Curled up in a ball regretting every single bite of some non-carnivore food? Even the less-toxic non-carnivore foods can hit you harder than you ever remember feeling.
Certainly you never felt this awful before going carnivore when you ate these foods! Did the carnivore diet permanently ruin your tolerance for non-carnivore foods?
Let’s Talk About Tolerance
Do you remember the first time you drank alcohol? How it tasted like shit and made you feel like shit. It didn’t take very many drinks to give you a hangover, and make you regret ever drinking in the first place.
But you probably went back and did it again, over and over, and eventually found you had developed more of a tolerance. You could drink more before it affected you so badly.
Unhealthy food is no different, it’s a poison((a substance that is capable of causing the illness or death of a living organism when introduced or absorbed)) (just like alcohol is a poison!) that you’ve spent your whole life building a tolerance to!
Most people overdose and die of drugs and alcohol when they return to using after having gotten sober. Why? Because they use based on the tolerance they used to have, not the intolerance that sobriety has brought them.
Non-carnivore foods, aka plants, contain phytotoxins((Like cyanogenic glycosides, furocoumarins, lectins, mycotoxins, solanines, chaconine, mushroom poisons, and alkaloids to name a few. Even mainstream health organizations publish this information, it’s just downplayed to what degree it can negatively impact humans where these foods make up a large portion of the diet.)). Literal toxins that our body has to defend against. When you remove the tolerance your whole lifetime has developed, then return to eating them you can finally feel what those plant toxins are doing to your body.
Carnivore Hasn’t Broken You
Trust me, carnivore has not harmed you when this happens.
You would never say that sobriety has harmed a drug addict when they feel negative effects using drugs again. For the same reason, it is logical for you to feel awful when eating toxic foods again after abstaining from them for a period of time.
3 Ways To Recover
#1 – Fast
Sometimes the best thing you can do when you first feel this badly is to give your body a break. Consider a short 1-2 day fast to let the digestive system clear out the toxins you ate.
If you do decide to fast, stay hydrated. This will only help the body to detoxify the food you ate.
#2 – Bone Broth
If it sits well with you consider drinking homemade, bland (no plant seasonings!) bone broth. Here’s a simple carnivore-friendly bone broth recipe.
For those who have histamine intolerance or MCAS you would do better skipping to the next option.
#3 – Single Ingredient and Raw Meals
If fasting or bone broth aren’t good options for you, regardless of the reason, consider focusing on very simple single ingredient or even raw meals for a few days.
Stick to ruminant meats and fresh seafood. Avoid dairy and eggs((Even when everything is going great these two carnivore food categories don’t always sit well with every person.)) for right now.
Keep it bland and simple. Smaller meals can also make for gentler digestion.
Don’t Punish Yourself Further
For many of us it can feel like failure when we have a “cheat” day. Particularly in the beginning when we are still struggling the most with the habits and beliefs we’ve spent our lives developing around food and health.
Your body is already punishing you for the misstep, please don’t punish yourself any further with negative self-talk if you can help it.
Every single one of us is human and it takes many tries to succeed with any major life change, especially the way we choose to eat. I’ve failed at carnivore many times, and the biggest help to staying the course was refusing to beat myself up for any error I made along the way.
Just start over the next day with carnivore, that’s all we can do. ❤️
