Besides my positive experiences so far, anyone experimented with some variation of the carnivore diet? I find it interesting people’s health has improved on rapamycin and carnivore despite being somewhat antithetical. I have some idea why this may be the case, but it’s a bit nuanced. Would be interested to hear what this forum has to say.
4 Likes
I don’t really like talking about diet much or enjoy engaging in the diet wars but I did eat mainly carnivore for most of the past 4 years until starting rapamycin. I’m celiac and have numerous food sensitivities from being on levaquin for 50 days after a body fluid exposure at work and really messing up my gut. After that incident I’ve tended towards tolerating animal based foods the best. In the last 7 months on rapa I’ve been able to expand my diet considerably though without most of the symptoms that I previously had if I ate plant foods. I respect everyone’s dietary choices because of this situation. I still include animal foods at most meals but I’m going for leaner choices these days with mainly fibrous vegetables.
I believe there are couple carnivores here. As far as I’ve seen it’s not a wildly popular diet in longevity circles but I believe each person has the responsibility to carefully consider their own situation and make the best choices based on their unique goals. I’m not convinced that there’s one diet that’s best for everyone tbh but I’m just an ordinary person (not a doctor or scientist) trying to be the best version of myself possible.
13 Likes
Personally, I am on board with the carnivores. I have just started the carnivore protocol and I feel much better gut-wise. The next thing is to look at my blood work after some time on a carnivore diet. Keeping my blood markers within normal bounds is important to me.
Vegans:
Carnivores: (My current heroes)
7 Likes
As long as apoB stays low and you supplement with fibre, vitamins, mineral and so on, I don’t see anything wrong with the carnivore diet.
2 Likes
The problem is that it’s difficult which leads to most people following a carnivore diet to deny the importance of apoB, LDL is common which is almost the same thing. To not eat any carbohydrates seems like it’s dangerous to me and doesn’t make any sense from an athletic (daily living) perspective. Saladino felt like he was dying so he started eating fruit and honey and white rice. Not so long after publishing his ‘carnivore code’ book. I’ve been vegan for almost a decade, so it might just be my bias… But apoB is important. And people who don’t take care of it will die from heart disease.
2 Likes
@AnUser, I generally agree with your view based on my experience. There are definitely some really impressive and convincing carnivore influencers. I had some slightly troubling signs/symptoms early on like increased total cholesterol, LDL, frequent bruising and cracks in my fingernails. My doctor wasn’t worried about the cholesterol because my ratios put me in the low risk category but I’ve had perfect cholesterol in the past on an omnivore diet so perhaps omnivore is optimal for me? If I include some carbs (just 50-100g/day) all those issues improve for me. I don’t doubt that people experience some relief especially when coming from a more typical western diet but I think it’s important for people to not get caught up in an ideology and really pay attention to what’s happening to their body and any abnormal labs.
5 Likes
Yes it’s important to feel good on your diet and make sure your labs don’t go out of control.
2 Likes
I have just switched to total carnivore. Since I was eating low carb before I don’t think there is going to be much change to my lipid profile which is currently quite good.
Maybe it’s just a placebo effect but eliminating any plant food from my diet has resulted in complete normalization of my digestive tract.
I have watched some Youtube videos where people just starting carnivore have some real problems for the first week. This may be similar to the keto flu effect for people just starting keto.
6 Likes
Above is my post workout meal… sometimes with a salad every other day for 6 years. No doubt some of you just look at this picture and can feel your arteries clogging. Lol
But really, my meal for over a decade before I regularly started exercising. Meat and loaded potatoes guy. On my between days usually chicken or shrimp.
No signs of plaque or calcium. Lots of strength and energy.
We are all different phenotypes. My Neanderthal Scottish genes and Czech immigrant blood thrives on this. As I age even more so.
Happy for the vegans… not for me.
5 Likes
Carnivore is an interesting diet. I was low carb for two years and lost a lot of weight (50 lbs) and have kept it off and stabilized at a relatively lean level, but I didn’t feel like I was getting “stronger”, only “leaner” although I feel/felt great and have great endurance for hiking/staira/other important activities. I then did six months of carnivore combined with heavy lifting and feel the same “great” although I definitely put on noticable muscle (difficult at 52; no other interventions except GlyNAC and vitamin d) and have had some (what I suspect are) hormonal changes to more “teenage” outcomes plus center male pattern baldness starting suddenly which is why I suspect sudden hormone changes. (I haven’t tested and don’t really care and don’t plan to undergo TRT so sorry there’s nothing quantitative I can provide). I suspect it is the weights and not the carnivore. Anyway I am partially back to a combined “carnivore/low carb” diet (I’m basically eating meat, sometimes nuts, and salads/cauliflower/etc and nothing much else outside of butter and olive oil. Still feel great. The hormone “symptoms” continue, but I’ve continued weightlifting so there’s that. Restaurants are easy. I’ll keep going until my blood levels tell me otherwise.
My LDL is the only “off” value and I’m trying citrus bergamot and now cocoa in my coffee to see if LDL can come down naturally, and may try a once-per-year Nattokinase course to “clean out” any issues building with plaque. I haven’t tested LPa or LPb nor the NMR lipid tests but will eventually.
I’m going to say it again and I know muscle isn’t that popular in this forum, but I watched my father suffer with sarcopenia for 15 years and I personally am NOT going out that way: I’d strongly suggest none of you want this either and wouldn’t wish it on any of you, so whatever your treatment plans I implore you to think of this (even though I suspect it is a “median lifespan enhancer” and not a “max lifespan enhancer”). I apologize for my rant.
9 Likes
Great to hear your responses. Carnivore is especially intriguing since there are folks who thrive on it, despite going against “mainstream” scientific consensus. If anything this speaks to the adaptability of humans to optimally survive off of contrasting dietary inputs.
A year into carnivore, gut issues seem to have improved along with the commonly reported stable energy levels. I’ve experimented with keto, vegan, Okinawan, and Mediterranean over the years and frankly I can’t say there’s been much of a difference. For the average population I think most of the battle is just getting off of a SAD.
Oddly my satiety is better if I eat pure meat or eggs, not even added salt or tallow. I’ve never understood the idea of fattier cuts of meat since typically more adiposity means the organism is less healthy. As I understand the meat hunter-gatherers hunt is pretty lean.
4 Likes
Strongly agree with you on sarcopenia, even if there is a slight trade-off for max lifespan.
2 Likes
@Virilius, @AnUser On the LDL part, is anyone familiar with Dave Feldman and Nick Norwitz’s work on Lean Mass Hyper Responders?
My LDL has expectedly increased but I am also quite skinny, and have been so long before carnivore or keto.
3 Likes
Yes, I enjoy their material and they both make some really great points.
I’ve tried going off carnivore 3-4 times IIRC in the past 4 years and 2 or 3 months is the longest I’ve made it before going back to eating carnivore so I’m not even sure if I’ll be successful this time! The last time I failed it was due to dangerously low blood pressure (75/55) that I dealt with for months. My doctor (who I greatly respect) couldn’t help besides prescribing a medication that I didn’t particularly like taking. My dad and husband both suggested I go back to eating carnivore because they said I seemed to do much better when eating that way and they were tired of seeing me suffer. My blood pressure did normalize pretty quickly after going back to carnivore. That was the spring/summer of 22. It seems like carbs in particular are the culprit for me because for the last 2 days I ate above my normal limit and my blood pressure was already trending down today at 86/60. So I guess I’m a quasi or reluctant carnivore. I do know if I do it again it will be leaner protein sources without the focus on the keto aspect that requires loading up on butter and other animal fats. When my ketones are at the therapeutic level is when I start spontaneously bruising and I gather that happens to a small minority of people on ketogenic diets due to a shift in the fatty acids on the cell membranes. I did lower my total cholesterol from 295 to 221 just by having evoo with my meat/seafood/eggs in place of butter before my current and probably final push for omnivore. If I fail this time at least I can say I’ve really tried. I’m always supportive of whatever way a person needs to eat because of what my trials have taught me.
5 Likes
It’s not placebo. That was my experience as well. I can’t stand my own farts at the moment!
4 Likes
3 Likes
Yeah… my knuckles drag behind me too. Hahaha.
That said here is a great video bit from Dr. Peter Attia and Dr. Wanda Patrick - Protein and Strength Training. And, why the dogma of reduced protein lives on as good for longevity… but it is wrong.
2 Likes
I have no problem with anyone’s diet if it is keeping them healthy. The government fails to recognize the ancestral background and genetics of the individual when promulgating their food pyramid. Things change and I never commit to one diet forever.
One of the most common differences is how well you can digest lactose as an adult. Since I am mainly of Scandinavian descent, I have a good tolerance for lactose even into old age. Whole milk provides all of the nutrients a calf needs until they are 6-7 months of age so I figure it is a fairly good source of nutrients for me. I have been on a relatively low to very low carb for decades. The only time my lipids weren’t good is when I started taking high doses of rapamycin. Now that I have cut back my lipids look good again.
If someone went on a carnivore diet and told me it raised their lipid levels, I would believe them.
Everyone is different because of their genetic makeup.
There is a reason I switched to carnivore and it’s not because I necessarily think it’s the world’s greatest diet. As you may know, metformin has some unpleasant side effects for some people; heartburn, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, bloating, gas, and diarrhea. It is mostly dose-dependent. Because I am now quite old, I have a harder time keeping my fasting blood sugar below 100 and because metformin is synergistic with rapamycin independent of glucose lowering effect I wanted to increase my metformin to 500 mg twice a day. This resulted in some digestive tract issues. To make an even longer story shorter, after some searching I found some people were experiencing great results in overcoming digestive tract issues when they went on a carnivore diet.
My latest (this month) lipid panels after being on a low-carb diet for ~two months. I published this before, but I won’t make you look for it.
6 Likes
Before you go making life decisions on a consumer DNA test, there’s an Instagram reel (or TikTok) going around about someone who gave the saliva test to a frog and then got fraudulent human results back from the company, complete with genealogy and ancestory. I don’t have the link and have little idea if it is true but made me think nonetheless.
4 Likes
But… what if… the frog was a cursed Prince Charming?
Then, European ancestry might be spot on… lol.
Sorry…I couldn’t resist.
I agree… 
you need to be sure who is running the test and accuracy for what it is worth. I use biological tests from TruMe and GlycanAge because both are used by the Ageless RX and PEARL clinical trial (supported by Blagosklonny’s and Dr. Green)…so, some degree of integrity.
3 Likes