quick) are the ones why try and fast for a long period of time right off the bat! Then they go right back to their old ways.Yo Yo fasters. It’s rare, but it does happen.

The way to succeed is to build a fasting regimen into your life and be consistent. Use a combination of 48’s, 72’s, and 96’s. In other words, set up 2,3, 4, and/or 5 day fasts that fit your lifestyle. On your feeding days, just eat once and keep it on the high protein/low carb end. Our ancestors (hunter-gatherers) ate a carnivorous diet followed by fasting, hunting, and repeating the process.

I hope you take this life saving information and put it into action. Common sense has probably kicked in by now, and you KNOW that what is going on (and will continue to occur in the food world around us) has nothing to do with helping us return to optimal health. It is to keep us eating as much and as often as possible. You now know what you can do and it’ll save you a ton of money and misery. Fast 😉

PS: Please Remember the FIRST RULE OF FASTING:

DON’T TELL PEOPLE YOU ARE FASTING! First of all, they have no clue about fasting and think that you are crazy. Conversation deteriorates down a rabbit hole of ignorance. You simply don’t have time to explain all the things you’ll want to discuss – It’s like giving a 1st grader 12th grade information. It just won’t compute. Send them to this article! I’ll take care of them for you 😉

PPS: Not everyone will want to fast. Some people are simply not willing to forego their food as they have a “relationship” with food that they’re unwilling to break. It’s like smokers who know they need to quit, but they haven’t reached to stage to where they want to quit. We know fasting is natural, it is good for you, and it’s the most powerful and fastest fat loss and health restoration method God gave us. But that doesn’t mean others will want to fast. Fasting is for EVERYONE, but not Everyone is for fasting.

The SCIENCE of Fasting

For those of you who just have to know the inner workings of this very natural state of rejuvination, repair, and recovery…Watch this video:

 

Follow me on Instagram!

The Final Word on Coconut Oil, Cholesterol, and Heart Disease

Coconut Oil Comes Under Attack

coconut oil under attack

Just when it seemed that mainstream medical practitioners, the American Medical Association, and the American Heart Association were starting to actually ‘get’ the fact that saturated fats do not cause heart disease and diabetes, and that sugar, processed carbohydrates, and vegetable oils do, they did an about face and the AHA (June, 2017) came out with this information about coconut oil:

This American Heart Association presidential advisory on dietary fats and CVD   [Cardiovascular Disease]… concludes strongly that lowering intake of saturated fat and replacing it with unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats, will lower the incidence of CVD…Because coconut oil increases LDL cholesterol, a cause of CVD [cardiovascular disease], and has no known offsetting favorable effects, we advise against the use of coconut oil…”

So what the AHA is saying is this:

  1. Saturated fats [all kinds] increase LDL cholesterol
  2. An increase of LDL causes cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Let’s talk about both of these.

First, not all LDL cholesterol is ‘bad’, although we have been taught to believe that. In fact, LDL is made up of several different types of particles, not all of which are bad or tied to CVD. Increases in LDL that come from eating more saturated fats in the diet are associated with a healthier version of LDL, the larger, fluffy particles of LDL, which is generally what coconut oil increases. Additionally, LDL has important functions in the body, delivering nutrients to various types of cells, protecting the cell membranes, the building blocks for important hormones (namely, increasing testosterone in men), and strengthening the immune system.

Very Small Particle LDL is the harmful type. So, increasing LDL is only bad when it is directly tied to Very Small Particle LDL or VSLDL. But, of course, the AHA left that vital information out of their report. VSLDL is increased by eating high sugar, high starch diets often accompanied by high triglycerides.

More than 17 studies and analyses have been unable to establish a clear link between saturated fats and CVD. And the American Heart Association cherry-picked their studies–some of them as old as 50-60 years old to use for their latest report. Tell me, does that make ANY sense?

The American Heart Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization made up of cardiologists and other medical professionals. Their mission to “build healthier lives free of cardiovascular disease and stroke.” In their 2011-2012 financial statement, the AHA noted $521 million in donations from non-government and non-membership sources and many well-known large drug companies, including those who make and market statins, contribute amounts in the $1 million range. If you or someone you know has a total cholesterol over 200, all of a sudden, a statin is now required! And you need to know that there is no difference in death rates of those who have a total cholesterol of 180 vs those with a cholesterol of 1000!

A quick look at some of their funding sources includes:

  • Amarin (Pharmaceutical Company)
  • Amgen (Pharmaceutical Company)
  • AstraZeneca (Pharmaceutical Company)
  • Eli Lilly (Pharmaceutical Company)
  • Glaxo-Smith Kline (Pharmaceutical Company)
  • Merck (Pharmaceutical Company)
  • Pfizer (Pharmaceutical Company)
  • Regeneron/Sanofi (Pharmaceutical Company)
  • Takeda (Pharmaceutical Company)
  • California Walnut Commission (incentivized to undermine saturated fats)
  • Ag Canada and Canola Oil Council (incentivized to undermine saturated fats and promote vegetable oils).
  • (More funding sources here)

In addition, the AHA takes in millions from big food companies, who—besides their donations– also pay $5-7,000 per product to gain the ‘heart-check mark’ that goes on the labels for advertising. These foods merely have to be low in fat and saturated fat and cholesterol. Doesn’t really matter how refined or how much sugar is added. Take a look at some high sugar cereals in the supermarket and you will see that they have the ‘heart-check’ mark, in spite of the fact they are one of the biggest causes of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. This is completely misleading.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but…It doesn’t take a genius to see that there may be a (not-so-hidden) agenda, as in:

…take statin drugs, eat more vegetable oil like canola oil, and only eat the AHA ‘approved products’. Isn’t that the advice that increased heart disease and created a country of overweight, unhealthy adults? It’s time to wake up.

Gary Taubes, noted science writer and author of several books, including “The Case Against Sugar”, says this:

[T] he AHA concludes that only four clinical trials have ever been done with sufficiently  reliable methodology to allow them to assess the value of replacing SFAs with PUFAs (in practice replacing animal fats [with] vegetable oils) and concludes that this replacement will reduce heart attacks by 30 percent …

      These four trials are the ones…the AHA experts have systematically picked through…and found reasons to reject all that didn’t find such a large positive effect, including a significant number that happened to suggest the opposite…including among the rejections the largest trials ever done: the Minnesota Coronary Survey, the Sydney Heart  Study and, most notably, the Women’s Health Initiative, which was the single largest and most expensive clinical trial ever done. All of these were…rejected from their analysis.”

But wait! This is 2017, and we have already discovered that Ancel Keys’ study on cholesterol and diet in the 50’s and 60’s was extremely flawed, and the results were ‘cherry picked’ to show what his head researcher wanted to show. Keys tried to show that dietary saturated fats contributed to heart disease, ignoring the fact that processed carbs and sugar were major contributors to heart disease. When researchers have gone back in and looked at the data from all of the countries, there actually was no link between fat consumption and heart disease deaths, and there was no consideration of other factors such as smoking rates, stress factors, sugar intake, exercise frequency, or other lifestyle factors. So his conclusions were not actually even valid!

ancel keys

Unfortunately, Keys’ faulty study has been followed for the last 5 decades to the major detriment of modern society.

After the world replaced meat, butter and eggs (which were staples of the American diet back when heart disease wasn’t even on the map yet back in the early 1900’s) with processed margarine, grains, and vegetable oils, we watched as populations grew obese, heart disease increased, and diabetes and other inflammatory diseases increased dramatically over the last 50 years. In fact, did you know that the first recorded heart attack was in 1921! Instead of improved health, Americans have just gotten fatter and sicker. Heart disease rates increased, even though people have been eating what the AHA suggests is a heart-healthy diet. So if the AHA’s advice didn’t work 65 years ago, WHY would it start working now?

The REAL causes of heart disease are these:

  • Trans fats (artificially hydrogenated oils) proven to be major contributors to heart disease
  • Heavily refined inflammatory vegetable oils such as soy, canola, cottonseed, corn oil, etc. Read more about healthy cooking oils vs unhealthy cooking oil here
  • Too much refined sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup
  • High intake of carbohydrates such as ‘whole grain’ bread, packaged cereals, snacks, crackers, etc
  • Smoking
  • Stressful lifestyle
  • Lack of exercise

Before I go further, if you would be interested in being a part of an Exclusive Keto, Carnivore, and Fasting Club where you would have access to novice level to advanced keto and fasting training, including LIVE, Q&A and training and support; Enter your name, email, an hit “Yes I’m Interested.” We are in development right now! We will only be taking a select number for FREE. I love helping people succeed, and you will have access to me and other top keto, carnivore, and fasting pros.

[et_bloom_inline optin_id=optin_1]

Clearly we are not headed in the right direction—at least if we let the AMA and the AHA (mis)guide us. The point is, saturated fat CAN be very good for us, or at worst, it’s just neutral. Many primitive tribes in Africa have subsisted on high saturated fat diets with almost no heart disease.  The Masai, and the Samburu, and Fulani tribes ate mostly raw whole milk, red meat, and cows’ blood. And the Kitavans and The Tokelau people really did show zero signs of heart disease despite eating a diet high in coconut fat. They actually started getting fat, heart diseased, and diabetic after they started eating a more modern diet full of wheat, sugar, and vegetable oils. Not only were these primitive tribes extremely healthy, they were lean and had very little disease or health issues.

So, yes, American Heart Association and USA Today and everyone else–coconut oil is STILL HEALTHY for you!

Coconut oil has been a dietary staple of many civilizations for years and years, and it provides healthy, high quality fat that benefits your health. It helps support healthy thyroid function, boosts your metabolism, balances blood sugar, and is an excellent low glycemic, ketogenic fuel to use for energy.

The ketones that coconut oil stimulates your body to make are actually the preferred and more efficient type of fuel for your body to use, especially healthy for blood sugar, and also prevention of Alzheimer’s, and heart disease. The medium chain triglycerides (MCT’s) in coconut oil are very easy for your body to metabolize, and utilize immediately as fuel, making it an effective ‘fat-burning’ fuel, that doesn’t raise blood sugar or insulin or stimulate fat storage.  MCT’s from coconut oil do not have to be broken down or semi-digested in order to be utilized by the body, unlike most other fats (Long Chain Fatty Acids) that do.

Coconut oil also contains lauric acid that helps to increase your healthy HDL cholesterol, and boost the immune system. Palmitic acid is another component of saturated fat and increases HDL as well. Higher HDL is linked to protection from heart disease. A higher HDL to cholesterol ratio is also one of the best protective factors against heart disease. Coconut oil is also scientifically proven to not only increase cardioprotective HDL, but it decreases waist circumference (a risk factor in heart disease) and decreases body mass in patients with coronary artery disease.

Coconut oil is also very beneficial to the hair and skin for a healthy scalp and to ease skin irritations, as well as being an excellent moisturizer. Coconut oil reduces cavities when used as a tooth brushing aid, and the lauric acid it contains has powerful antimicrobial effects, even on toenail fungus.

So, in the long run, coconut oil is GOOD for you, and will not kill you or cause heart disease. Yes, it does raise LDL cholesterol and can raise overall cholesterol (many studies show higher total cholesterol leads to longer lives in elderly, and lower cholesterol leads to increased death), but don’t believe the AHA when they say that you will have a heart attack from coconut oil. Heart disease is caused primarily by inflammation in the blood vessels, brought on by inflammatory, highly processed (that’s most all of them) vegetable oils, sugars, and starchy refined processed carbohydrates.

In summary, eat healthy saturated fats from coconut oil, grass fed butter and grass fed meats. Slather on the extra virgin olive oil, eat nuts and avocados. Enjoy your free-range, pasture-raised eggs cooked in butter, and savor that raw, unpasteurized cheese. Hey, the French enjoy lots of butter, cheese, and eggs and have much lower heart disease rates than Americans!  Avoid the sugar, avoid the refined grains, and avoid the processed foods and vegetable oils. Your body will thank you!

Dr Wade

PS: Be sure to follow me on Instagram below…

Mainstream Nutrition Myths That are Killing You

There is a lot of misinformation circling around in mainstream nutrition.

I have listed the worst examples in this article, but there are MANY MORE!

Before I go further, if you would be interested in being a part of an Exclusive Keto, Carnivore, and Fasting Club where you would have access to novice level to advanced keto and fasting training, including LIVE, Q&A and training and support; Enter your name, email, an hit “Yes I’m Interested.” We are in development right now! We will only be taking a select number for FREE. I love helping people succeed, and you will have access to me and other top keto, carnivore, and fasting pros.

[et_bloom_inline optin_id=optin_1]

This feature may not be working: If not, CLICK HERE to sign up! It will open in a new tab

The top 11 biggest lies, myths and misconceptions of mainstream nutrition.

Myth 1. Eggs Are Unhealthy

There’s one thing that nutrition professionals have had remarkable success with… and that is demonizing incredibly healthy foods.

The worst example of that is eggs, which happen to contain a large amount of cholesterol and were therefore considered to increase the risk of heart disease.

But recently it has been proven that the cholesterol in the diet doesn’t really raise the cholesterol in blood. In fact, eggs primarily raise the “good” cholesterol and are NOT associated with increased risk of heart disease (1, 2).

Barring allergies to eggs, what we’re left with is one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. They’re high in all sorts of nutrients along with unique antioxidants that protect our eyes (3).

To top it all of, despite being a “high fat” food, eating eggs for breakfast is proven to cause significant weight loss compared to bagels for breakfast (4, 5).

Bottom Line: Eggs do not cause heart disease and are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. Eggs for breakfast can help you lose weight.

Myth 2. Saturated Fat is Bad For You

A few decades ago it was decided that the epidemic of heart disease was caused by eating too much fat, in particular saturated fat.

This was based on highly flawed studies and political decisions that have now been proven to be completely wrong.

A massive review article published in 2010 looked at 21 prospective epidemiological studies with a total of 347,747 subjects. Their results: absolutely no association between saturated fat and heart disease (6).

The idea that saturated fat raised the risk of heart disease was an unproven theory that somehow became conventional wisdom (7).

Eating saturated fat raises the amount of HDL (the “good”) cholesterol in the blood and changes the LDL from small, dense LDL (very bad) to Large LDL, which is benign (8, 9).

Meat, coconut oil, cheese, butter… there is absolutely no reason to fear these foods. In fact, your diet should consist of mostly healthy fats and proteins as those are essential to optimal health. There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.

Bottom Line: Newer studies have proven that saturated fat does not cause heart disease. Natural foods that are high in saturated fat are good for you.

Myth 3. Everybody Should be Eating Grains

The idea that humans should be basing their diets on grains has never made sense to me.

The agricultural revolution happened fairly recently in human evolutionary history and our genes haven’t changed that much.

Grains are fairly low in nutrients compared to other real foods like vegetables. They are also rich in a substance called phytic acid which binds essential minerals in the intestine and prevents them from being absorbed (10).

The most common grain in the western diet, by far, is wheat… and wheat can cause a host of health problems, both minor and serious.

Modern wheat contains a large amount of a protein called gluten, but there is evidence that a significant portion of the population may be sensitive to it (11, 12, 13).

Eating gluten can damage the intestinal lining, cause pain, bloating, stool inconsistency and tiredness (14, 15). Gluten consumption has also been associated with schizophrenia and cerebellar ataxia, both serious disorders of the brain (16, 17).

Bottom Line: Grains are relatively low in nutrients compared to other real foods like vegetables. The gluten grains in particular may lead to a variety of health problems.

Myth 4. Eating a Lot of Protein is Bad For Your Bones and Kidneys

A high protein diet has been claimed to cause both osteoporosis and kidney disease.

It is true that eating protein increases calcium excretion from the bones in the short term, but the long term studies actually show the opposite effect.

In the long term, protein has a strong association with improved bone health and a lower risk of fracture (18, 19).Additionally, studies don’t show any association of high protein with kidney disease in otherwise healthy people (20, 21).

In fact, two of the main risk factors for kidney failure are diabetes and high blood pressure. Eating a high protein diet improves both (22, 23).

If anything, a high protein diet should be protective against osteoporosis and kidney failure!

Bottom Line: Eating a high protein diet is associated with improved bone health and a lower risk of fracture. High protein also lowers blood pressure and improves diabetes symptoms, which should lower the risk of kidney failure.

Myth 5. Low-Fat Foods Are Good For You

Do you know what regular food tastes like when all the fat has been taken out of it? Well, it tastes like cardboard. No one would want to eat it.

The food manufacturers know this and therefore they add other things to compensate for the lack of fat.

Usually these are sweeteners… sugar, high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners like aspartame.

We’ll get to the sugar in a moment, but I’d like to point out that even though artificial sweeteners don’t have calories, the evidence does NOT suggest that they are better for you than sugar.

In fact, many observational studies show a consistent, highly significant association with various diseases like obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, premature delivery and depression (24, 25, 26).

In these low-fat products, healthy natural fats are being replaced with substances that are extremely harmful.

Bottom Line: Low-fat foods are usually highly processed products loaded with sugar, corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. They are extremely unhealthy.

Myth 6. You Should Eat Many Small Meals Throughout The Day

The idea that you should eat many small meals throughout the day in order to “keep metabolism high” is a persistent myth that doesn’t make any sense.

It is true that eating raises your metabolism slightly while you’re digesting the meal, but it’s the total amount of food that determines the energy used, NOT the number of meals.

This has actually been put to the test and refuted multiple times. Controlled studies where one group eats many small meals and the other the same amount of food in fewer meals show that there is literally no difference between the two (27, 28).In fact, one study in obese men revealed that eating 6 meals per day led to less feelings of fullness compared to 3 meals (29).

Not only is eating so often practically useless for most of the people out there, it may even be harmful.

It is not natural for the human body to be constantly in the fed state. In nature, we used to fast from time to time and we didn’t eat nearly as often as we do today.

When we don’t eat for a while, a cellular process called autophagy cleans waste products out of our cells (30). Fasting or not eating from time to time is good for you.

Several observational studies show a drastically increased risk of colon cancer (4th most common cause of cancer death), numbers going as high as a 90% increase for those who eat 4 meals per day compared to 2 (31, 32, 33).

Bottom Line: There is no evidence that eating many small meals throughout the day is better than fewer, bigger meals. Not eating from time to time is good for you. Increased meal frequency is associated with colon cancer.

Myth 7. Carbs Should Be Your Biggest Source of Calories

The mainstream view is that everyone should eat a low-fat diet, with carbs being around 50-60% of total calories.

This sort of diet contains a lot of grains and sugars, with very small amounts of fatty foods like meat and eggs.

This type of diet may work well for some people, especially those who are naturally lean.

But for those who are obese, have the metabolic syndrome or diabetes, this amount of carbohydrates is downright dangerous.

This has actually been studied extensively. A low-fat, high-carb diet has been compared to a low-carb, high-fat diet in multiple randomized controlled trials.

The results are consistently in favor of low-carb, high-fat diets (34, 35, 36).

Bottom Line: The low-fat, high-carb diet is a miserable failure and has been proven repeatedly to be vastly inferior to lower-carb, higher-fat diets.

Myth 8. Vegetable Oils Are Good For You

Polyunsaturated fats are considered healthy because some studies show that they lower your risk of heart disease.

But there are many types of polyunsaturated fats and they are not all the same.

Most importantly, we have both Omega-3 fatty acids and Omega-6 fatty acids.

Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory and lower your risk of many diseases related to inflammation (37). Humans actually need to get Omega-6s and Omega-3s in a certain ratio. If the ratio is too high in favor of Omega-6, it can cause problems (38).

By far the biggest sources of Omega-6 in the modern diet are processed seed and vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower oils.

Throughout evolution, humans never had access to such an abundance of Omega-6 fats. It is unnatural for the human body.

Research that specifically looks at Omega-6 fatty acids instead of polyunsaturated fats in general shows that they actually increase the risk of heart disease (39, 40).

Eat your Omega-3s and consider supplementing with cod fish liver oil, but avoid the industrial seed and vegetable oils.

When you cook, I recommend real butter, coconut oil, beef tallow, or avocado oil. These are super healthy saturated fats that hold their health benefits when heated. Olive oil is a monounstaturated fat that’s ok for salads and such but it does not alway hold it’s structure when heated, so cooking with it is not recommended.

Bottom Line: Humans need to get Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats in a certain ratio. Eating excess Omega-6 from seed oils raises your risk of disease. Cook with healthy saturated fats.

Vegetable oils are bad for you

Myth 9. Low Carb Diets Are Dangerous

Unfortunately, the low carb approach is under assault by the media. Real surprise. I personally believe low-carb diets to be a potential cure for many of the most common health problems in western nations. The results I achieve with people by simply removing grains is astounding.

The low-fat diet peddled all around the world is fairly useless against many of these diseases. It simply does not work.

However, low-carb diets (demonized by nutritionists and the media) have repeatedly been shown to lead to much better outcomes.

Every randomized controlled trial on low-carb diets shows that they:

  1. Reduce body fat more than calorie-restricted low-fat diets, even though the low-carb dieters are allowed to eat as much as they want (41).
  2. Lower blood pressure significantly (42, 43).
  3. Lower blood sugar and improve symptoms of diabetes much more than low-fat diets (44, 45, 46, 47).
  4. Increase HDL (the good) cholesterol much more (48, 49).
  5. Lower triglycerides much more than low-fat diets (50, 51, 52).
  6. Change the pattern of LDL (bad) cholesterol from small, dense (very bad) to Large LDL, which is benign (53, 54).
  7. Low carb diets are also easier to stick to, probably because they don’t require you to restrict calories and be hungry all the time. More people in the low-carb groups make it to the end of the studies (55, 56).

Many of the health professionals that are supposed to have our best interest in mind have the audacity to claim that these diets are dangerous, then continue to peddle their failed low-fat dogma that is hurting more people than it helps.

Bottom Line: Low-carb diets are the healthiest, easiest and most effective way to lose weight and reverse metabolic disease. It is a scientific fact.

Myth 10. Sugar is Unhealthy Because it Contains “Empty” Calories

It is commonly believed that sugar is bad for you because it contains empty calories.

It’s true, sugar has a lot of calories with no essential nutrients. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sugar, primarily because of its high fructose content, affects metabolism in a way that sets us up for rapid fat gain and metabolic disease.

Fructose gets metabolized by the liver and turned into fat which is secreted into the blood as VLDL particles. This leads to elevated triglycerides and cholesterol (57, 58).

It also causes resistance to the hormones insulin and leptin, which is a stepping stone towards obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes (59, 60).

This is just to name a few. Sugar causes a relentless biochemical drive for humans to eat more and get fat. It is probably the single worst ingredient in the standard western diet.

Bottom Line: The harmful effects of sugar go way beyond empty calories. Sugar wreaks havoc on our metabolism and sets us up for weight gain and many serious diseases.

Myth 11. High Fat Foods Will Make You Fat

It seems kind of intuitive that eating fat would make you get fat.

The stuff that is gathering under our skin and making us look soft and puffy is fat. So… eating fat should give our bodies even more of it.

But it isn’t that simple. Despite fat having more calories per gram than carbohydrate or protein, high-fat diets do not make people fat.

As with anything, this depends on the context. A diet that is high in fat AND high in carbs will make you fat, but it’s NOT because of the fat.

In fact, diets that are high in fat (and low in carbs) cause much greater fat loss than diets that are low in fat (61, 62, 63).