5 Year Carnivore Update (and why I’m no longer Carnivore)

This post has been a long time coming, but just getting through each day is enough of a struggle that it just wasn’t possible.

I am not currently strict Carnivore; and despite my great success with eating exclusively raw meat, I’m also not eating any raw meat at this time.

The reason I started eating a Carnivore diet at all was because of very odd food intolerances and health issues that had plagued me since my teens. Going Carnivore helped to bring almost all of my worst complaints under control. When I went raw Carnivore my health seemed to surge in new ways I didn’t think possible, and I maintained that for more than a year straight.

And then last July things started getting a bit odd for me. My appetite surged, but at the same time my energy declined. I was weak and exhausted all the time.

I started having invasive thoughts that were deeply disturbing to me. I developed breathing problems, anything that required me to go uphill would result in wheezing and feeling like I would pass out. I was hospitalized several times for what I thought might be heat exhaustion (despite not being exposed to extreme heat) that was helped by IV fluids.

My skin became dry and flaky, I developed open sores on my scalp. Eventually my hair started falling out, by the handful. I wasn’t sleeping well so I obsessed about optimizing my sleep routine.

I developed terrible brain fog, to such a degree that getting the most basic tasks completed was impossible. Despite drinking electrolytes regularly and salting my meals, my muscles would cramp terribly all day and night. Every joint in my body hurt, and places where I had old injuries were 100x more painful than those that didn’t.

My period had disappeared since 2021, so at first I thought maybe I was in some weird phase of very-early menopause. Lab testing showed hormones were all fine except Testosterone which was nearly zero.

So I started taking Testosterone shots, and that helped with the painful joints. Everything else continued spiraling out of control.

My doctors ran all kinds of tests. They even did a Bronchoscopy to investigate the breathing problems, and every single test came back perfectly normal. After some regular episodes of tachycardia they put me on a 14-day heart monitor, and that too came back “normal”.

In January, I consulted with a Functional Medicine Doctor. We wanted to dig further into possibly some kind of parasite infection since I’d been eating so much raw meat. It was never something that I really thought I could be at risk of, but we wanted to rule it out to be safe. There were some other labs we agreed would be helpful too.

The parasite testing came back completely negative, surprising both of us really.

But one of the other tests came back flagging me as having very high Mercury.

I was also, surprisingly, suffering from protein deficiency despite eating only meat.

When heavy metals show up on labs it indicates recent exposure (within the last 3 months). Anything you’ve been exposed to before that time will never show up on labs, so this test doesn’t account for any other Mercury I may have been carrying around during my lifetime.

And from there, I started learning very quickly that when you’re dealing with Heavy Metal problems you’re largely on your own. Nobody is going to save you but yourself, and most people who talk about “you should do this” or “you should do that” end up suggesting approaches that can harm you permanently. Basically, anything that shows up when you search how to treat Mercury poisoning you should avoid completely.

Fun stuff.

So, I still had amalgam fillings in my mouth from childhood. Interesting, did you know they aren’t considered permanent? Amalgam fillings are supposed to be replaced every 10 years. Nobody has ever told me such a thing, certainly not Dentists.

As it turns out, the Universe is a very kind thing and all this time I’ve been hanging around southern California became auspicious when one of the most trusted Dentists who specializes in safe amalgam removal works out of Tijuana. Less than an hour from me. People fly to see him from all over the world for the specific protocol he offers.

It took some time between the initial consult and when he would be able to do my dental work, so for several months there was literally nothing I could do except try to manage my symptoms.

I studied anything and everything related to Mercury poisoning, and there were so many things I’d been doing to make myself worse than I had to be just not knowing better.

At some point in all of this, I started having a very difficult time eating and this is where I stopped eating strict Carnivore.

My histamine intolerance became completely unmanageable to the point that I had to stop eating beef completely. Seafood was out because of Mercury and a new-found disdain for anything that swims. So I started relying heavily on chicken and pork for the first time in my Carnivore journey. But it was very tough getting enough from those alone and periodically I would end up binging on dairy and eggs to make up for it.

The problem with those binges is that dairy and eggs are both very high in Thiols. And if you have Mercury poisoning you typically want to avoid Thiols because they can move the Mercury around your system (making symptoms worse) without pulling it out (it’s not a chelator that way).

So I’d feel awful while excluding dairy and eggs because chicken and pork wasn’t really working, and then I’d feel awful in a different way when binging on dairy and eggs.

Then, the problems with my electrolyte balance became even worse. In the middle of the night I was peeing 3-4 liters of urine, every single night. Then during the day I’d struggle to catch up on hydration between meals to the point I was constantly dehydrated. I knew this wasn’t good for my kidneys and couldn’t go on.

So I broke down and started eating just enough sugars to keep me out of ketosis. This immediately fixed the excessive urination.

And what do I eat? At first I was eating a lot of strawberry products. Whole strawberries and things like jam and preserves with minimal ingredients. I wouldn’t need to eat a large quantity to get the 50grams or so of sugar I needed to stay out of ketosis.

July came around and I got my fillings replaced, this of course gave me another exposure to Mercury even though you take as many precautions as you can to minimize the risk. I left the dental office grey, and passed out in the elevator on the way to the lobby.

After having my fillings replaced I developed an allergy to strawberries, so those are out. There are a lot of other foods I can’t eat for a variety of reasons — high in oxalates, high in thiols, high in histamines, etc. I tolerate tomato paste in small amounts, and certain peppers surprisingly. Sometimes I literally just put brown sugar on my meat.

Which brings me to why I’m not eating anything raw… I also have developed terrible food aversion. Terrible.

I never really understood when other people would mention having food aversion in various Carnivore groups. To me I thought, “mind over matter,” and that they just need to make themselves eat. Toughen up, put your big boy pants on, etc.

And then I got it and let me tell you, there are times when it’s literally not possible to eat. No matter how long it’s been since my last meal or how weak I am, or how good the food “should” be.. my body will vomit whether I like it or not if I try to force food into it.

The sight and smell of raw meat is enough to put me off a meal completely. I have to keep my mind wholly distracted when I’m prepping, cooking, and eating, to get it done. I put on a show to watch or call someone up and talk on the phone. Even cooked meat is pretty god-awful to my senses, so being able to cover it with some tomato paste or similar actually goes a long way to making sure I can eat.

In the first two weeks after having my fillings replaced I’d lost about 15 pounds. As of today, I’m down 25 pounds.

Most days I have no appetite at all. It’s a literal job from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep to eat as much and as often as I can tolerate. And even then there are still days when the most I can keep down is 500-600 calories.

Luckily, I’ve been able to slowly reincorporate some beef. But, I cannot eat high fat at all. If I eat a fatty meal I either vomit it up in the process, or later on. I’ve had times when I’ll vomit up a meal I ate the day before, completely undigested, because it was high fat.

“You should probably see a doctor about that,” yeah right. In this whole process of figuring out what was making me sick I’ve had multiple doctors create false medical records, lie to my face, refuse me treatment without a valid reason, tell me to seek treatment from the ER only to be told by ER staff they cannot understand why my GP would say such a thing because they literally cannot treat my issue, etc.

Unless it’s some type of physical wound I could die from, I do believe I’m done seeking medical assistance. They seem to be unwilling and unable to treat anything that does not have a branded prescription drug attached to it.

Some foods I tend to rotate, if you’re curious:

• Beef (as my histamine intolerance will allow), only very lean
• Chicken, no skin
• Pork, also lean
• Pork rinds
• Protein Powder
• Marshmallow (made from tapioca sugars, I tolerate)
• Brown sugar (straight up, baby)
• Blueberries (in small quantities)
• Peaches (so far so good ? )
• Tomato paste
• Peppers
• Ginger
• Kombucha (there’s a blueberry ginger one I do well with)

I can’t really eat anything that’s pre-made as a seasoning or sauce because most contain soy, garlic, dairy, or cilantro.. all of which are very high in Thiols and render me a near invalid for several days after eating. Chocolate is also a big no-no for the same reason (plus being very high in Oxalates).

I was fortunate to find this Carnivore protein powder that I tolerate; I really do need all the protein I can get since I was already suffering from protein deficiency before the food aversion kicked in. I usually drink that when I first wake up to get the ball rolling.

I’m following the Andy Cutler Protocol for chelation now, to start pulling out the Mercury since having my amalgam fillings replaced. It’s a low-and-slow process of chelating to minimize the risk of damage; from what I’ve been told I might be facing 3-5 years of chelation.

I do 2-3 days over the weekend of chelation, then rest during the week. When chelating I cannot do much more than take Dora for a slow walk, and sleep. Sometimes I’m too tired to even eat, and often too disoriented to drive. During the week I work, play catch up as much as possible, and I do try to move around in whatever capacity my body will allow.

Every round of chelation is different. Every week is different.

Will I ever go back to strict Carnivore? My god I do hope so!

And why do I say that? Well, carbohydrates are a pretty shitty source of energy. That’s why. Not just physically, but for your brain! It is so difficult to have a high-functioning brain when you are relying on carbs for energy. I really look forward to the day when I can get back to strict Carnivore and high-fat meals without carbs.

I thought all this time that I would relish in eating sweets if I ever had the chance to again, but that is most certainly not the case. They are loathsome to me, which is a genuine surprise as I always loved sweets growing up. I really do not understand how most individuals function very much at all with a carb-based diet; and the potential brain power they are missing out on without the steady energy fats provide.

Anyways, I am a bit surprised I was able to put together as much as I did now. Sitting down to do any mental task takes a very large amount of effort on my part (and literally, a large amount of food) so most often I just cannot do much more than the absolute necessities.

I haven’t been making videos or posting much on social media for the same reason. I simply do not have the energy to do it.

Thanks for reading, and I hope my next update is far more upbeat. ?