I Threw My Second Chance at Life Away Because I Went Bowling

An elimination diet is one thing. A restrictive fad diet featuring multiple inflammatory foods and avoiding micronutrients and anti inflammatory foods like leafy green veggies, which has NO research backing it, that is being pushed by a guy who had his medical license revoked in 2017 combined with a suspect supplement that could cause further inflammation? That’s different. An elimination diet is meant to identify a problem. The carnivore diet is presented and was presented here as THE cure. It’s disingenuous to defend it as an elimination diet.

1 Like

It doesn’t. The diet has nothing to do with lifting or athletics and neither does the problem (thats also why it shouldn’t be recommended on a site dedicated to proper training). The main thing however, is the dude also isn’t a health expert either and should stay in his lane before prescribing a super restrictive diet for people.

I’ve seen a twitter thread of Layne Norton going back and forth with Peterson’s daughter because she wanted to Carnivore for BABIES.

Most people can’t even get a balanced omnivorous diet right, and suddenly they wanna go polar opposites like vegan or carnivore

Also: @travistee

Oh.

So when did you become a “health expert” that is able and authorized to determine what should be discussed, by whom, and on which sites?

I mean, that must cross a multitude of disciplines and have been a huge amount of work.

What would a degree or certificate that covers that much ground even be called?

I was talking with Mrs. (Dr.) Jewbacca about your post. She had a couple of questions and comments that I hopefully won’t butcher.

  1. First, is your condition actually osteoarthritis? Or do you have another medical condition that is causing the OA? Typically, OA is caused by mechanical wear and age, so it is very uncommon to be in “all joints”, but rather joints that are abused (e.g., a city runner that run on concrete with poor shoes for a long time).

  2. Second, the treatment you discuss is available in the USA at certain locations. The Mayo clinic just finished secondary trials. So you can find it in the USA if you are motivated.

A few things to note about this carnivore diet:

  1. Meat-centric diets are all over the place, and have been for some time (see Adkins diet), but this Carnivore diet, that restricts diet to ONLY MEAT, without exception, seems to have only gained traction over the last 3 years in popular culture. It seems a man named Shawn Baker has been the driving voice in its recent popularity. Mr. Baker has been on the diet for 2-3 years now. That’s it. It’s great that he’s feeling ‘cured’ of his issues, along with my Mikhaila Peterson, another major proponent of the diet (on the diet for a year now), but I can’t see myself latching onto something so drastic without seeing a liiiiittle more long-term evidence than what we have today. Right now, there is nothing but pseudoscience and speculation about the long-term effects of this diet. But given how Adkins worked out for most people, and other similar fads, I feel I have a decent grasp on how this goes down.

  2. The most successful nutritionists, dieticians, and doctors are not latching onto this diet.

  3. The people who are claiming excellent results from this diet are a) people who have suffered for a very, very long time from very serious conditions, and b) they haven’t actually demonstrated that their seemingly excellent new-found health will last. I also haven’t seen any of these people posting bloodwork, which is something I’d be interested in seeing. Just because a diet makes you feel good for a year doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for a lifetime of health. The elimination of certain foods may have been a genuinely useful thing for these people to do, but that doesn’t mean that this diet is sustainable.

Kind of a scatter brained post, sorry for that. I’ve been in and out of the office, putting it together.

@SkyzykS I don’t think one has to be a ‘health expert’ to realize the serious lack of evidence supporting this particular diet.

EDIT: Baker has indeed shared bloodwork, and made videos to explain away the problems with it. here’s a really good rundown of it. https://www.stopbeingconfusedabouthealth.com/shawn-bakers-bloodwork-carnivore-diet-explained-full/

5 Likes
  1. Yes, my condition is OA only.

  2. The type of stem cell treatment available in the US (the “same day” procedure where the cells are harvested an re-implanted in their original numbers) is not the kind I need.(culture-expanded, which is where the cells are grown in a laboratory to greater numbers).

Somebody should prescribe diet only if they’re a Registered Dietitian, and with alot of the “Fat Positive” RDs out there, even that is losing it’s credibility.

I’m no health expert, but I know enough about basic nutrition that eating only meat or only vegetables is much less than ideal, especially for a demographic looking for “the relentless pursuit of muscle”

1 Like

I know man. You do have some relevant points.

I was just being a bit of a deconstructionist toolbag.

3 Likes

Sometimes you gotta dig deep tho to be objective.

I followed Shawn Baker for a while and while I like his content, I had to take a step back and be skeptical. Listening to a lot of the nonsense of other Carnivore followers made me really doubt the legitimacy.

Here are some claims I’ve heard:
Fasting builds muscle because of the slight increase of GH from prolonged fasting - said a follower who didnt realize that even bodybuilders taking exogenous GH are slamming a thousands of calories in a day
Alternate day fasting with a meal of 5lbs raw ground beef, a few egg yolks, can of sardines, and fat trimmings slammed within 30 minutes every other day is ideal for gains - said a 160lbs Carnivore follower who doesnt even lift
Refusing to eat raw meat is “making excuses”

To me, a lot this was as viable as vegans claiming you can get 200+g protein off black beans and kale. But that being said, I know a couple of elite athletes who made the switch to vegan and maintain their competitiveness… I can’t say the same about carnivore athletes.

So Callisto walks into a bowling alley…

It’s right here. The enrollment is open:

2 Likes

Actually, relevant to the subject, one of my nieces has some sort of autoimmune problem which by way of elimination takes out virtually all meats and animal based proteins. She’s a very skilled (is there any other kind?) and accomplished rock climber.

No slouch physique wise either. Not bb’r or powerlifter, but pronounced well developed muscle all around.

Autoimmune dysfunction is/can be pretty freakin nuts.

Nah. That was quite cogent.

1 Like

Also forgot to prescribe extra sets of bar curls in the squat rack,

Yeah definitely.

To me, veganism makes more sense than carnivore, especially since meat is a luxury product in many parts of the world.

1 Like

That trial is for OA of the knee only and I am excluded based on age.

Rich Roll is a vegan long distance runner and it works for him. So I wouldn’t count it out either.

But I still maintain that adding animal cartilage to the diet makes sense. Maybe not for OP but it does help some people.

But I’m not a dietician so there’s that.

1 Like

Oh, I don’t. As I said, she’s in good shape, and has done some pretty amazing climbs.

All bickering aside, Rich Roll has some awesome podcasts and amazing interviews without constantly pushing the vegan lifestyle.

Why!?

I was getting ready to start back simple and sinister haha