Putting AUTOIMMUNE disease into remission with diet

Carnivore diet and autoimmune disease

Seventy percent of a healthy immune system comes from our gut health. Another big factor in a healthy immune system is a healthy lymphatic system. With so much of immune health coming from our intestinal tract it stands to reason that what we eat will have an effect on our gut health and consequently out immune system. In addition to healthy diet we need plenty of minerals, salt and water.

By eliminating harmful foods that are commonly consumed in the Standard American Diet we can begin to heal our bodies and reverse the damage done by years of eating harmful foods. What I mean by harmful foods is anything that is man made. This includes heavily processed foods. If it comes in a cardboard box it will damage your ability to heal damage incurred by daily life. We’ll get into details on how to eat a proper human diet a bit later. Here are some reasons why man made foods are so harmful.

1. Sugar is highly addictive, it affects the same addiction centre of the brain as cocaine and opioids. This is why it is so difficult to give up sweets. Sugar also spikes our insulin levels dramatically. Over time this will cause metabolic dysfunction and can eventually lead to diabetes. Sugar and carbohydrate consumption over time will be stored as adipose tissue, also known as fat.

2. Seed and vegetable oils are inflammatory and the long chain polymers created by high heat used to extract the oils, the chemicals used to purify & lighten the oils and remove bad odors damage organs in the body. The combination of these oils and sugar begin to damage the mitochondria. The mitochondria lives in our cells and is responsible for healing and replacing all damaged and mutated cells in your body. Mitochondria is also responsible for converting food to usable energy called ATP. If the mitochondria becomes damaged it can no longer heal damaged cells and mutations like cancer can replicate unopposed. This is why cancer and chronic disease are running rampant in modern society.

3. Although vegetables contain many vitamins and nutrients these are mostly unavailable to humans for absorption. Plants require the body to have special adaptations to properly break down the material and convert it to forms that can be absorbed as nutrition. This is why animals like ruminants have multiple stomachs that ferment and break down the plant fibre. Humans absorb less than 4% of the nutrients contained in plants.

Consider that plants cannot run away or fight back to keep from being eaten so most plants developed chemical defenses. Many of these chemicals are harmful to humans. Many vegetables we know and love contain toxins. Brussels sprouts when tested were found to have 136 known carcinogenic (cancer causing) compounds. Many plants also contain oxalates which cause oxidative damage to the human body. Plants in the night shade family like tomatoes, potatoes, egg plants, bell peppers, hot peppers, etc contain inflammatory compounds, which is why night shades are problematic for people with arthritis.

4. Fruits contain sugar which consuming large amounts of, over time, can cause the same issues as the sugar mentioned above. If you’re going to eat fruits and vegetables that contain seeds, make sure to only use ones that are vine ripened. Fruits and vegetables need to reproduce. Most reproduce via seeds. They don’t want those seeds to be be eaten before they become fully viable. To protect the seeds the plant/fruit produces high levels of toxins to discourage animals from eating them too early. Once the seeds are fully viable, the plant/fruit will dump the toxins through their stems and out the root system. If the plants are picked green, as is the current custom, and allowed to ripen during shipping to the store & sitting on the shelves means the toxins are trapped in the fruit or vegetable. Vine ripened fruits or vegetables have had the opportunity to flush those toxins making them much safer to eat.

Consider that before modern shipping mankind only had access to fruits and vegetables in their raw state for a short time each year. The body can tolerate sugar in fruits and some vegetables easily for short periods of time.

5. Consider that for most of our history, mankind were hunter gathers and primarily ate meat and fats with occasional fruits, nuts and berries in season. This meat heavy diet is ancestrally appropriate and is what we are genetically designed for. This is when our body works best and it’s naturally ability to heal is at it’s peak.

6. Many legumes and some plant based oils contain lectin. Lectin blocks 1 of 2 satiety signals (how we feel full). The first signal is triggered when we have eaten enough nutrient rich food the body recognizes. The second signal is triggered when our stomach is stretched to capacity by the volume of food we have eaten. Many processed foods we buy have fillers that contain lectin. The effects of sugar and lectin conspire to pack on pounds of fat. Also, any food we consume that the body doesn’t recognize gets converted to body fat.

7. Recent studies have proven that meat and fat is the most nutrient dense food we can eat and promotes healing by providing our body with what the mitochondria craves the most. If we eliminate foods that damage this precious resource and eat foods that give it the fuel it likes the most, we setup the best possible conditions for healing our body.

8. When eating a carnivore diet, our need for vitamins are substantially reduced. Large amounts of vitamins are only required when plant based foods are damaging our bodies. Many nutrients the body needs can’t be found in plants. What vitamins and nutrients we actually need can all be found in animal products. This includes eggs, dairy and fatty meat. Higher concentrations can be found in organ meats like liver, heart, kidney, brain, etc. Our ancestors let nothing go to waste. They ate “Nose to tail”. When you hear stories of sailors dying from scurvy due to lack of citrus it was because they were also consuming things like hard tack, flour, sugar and alcohol. When consuming these things our body needs vitamin C to repair the damage. I have been a strict carnivore for over a year, I never take vitamin C supplements, or any other vitamin and I have never had scurvy or other vitamin related deficiencies. That said, I do take mineral supplements for my hypothyroidism.

Two hundred years ago, chronic diseases like we see today were virtually unheard of and obesity was vanishingly rare. After the modern food guide came out in the 1970’s and we began reducing red meat and fat and began eating large amounts of grains, sugars, seed/vegetable oils and other processed foods the general population began to get sick and obese. If you graph the increase in use of these foods and compare it to the increase in chronic disease, autoimmune disease, cancer and obesity. The lines rise in almost perfect unison.

Let me be CLEAR. Although this diet has put my autoimmune diseases into remission and healed many other chronic health issues it is NOT A CURE! If I go off of the diet I will get sick again very quickly. Consequently I never cheat, it's too risky for me.

My main autoimmune disease is Myasthenia Gravis. I also have Osteoarthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Sjogrens Disease, Stenosis, Excema, Seborrhea and Psoriasis.

All but the Eczema are in remission at this time and the Eczema is healing slowly.

I caution you to work with your doctor. Don’t adjust medications without talking to your doctor first. Get blood work done often and discuss results with your doctor. Many doctors will try and tell you this diet is dangerous because they haven’t looked at the research. The average doctor gets less that 40 hours of nutritional training, most of which is wrong or deliberately misleading. Keep in mind that almost all modern medical schools are heavily funded by pharmaceutical and food companies which means they have undue influence of what is taught and the direction of research done at universities. That said, most doctors and specialists will still do blood testing and go over results with you. If they are unwilling to do this it might be time to find a new doctor.

The diet I follow is a strict elimination diet that is a subset of the ketogenic diet. It is called carnivore or Lion Diet. That means I eat only animal products. Mainly meat with 30% fat by volume, salt, water and electrolytes. Eggs & dairy are allowed but since I am also shedding weight I stay away from dairy and I can't digest eggs properly. This means no vegetables, no plants of any kind. No fruits, no sugar or other sweeteners. Most importantly no seed or vegetable oils or processed foods of any kind.

Consider that for thousands of years our ancestors primarily ate fatty red meat. They were hunters and gatherers. They only got nuts and berries for a couple of weeks out of the year and those naturally occurring fruits and nuts were far different that what we have today. Also, fruits don’t want their seeds being eaten before they are viable, so they protect their seeds with high levels of toxins. Once the plant fully ripens and the seeds a viable, the plant wants the seeds to be spread for reproduction so they flush the toxins. If you must eat eat fruits or vegetables make sure they are vine ripened. When picked green and allowed to ripen during shipment and sitting on the shelf they still have all the protective toxins intact. Toxins can only be flushed through the plants connection to the roots.

There are cultures today that are primarily carnivore and are very healthy as long as they stay away from western foods. The Masai tribe in Africa and the Inuit (Eskimos) are two examples.

Best way to start Carnivore or low carb diets.

There are many ways to get started with low carb or carnivore diets. Based on my own experience and the experience of many others I’ve talked to that adhere to this way of eating I recommend starting slowly. Give your body time to adjust to higher levels of meat and fat and the elimination of toxins from the standard American diet. The only thing I recommend quitting immediately is all types of refined sugar. You will go through sugar withdrawals in the form of headaches, cravings and feeling jittery. This is expected. Sugar is physically addictive and the cravings can take some time to fade. For me the cravings took a couple of months to go away. Some people report periods of cravings lasting up to 6 months.

Part of the adjustment to low or zero carb lifestyles happen in the digestive tract. We have a microbiome living in our gut. This consists of bacteria and enzymes adapted to the food we have been eating. As we begin to reduce complex carbohydrates, plants and oils bacteria specific to those foods will starve. The starving bacteria will generate cravings and as they die off they will create mild toxins. All these can produce flu like symptoms, which is why I recommend shifting slowly to minimize these issues that we euphemistically call “the keto flu”. Another consequence of our body adapting to more animal proteins and fat can be diarrhea. This too is expected and will go away in time. When fully fat adapted you will also find a significant change in bowel movements. The high absorption rate of meat and fat leaves little waste compared to other foods. It is not uncommon to one need to defecate a small amount every two or three days. You aren’t constipated, this is pretty normal. If, after 3 months of being fully carnivore you are still having diarrhea you may want to get some blood work done to see if there is something else going on with your health. A low thyroid can cause both diarrhea and often causes a sharp rise in triglyceride levels. Don’t let your doctor convince you it is because of the meat and fat. This does not cause high triglycerides, but it can raise your LDL cholesterol. When not eating anything but animal products LDL cholesterol is actually a good thing. The brain and other organs need cholesterol to function properly. The brain contains 25% of the cholesterol in your body. I will provide a link to a file I created with links to RCT (Randomized Control Trial) studies that prove high LDL cholesterol is not harmful to the body.

Fasting & Intermittent Fasting

There are some real benefits to fasting. Fasting can help to regulate blood sugar and reduce insulin resistance in the body. Fasting can also reduce inflammation of the human body which can help to reduce chances of getting cancer, heart disease or developing metabolic dysfunction. Fasting can also help lower your blood pressure and triglyceride levels. Fasting can also boost brain function and increase mental clarity. Intermittent fasting can also help with weight loss more effectively than calorie restriction by increasing your metabolism. Unlike traditional fasts, intermittent fasting is achieved by fasting daily for at least 16 hours. I've done both OMAD (One Meal A Day) and TMAD (Two Meals A Day). OMAD is pretty self explanatory, TMAD means you need to eat your two meals withing an eight hour window. I currently follow TMAD but I try and eat within a 6 hour window. At this point in time my main goal is metabolic health and healing rather than focusing on my weight. My body continues to reshape itself even though my weight is hovering with a 5 pound range of 315 to 320 pounds. If you want to learn more about fasting and its' benefits check out these links;

8 Health Benefits of fasting, backed by science

The 5 stages of fasting, and the benefits of each

Intermittent Fasting, does it have health benefits?

If you want to learn more I recommend a couple of books.

“Lies my doctor told me” by Dr. Ken D. Berry

“The carnivore diet” By Dr. Shawn Baker

Doctors I recommend checking out are;

Dr. Ken D. Berry - MD, FAAFP

Dr. Shawn Baker – Orthopedic Surgeon

Dr. Anthony Chaffee - Neurosurgeon

Dr. Timothy Noakes MD, specializes in diabetes and low carb diets

Dr. Christina Mathewson – Naturopathic doctor specializing in low carb and natural medicine

Dr. David Diamond MD, PhD. Specializes in low carb and heart disease research

Here is a full list you can download of recommended books on health.

Click here for book list

Here is a downloadable list of links for research papers you can view.

Click here for research list