A “controversial” way of eating and how it cured my own medical issues
Remember when your mom used to always say “you’ve got to finish your vegetables!”
What happens if I told you maybe you don’t have to finish your vegetables?
I was that kid who always had to finish his vegetables before he could leave the table.
Today’s widely accepted “healthy” eating standards say that you have to eat lean meats, or plant-based protein sources, vegetables, a little bit of grains, and dairy in order to be considered healthy. Experts often suggest that we limit our fats and meat intake.
What happens if I told you there was another way, maybe even a healthier way?
Back when I was a teenager in high school, I was a pretty athletic and active kid. At the time, I was doing Tae Kwon Do, Soccer, and working out most days. I was all about fitness and it was not until high school where I got really into nutrition. Throughout high school I tried a bunch of diets like vegetarian, Mediterranean diet, plant based, low fat diet, and low sodium diet. There were so many options with everyone saying this is the way to eat but none of them felt good. I had intense seasonal allergies and struggled with acne for years. I also struggled with mental health issues like depression and anxiety for most of my adolescence.
Toward the end of high school, I would obsess over every calorie that I ate. I would be tracking it daily and I would not be eating enough, I felt horrible, and my health issues persisted. I would be in a calorie deficit, but I would be hungry then binge eat at night.
Around 2021, when I started college, I started to just eat freely because I realized how unhealthy it was for me to be counting my calories and continuing on an unhealthy cycle. There were so many different diets to eat it was all confusing and I did not know what was right for me.
You have to finish your meat.
One day, I was introduced to Paul Saladino by my mentor. Paul Saladino, Carnivore MD, was the first advocate of the animal-based diet that I was introduced to. The animal-based diet consists mainly of red meat, eggs, organs, pork, chicken, fruit, honey, raw dairy if you can handle it. Now seeing this was a shock because this was something against the whole narrative. I looked into the diet, did research for myself and I saw other people have done this and they felt amazing. For example, when people went on an animal-based diet it helped with their eczema, acne, hair, nails, weight, energy, allergies, mental health and more. For me, within months of following this way of eating, I spent my first spring season with absolutely no seasonal allergies and my acne was nearly clear. I was able to go off all of my medication and my head felt clearer than before.
Why no vegetables?
All our lives we have been told that we need vegetables to be healthy and strong. That’s furthest from the truth, unless you are a gorilla and you are going to eat 40 pounds of plants.
Most living things, if not all, have a defense mechanism. For animals, that would be running away, attacking, and etc. However, plants also have a defense mechanism because they don’t want their leaves to be eaten so they can survive. These chemicals affect other living things that would eat their leaves usually, but can also affect us as well. These chemicals can cause gut issues and long-term, low-grade exposure to toxins in our system Chemicals from plants are not the only problem. The other issue is the chemicals that humans put on plants like pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides. All these different chemicals put on the plant stay on the plant for long periods of time and we eat some of the chemicals. These chemicals can affect our gut, nervous system, and hormone or endocrine system. Some of these chemicals are even proven to be carcinogens in U.S. court cases.
Beef is your friend.
When eating animal-based one of the main sources of meat most people eat is beef. Most people try to aim for grass-fed beef because that is what cows are supposed to eat, but regular beef like grain-fed can be fine too. The reason beef is the main protein on the diet is because it has so many nutrients that you can’t get naturally from plants like iron, zinc, selenium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and phosphorus. All these nutrients are beneficial for us humans, but many of us steer away from red meat or cholesterol because we have been told it is bad for us. The ideal sources of meat to eat are ruminant meats like cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, deer, and elk. The reason is because these animals have not one compartment to their stomach, but four. This process helps the animal absorb all the nutrients of what they are eating, which then gets passed down to us.
What about cholesterol?
A lot of people might think this diet is crazy and wonder how people are still alive eating this way. The narrative we have been told that fat and cholesterol is bad for is not the whole truth. Fat and cholesterol is not only beneficial but necessary for brain health. A lot of people get scared of cholesterol in eggs but in fact eggs are one of the healthiest foods on the planet - especially the yolk. The yolk has all the fat, nutrients, and cholesterol. Now there is bad fat like seed oils that should be avoided. These are the ones that make you sick and unfortunately in so many foods. Seed oils are highly inflammatory and should be avoided at all costs. Animal fats are the best fats for humans to eat because they provide our body with healthy nutrients and it is how our ancestors supposedly ate.
Carnivore
The carnivore diet usually focuses on eating meat, eggs, salt, and raw dairy. Many people may eat animal-based and include other foods they deem less toxic like fruits. Some people have turned to meat because of their chronic inflammatory response syndrome, or CIRS. One example of this is Mikhaila Peterson who developed The Lion Diet. After living most of her life with severe auto-immune issues including rheumatoid arthritis, Ms. Peterson even had joint replacement surgeries as a young person. Today, she eats only beef, salt, and water and has had great success with it.
When people start the carnivore diet you may feel tired at first because of the sugar withdrawal symptoms, but within a couple weeks you will see a big spike in your energy levels. What all of these diets have in common is that they focus on a lifestyle where they consume most of their food from meat sources. I currently am eating animal-based and have not tried full carnivore yet, but I am looking to transition in the future.
A list of people that eat animal based or carnivore are:
Doctor Shawn Baker (Carnivore)
Joe Rogan (Mainly Carnivore)
Carnivore Aurelius (Animal based)
Mikhaila Peterson (Lion Diet)
Jordan Peterson (Carnivore)
Taylor Rapp (Animal based)
Judy Cho (Carnivore)
Ken D Berry, MD (Carnivore)
Paul Saladino, MD (Animal based)
Georges St-Pierre (Animal based)
Feel free to look into some of these people for more info if you are interested.
Final thoughts
I am not a doctor or a professional on these diets. Nor does any of what I write constitute medical or professional advice. I am just a person who had a lot of health issues like acne, bad seasonal allergies, and mental health struggles.. I did my own research to learn more and it eventually led me to animal-based eating. I have been doing mainly animal-based for almost two full years now and feel better than I ever have before. This diet played a huge role in turning a lot around in my life. I am not saying that this is the only way and it might not be the way for everyone. But if you are feeling chronically sick, unhappy, tired, or struggle in general with health, I would recommend at least trying one of these ways of eating.
Written by Erick Perez-Nagle
