At 9:15 PM on Tuesday April 2, 2007, just as the opening credits for that evening’s episode of Star Trek Enterprise started rolling, I had a massive heart attack and died. Three times in fact. I died on my living room floor, in the ambulance and once again in the ER. Long story full of heavy drama, cliff-hanger close calls, amazing technologies and personal transformations, but the upshot was that I spent 6 days in a cardiac ICU and generated well over a hundred grand in medical debt. The nurses later told me that only 4 percent survive the kind of heart attack I had.
Very. Close. Call. Yep.
Phew…
Coming out of that event I was seriously disabled. A 50-foot walk to the mailbox at the end of my driveway required a 45 minute nap afterwards. Nonetheless, in between naps I could go online and I did. My focus was, “What the hell happened?” I had no significant lifestyle risk factors, no family history of heart disease and had been a strict vegetarian for over 40 years, eating a diet that included no meat, fish, birds or eggs, or anything containing those as ingredients. I did eat dairy products, including milk, cheeses, yogurt and butter, but those were the only animal products I consumed and I had them in small amounts. I was 56 at the time of my heart attack, just 3 weeks before my 57th birthday.
How could I – a low-fat, high complex-carb vegetarian eating a plant-based diet as recommended by everyone from Michael Pollan to Michelle Obama – end up with a host of serious and chronic health issues and have one of them kill me dead? (Yes, obviously they brought me back, but that was entirely a function of good luck, modern medical technology and especially the clot-buster injection that went straight into my heart, and then later, the arterial stent. And obviously I was not dead-dead. Nobody comes back from that. I flat-lined. Or, as Miracle Max may have said, I was “…mostly dead.”)
I ate all the “right things,” exercised regularly, didn’t eat “the bad stuff” such as saturated fat, and yet I still got whacked. If I was this vulnerable to heart disease, then something was seriously wrong with how I was living my life, and the first suspect was my diet. That heart attack required that I re-examine all my closely held beliefs about nutrition, health and food. I began intensively researching this topic, and was eventually fortunate enough to find some really significant information and resources. More on that later.
First off let me remind you that I’m not a doctor and I’m not giving medical advice. I’m a survivor of a massive heart attack of a type that very few survive. The nurses and docs warned me that the damage to my heart and cardiovascular system was so severe that they gave me a survival prognosis of three months to maybe two years tops. As of this writing it’s been nearly ten years since. For me, understanding what happened and what to do about it was literally a matter of life and death. While I am no longer afraid of death at all, I am rather fond of my life and am not terribly anxious for it to end. My understanding of this issue was then and continues to be a top priority for me.
At the time of my heart attack I was shocked to discover that my total cholesterol was normal (179) according to conventional wisdom, but that I was prediabetic (A1C of 11.2 so BG maybe around 280 if I remember correctly), that I weighed about 215 (give or take), that I had IBS, high blood pressure, serious arthritis and a host of other underlying conditions. Nobody tells us that half of all fatal heart attacks occur in people with “normal” cholesterol, and they certainly do not advertise that 70 percent of diabetics die of heart disease. Clearly there are direct causative correlations between those two. And now there is even some early data saying that Alzheimer’s may be a form of Type 3 diabetes. We’ll see – more research necessary there.
However. It turns out that everything we’ve been told about fat and dietary health is backwards and comes from a profit-based collusion between government, big agriculture, the food processing industry and the big pharma companies. It’s not that they are in some massive conspiracy, just that everyone’s greed for profits has produced an interlocking set of belief systems that is extremely toxic and damaging to us all. It started with Ancel Keys and his faked research and deceptive cholesterol reports after World War II and the pattern went on from there. It’s called “the lipid hypothesis” and it’s one of the most heinous deceptions in modern medicine.
There is no causal relationship between cholesterol levels and heart disease. The lipid hypothesis is a health scare that has been completely invented, made up out of nothing and sold to the American public using every marketing and advertising technique available to Madison Avenue. If the dietary advice about low-fat diets really worked, why then are the rates for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity still sky-rocketing? I – as a lifelong low-saturated fat plant-eater vegetarian – should have been completely exempt from heart disease. Nope.
It took me two years of research before I discovered, worked out and fixed the culprits in my food supply. I experimented and played with my food and swapped things around until I developed real certainty about what was optimal. I stopped eating any grains or carbs, no sugars or sweeteners, and although altogether the conversion and transformation took about 3 years total, I eventually even quit eating plants at all. The result is that my daily intake of carbs is typically below 20 grams per day, and consistently less than 10 grams.
Turns out that there are two kinds of human metabolism – fat-driven ketosis, where we metabolize ketone bodies, and the sugar/carbohydrate-driven insulin-based metabolism. Ketosis and the fat-based diet is how we evolved, but as a fall-back for times when meat is scarce we can survive on carbs. It’s not optimal, and we suffer for it, but once we get back to a meat diet we can recover very quickly.
Fat doesn’t make you fat and it’s not fat that kills you. The culprit is sugar. And guess what? Every gram of carbohydrate you eat is nothing more than a gram of glorified sugar. Furthermore, obesity (with some rare exceptions) is a symptom of metabolic starvation. When we eat fat it becomes fuel and it burns clean. When we eat carbohydrates and sugars our body thinks we are in starvation and it converts much of that sugar to fat, storing it for later. The problem is that sugar does not burn clean – it requires insulin, and excessive insulin generates severe inflammation, glycation, insulin resistance and eventually hyperinsulinemia, which of course leads to the big 5 – obesity, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and many types of the sugar-derived cancers.
The reality is that nutrient-rich traditional fats have nourished healthy human population groups for hundreds of thousands (and quite likely, millions) of years. Humans are natural-born fat-seekers and fat-eaters. Remember, 50 to 60 percent of the total caloric value of human breast milk is from the saturated fat it contains, and that nutritional requirement does not go away when we wean.
Eat this:
Butter, whole raw milk and whole raw cheeses
Beef and lamb tallow
Lard
Chicken, goose and duck fat
bacon fat
Egg yolks
Marine oils (like cod liver oil)
all fatty meats
I find it interesting that medical researchers call this the “French Paradox” because the fatty ingredients above are what make French cuisine so amazingly delicious, yet as a people, the French have a significantly lower rate of heart disease and rates of death by heart attack when compared to Americans. The same high saturated fat ingredient list contributes to the healthier aspects of the Mediterranean diet, which produces health outcomes very similar to what happens in France. In Okinawa, where we find the longest-lived people on the planet, the primary fat is from pork and pork products, which contributes a significant percentage of their daily caloric intake. Saturated fats are so important to our health that if we don’t eat enough of them in our foods then our body will make them out of carbohydrates. This is also part of the reason that people eating a low-fat diet have such consistently high cholesterol levels. If we don’t eat sufficient cholesterol then our body has to make it, and our blood levels spike. We need that cholesterol for every single cell membrane in our body, as well as for all our neurotransmitters. Ever wonder why low-fat dieters are so susceptible to mood disorders?
I recommend reading the ingredients list on every food item we buy. If it contains any of the following 5 ingredients, don’t buy it and certainly don’t eat it:
Avoid these:
1) enriched flour (usually white and heavily refined),
2) white sugar,
3) high-fructose corn syrup,
4) partially hydrogenated vegetable oils of any kind,
5) fully hydrogenated vegetable oils of any kind.
The following laboratory-developed and machine-processed fats listed can cause serious degenerative diseases:
Transfats
All hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils including hydrogenated lard
Soy, corn and safflower oils
Cottonseed oil
Canola oil
All plant fats heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying
When you add in high-fructose corn syrup to the mix, along with all the chemical additives, pesticides and whatever leaches from plastics into our foods, is it any wonder that our diet is killing us? I just read a recent study that high fructose corn syrup is the number one favorite nutrient preferred by cancer cells.
Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, thyroid problems, high blood pressure, arthritis, ADHD, autism, osteoporosis, dental caries and gum disease, obesity, allergies, many kinds of cancers, reproductive dysfunction and sterility – all these have significant contributing factors that arise in some degree from our diet, and the quality of the foods we eat and don’t eat.
For over 5 years I only ate fat and meat and drank only water. Period. 80 percent or more of my daily calories came from animal fats (butter, lard, pork fat, tallow and so on) and about 15 percent came from meat proteins. When I’m thirsty I drink water. That’s it. Although this time of year (August) when the wild blueberries are ripe on my land, I might have a handful on the way down to go canoeing on the river that is the western boundary of my place. I see no negative effects from this so far, but the quantities are small and the frequency is low.
My metabolism stays in nutritional ketosis. I’ve lost well over 50 pounds of belly fat and weigh in around 160 give or take a few pounds. My IBS vanished, and so did my GERD and arthritis. My blood pressure is 110 over 70. My A1c is between 4.2 and 4.4, and regular blood testing shows my BG levels consistently run between 85 and 105, so I’m no longer prediabetic. Total cholesterol is about 170, my triglycerides are at 42 and even the plaque in my arteries has been diminishing. I’m in the best health I’ve been in since I was 20, in spite of the old damage to my heart muscle from the CVE in ’07.
My cardiologist, when he found out I was eating a primal diet (some might call it paleo but I don’t because I go way beyond that), just went batshit crazy, jumping all over my case about how I should be on statins and eating very low-fat. I flat out refused the statins. Then I asked him, if all he said was true then how did he explain my blood chemistry results? He couldn’t. I eventually had to fire him because he refused to wake up to the fact that nearly everything he knew and advised about food, nutrition and my health was not only incorrect, but ass-backwards. If you need a doctor, find one who is paleo (or primal) friendly.
If you like to eat plants, then I highly recommend you follow the meal plan of my good friend Steve Cooksey, who is a classic example of an insulin-dependent T2 diabetic who no longer requires insulin or any other meds. (If you eat the way the ADA recommends you will stay sick, stay insulin-dependent and you will die a miserable death for no reason.)
http://www.diabetes-warrior.net/
If you don’t like eating plants and want to experience the most robust health possible for humans, then go full-on zero carb and follow my friend Esmée La Fleur’s elegant eating plan here:
That is the simplest way of eating that humans can follow – eat meat, drink water. End of story.
For those of you who love the science and the details, I recommend Nora Gedgaudas – links to her videos and her book can be found here:
Primal Body, Primal Mind – Beyond the Paleo Diet
You should be aware that eating this way will generate a lot of push-back from people who have no idea what they are talking about – friends, family, poorly informed true believers such as vegans and dieticians and so on, even many doctors. They have not lived this experience and they are operating from conviction founded upon belief. Instead of listening to them, just trust your body. Do the work that growth requires, heal and live well.
It can take a while to adapt to zero carb and ketosis but once you do, you will be amazed at how quickly you will heal, how great your body feels and how effortless this way of life is.
For more background, I also highly recommend you read
“The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability” by Lierre Keith
And:
The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz
Also from Nina, this terrific video debunking all the nonsense assertions about
health hazards from red meat – what is the real science about it:
“Science and Politics of Red Meat in 2021”
As well as:
“The Carnivore Diet” by Shawn Baker
For a female perspective on this journey to understanding food, nutrients, and body health,
here is my partner Jenny’s process in three parts on her blog – Our Daily Crime:
Part 1:
The Politics of Food: Questions
Part 2:
The Politics of Food: Reluctant Journey
Part 3:
The Politics of Food: Ideology
And also please read the essays and reports on my friend’s great research web site: L. Amber O’Hearn is a data scientist by profession with a background in math, computer science, linguistics, and psychology. She has been studying and experimenting with low-carb, ketogenic diets since 1997, and more recently writing and speaking about her findings. Her review on the evolutionary appropriateness and benefit of weaning babies onto a meat-based, high fat, low carb diet, was included as testimony defending Professor Tim Noakes in his recent trial. Amber has been eating a plant-free diet since 2009.
Ivor Cummins on calcium scores and the root causes of CVD, Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWcgT4BYwo0
Ivor Cummins – Part 2 – Healing CVD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Xd9e4B3e8
Here’s a bit of our evolutionary history, human predatory patterns – marrow – us as fat eaters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSCV_XFcVPU
Dr. Miki Ben-Dor maintains we have always been eating some plants, but his evidence seems to show it’s been less than 20 percent of our daily caloric intake. Personally I consider them either garnish or medicine and don’t generally partake. If you can take some and not suffer consequences then good for you, but others, like my partner, she can’t even have a few spinach leaves under her scrambled eggs without 3 days of fibromyalgia pain thereafter. Up to you – figure out what works and do that more.
A good text recap of the podcast –
https://www.peak-human.com/post/miki-ben-dor-phd-on-the-humans-eating-fatty-meat-for-all-of-history
the podcast: (about 90 minutes)
What Have Humans Evolved Eating – Meat or Plants? Miki Ben-Dor, PhD – Peak Human Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8znp6SQNXY
© 2016-2020
Carmine Leo
Excellence info thank-you
Thank you for this very clear information. It gives me hope of achieving health –wnd weight loss– although I am a few days from my 67th birthday.
This is the same conclusion I’ve come to. My situation is a bit different, as I have a family history, Familial Hypercholesterolemia and suffered the first of four heart attacks 22 years ago. Now, I follow essentially the same regimen with one exception, I also intermittently fast. Now, I too feel great, but I used to be chronically inflamed and racked with pain. Although I never was vegetarian, I was never “overweight” and ate better than most Americans i.e., we almost always sat down to a family meal every night and rarely ate out. Funny about those Physicians, I had to fire four cardiologists and now drive three hours to be “doctored” by an open minded cardiologist. You should have seen the look on the doctor’s and nurse’s faces when I wouldn’t do the catheter/stent procedure on my last ER visit four months ago. They essentially kicked me out of the hospital and said what are you going to do? I told them I was going to go home and get well. I’m biking and running now and this past weekend played first base in a high school alumni softball tournament. What they aren’t aware of is, I know things they don’t. Did I mention that I’m pushing 62 years old?
Thank you for sharing your story!
Well put. I had exactly the same HbA1c 11.2% when I was first told I might be pre-diabetic … they were wrong. I now know I had been Diabetic by then for 2 decades already but Medical science just didn’t have the tools to detect it. lucky I didn’t have a fatal heart attack.
Well, they did, but they didn’t use them. How long has the Kraft Insulin Assay been around?
Same with CAC score. For some mysterious reason it just fell out of use.
Very inspiring story. Stay the course. I restarted this journey yesterday; hopefully this time for good.
Awesome Carmine…! How to disprove the theory of everything ‘scientific’ about food and diet in one fell swoop…….
Actually the science against HCLF (high carb/low fat) and for HFLC (high fat/low carb) is quite robust and very compelling. It’s just been hidden, ignored and denied by those with an agenda pegged to their vested interest – all the money-makers such as food processors, big ag and big pharma. It’s really unfortunate too. Same thing happened with tobacco and is happening now with climate change.
Most doctors really want to help, to make a difference, to contribute value. It’s just they have never been taught much of anything relevant about nutrition, and what little they do know is ass-backwards from the reality. Most them tho, will change their position if you can give them good data, have them look closely at your blood work and results from this way of eating.
Wow. Out of curiosity how do you know that the plaque in your arteries has decreased? Is it a significant amount?
Doppler ultrasound before and after comparisons. Absolutely amazing. Wouldn’t have believed myself if I hadn’t lived it and seen it. All the crap from the medical folks is that it’s not reversible. Ok. Sure. Fine. Carry on…
That’s fantastic! What are the numbers?
Also: Why give up plants?
Plants are full of phytotoxins, and also they contain inadequate amounts of the nutrients in which I am primarily interested – such as saturated fats, dietary cholesterol and quality proteins. Additionally, my system does not handle plant matter very well – it’s very difficult to digest and the excess fiber does terrible things to my innards. This may be TMI or MTINK for you (more than I need to know), but when I eat plants they exit in very nearly the same form they had when taken in. Why bother, when I can easily acquire every nutrient I need from meat and fat.
I view plants as either garnish or medicine, but in either case I ingest them rarely and in very small quantities. For more on this way of eating, please read:
http://www.zerocarbzen.com/
🙂
My plaque reversed as well. Now at zero.
I had been eating low-carb for years in 2009 when I had my last arterial ultrasound. They were completely clear.
Fascinating article! Thanks for a good read, and glad to hear you’re doing so well! Got one question though – do you find you need to take supplements at all, or are you getting everything you need from your diet?
I don’t take supplements now and haven’t for years, although I did take some magnesium for cramps when I was initially adapting, but I suspect that was because I was still somewhat insulin-resistant and my body hadn’t quite remembered (or relearned) its default setting for metabolic efficiency. I figure if a nutrient isn’t in meat then it’s not essential for our health and well-being. A great example of that is Vitamin C. In ketosis, with no plant matter, uric acid takes over the metabolic function of Vitamin C. This has been repeatedly demonstrated by populations who eat no plants, and if they get any C it’s from animal sources such as the adrenals of moose. It was also seen in the experiences of the Polar explorers where the sailors ate hardtack and died of scurvy, but the scientists ate only meat and fat and were just fine. Small amounts of carbs derail the function of uric acid, to our great detriment.
Hi Cleomine,
great post. Those of us who have lived it in some way (with me hep C and fatty liver and pre-diabetes) know LCHF works, animal food is healthy, and plants are often unnecessary for health.
I think the reason an all-meat diet reduces vitamin C requirement is this;
Firstly, as you say, uric acid can substitute for the antioxidant function of vit C, and there are probably other endogenous antioxidants like bilirubin helping too.
But vit C is essential because its pro-oxidant phase (dehydroxoascorbic acid) catalyses the synthesis of carnitine, creatine, and hydroxyproline. Scurvy is caused by the deficiency of these chemicals, not antioxidant deficiency.
However, all those chemicals are found in meat. This is why fresh meat prevents scurvy.
Thanks for that George – added to the data file. Makes perfect sense. 🙂
Hi Cleomine. I love your article. I am wondering about fiber intake. Since you aren’t eating any plants, how are you managing fiber? Are you able to have daily bowel movements? It’s a bit much to ask lol but I have had problems with this in the past so I stopped the keto diet. I’m really interested in what you have to say.
When I went all meat, all my bowel problems ceased. It is likely something else causing your bowel problems, like inflamation from wheat or something. It is non digestable fiber that messes things up, not meat. meat is easily digestable by human guts. It is what they were designed for.
I have been a very low carb,high fat, modest protein eater for 4 years and all bowel problems ceased.
great article thanks for writing it
So no dairy?
I would eat dairy, and have no problem with those who do (as long as it’s whole and raw) but unfortunately I’m lactose-intolerant. Frankly I’m quite sad about that because it’s great stuff if you can tolerate it. Perhaps a bit high in some sugars for some people, but I think it’s a personal choice.
Great insight and glad you are still around to reap the rewards. I have a question on your claim of human beast milk being 55% sat fat. Isn’t it more like 3-5% total fat?
My apologies for not being more clear James. The caloric energy (in kilocalories) from fat in human breast milk is between 50 and 60 percent of total caloric value. The actual fat content by volume runs between 10 and 14 percent depending on the mother’s health and the number of children she has had. First child gets more fat than second child unless the mother really has sufficient fat in her diet and sufficient volume of fat storage in her butt and thighs. More is better.
Later this afternoon I will edit the post to reflect better accuracy and clarity. Thanks for posting that question. 🙂
What about Dairy products (I don’t know if I can give up my milk heh)
Read up the comment thread.
Brilliant article, and I’m glad you’ve found your way back to health. As a Francophile, I find the French paradox very interesting because the French love sugary desserts and eat refined white bread at every meal!
Francophile bread may be white but it is very pure and with no additives. A true French person will buy freshly made bread 3 times a day.
By any chance is that Blood Pressure reading reversed? 110 Diastolic?
LOL – oh yes of course it was. I’m a bit dyslexic so I frequently reverse numbers. You should see what I do to telephone numbers. Thanks so much for spotting that. I fixed it. – Warm Regards. 🙂
I have been in ketosis (mostly) for 15 years. I am 67 and completely free of disease or involvement with doctors or dentists. I run several miles a day. I look 10 years younger than my peers.
I’m curious if a person only has meat and water, wouldn’t you always be constipated. How are the stools?
Bill
Sorry Bill, but this is more of the propaganda we have been sold about food and health. The reality is that fiber is the primary cause of constipation and diverticulitis. Zero-carbers have little to no trouble with excretion and/or their gastrointestinal system.
Here’s more:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435786/
Did you have a period were you had to increase your salt intake? Or do you have to always take in more salt? I’ve read/heard because of a low carb you end up urinating your sodium or something like that.
Bill
BTW thanks for this site.
Excellent article! I read stories like this every day, but this is one of best written. You ought to add a Twitter link so that it’s easy to share.
Hi Scott – Twitter. Facebook and Google-Plus sharing links have been added, floating to the left of screen. Thanks for the suggestion, and feel free to pass it along.
Warm Regards,
🙂
Carmine
—
I can’t eat just meat and fat, so I do add some very low carb veggies like spinach or lettuce. I make my own lemon oil dressings. It’s too boring to eat only meat and fat for me. I do try to stay below 30 grams of carbs, and I do also take a lot of supplements and always have since I was a child. I am going to be 68 in less than 2 weeks, had all the heart tests done in June and was found to be in great health, and I don’t look my age, thankfully. I have been studying nutrition for over 30 years. There is so much more to know and learn as I believe it is impossible to know it all due to changing science and trying to sort through the BS, and I know you know what I mean.
No worries Marie – if you like veggies and you can tolerate them then have at it. I have many low-carb friends who love their veggies. They work for some of us and not for others. I always encourage folks to do that which works best for them, whatever that might be.
🙂
I have never eaten margarine or much processed food in my life, I am huge butter lover and I eat all the meat I can, I love a nice fatty ribeye, I am sure that fat keeps me healthy, I do still have health issues but they are not caused by my diet.
When I had my Calcium scan done 4 years ago I had a score of 0% at 51, I am now 55 and still have a great working heart.
The tech told me I had the heart of a 20 year old, I said “Yes I do, I keep it in a jar on my desk”.
Stephen King reference cause I am that kinda gal <3
Unfortunately, I recently saw some undercover videos on YouTube of how animals are treated all through the process, particularly at slaughter, and haven’t eaten meat since. If it were possible to have organic meat treated without cruelty I would consider this seriously as I have a long family history of heart attack and imagine that is how I’ll go. I’m 58 now, my dad died at 57 and my mother at 69, both of heart attacks, my father’s family tree is riddled with them.
I have carotid blockage and bruit. One thing I’ve noticed that brings in the bruit is alcohol, which, I suppose, is all carb. I haven’t cut down on breads, rice, potatoes, et al but might give this a go if not for the reason cited above. I can’t bear to be a part of that cruelty…
The most appropriate way to manage the cruelty issue is to buy your meat from known farmers, people who raise their animals themselves, and who treat them with respect right up to slaughter. All of that can and frequently is done by people who really are committed to maintaining respect and dignity for the animals. Check out the books and videos from Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.
http://www.polyfacefarms.com/
This is the second year we’ve bought a quarter cow from Nehalem River Farms in southern Washington State. Very humanely cared for, calves are not separated from their mothers, everybody lives together eating lovely grass in a nice herd – and then they have one day that ends very quietly and suddenly. A quarter seems to last three people just about a year. It’s wonderful to be able to eat ground beef knowing it all came from one animal, from the parts too small or funny shaped to make into steaks or roasts, and not from multiple animals of who-knows-what condition. They give us a nice selection of steaks, roasts, bones, ground, and organs: we just made burgers and meatloaf out of ground beef mixed with ground heart. Very rich and wonderful, whereas heart straight is a bit intense. The people who raise them are a beautiful young couple – the kind of people who cry when they send a bull to a new home because they’ll miss him.
Thank you for sharing your story 🙂
Looking to get back on my LCHF journey from tomorrow morning (in UK so its almost bedtime on Sunday here right now) after slipping back into eating all the carbs through bad habits, celebrations etc. I thought I could handle “a day off” LCHF – turns out I can’t quite do it and I admit I lost control. (Emotional eating etc also plays a part in my issues) I also now realise that a “day off” type of attitude towards it isn’t the best way to approach it. Lesson learned!
I had lost almost 40lbs last time and know I feel so much better while I am eating LCHF. I really have to make this time stick as I am currently very over my “ideal weight” (for height – about 100lbs in total) and also have an underactive thyroid, joint pain, low mood etc. I know ALL these issues improve with better (LCHF!) eating and of course I don’t want to develop any new conditions or health issues, so I just need to get on with it and make LCHF my habit instead of the unhealthy stuff! It is hard though when everyone around looks at me as if I am crazy eatting butter etc when trying to “diet”
My life is a wonderful place because you lived. And this was an excellent read! I’m going to check out those resources, and I appreciate all that you’ve shared here.
It’s been an honor and a privilege to work with you CJ. I should add that I have learned easily as much from you as perhaps you have from me. Your contributions to my life and work have been and continue to be significant. Thank you for being my friend. 🙂
Me again. What’s an example day of food like for you?
So J and I will get up, I usually have coffee (black) and she has tea. We’ll have 4 slices of thick, country cut local bacon, or sometimes I’ll have 4 breakfast sausages and we’ll each have 4 eggs apiece. For lunch nearly every day we’ll have a burger, somewhere between 8 and 12 ounces depending on how hungry. I have our butcher add fat so it’s 70/30 meat to fat. Then for dinner we’ll split a big ribeye, have another burger, split a pound of scallops wrapped in bacon and sauteed in butter, something like that – variations on a theme. I drink mostly water but I love a cup of coffee and I also like tea, so both of those, but I’ve also spent years without either. Just meat and water. Good for whatever ails ya. 😉
This is without a doubt one of the best articles I have ever read which really goes to show how dangerous the advice we are give is. We should all take more responsibility with our own health. I am on an LCHF journey myself and am trying to be very open with others about it. People are really brainwashed into believing fat is bad, eggs are bad etc etc. This needs to change and articles like this help that happen. Keep up the fantastic work and thanks for the article.
CMS
Pingback: The Politics of Food: Reluctant Journey | Our Daily Crime
Great story
I was wondering do you take vitamin supplements?
Hi Bob,
I don’t take supplements except for once in a while if I have some cramping in my left calf (chronic old injury) then I will take some magnesium. But that is rare, maybe once a year or so if I’m doing a ton of heavy work.
This was truly very moving to read. I was already pointed in almost the same direction when I read it. I say “almost” as I had yet to learn about or consider zero carb. I was just thinking “keto.”
In my case, I had a sudden cardiac arrest while working out at the gym, and later had at least two silent heart attacks.
Reading your blog provides strength and focus, each time I reread it.
Those both come in handy now while I’m in the hunt for a cardiologist.
If I may, I’d like to ask you about post-cardiac-event pharmaceuticals.
Especially your experience during your trek from the beginning … and maybe any thoughts you might have on the subject, pro or con.
Thank you again, for taking the time to write up and publish your experience.
I’m sure there are hundreds who feel the same!
Tom
I m sticking to my butter, but I like my fruits and veggis too. And steak chicken and fish. I weened myself off sodas years ago. I will have to work on the rest.
Thank you SO much for this brilliant and informative sorry, Carmine.
You’re a great writer with a wonderful sense of humour! I laughed out loud at the reference to magic Max!
Thank you… Now to find a primal doctor in Melbourne Australia.
Hello Carmine
I met you a few days ago by stopping at your house for a health survey. Your sites are interesting and I would like to sign up for a free session once I know a little more about the direction my life will be going in. I have been thinking about the diet we talked about. I am wondering how long it takes to start seeing health and weight results. The diet would be a challenge for me but once seeing results, I know that would motivate me even more.
Hope you are well.
Steve Cooksey is the MAN!!
Yes he is, and I’m so glad he and I are friends. Every time I encounter a Type 2 insulin-dependent diabetic I refer them to Steve’s site as a first layer of resource. He’s a great example to all of us, and a worthy introduction to reclaiming robust health without meds.
Have you seen the film Widowmaker that you can find on Iver coming site the fat Emperor. Com? That explains why CAC scans fell out of favor because stents are so lucrative. It was bankrolled, the film I mean, by somebody who was given a clean bill of health but happened to take a CAC scan and was totally occluded and very close to dead. He was a wealthy man and bankrolled the documentary and started an organization in Ireland
Thank you, Paula. I hadn’t heard about this and am thinking it would be good to get such a scan in the near future just to make sure I’m OK. An in-law of one of my sisters died of a widowmaker a few years back. He was young and it was totally unexpected. It’s really sick how “health care” works in this country!
I have a bad family history. Deaths by heart attack. Tom: first attack at 36, dead at 50. John: dead at 41. Mother: dead at 54. Father: first attack at 48, dead at 70. I’ve been mostly plant based and low fat for 40 ears and my cholesterol keeps going up and I am thin. Started working with a yogi 18 months ago and am practicing Tibetan restorative yoga, not westernized exercise yoga. I am ignoring my doctor and eating more meat (especially bacon and other pig products), using lots of ghee, more cheese to go along with the beef, eggs, and chicken I have always eaten.
I have been dealing with osteoarthritis and GERD, had both knees replaced. Basically I am ignoring the advice of my doctors concerning diet and refuse to take pharmaceuticals. Despite all of this, at 77 I am feeling pretty good and continuing making an effort to feel good until the day I die at whatever age that may be. I am certainly going to consider the information you have offered.THANK YOU!
Thanks for sharing your experience Anthony. What I found worked best was to avoid sugars, starches (such as from grains, potatoes and the like) and any seed oils. It didn’t take long for me to notice the significant differences in my body and my sense of well-being when I ate those kinds of plant-derived substances and how I felt when I didn’t. It really helps to find a doctor that is carnivore (or paleo or keto) friendly. Unfortunately few doctors get any training in nutrition, and most of the nutritional training out there is seriously incorrect. Good luck, stay healthy, and I’m glad this was helpful for you. Thanks for commenting.
Warmest Regards… 🙂
Great post! It took me years to recover from 20 years of vegetarianism. I still struggle to remove foods from my diet that bother me. I know I feel like a million bucks when I eliminate absolutely everything on my food sensitivity test.
I am 35 years old man from Mexico, I did managed to affect my health with vegan diet and consumption of alcohol I think. Now after 5 years in this way of eating, I still believe this is the way to go. Thank you for this page and all the information and wish everybody a better tomorrow by eating fatty meat and avoiding carbs, specially those that are ultra processed and bad for human.
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Nicely done! I will be reading and watching the links. You have several I haven’t discovered.
Another author you may enjoy is Dr Bill Shindler, he’s an anthropologist.