2 hours ago, Steven2023 said:

Looking forward to this and from what I have read and watched so far, looking forward to some great results.

Welcome aboard Steven! We're glad to have you here!

Yes, if you did Atkins with success, you should do well with carnivore. Carnivore builds on the principles that Atkins taught, namely, to keep your carbohydrate intake low enough to enter ketosis and burn fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. Probably the benefit of carnivore is that you don't necessarily have to track anything because it's naturally going to be zero carb, trace carb, or low carb, since you are just eating meat and eggs and maybe some cheese.

A lot of us like it over other ketogenic diets for it's simplicity. We're not constantly trying to come up with fancy recipes and dishes that emulate foods that we can't have any longer. We just thow some meat on the fire, lol.

Hey @Steven2023 - thanks for sharing. I would have never imagined there was an art to scrambling eggs, lol. I usually butter or tallow my pan, get 'er done, and salt and season afterwards. Next time I am going to try the extra yolk and salting the mix first and letting it sit for 15 minutes. I would have never thought of that.

Neither have I.

It makes me wonder what self-defense chemicals Paul Saladino is referring to when he says that plants don't pump as much into their fruit because plants actually want you to eat their fruit, whereas they defend their leaves, stems, and roots.

But then again, a lot of what I see Saladino eating fruitwise is things on the "low in oxylates" table on that list.

That's awesome. I have the same firm resolve as you do when it comes to grains and sweets. It doesn't tempt me either.

In several locations around the world it's what is often referred to as 'the holiday season'. Here in the USA, you may have previously been caught in the autumn trap of all the delicious meals, treats, and overdrinking of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve, only to kerplop into the new year heavier than ever, with yet another resolution to hit the gym and take off the weight.

Now most people who do the keto or carnivore diet correctly have built up a strong resilience to any cravings or temptations. And that's fantastic. But the holiday's add on an extra burden for many - peer pressure and tradition - and many who had been previously eating right get derailed, sometimes for weeks and months, once they slip up and have some pumpkin pie, cookies, or sweet potatoes, or whatever.

How about you?

Are you staying true to your good health convictions? Or did/do you allow yourself to veer off plan on these occasions?

I wholeheartedly agree. I was a bit hesitant to post the article because of the way it wrapped up, but I was still excited by the headline and the positive evidence for meat consumption contained therein.

Currently I eat meat exclusively on most days. Maybe once a month, I and the guy that works for me will go out for lunch together and he likes Chipotle so we will go there and I will have a salad with double meat and none of the starchy carby bits. I usually make dinner, which means the wife gets the same meat I do. Every once in a while she wants a side of steamed broccoli or asparagus or brussel sprouts, and I will have a small side of those as well.

For these very rare occasions, I call myself "mostly carnivore" or "97% carnivore". I rarely eat off plan, and if I am gonna "cheat", I cheat with keto or something 100% found in nature. I'm not averse to plants mainly because I have zero reactions to them. But for now, I choose to stay away from them. 

I like it all, lol. But my favorite is probably beef, given that it is readily available over here. I have steaks several days a week as well as ground beef which is pretty diverse in the number of things you can do with it. For breakfast, I am an eggs and pork sausage kinda guy. Bacon is good, but I don't prepare it often.

I've had lamb, chicken, duck, and a variety of fish and seafood. There's a place nearby that makes a fantastic seafood boil, and I will get mussels, shrimp, snow crab legs, lobster tails, and giant sea scallops. I can eat scallops with no end in sight, but they are actually quite carby so I have to moderate myself, lol.

Yes, that is my real name. I'm 48 and live in Northeast Ohio near Akron. I'm a tile setter and bathroom remodeler by trade, and do some web design, hosting and dog training on the side as a hobby.

I've always been a believer in low carb and keto, just didn't consistently practice what I knew to be good for me. I stumbled upon the carnivore diet this year and have had the most amazing results ever, from weight loss to other health improvements. I still have a few issues to tackle, but it could be worse in that I could still be a a very big man eating the standard American diet watching my health suffer. I much more prefer the new me.

This was the Cliff's notes version. I've previously spoke in more detail in this Topic and in other places here in the community.

Eating beef staves off cancer, scientists discover

Story by Isobel Williams

A fatty acid in red meat and dairy helps destroy cancer cells (Picture: Getty/Science Photo Libra)© Provided by Metro

Eating red meat and dairy could help to fight cancer, a new study suggests.

Scientists have discovered that a specific fatty acid found in beef, lamb and dairy products improves the body’s ability to attack and kill tumours.

The study, published in the journal Nature, also shows that patients with higher levels of the fatty acid – known as trans-vaccenic acid (TVA) – in their blood responded better to immunotherapy, suggesting that it could work as a nutritional supplement to complement clinical cancer treatments.

‘There are many studies trying to decipher the link between diet and human health, and it’s very difficult to understand the underlying mechanisms because of the wide variety of foods people eat,’ said co-author Professor Jing Chen, of the University of Chicago.

‘But if we focus on just the nutrients and metabolites derived from food, we begin to see how they influence physiology and pathology.

‘By focusing on nutrients that can activate T cell [immune] responses, we found one that actually enhances anti-tumour immunity by activating an important immune pathway.’

Could steak help cure cancer? (Picture: Getty/iStockphoto)© Provided by Metro

For the study, the team started with a database of around 700 known metabolites, small molecules that come from food, and assembled a ‘blood nutrient’ library.

They then screened the compounds in this new library for their ability to influence anti-tumour immunity.

After the scientists evaluated the top six candidates in both human and mouse cells, they saw that TVA performed the best.

‘After millions of years of evolution, there are only a couple hundred metabolites derived from food that end up circulating in the blood, so that means they could have some importance in our biology,’ said Professor Chen.

‘To see that a single nutrient like TVA has a very targeted mechanism on a targeted immune cell type, with a very profound physiological response at the whole organism level – I find that really amazing and intriguing.’

The team found that feeding mice a diet enriched with TVA significantly reduced the tumour growth potential of melanoma and colon cancer cells, as well as enhancing the body’s ability to infiltrate tumours.

Dairy products also contain a ‘good’ fatty acid that appears to help fight cancer (Picture: Getty)© Provided by Metro

They then analysed blood samples from hospital patients undergoing immunotherapy treatment for lymphoma and discovered that patients with higher levels of TVA tended to respond better to treatment than those with lower levels.

Finally, the study discovered that TVA enhanced the ability of an immunotherapy drug to kill leukaemia cells in patients.

However, the authors do not believe eating excessive red meat is the solution and hope to find similar results in plants.

Professor Chen added: ‘There is a growing body of evidence about the detrimental health effects of consuming too much red meat and dairy, so this study shouldn’t be taken as an excuse to eat more cheeseburgers and pizza.

‘There is early data showing that other fatty acids from plants signal through a similar receptor, so we believe there is a high possibility that nutrients from plants can do the same thing by activating the CREB pathway as well.’

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Article Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/eating-beef-staves-off-cancer-scientists-discover/ar-AA1kmI9g

@Geezy is absolutely right. Ruminant meat, especially beef, is the most nutrient dense food on the planet for humans.

The "red meat will give you heart disease" myth stems from the myth that saturated fat is bad for you. Saturated fat can elevate LDL cholesterol levels, which is often referred to as "bad cholesterol" which is yet another myth. So, it's a myth built on a myth built on a myth. 

Every year, you see a headline about a new "study" that links red meat to an increase in heart disease. The problem though is there never is a new "study". It's just another group crunching data gathered from an old study from the mid 80's. This old study was based on food frequency questionnaires that people were asked to fill out every 4 years, where they had to remember and guess what they ate over that span of time. See the problem here?

The crunched numbers show that red meat is associated with a higher outcome for heart disease. But this risk factor is minimal, and barely worth mentioning. It also doesn't take into account other factors for heart disease. For example, many of these people were sedentary, ate the junk american diet, were smokers, etc. But magically, it's the red meat that gets the blame, lol. 

Okay, so this is a little scarier. The prospect of blending lab meat and real meat together. It better be clearly marked.

------------------------------

What Is Hybrid Meat And How Does It Differ From Plant-Based Varieties?

BY CORIN MJ BAE/OCT. 7, 2023 9:00 PM EST
 

Nevodka/Getty Images

Despite studies showing that eating meat increases greenhouse gas emissions — and that just a 50% plant-based substitution could cut emissions by a third — projections for global meat consumption are going up. With the plant-based meat industry facing substantial financial hurdles due to a lack of demand, it seems like the human appetite for a real cut of beef isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Thankfully, there's a strong candidate for a long-term solution to the problem: hybrid meat, an alt-meat that combines lab-cultivated animal meat and plant-based substitutes for the most authentic taste possible at a much more sustainable footprint. 

You might be asking, why not just pivot to cultivated meat entirely? The lab meat industry has been making major breakthroughs in science and legislation, with 2023 seeing the first FDA approval of cultivated meat. However, despite the fact that the U.S. will most definitely be seeing more cultivated meat products in the future, the harsh truth is that lab-grown meat production is still too expensive to be viable from a consumer perspective. Combining it with plant-based alternatives not only helps lower the price but adds a healthier element via the vegetables included in the plant-based portion: The newly growing hybrid meat industry is looking to tackle the issue by innovating the perfect ratio between taste and affordability to offer an alt-meat that's the best of every world. 

The growing industry of hybrid meat
Studiocasper/Getty Images

Currently, the biggest names in the hybrid meat industry are Meatable and Love Handle, two sustainability-focused companies collaborating on the world's first hybrid meat development facility in Singapore. Announced in late 2022, the Future of Meat Innovation Center currently hosts Meatable and Love Handle's projects as well as inviting those of other alt-meat startups and ventures with the ultimate goal of fostering the industry as a whole. So far, the center has seen some incredible progress: According to Meatable, the company now has a means of producing real meat tissue from cells in as little as eight days and will be launching its hybrid meat products in Singapore as early as 2024.

Currently, Meatable has every intention of expanding its operations to the U.S. market. However, with the sharp drop in revenue, setbacks, and loss of consumer faith the alt-meat industry has been battling in the U.S., it's unclear if hybrid meat will be able to make a solid landing and establish itself in the current market. There's also the looming fact that, despite the plant-based element making hybrid meat much cheaper than 100% cultivated meat, it remains a premium-priced product in comparison to conventional meat. Hopefully, we'll be seeing further innovations that'll help bring hybrid meat — as well as completely plant-based alternatives — closer to price parity and onto our tables.

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Article Source: https://www.tastingtable.com/1409364/what-is-hybrid-meat-difference-meatless-varieties/ 

^ compliance with terms ("You are not permitted to reproduce Static Media Content in any online website or distribution method if for any reason you do not provide a link back to the specific URL of the Static Media Content.")

I've recently discovered another site that looks like a very nice option. It's called Ulta Lab Tests. It would appear that they offer Cystatin C also for $40 plus an $8 specimen collection fee ($48 in total). They also operate through Quest Diagnostics.

All three of these sites are worth checking out. All three provide a myriad of tests for you and are very affordable. 

https://www.ultalabtests.com/

On 11/18/2023 at 4:37 AM, Debashis said:

What advice would you give to someone considering or starting a meat-based ketogenic lifestyle for the first time?

Are there things they should be cautious about? Let your knowledge flow here.

My starting advice would depend on your answer to where are you coming from? What is your current diet?

If you are vegetarian interested in the benefits of carnivore, or currently eating the standard American junk diet, I would recommend a gradual transition to carnivore. Something like this....

Week 1: Cut your carbs to 100g or less per day. Remove all sugars, grains, and seed oils.
Week 2: Cut your carbs to 50g or less. Start eating 3 meals a day with NO snacking in between.
Week 3: Cut your carbs to 20g or less. Start focusing on filling half your plate with fatty meat, and the other half low carb veggies.
Week 4: Cut your carbs to 10g or less. Now 3/4th of your plate is fatty meat and 1/4 is veggies.
Week 5 and beyond, only eat animal products. It will basically be zerocarb or trace carbs.

The reason for this is because if you switch suddenly, you might experience what is called the "keto flu" which is a run down groggy feeling that lasts a few days to a few weeks. Also, your bowel habits will change, and this slower transition will help you understand these changes are fine (you will go sit down just a couple times a week instead of multiple times a day). 

Now others prefer to jump right in. I think that's what @Geezy says he did. And that is okay to. You just have to power through the transition phase. But once you are fat adapted, you should feel great and energized most of the time.

Welcome @Eric G!

I would love to see you get to the bottom of this. Your diet description sounds on point. They are basically the same things I would eat. Although if I eat chicken, I usually add bacon or cheese or both because the chicken is lean and I want a higher fat content. I use Carb Manager app to track my macros. But I think your diet is fine as it is.

18 hours ago, Eric G said:

I started the carnivore in hopes of relieving chronic pain all throughout my body but mostly in my back.

How is the pain and inflammation in the rest of your body? Has that improved?

Have you ever had a back injury? Have you ever been in an accident?

There could be some condition that is aggravating the back that diet alone isn't going to address. For example, my wife was in a car accident in 2007. Years later, she developed a chronic pain condition where nobody could even touch her. By late 2015 she spent most the time in bed and didn't want to live. We were seeing a specialist per day and she was on like 15 different medications.

Then, a friend referred us to this non-traditional chiropractor who practiced an alternative method. He x-rayed her neck and there were some cervical vertebrae misaligned and pinching her major nerve chord and causing the brain to be lifted up from it's natural resting posting. He made adjustments to her neck over the course of several visits, and her pain went away and she got her life back, and I got my wife back, lol.

Diet wise, I would keep doing what you are doing. I would try to run this by Dr. Berry. I could even ask in your behalf.

So from an observational standpoint, yes, the weather seems to be different form when I was a child. I can remember it snowing, guaranteed, by my birthday in early November. I can also remember "Spring Break" being the last week of March and it was often warm enough to wear shorts - at least us crazy kids thought so.

Today, we really don't see snow until January. And then, sometimes that snow lasts into April, and we've even had a freak snow in the middle of May.

It's almost like we need a "leap month" to reset everything. Everything seems to be off by 30 days or so from when I was a kid.

Am I worried? No. I don't fret about things out of my control.

So my wife uses sugar free french vanilla Coffee Mate. Here's the ingredients....

Estimates of the contribution by cattle to global warming that may occur in the next 50 to 100 years is a little less than 2%. In short, cows and eating meat are a non-issue.

Welcome aboard Christina!

2 hours ago, Pbear4578 said:

I’m not sure if it’s ok to do or not since I only put maybe a tablespoon in my coffee.

Can you give an example of what you eat in a typical day? And how much coffee are you drinking? I know you said a tablespoon but if you drink cup after cup all day long then this is important to know, lol.

If you are only having one cup of coffee and a single tablespoon of zero sugar coffee creamer, you are probably going to be fine.

Much of it depends on your "why" for doing carnivore. If it's to lose weight, I probably wouldn't worry about it. If it's to reverse or heal a condition, then you might want to, because in this case the point of carnivore is to be a clean, pure elimination diet, and then later you add back in things and see if you are sensitive to it or not.

I still drink some artificially sweetened beverages myself, and I'm fine and still reaping the benefits of a carnivore diet.

Read your labels and make sure you're comfortable with small quantities of whatever those ingredients are.

2 hours ago, Pbear4578 said:

I don’t handle dairy products really well so this was my alternative. 

Many carnivores will use heavy cream, and others will use butter. Both of these are usually lacking in lactose, which is why many people have issues with regular dairy, like milk.

Yes, this is true. Animal protein sources are more complete, have better absorption and muscle-building effects, have more additional nutrients, and contain fewer calories and carbohydrates. However, plant proteins are considered “incomplete” because they lack sufficient amounts of one or more essential amino acids. There's 2 ways around this problem. One would be to eat a variety of plant proteins at once, increasing your odds of getting all the essential amino acids to form a "complete" protein. Or, just eat soy, as soy protein is complete just like animal protein. However, soy is known to cause other issues when eaten in excess.

Then there is the problem of fiber and antinutrients found in plants that also block your bodies absorption of some of these proteins and nutrients. 

In short, the protein and nutrient composition of meat is more "bioavailable" than those in plants. When you eat meat, you absorb ALL of it. When you eat plants, much of the nutrition just ends up in the toilet.

So I would answer real meat, fresh meat, and even meat from the local rancher/butcher.

There's a bit of a "grey area" when it comes to processed meats. Some meats are called "processed foods" when they really aren't. For example, bacon, throughout history, has been cured, but wasn't a processed food, at least not until modern times. It's always important to read your labels and see what's in the product.

It's similar with certain sausages and certain deli meats, like salami. Are these processed or cured? Well, depends on the supplier and what's in it.

I would not consider canned tuna or canned salmon processed. It's just the animals flesh, put in a can.

But then there's hot dogs, bologna, vienna sausages, etc. I worked at a hot dog factory, and that is definitely processed. It a mishmash of meat, organ, and fat scraps liquified, with maybe some dextrose or cornstarch added, and then solidified in a casing that may often be synthetic. 

Even then, if all you could afford was these cheap processed meats, it would still be healthier than cookies, cakes, pies, cheetos, snacks, and much more junk that makes up the standard American diet.

4 hours ago, Nomad said:

but we will also be putting artificial meat inside our body that might have a lot of consequences.

And that is my primary concern. To date, putting all kinds of man-made processed foods into our bodies has a lot of consequences, even if it takes years for those consequences to become manifest. I would suspect lab grown meat would be the same.

I'll let others be the guniea pigs for this.

4 hours ago, Nomad said:

However, I have experienced the positive benefits of eating meat when you combine it with a vegetarian diet. For example, when you eat fried chicken with a lot of salad, you will not only get a lot of protein but also a lot of fiber.

This would basically be Keto, which we do approve of here. Before I went mostly carnivore, I ate a lot of salads and always had a low carb side vegetable with my meat. 

I'm not a dogmatic carnivore so I'm personally not averse to vegetables, or even certain fruits for that matter, depending on one's current metabolic health. As Dr. Berry would say, a Proper Human Diet is a spectrum, from low carb, to keto, to ketovore, to carnivore. You just have to find out where on the spectrum you fit. And sometimes, your DNA, genetics, and heritage will play a role in this too.

23 hours ago, Geezy said:

I’ve seen not only benefits but just outright miracles.

That's an impressive list of improvements, Geoff. I'm really happy for you.

On 11/18/2023 at 4:25 AM, Debashis said:

Have you experienced it yourself?

Yes indeed. I have lost 50 pounds, lost all my skin tags, lowered my blood pressure, possibly cured ulcerative colitis, and have more energy and overall feel better than I have in decades. I used to have an issue with falling asleep behind the wheel on my way home from work. I routinely would make it almost home, and have to pull into a parking lot, lock the door, and pass out for 30 minutes, and then resume my drive. That never happens anymore, thank God!