Carnivore Diet Experiment Update

After over 2 months of following the carnivore diet, I'm transitioning off. Based on input from my nutritionist and naturopath, this should be enough time to know if the diet would be beneficial. Although I had improvement in the skin on my hands and potentially less GI pain, I wasn't convinced that this diet was doing more good than harm. Also, the labs that I ran after a month on the diet did not show improvements in autoimmune markers (to be fair, many would say this isn't enough time, but my naturopath thought I would be able to get some information after a month if it was beneficial). That being said, I'm not opposed to doing this diet intermittently personally as a gut reset, and maybe as part of seasonal winter eating. So the dirty of the diet....I mean, besides the fact that I could only. eat. meat!...

• After an initial bump in my Oura scores, my nighttime HRV decreased, HR increased and sleep scores decreased, potentially indicating that my body became more stressed on this diet. This also aligns with the facts that I lost a significant amount of weight (unintentionally) and lost my period.

• Intermittent diarrhea (possibly oxalate dumping due to the near-zero oxalate diet)

• Diagnosed with and continued worsening of acro-osteolysis in my hands (related to scleroderma and connective tissue autoimmune disease, per my rheumatologist)

• Developed excessive burping and sore throat the last couple weeks on the diet. My nutritionist thinks this is related to biome shifts (too much die-off of the "good guys") and yeast overgrowth.

• Developed more muscle tension and pain in the head, neck and shoulders.

• Less energy for exercise.

After all of the anecodotal evidence I had come across, I was disappointed in my results, although, for me, it was an experiment I had to try. Interestingly, I've been slowly re-introducing fermented vegetables into my diet and my skin on my hands is starting to crack again. Maybe if I would have stayed on this diet for 6 months, I would have turned a corner...or maybe I would have wiped out more beneficial bacterial strains...it's hard to say. Anyways, I'm back to the drawing board and am transitioning into a low ox, low lectin, low carb diet with more emphasis on highly nutritionally dense and easily digestible foods (think ferments, sea vegetables, targeted herbs and medicinal-type food). I will also reduce my saturated fat intake and introduce some perilla oil again. Interestingly, my first non-meat after carnivore diet was fermented beats....that was such a treat...it tasted like candy...things I'd never would have imagined 10 years ago!

I also want to make a comment on intermittent fasting related to carnivore diet. Many people do intermittent fasting for health reasons, but this became so much easier to do with the high fat and no carb diet. I can now eat dinner fairly early without nighttime cravings (or nighttime awakenings related to blood sugar crashes) and stay fasted fairly comfortably for 14 hours each night. Fasting has been a real balancing act for me as my body easily stresses hormonally when I don't eat, but my GI system feels better when it has more recovery time...catch 22 that requires careful balance.

So as a I reflect on carnivore diet, I got some useful information trying the diet, although I'm not sure whether I tried it long enough to make a fair assessment. I know there are people who get phenomenol results on this very restrictive diet (and others who do poorly) so it does go to show the benefits of personalization, when it comes to therapeutic diets. In the future, I may consider doing a winter seasonal carnivore diet as a gut re-set....tbd!

This post details my experience with the Carnivore diet and should not be taken as a recommendation of this diet. This diet and any restrictive diet should only be pursued with the guidance of a healthcare professional.