What If You Ate Only Meat For 30 Days?

Hello Health Champions. What would happen if  you only ate meat for 30 days? Well there is  

this thing called a carnivore diet and a lot of  people are getting very interested in that because  

people are reporting health benefits so they say  that they've had weight loss plateaus that finally  

break through they have gut issues that resolve  skin issues that resolve even severe things like  

rheumatoid arthritis inflammatory joint pain  autoimmune diseases tend to improve people  

also say that their mood improves their anxiety  and depression decreases but then on the other  

hand there are people who say meat absolutely not  it causes inflammation it's full of saturated fat  

it will raise your triglycerides it will move  you closer to cardiovascular disease and cancer  

and type 2 diabetes they're saying that everything  is wrong with you is because you eat too much meat  

and most regulatory agencies around the world  including the usda say that you should increase  

your fruits and vegetables you should eat so  many every day but meat you should eat rarely  

especially red meat and the meat you should  eat should be mostly chicken and fish and  

lean sources of meat and of course they say to  avoid saturated fat so how can we have two camps  

that are so diametrically opposed in this video  we will try to clear up some of the confusion  

and we will answer some of these questions  about meat is it harmful in the people that have  

noticed benefits why is it that it is helpful  why are they getting these benefits and if you're  

considering trying the carnivore diet then we want  to understand who are the people who might benefit  

the next question is if we find that we get these  benefits and we get healthier than we have been  

does that mean that this is optimal is this  the best diet for everybody or even for you  

in the long term and then of course if we try this  how long might we want to try it is it a temporary  

thing or is it forever the most common objection  to the carnivore diet is that if you only eat  

one thing you're too limited you will develop  deficiencies you can't get all your nutrients  

from one thing and when it comes to vitamins  and minerals we're always told that they come  

from fruits and vegetables and while that is true  fruits and vegetables contain a lot of vitamins  

and minerals that does not mean that meat doesn't  have any and meat actually has plenty if you eat  

enough so we're not talking about eating a four  ounce steak anymore we're talking about eating  

all your calories from meat and also you're not  going to overload on protein because if you eat  

meat that has 15 to 20 percent fat which is  recommended then you will get the vast majority  

of calories from fat and if you eat  two pounds of meat it's about one kilo  

or if you're a little bit bigger you might  eat three pounds which is one and a half kilos  

then it turns out you get about 60 percent of  your thiamin which is a b vitamin the other b  

vitamins you get between 150 to 920 percent of  the RDA which is recommended daily allowance  

the potassium which is a mineral you get  over a hundred percent you get 120 percent  

of the recommended daily allowance magnesium you  get 75 percent iron you get 200 and vitamin c you  

still get 30 so we're often told that meat has  no vitamin c that's not true even regular steak  

has some vitamin c and if you add in a little  bit of organ meat like liver then you quickly  

get up to 100 of the RDA even for something like  vitamin c now if you're observant you're going  

to notice that some of these numbers still don't  get up to a hundred percent like thiamin's only  

60% magnesium is only 75% but what happens is the  body uses nutrients more efficiently for example  

with vitamin c it competes with glucose for  the transport mechanism so the more glucose  

you eat the less efficient your vitamin c  is when you cut back on carbs and glucose  

then you can use your vitamin c more efficiently  and the same holds true for thiamin and magnesium  

because people who go carnivore they tend to not  have deficiency they don't get scurvy they don't  

seem to have any low levels of these nutrients  either the other aspect of deficiency is that  

we don't actually know what the RDA is the  recommended daily allowance was developed  

and they based that on synthetic isolates they did  not base that on nutrients from food they didn't  

conduct experiments with people and food they used  synthetic isolates from pharmaceutical companies  

developed certain chemicals that were equivalent  to vitamins and then they tested them on mice  

in animal studies so they took different groups  of mice they fed them a very very deficient  

diet i don't know what it was but it wasn't real  food it was maybe just glucose so they made sure  

that they were very very deficient then one group  they added in some of these synthetic isolated  

vitamins and they notice what were the differences  in the two groups and the one that didn't get any  

vitamins they got a bunch of deficiency diseases  then they added back in synthetic isolates until  

those deficiencies went away and they figured out  this is how much you need to not get sick and then  

they extrapolated those numbers to humans and they  figured out what the RDA is so we're assuming that  

isolates work the same as food and we're assuming  that mice work the same as humans we don't really  

know but what turns out is that people on the  carnivore diet tend to do really well even when  

they measure the levels for these nutrients  and why would there be such a big difference  

between a whole food nutrient and a synthetic  isolate well the whole food has complexes and  

think of that the nutrients being complex think  of that as an old-fashioned clock if we open up  

the back of an old clock when they were mechanical  when they had hundreds of little mechanical pieces  

then they all work together we have all these  different springs and screws and levers and  

cog wheels and when they're assembled correctly  and we tighten the spring and we set the clock  

appropriately now that clock can keep time but the  question is which part is it that keeps the time  

which is the most important part that can tell us  what time it is and their question is obviously  

ridiculous because a single piece doesn't do  anything by itself it's the pieces together  

they work as a complex they work together and so  it is with food as well we can't pick one piece  

and say that this is the thing that does the work  when they all depend on other pieces so the RDA I  

wouldn't say it's useless but it's in a very rough  approximation the truth is we don't really know  

what those numbers are and finally the proof is  in the pudding as they say what does that mean  

well if we're wondering if they get deficient  then let's just take a bunch of carnivores and  

see if they did get deficient and we had tens of  thousands or hundreds of thousands or maybe more  

carnivores who have performed this experiment  on themselves and they tend to get healthier not  

sicker they don't develop scurvy they have very  very few symptoms actually they mostly reverse  

the symptoms they had and we want to keep in  mind these are people who have pretty much  

tried everything in my experience they don't  go straight to the carnivore diet they don't  

go straight from standard American with orange  juice and bread and candy and soda and hamburgers  

to say I'm gonna go carnivore there are lots of  steps along the way which we'll also talk about  

so if these people who were not very healthy to  start with their bodies were not working very well  

if they can manage on this diet then maybe  it's not so bad and one more objection is  

fiber because meat has no fiber by definition  and this is very controversial because  

traditionally we hear we're of the opinion that  fiber is necessary for bowel movement fiber  

traditionally is looked at as the only thing  that provides volume to your stool to your bowel  

movement so without fiber there would be nothing  to move through no bowel movement but then on  

the other hand now there is research that suggests  based on studying a bunch of carnivores that maybe  

zero fiber is better that in some studies they  say that they have the best bowel movement  

of anybody so we have research that are is very  very conflicting in my experience and I have a lot  

of carnivore people in my office I find that some  of them notice some problems with constipation  

for the most part it's temporary and on the  other hand there are lots of people who are  

not carnivore who also have a lot of problems  with constipation but most of them do really well  

now let's talk about why it might help and who  might it help and in order to understand that  

let's go over a little scenario that most people  are not going to change anything until they feel  

really bad they need to be sick they need to  want to improve something before they change  

for most people so if they're sick and sad or sick  because they eat the standard American diet sad  

then what is the first thing that they'll  probably change most people are going to  

hear the mainstream advice first so they hear  eat more fruits and vegetables so they try that  

maybe it helps maybe it doesn't then someone says  you got to cut out some of the junk food you can't  

eat all that white bread and all that sugar and  all that fried food so they cut that out maybe  

they're better maybe not next someone says you're  eating too many carbohydrates you got to go low  

carb high fat or the ketogenic diet and if that  doesn't work you need to eat fewer meals you need  

to have longer fasting periods called intermittent  fasting which we talk a lot about on this channel  

they try that and by now most people are going  to feel a lot better the vast majority of people  

will have resolved their problems but what if you  haven't now it's not just a matter of junk food  

and your basic metabolic issue now it's a little  more detailed and this is still pretty common  

so now you might go keto paleo that you  cut most of the carbs out but not just that  

you also start cutting out all the dairy you  cut the cheese the cream the milk you cut out  

even some of the vegetables that might  irritate you and if that helps great if not  

now the next step would be an autoimmune diet so  now you start looking at the nitty-gritty what are  

some of these plants they might contain various  compounds like lectin and you cut those out so  

these are people they try many many different  things and it's usually kind of a last resort  

to go carnivore and if you think about this now  why would that work as the last resort because it  

is essentially the ultimate elimination diet you  cut out everything until you just one food left  

you all the way along the way you eliminate  various different things you start with a really  

bad stuff like sugar and then you fine tune it and  you tweak it until you don't even have the leafy  

greens anymore you just eat one food and what meat  has going for it is that it's basically the most  

neutral food there is the lowest number of  allergies to any food is probably meat and while  

there are poisons while there are toxic substances  like plutonium and arsenic and things like that  

most of the problems caused is not by the  substance itself it is your body's reaction to  

it when your body responds because it recognizes  it as an enemy it's going to create inflammation  

and it's that inflammation that causes all the  problems and meat being the most neutral food  

there is it's the least amount of responses  the least amount of probable inflammation  

the only people who have any trouble with meat is  if they don't have enough stomach acid to digest  

it and then you could just add a little bit of  hydrochloric acid and you'll probably be fine  

and i hope now it starts to make sense why these  people get the problems and why they can be  

relieved if someone has a weight loss plateau that  they can't break through well the carnivore diet  

is a zero-carb diet it is a low-carb high-fat  diet and not only that but if it can lower  

the immune reactions because you've eliminated  everything else that causes an immune reaction and  

inflammation if inflammation goes down then there  is less tendency toward insulin resistance because  

inflammation is a significant driver of insulin  resistance if you have intestinal issues digestive  

or other gut issues it's probably because you're  eating something that causes irritation that  

causes an immune reaction more inflammation  or maybe you're just feeding the wrong kind of  

bacteria to upset your microbiome that can also  lead to leaky gut if you have leaky gut you can  

get skin problems because some of the particles  get through the gut lining that shouldn't causing  

further widespread inflammation and immune  reactions and of course that's also associated  

with autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid  arthritis because you have hypersensitivity  

reactions to things that get out of the gut into  the bloodstream into places they don't belong and  

it's the same thing again with mood and anxiety  and depression we have to understand how important  

that digestive tract is we have barriers we have  an intestinal lining barrier and we have a blood  

brain barrier if one barrier gets compromised  it's very likely the other will get compromised  

so if you have inflammatory reactions in the gut  you will most likely have inflammatory reactions  

in the brain as well leading to anxiety depression  and less function in the brain overall but what is  

it about plants that could be so bad for some  people well the question is who wants to get  

eaten well i certainly don't so i can move i can  defend myself but plants can't do that so they  

have basically two defenses one would be like this  cactus to have really really nasty thorns but the  

other solution is chemical warfare that if the  plant can't defend itself any other way then  

it has to start making some poison something that  makes it unattractive for something else to eat it  

so plants have things like lectins and oxalates  and phytates and gliadins and opponents  

and some people don't seem to have much of a  reaction while others have devastating reactions  

the idea of hormesis is one more piece that  can help us understand why people might be  

so different in the responses to this so the idea  of hormeses is that if we get a really small dose  

of something that could be harmful then that  small dose first of all does no harm but  

it could actually be beneficial so that's kind of  the idea behind homeopathics for example they give  

you a tiny tiny dose of some toxin or something  that could be harmful but because it's so tiny it  

just sort of provokes your body a little bit and  your body mounts a response that makes it stronger  

and some argue that this is what happens with  these plant compounds that if we start off with  

a zero dose then it's a zero response but as we  increase the dose then we actually get a benefit  

up to a certain point where we get the  maximum benefit now if we increase the dose we  

still have some benefit but less benefit until we  hit a threshold where there again is no benefit  

no harm but if we go even just a little bit above  that now this compound becomes toxic and we have  

a reaction now how does that help us understand  well some people might have this kind of picture  

but since humans are all different another person  might have this kind of picture so for this person  

this much of a toxin could be beneficial whereas  for this person just a tiny little bit would be  

beneficial and they could only tolerate about half  the dose and if that's the case then surely there  

must be some people who get hyper sensitive and  they can tolerate zero as soon as they encounter  

any amount of that toxin or that chemical they  have a harmful reaction but how do you know  

then if carnivore diet is for you well if you have  severe bloating if you have frequent bloating your  

stomach gets really upset like this kitty here he  looks pretty bloated to me maybe someone gave him  

some grain or something else he's not supposed  to eat cats are obligate carnivores if that's  

you then you might be a good candidate also if you  have SIBO, small intestine bacterial overgrowth,  

then you have bacteria growing in the  small intestine where they don't belong  

and if you stop feeding them what they  like which is carbohydrate and fiber then  

they're going to have less to eat and most of them  will go away if you have irritable bowel syndrome  

which doesn't point to any specific mechanism it  just says irritable bowel it's very upset you have  

alternating constipation diarrhea it's a mess then  that might be a good thing to try the carnivore  

or if you have for example leaky gut inflammation  skin rashes if you have autoimmune conditions like  

Hashimoto's thyroiditis if you're hypothyroid  most of that is autoimmune if you have rheumatoid  

arthritis or lupus you have a lot of inflammation  a lot of reactions in your body or if you're just  

highly sensitive if you seem to react to just  about anything you put into your body then what do  

you have to lose carnivore might be the thing that  will sort of calm the fire and take care of this  

for you so does that mean that all humans should  eat nothing but meat for the rest of our lives  

well humans have this tendency to go all or  nothing we divide ourselves up in groups and  

political parties and everything that the other  party says is wrong and then on the diet front we  

have the vegan versus the carnivore that virtually  become religions they believe so strongly in what  

they're doing and i think that's taking it a bit  too far so is carnivore optimal that's the next  

question we know that it can help a lot of people  who haven't been helped before but does that mean  

everyone should eat it when we look at where  humans have been all over the planet during our  

history and when we look at the different sources  of food that we've had we've been hunter gatherers  

we've been farming we've been fishing and in  all of those areas humans have done really well  

i think it's going too far to say that we should  either be all vegan or all carnivore just like  

some vegans tend to be really healthy at least  for a while and a lot of carnivores turn around  

disease at least for a while the jury is still out  on what happens for the rest of your life but I  

think there's a good chance that you can probably  do it for the rest of your life but even if you  

can I don't think that it's necessarily the best  thing forever I think that there is something to  

be said for variety I think your microflora tends  to be more varied and I believe that is a good  

thing if you eat a more varied food so I would  suggest that if you have any of the problems  

that we discussed here then I would suggest I  don't think you have anything to lose really  

is to do 30 days or maybe start with a week and  just see how it goes and if you're okay then  

do 30 days and see how you feel and if most of  your problems are gone then maybe you want to  

go a little longer maybe three months maybe six  months however in my opinion in my experience  

I think that it would be better to add in  some variety over time and I don't know this  

for sure this is based on my knowledge and  my clinical experience that I think variety  

in the long run is a little bit more optimal  so then if you're feeling a whole lot better  

then try some very neutral plants some things  that you believe would be well tolerated and if  

you do well then you try a little bit more if you  feel worse than maybe you are someone who would do  

well to stay on carnivore. If you enjoyed this  video you're going to love that one, and if you  

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