I'm back to SN after a month-long, self-imposed break to focus on my health. During this time, I rested a lot, read three books, made new resolutions (more on this later, maybe), and took a ten-day family vacation. We enjoyed plenty of sunshine, the delicious Mediterranean food, swimming in the sea, hiking in the countryside, and the European culture.
Anyway, I had my tests results today, and the good news is that I don’t have cancer, lol, but my cholesterol and sugar levels are too high, which certainly explains the malaise I experienced four weeks ago. Needless to say that my doctor was a bit concerned about my meat and egg consumption habits. Carnivores, we need to talk, lol!!
So. I have now been prescribed statins, which I'll have to take for two months. I'm ambivalent because everything I've read or heard about them is negative, but I did not dare voicing my uneducated concerns to my doctor. She'd probably rolled her eyes and said something like, "you've read that on the Internet as well, just like with your 'carnivore diet', haven't you?" lol.
On a related note, I'm on my 4th day on a dry fast (no water, no food intake). It's the third time that I'm doing something like this, and it gets easier every time. I feel like I can stretch it to seven days, or even longer, but I probably won't, my wife will surely not allow it.
I'll wrap up here with a clip from our recent holiday, with me chaperoning my little one as he ventured further from the shore into deeper water.
https://v.nostr.build/xqmY8TSsRwspOJ3m.mp4
PS: I have changed my nym, formerly @erict875, now I'm using the 5 last characters of my nostr npub.
Welcome back!
Are you hopping on the beans-and-greens bandwagon? There's plenty of room and it's a much cheaper ride.
My mom's high cholesterol immediately resolved after she cut way back on animal products, while my dad's health has gotten noticeably worse since going carnivore.
Thank you!
I used to follow a plant based diet a long time ago, and it was great during the summer, but not so great during winter times. The Carnivore diet seemed to be the solution, it helped me lose all the extra weight i had accumulated during the lockdowns, and i also stopped binge eating, but now I have to rethink everything.
During our recent holidays, I had plenty of salad, huge portions, and felt great all the time, almost instantly! But I still love red meat, lol.
It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Let us know what you decide to do and why. I think there's a lot of interest in this stuff.
Yeah, balance is key. There is plenty of scientific evidence for that. The Mediterranean diet has proven it's worth too.
If you wanna go extreme, fully carnivore for instance, you're basically relying on anecdotical evidence. You're a guinea pig as science hasn't fully grasped the effects of such extreme diets in the long term. Not saying there aren't benefits, just that things aren't clear yet. And you just seemed to have experienced some of the disadvantages of such a diet.
I prefer sticking with what is known to work.
Cutting out most processed food and sugars is probably the best thing you can do.
This is usually my advice to people. I'd probably add seed oils to that list now, although you have to know which ones are actually a problem.
I found it easier to cut out processed food on a carnivore diet.
After a huge steak, you have enough fuel for many hours, and there is no room left for anything else. It's like doing an intermittent fast, and I suspect this is why it works, at least initially.
This is harder to achieve with a plant based diet during the winter times, and probably explains why many vegan influencers on Youtube tend to move to warmer climates to maintain their lifestyles
It's interesting that you feel that way about a vegan diet. My favorite vegan meals are more winter than summer foods. We eat a lot of hot soups and curries, which are quite filling.
Interesting. If I'm not mistaken, this looks similar to what the late Dr. Mc Dougall used to recommend. I have found one of his books in my bookshelf a few days ago, and will reread it for more inspiration.
Tbh, I was actually more fruitarian/raw-foodist. I usually just say vegan, because fruitarianism and rawfoodism are quite niche, and most people i know have never heard of it.
You are completely right. I went fully in, based on anecdotical evidence... It "worked" initially, but seems to cause some issues now, after 3+ years. Or maybe im doing something wrong, I need to rethink everything, and read more about the other side...
There's a whole chapter in the book The Big Fat Surprise about the Mediterranean diet. Very interesting, how the whole idea came about (to support olive oil producers) and how research has been twisted to support it. It appears that much of the research that shows benefits for the Mediterranean diet is because it's very low sugar.
I definitely agree that no processed foods or sugars is far better than the SAD (Standard American Diet).
I'm sorry that your dad's health has gotten worse on carnivore. If you care to give any specifics, I'd be interested, and perhaps could offer some advice. I've been carnivore for more than 10 months, and would never go back, it's been a huge positive in many different areas of my health.
I've had a few oddball things happen as I've been on carnivore, which appear to be coming from oxalate dumping, which is a whole different topic. A close family member had some weird symptoms after switching overnight to 100% carnivore, turned out that was oxalate dumping as well, and some adjustments to add a little bit of oxalates resolved the issues.
He doesn't really share the details of either his diet or his health with me. I would be surprised if he was doing it correctly and he also has plenty of preexisting health issues, so I'm not even attributing the changes to the diet.
I was familiar with "keto flu" from my in-laws experience with going keto, so I was expecting the initial illness he had. Now he's several months in and has clearly gained weight, as well as showing some new odd cognitive symptoms (almost pre-dementia type symptoms).
I do not believe that you were eating a carnivore diet. It would be impossible to have high sugar levels on that diet.
High cholesterol is actually linked to longer and healthier life.
Statins will give you diabetes and ultimately kill you (I'm witnessing this process in my uncle since a few years).
Yeah, about that...
This article is from the BHF - British Heart Foundation.
I'll bet they're no better than the American Heart Association. Here's an article about how in the 1960's when evidence was starting to point to sugar as a big culprit in the rise of heart disease, sugar producers paid the American Heart Association to have "evidence". This evidence blamed saturated fat instead of sugar.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat
An except:
I've mentioned this book before and I'll keep on harping about it, because it's that good. Everyone interested in nutrition and health should read it.
This book is blowing my mind - The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholtz
She completely exposes, with all kinds of meticulously documented evidence, the amount of corruption and misdirection in industry and pharma sponsored research. And almost all of it is industry and pharma sponsored research.
Here's some quotes from the book:
Even mainstream science has gone back a lot on the
anti-fat pro-sugartrend. I agree there has been (and there always will be) big pharma and other interests at play, so gotta be very careful with science paid for by interest groups.The thing with the scientific method is that it takes time to confirm if an anecdote is indication of a trend and leading to an actual measurable impact. So in a sense, it's good there are people who try this kind of extreme diets as they might give some indication as to which study should be done on large samples with proper control groups.
I prefer following the current scientific consensus (fat is not as bad as what they used to say, processed food seem to be the real culprit, no need to give your kid sugar tablets for energy as I was told in my childhood, etc) and adjust as new knowledge comes about.
One should also note that in terms of food it is always very hard to fully isolate one degree of freedom and say with full certainty that it is this lifechange that is causing all the benefits.
Yes, and if you're defunded if you've ever expressed any doubt about the current scientific consensus, then the science doesn't correct itself. Which is why I've gotten so much more skeptical - covid in particular really opened my eyes.
I think the way nutrition "research" is done nowadays is similar to the way climate science is done. If you ever express ANY skepticism about the current narrative about climate, you are completely defunded.
Saifedean Ammous (author of The Bitcoin Standard) has a couple really good podcasts on this whole topic, this is one of my favorite: https://saifedean.com/podcast/140-climate-alarmism-with-professor-richard-lindzen
I've been predominently carnivore for 3+ years, now.
High sugar could be because I had breakfast that day? It doesn't make sense to me either.
I'm still on the fence with statins, especially because I am pretty sure that i can reverse the high cholesterol with a plant based diet... I need to do more research on that.
I had to go to the emergencies because I noted that my blood was not flowing properly, it was like my arteries were obstructed. I freaked out, because I was feeling very uncomfortable... I am sure if I had had an unhealthy lifestyle (I don't drink, I don't smoke, I rarely eat junk or processed food), it would have turned out worse.
I also did a heart tests, my ecg results weren't great, could it be the covid jab? I've heard of many cases of myocarditis after the jab... I need to do an ultra sound scan next week to confirm.
The covid jab has been causing lots of problems, heart in particular.
If you want to learn more read some articles from Steve Kirsch on Substack (https://kirschsubstack.com/).
I'm very familiar with Steve Kirsh and the side effects of the covid jab. I don't rule it out but may be hard to prove in my case. I'm doing additional heart tests soon. Let's see... 🤞
Wishing you all the best with your health journey.
How does one not drink water for four days?! That doesn’t seem healthy but I could be missing something.
2019 article on the topic of dry fasting. Haven't checked for more recent ones.
They discuss some purported benefits, but other than some studies on people doing the Ramadan (which implies it's not a full dry fast) only show some inconclusive support for this. The science seems to be still very much on the fence for this.
I've documented my first experience with dry fasting here #446415, and shared a study on the subject here. #447530
This time, I don't experience any of the bad symptoms, but I've noticeably lost weight. My tongue has turned white... I'm on my 5th day now, I am still OK, but might break today, or introduce some bone broth, and later some green juices, to stay in autophagy.
One reason for the fast is detox, but also, mostly to help with another issue with my colon (not related to the carnivore lifestyle). It gives it an opportunity to rest, and the time to repair. I can feel some noticeable improvements there. I'm also hoping it will help with the cholesterol issue...
Simply put, when you stop ingesting food, your body has more time for resting. Then autophagy kicks in, and the body cells regenerate and repair themselves.
Not drinking water accelerates this process.
Water doesn’t have any calories. What is the point of avoiding water
Welcome back! Glad to hear no cancer cholesterol and sugar are much easier to manage!
Thank you. You should never Google your symptoms, lol
Yeah.... WebMD has told me countless times I should be or already am dead...
Welcome back. Eat healthy and stay fit
You're right about the fitness part. One of my resolutions is to go back to my swimming training with my mates. I haven't trained for a year now. 😔
You may want to reconsider the statins. Yes, they will probably reduce your LDL cholesterol, but they have not been proven to have positive effects on health for people who have NOT had a previous heart attack. And there's a LOT of side effects that are not mentioned nearly enough, like muscle pain and wasting - family members of mine have experienced those.
Here's some statin article links. The first is more mainstream, just a little skeptical, then the rest are all very skeptical of statins.
https://doctorbuzz.substack.com/p/should-we-stop-pushing-statins
https://substack.com/home/post/p-146062962
https://armageddonprose.substack.com/p/statins-are-pharma-trash-research
https://fastwell.substack.com/p/statins-detrimental-to-health-you
https://www.thincs.org/
Also I very highly recommend the book The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholtz. It's great for debunking a lot of the standard nutritional recommendations. There's a chapter in it about the cholesterol hypothesis of heart disease, how it's flawed, and some of the alternative explanations that are much more likely.
I really can't recommend The Big Fat Surprise enough. It's a MUST read if you have any interest in nutrition and health. I wrote a whole post on it This book is blowing my mind - The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholtz.
Any carnivore questions you have, please let me know! I'm for sure not an expert, but I've done this for more than 10 months with great success. Not without a few hiccups, but there's no way I would give it up now. It's been amazing for my health.
In hindsight, I think one of the reasons why I was prescribed statins is because the heart rate monitor was suggesting that I have high blood pressure, but this was only temporary, and probably because I was on my 3rd or 4th day in a dry fast. My values have since come down again after breaking the fast.
Also, I spent a lot of time researching cholesterol, and have decided not to take the statins until I'm proven that I have a poor metabolic health, which I doubt is the case, considering that I don't smoke or drink, and rarely eat processed food etc.
I'll discuss this with my doctor when I see her again in 2 months
Thank you, I've bookmarked the links, will read later today.
agree, you seem too young to take statins
I would say reduce your intake, do egg whites and not egg yolks. For Meat I would stick with white meat and have red meat as a treat once in a while.
Why are you suggesting to reduce egg yolk, and avoid red meat?
Welcome back. Glad to hear you don’t have cancer. Must be a huge relief.
Oh Yes! I've known at least three who've had cancer in recent years, one of them is same age as me and is currently doing chemotherapy.
When you Google your symptoms you read all sorts of crazy things, and it's easier to freak out...
welcome back!
Welcome back. Also share your whole journey
Will do, thanks
Welcome back! It’s a great news that you have no cancer. I was in the same situation two years ago.
xd2
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gorgeous video
Welcome welcome have a great day on sn