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Zero carb/Carnivore

Goonergal said:
Thanks. Going to use January to see if I can go full on carnivore - ditching the veg is no problem, but those pesky nuts/nut butters and high cocoa chocolate bars keep getting in the way!
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My downfall is nuts, berries and yogurt. Veg I can take or leave.
 
Goonergal said:
Thanks. Going to use January to see if I can go full on carnivore - ditching the veg is no problem, but those pesky nuts/nut butters and high cocoa chocolate bars keep getting in the way!
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Just finished up my last Green and Blacks 85% choc... going to try beef only OMAD for January..
 
I will look forward to checking on your way of eating in here from time to time. The carnivore WOE is extremely interesting, and yummy-interesting.

I have tried it a couple of times for limited periods, and was hugely surprised that I found it so challenging. I thought it would be the easiest limited food way of eating of all, but it wasn't for me. I missed greens, nuts, and berries, oh yes - and that pesky 'Well Naturally' stevia sweetened chocolate to the point I felt deprived, which is a horrible feeling. But I was being a wuss. I will absolutely try it again when the season turns to the cold wet one in a few months time. I have a bit of a habit at the moment of taking peanuts along with copious water to the beach these hot beach-going days. Nutty-habits are hard to break!

It is indeed marvellous that cow meat meets all our nutritional needs the way it does. (and our bodies do that neat not needing vitamin C from fruit and veg thing. Gee I wish I had known about that in the old 'my body becoming diabetic' days!)

If/when I try a carnivore period again I will do the wee bit of chocolate for avo tea thing, and have cheered Brunneria for writing so beautifully about doing that on zero carb.

Yay for moo cows! Yay for their forbears the auruchs/urus/ure. There is a Swedish movie called 'The ox'/Oxen, which is very inspiring on the subject of us eating them to survive etc etc. (Only watch if up to contemplation on the poor old peasant class, starvation, and the effect on interpersonal relationships.) Cows came a long way in tall ships to get to my particular land masses in the middle of the ocean, but here they are. Very good eating.
 
“If God had intended man to eat only cow meat, he wouldn’t have put vegetables in the soil”. Thus spaketh my grandmother
. I cannot envision a life with no veggies, but will love to hear how all y’all get along with carnivory!
 
Just out of interest - why? Looking at the HbA1c results in everyone's signatures, they look normal. Why restrict your diet even further?
 
I think the jury is still out for eating meat only and I think it is getting interpreted as eating muscle meat only! If you can eat liver and other organ meats as our ancestors did and lions do (i.e. nose to tail)) then you will get the vitamin C you need (who knew liver has more of that than an apple!) but I doubt that many folks will do this and so eventually they could be deficient.
What I have heard is that for people who suffer from autoimmune conditions, meat only provides a break from those things which exacerbate their condition. Other than simplifying dietary 'choices' then why do it?
I would not personally worry about heart disease or lack of insoluble fibre but I would miss the variety of foods that we eat to top up the meat.
Maybe it will be Meatuary as well as Veganuary this month!
 
SamJB said:
Just out of interest - why? Looking at the HbA1c results in everyone's signatures, they look normal. Why restrict your diet even further?
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Why not? For me I'd like to lose a few more pounds to increase my "safety margin" and see if I can get to my "mental" ideal weight. I feel great eating just meat so thought I'd try something different..self experimentation being one of my interests.
 
NicoleC1971 said:
Maybe it will be Meatuary as well as Veganuary this month!
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January has been designated World Carnivore Month so you're right there. And yes I'll be having some ox liver along with the steaks and mince.. its only £1.60 a kilo at the butcher so dirt cheap too. The Vit C thing seems to be a bit of a red herring as many muscle meat only eaters have been consuming only that for some years without the dreaded or threatened scurvy making an appearance so in the absence of carbs it seems it may not be so essential as we have been led to believe.. (then again no surprises there!).
 
bulkbiker said:
Why not? For me I'd like to lose a few more pounds to increase my "safety margin" and see if I can get to my "mental" ideal weight. I feel great eating just meat so thought I'd try something different..self experimentation being one of my interests.
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Fair enough. Personally, I find low carb restrictive enough in terms of convenience, eating out, eating at friend's houses etc and wouldn't want to restrict myself any further.
 
SamJB said:
Fair enough. Personally, I find low carb restrictive enough in terms of convenience, eating out, eating at friend's houses etc and wouldn't want to restrict myself any further.
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Being an antisocial old git I don't really find that a problem and for my meal out this month (as its my birthday) i'll find somewhere suitable steaky.. probably the Coal Hole in Brighton. I cooked up 7 sirloin steaks in my sous vide yesterday so that's this week sorted..
 
SamJB said:
Just out of interest - why? Looking at the HbA1c results in everyone's signatures, they look normal. Why restrict your diet even further?
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I switched to carnivory out of necessity.
I had a nasty tummy bug just before Xmas last year, and was unable to take fibre without... um... unpleasant consequences.
Found it worked out great for me, and have been carni for just over a year now.
I still eat the odd snaffle of 70% choc, but attempting to reintroduce veg has been unpleasant. So for the last year I have been on meat (including organ meat), fish, eggs, hard cheese, cream and goatsmilk yog. Funnily enough my temperamental guts are happy with nuts, so I sometimes have a gloop of peanut butter.

Unlike most of the other posters on this thread I will happily reintroduce a few veg when I can tolerate them - going to try mushrooms later this month. But I have to say that a year of carnivory hasn't felt restrictive. And I haven't felt bored.
Actually, I did feel bored the first few weeks (with everyone around me having a Christmas Carb Fest), but I soon got over that. Simply a case of using a few herbs and spices, and choosing a variety of proteins.

In a typical week I will eat
2-3 portions of fish/shellfish
4-5 different cheeses
Lamb, pork, beef, chicken, duck
offal in the form of heart, liver, kidney, sometimes spleen and lung
goatsmilk yog
70%+ choc
roasted chicory coffee substitute with cream
lots of water and herb teas

It seems strange to me when people describe it as restrictive, because it certainly doesn't feel that way, and I certainly eat more variety than people at work who eat cereal every day for breakfast, sandwiches and crisps every day for lunch, and then go home to a meat, veg and carb evening meal.

After a year, I am confident that I can continue indefinitely, and be happy about it.
Will have to see what my guts will tolerate this coming year, to see whether I morph back to carni+ veg or stay carni.
 
Seven sirloin steaks over the weekend?! Sounds pretty good to me! Whenever I fancy a meat-loaded meal out, I head to one of the Brazillian restaurants, where they come round with loads of different cuts of meat.
 
SamJB said:
Fair enough. Personally, I find low carb restrictive enough in terms of convenience, eating out, eating at friend's houses etc and wouldn't want to restrict myself any further.
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I have been HUGELY AMUSED to discover that I can eat carni when out almost everywhere.
In fact in a year of meals out with family and friends, the only person who has ever commented was my Ma In Law, who briefly forgot herself and ticked me off for not clearing my plate. I laughed and said that if she knew what the veg would do to me, she wouldn't be saying that. End of discussion. Haha!

It has been astonishingly easy to order when out. Easier than eating low carb, in fact.
I just get the meal with the nice meat portion, and leave the rest.
When I was eating veg, I had to factor in carbs, gluten, and other rubbish. None of that now.
Much simpler.

The one friend who feeds me regularly is an absolute star. She saw me when I was at my most ill, and she simply does double meat portions for me, without comment, and leaves me in peace. Good friends are like that.
 
bulkbiker said:
... going to try beef only OMAD for January..
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I'm eating at a GBK this evening, because (you couldn't make this up) my youngest sons girlfriend is a Vegan (non militant) and fancies their California Burger. I guess I'll just order myself 3 beef patties and hope there is little or no filler in them.

I'm tempted to try this meat only milarky, but I love vegetables too much I think to manage to keep it up for long.
 
@Brunneria, by definition it's restrictive as you are removing whole food groups. I'm not criticising anyone for making the choice - each to their own, and all that. Just that chasing better and better HbA1c results when they're already excellent (and non-diabetic), just sounds like a bit of a fanatical lifestyle choice.
 

I think you will find that most people who eat ZC or carni do it for a lot more reasons than just chasing blood glucose numbers.

I've been rubbing along on ZC forums on and websites for the last year, and been very surprised by the wide variety of people who eat this way. Athletes, gym bunnies, martial artists, old-style paleo back to roots people, healthy eaters, chronically ill, last ditch dieters, normal people everywhere. A LOT of people are doing it to avoid food intolerances (you can't get a much better elimination diet than meat only, esp if you are only eating one kind of meat for a while). Others do it to avoid any risk of FODMAPS, and other veg chemicals like salycilates (may have spelled that wrong ).

Some people do it for the weight loss, the reduction in inflammation, or even simply because they don't actually like eating veg... (there are a lot of those around).

The whole idea of anything being restrictive always falls down for me if the pros outweigh the cons.
How is something 'restrictive' if it reduces food intolerances, inflammation, gut problems, while simultaneously improving sleep, stamina, flexibility and energy levels? I am walking the dogs further and more often, and have much more joi de vie than I used to - so for me it is anything but restrictive. Sometimes I don't know what to do with my energy levels. Have resurrected 3 hobbies in recent months that I thought I had left behind, and am back reading technical books which I hadn't bothered with for several years. Nice to see my brain again after so long.

But then I used to scratch my head when people said that low carbing was restrictive too, for similar reasons. Low carb and keto were progressively good for me, but carni is even more liberating.
 
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