I have been intrigued how much this is being pushed on social media by a group of doctors and certain nutritionists as a cure all for just about everything including helping the thyroid recovery.
i am trying not to rush to judgement as my Mediterranean style eating is simply so different, and I can accept this as a form of short term exclusion diet in the way that AIP might work for example.
But some are even advocating this for the longer term, so am keen to know from anyone here who is on this journey how this is working and what benefits and challenges are you finding.
Wont post all the social media links but anyone can find them by simply typing carnivore diet/thyroid into any of the sites like you tube etc...thank you!
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Danielj1
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My thoughts (for what they're worth) is that, like anything, it depends on the person.
I think we instinctively know what we need. I have 2 children, one who only eats 'kid' food. Mostly beige! And another who eats mostly fruit and doesn't like most beige food. Both raised in the same environment, with the same offerings. One only eats meals and the other grazes all day preferring not to eat meals.
Both are tallest in their classes, healthy weights, full of energy, and thriving.
I graze all day and prefer to eat meat and dairy with an avoidance of carbs. I've been the same my whole life. And I now know that I have blood glucose spikes when I eat carbs.
That's a very long winded way of saying if a carnivore diet works then I think it just suits those people.
I have been intrigued how much this is being pushed on social media by a group of doctors and certain nutritionists as a cure all for just about everything including helping the thyroid recovery.
Sorry, I'm not intrigued....just skeptical!
There is a great deal of money being made by people who produce books, and more, promoting numerous special diets, sometimes, I'd dare suggest, based on a fairly loose premis!
I'd suggest that a robust knowledge of basic nutrition is more important....but unlike glossy media presentations that's not a " sexy" subject!
I think achools have a part to play here. I remember being taught quite detailed nutrition lessons in Domestic Science classes....yes, I'm a dinosaur!!! But that served me well.
I grew up eating a very healthy well balanced diet...nothing in excess but including a wide variety of fresh foods and therefore essential nutrients.
Today, additive laden processed foods are almost the norm and there, I think, lie the hidden " dangers".
If being carnivore makes one feel better, then that is most likely providing the deficient nutrients the individual needs...but, to be consumed in moderation!
Therefore, I'm inclined to agree with Gloaming that we instinctively know what we need....think of the often strange cravings ( or dislikes) of pregnant women!!
I discovered from an early age that red meat made me feel unwell. My body was rejecting it and I now know it was related to it's iron content. Spinach and rocket for example does the same thing, as do iron supplements.
I was once told by an old medic friend, " Listen to your body,, it will tell you if something is wrong"
As for, "helping the thyroid recovery",here we advise optimising vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin to support thyroid function ( back to understanding basic nutrition)...but if T4 and T3 are deficient then replacement hormones are going to be essential to recovery.
Don't beat yourself up about your diet....just use your common sense and take media hype with the proverbial pinch of salt!!
I've seen this advocated for many years, I even joined a facebook group. Seeing some of those who say they live this lifestyle, Dr. Shawn Baker springs to mind, they look very well on it. I'm a meat eater and I've had a go once or twice but it seems the "true" followers literally only eat meat, I wonder how they stick to it, it's surely very boring, "what's for dinner"? Meat, "What's for breakfast"? Meat, although maybe I'll maybe have fish. I like vegetables and a lifetime of having veg with most meals is very difficult to change, for me anyway. I watched an interesting video made by Dr. Paul Mason who ran a small experiment for people having gut problems, his aim was to see if fibre is needed in a human diet. The result was interesting, it's on youtube if you want to watch it, it's about 20 mins long I think, here's a link - youtu.be/xqUO4P9ADI0?featur... He has lots of very interesting videos, you might get stuck there for a while 😉
Loved the explanation of what happens with gluten. That needs a closer look. Also must check out FODMAPS something else I seem to have been steadily avoiding. Thanks Espeegee for that. Very interesting.
You're welcome, I found it interesting especially as my daughter has ongoing gut problems and I can correlate her experiences to his explanations he made a very interesting point about iron in another video he did with Dr Shawn Baker, you can have high iron levels but still be anaemic if your body can't access them and that can make it difficult to lose weight My ferritin levels are always very high but my B12 has been steadily dropping and I'm rather overweight despite my best attempts at trying to lose some I'm wondering if there is a connection there? Apparently bacteria can feed off your iron so if you get an infection you body locks off your iron to prevent that happening. The body is so fascinating
This is one of the few eating plans I haven’t done. I feel it’s led by so much hype, lean looking expert (mainly) blokes saying how much energy they have etc. it’s been about 10-20 years from memory, a bit like raw food eating was a few years ago.
Echoing a response you have above, tuning in to what ‘feels’ right is a good approach.
High quality nutrient dense foods suit me. Meat and veg, fish and veg. I’m roughly on paleo with very low carb which seems to suit me best. I never have wanted processed food but don’t beat myself up if I have the odd sausage 🤣
Try it for a week and see how you feel maybe? Food diaries are super valuable for tracking responses.
I also think to do it with good quality meat it’s going to be an astronomical cost to maintain.
Zoe program suggested pork/lamb/beef products were less beneficial for good gut bacteria than fish and poultry meats.
If you want good quality meat, which makes sense to me, just buy a smaller piece than you might have done, I'm sure modern people eat way more than they need just because they can.
I'm a lifelong vegetarian, I instinctively always avoided meat and my mum said it made me sick as a baby so have never eaten it, even though my family did eat meat. So maybe I've made the right choice for myself.
My thoughts are meat is expensive, you would have to be quite flush to eat it in those quantities, plus fitting it around family mealtimes could be challenging. Plus we are constantly encouraged to eat less meat, especially red meat,due to climate and environmental concerns. People are choosing to eat less meat overall but to choose better quality.
Thanks all - it does seem that this remains very much an individual choice although there are a ton of studies that show benefits for non meat eaters over decades (or average amounts of meat e.g. mediterranean diet) I understand there is no study of pure carnivore eg meat only without a single other vegetable/fruit done over 2 years so the experts can for now argue the merits of either I guess. I think I will stick in the middle with plenty of veg/fruits and daily fish/chicken but with early meal a vegan protein shake.
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