Carnivore Diet for Gut Health

Are you considering The Carnivore Diet for Gut Health? Do you suffer from gut issues, acne, rheumatoid arthritis, joint pains, depression, anxiety, eczema, leaky gut, candida, or other autoimmune issues? Are you tired of feeling crappy and feeling like nothing you do helps? Trust me, I feel your pain as I’ve been there and it sucks! You feel like you’ve tried everything and nothing seems to work. I know you might feel hopeless at the moment but you can overcome these issues. I’ve been in your shoes and was able to change my habits and lifestyle. I’ve been free of autoimmune disease for over a decade. I create this content because I genuinely care about helping people like you. You can start changing your situation by finishing this article and utilizing a HFLC (High Fat Low Carbohydrate) diet like The Carnivore Diet.

The average person in today’s world tends to over consume complex carbs and processed foods. The majority of our calories come from carbohydrates like wheat, flour, sugar, potato chips, candy bars, and soda pop. Today, there are no shortage of obese people or people who suffer from a variety of diseases, and other health ailments. The majority of these diseases are the result of lifestyle + whether diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, cancer, and Autoimmune conditions. Very few diseases are caused solely due to genetics + or genetic predisposition.

It turns out that some of the main culprits of disease are: excessive carbohydrates, processed foods, sugar, and hydrogenated vegetable oils. This lifestyle over time can lead to insulin resistance, metabolic dysfunction (sugar burning vs fat burning), gut dysbiosis, candida issues, Leaky Gut Syndrome, nutrient deficiency and overall toxicity. We don’t know the exact process of how people get sick, but we do know that metabolic function and gut health are imperative pieces of the puzzle.

What is a Carnivore Diet?

A Carnivore Diet (CD) approach is one where you eat mostly animal products. I guess you could refer to it as a whole food animal based diet. This includes meat, eggs, fish, and fats that come from animals. They’re are different levels of Carnivore like Freshman, Junior, Varsity etc. Many may start doing beef, eggs, and bacon then add organ meats, and some even choose to eat raw meat. I’ve yet to consume raw meat as it’s not that appealing but who knows what the future holds. Regardless there is a version of Carnivore that will fit anyone’s lifestyle, unless your a vegan. You can read about the CD in more detail.

Why The Carnivore Diet Improves Gut Health

Carnivore improves gut health for many people for a few key reasons:

• It’s a calorie rich Elimination Diet
• It Removes many toxins and triggers such as gluten, and sugar
• Removes Lectins which are plants silent weapons against their seeds being eaten
• Reduces excess carbs that can feed the bad guys (opportunistic organisms) in dysbiosis
• Optimizes Cholesterol function in the body (cholesterol is used to create hormones +)

Carnivore Diet for Candida, and Leaky Gut Syndrome

We know that Candida thrives when high carbohydrate diets are consumed. When you drop the consumption of daily carbs, autoimmune symptoms are usually reduced. This comes down to the fact that Candida is a yeast + that feeds and multiplies in the presence of sugar and other complex carbs.

Carnivore Diet is great for Leaky Gut Syndrome because:

• It reduces and or halts the growth of Candida & Pathogenic Organisms that contribute to causing it.
• It removes most Lectins which are known to be plants usually seeds/nuts silent weapons against being digested. (Plants want to procreate.. have new plant babies)
• Provides the body with much needed building materials like (gelatin, collagen) to repair the gut lining (epithelial)

What is a Leaky Gut?

I’m guessing that if you’re reading this article you’re probably familiar with the concept of a intestinal permeability also known as Leaky Gut Syndrome. But just in case this is when the gut wall also known as the epithelial lining is broken down or filled with holes. The main function of our gut wall is to act like border control (control the movement in and out). On one side you have digested food particles, and on the other side your immune system.  If the border is not secure, food particles and toxins can pass straight through into your bloodstream. In response your immune system mounts an attack against these foreign invaders. If this condition persists you end up with a host of symptoms and eventually autoimmune conditions.

The Main Symptoms of a Leaky Gut are:

• Skin issues like eczema or acne
• Digestive issues: gas,bloating, diarrhea, IBS, and others
• Chronic Fatigue (always tired and exhausted)
• Allergies +
• Brain fog & ADHD +
• Depression and Anxiety +

Autoimmune disease is linked to leaky gut syndrome +. This means if you’ve been diagnosed with an Autoimmune condition chances are that you also suffer from a Leaky Gut.

What Causes a Leaky Gut?

We could say that one of the primary causes of a leaky gut is something called dysbiosis. Assuming you’re a healthy person your gut bacteria would exist in ratios of 80% beneficial bacteria and 20% pathogenic/opportunistic bacteria, protozoa and other organisms. Dysbiosis is when this ratio becomes inverted: 80% pathogenic and 20% beneficial. When this happens your health usually declines rapidly.

Things that cause Dysbiosis:

• Modern SAD Diet (processed, high carb, high sugar) +
• Antibiotics, Birth Control, and some medications like PPI’s used for heartburn +
• Chronic Stress +

Although Dysbiosis is usually a precursor to Leaky Gut Syndrome and Autoimmune issues, it’s not the only thing that causes permeability.

Other causes for Gut Permeability:

• Gluten +
• Lectins (plants silent weapons)+
• Glyphosates +
• Candida Albicans (when in hyphal form that invade tissues +)
• Toxins

How Carnivore Diet Affects your Microbiome & Gut Bacteria

Your Microbiome is the equivalent of a 2-3 lbs of bacteria that exists in your gut. You can find out more about your microbiome.

The Carnivore Approach helps correct dysbiosis by starving off many of the bad guys. This is a huge step in returning your gut to a state of homeostasis (balance).

Since a strict Carnivore approach is low in dietary fiber your gut will not cultivate certain kinds of bacteria that thrive on dietary fiber. Say what now? I thought we need fiber in our diets? Remember that dysbiosis is when the ratios are flipped so the added fiber may only increase this imbalance. For people who have bad ratios of bacteria (dysbiosis) avoiding dietary fiber can be very beneficial. There is a lot of fiber confusion in the world so I wrote more about how fiber works.

Should I use an ALL Meat Diet to Improve Gut Health

I know on the surface you might be thinking this sounds crazy. We’ve been taught over the years that meat is bad for us, especially red meat, we need fiber, and other facts from so called experts. But one must ask if all these experts know everything, why are we suffering from disease in record numbers. New diseases and conditions are popping up every day. Treatment options usually limited to drugs and surgery.

I think most us intuitively know that meat is not bad for us!  We enjoy the taste of meat and it satiates our hunger. Put 1-2 rib-eye steaks on my plate and I’ll be completely satisfied. I’ll feel good, and not thrown into a food coma from an insulin spike. Yet compare a snack of chips, cereal, chocolate bar, and a soda pop. I can easily consume all this food and I’ll still be craving more.  Afterwards I feel the onset of the food coma, then I feel crappy and lethargic. I like most people enjoy eating processed junk food and I know exactly how I’ll feel afterwards. This doesn’t stop me from enjoying my temporary bliss.

Can You Survive on a Carnivore Diet

Human beings are built to adapt and survive. It would be safe to say that human beings have survived and thrived on a multitude of diets over the milenia. There might not be 1 best diet… sorry to disappoint any tribe out there… so let’s focus on some of the common denominators:

• People ate REAL Food “Whole Foods” whether animal or plant based
• People would hunt & fish, and eat their catch
• Most diets included some form of animal fat (lard, butter, talo, ghee)
• Milk wasn’t consumed world wide, and definitely not in its dead modern form. Most the world’s population doesn’t tolerate milk+
• Dairy was usually consumed in fermented or raw form
• People didn’t consume processed and hydrogenated vegetable oils
• Most calories didn’t come from processed carbohydrates
• Sugar in its “processed form” was rare+
• People ate according to the growing season: meaning that they didn’t stuff their face with carbs 24-7
• If a diet was high carb is wasn’t usually high fat as well.

In nature High FAT and High CARB don’t usually exist together

BOOM!…my mind was blown when I found this out..don’t believe me search any whole food you can think of. The main one you will find is breast milk because its main function is to help the baby grow quickly. Consider that babies can triple their birth weight in 12 months, absolute craziness!  Just like the baby combining these macronutrients frequently will increase fat mass, and eventually lead to obesity.

So can you survive on a Carnivore Diet?.. HECK YES!!! Not only can you survive on it, I think that you’re likely to thrive on it. I’m not saying that you have to go Carnivore forever but instead consider using it as a tool. A month of the Carnivore Diet isn’t going to kill you. If you’ve been led to believe meat is going to kill you via high cholesterol heart disease hypothesis + then you’ve been hoaxed. The data shows no correlation between diet and high blood serum cholesterol levels +. This was ultimately a ploy to sell more low fat products like margarine and crisco. This low fat high carb dogma is purely bogus.

For the Record, Carbs Are Not The Enemy

It seems like a lot of tribal groups like Keto, Paleo, Primal, and Carnivore are really hating the carbs these days. Almost demonizing people when they consume carbs like omg no you didn’t! you’re no longer in our tribe… you’re not keto enough, or carnivore enough, and so on. This is why I choose not to clan up lol . I’m not against these movements as they do a lot of good, but I think it’s imperative that you stay open minded. The goal is to learn to eat intuitively depending on how you feel, and adjust accordingly.

Ok back to CARBS……Let’s be honest here we live in the real world and CARBS are amazing! Human Beings are instinctively “primed” to over consume carbs when they’re available. This is a survival mechanism. For much of history food has been scarce… this is why we would binge eat the fruit on the tree to pack the fat on for winter. Don’t be so hard on yourself for binge eating the chips, cookies, or cereal… we’ve all been there! or perhaps I’m the only dude that can’t take a handful of chips without eating the whole bag.  Never have so many carbs been this accessible, or in our faces at all times.

We don’t have nature to keep us in check so we need to learn to control our hunger for these carbs. Perhaps a time lock safe that only opens up for 2 days a week (weekends)… no joke I’d buy this!

Most people would agree that carbs that come from processed foods, junk food, and sugar are the main culprits to be avoided. The carbs that come from unprocessed fruits and most vegetables can be tolerated in moderation. Also keep in mind that having periods during the year where you consume no carbs might be beneficial to your health. It actually helps reset your metabolic function ( helping you run on fat and carbs more efficiently)

Autoimmune Disease is Leaky Gut Syndrome

I believe Leaky Gut Syndrome and Autoimmune disease are one and the same. this might sound crazy on the surface but consider my thought process… We label each diagnosis with a different name based on a subset of manifested symptoms. Like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hashimotos, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and others. In most cases your diagnosis is based on your initial and primary symptoms. Most autoimmune conditions are degenerative in nature meaning that they get worse with time. Not only do they get worse, you often find that people develop multiple autoimmune conditions simultaneously. I was diagnosed with severe Crohn’s Disease & Ulcerative Colitis, and then shortly after with Rheumatoid Arthritis…. a TRIFECTA of awesomeness!

You’ll find that most people regardless of their autoimmune diagnosis suffer from many of the same symptoms.  I suffered with horrible joint pain for years but my primary issues were gut related so that’s what they tested me for. In addition to these issues I suffered from a host of other issues: eye problems: cataracts, floaters, severe eczema, asthma, depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, body aches, low sex drive, cold hands and feet, borderline diabetic, and the list goes on. I likely could have been diagnosed with Hashimotos, Chronic Fatigue, Raynauds, and others.

FIX Leaky Gut and Beat Autoimmune Disease

I’ve spoken with a few thousand people over the last decade who suffered from autoimmune conditions and their experiences were similar. This has lead me to believe that Leaky Gut Syndrome and Autoimmune Disease are one and the same +. The primary symptoms may vary due to genetic and/or tissue susceptibility but they’re more the same than different. This is why successful diets and protocols that work for Rheumatoid Arthritis tend to also improve Lupus, MS, Eczema, and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Consider these testimonials on the site meat heals or check out the many Carnivore experiences on Reddit.

Try a 30 Day Carnivore Experiment

I encourage you to try getting rid of the carbs for 30 days. For 30 days try living on a simple version of carnivore diet:

• hamburger patties homemade or buy the ones at costco
• steak and eggs (organic & grass fed if possible as egg whites of non organic eggs can give people issues)
• use salt and pepper for taste
• FAT content is key to being satisfied no need for extra lean ground beef, and you can add butter to your meat (trust me so delicious)
• Also keep in mind that if you can afford to go grass fed organic then do it. But if the budget is tight then don’t sweat it…only with the eggs!
• Drink Water

Hamburger patties for people with autoimmune conditions if you’re experiencing lots of  symptoms (flare state), otherwise do it how you see fit.

One month of Carnivore won’t kill you and if your like many others it’s likely to improve your health, and reduce your autoimmune symptoms. Consider using The Carnivore Diet for gut health and you’ll find out that meat is good for the gut. So what do you have to lose?

If you’re looking to overcome autoimmune disease then fixing your leaky gut should be your main objective.  Any dietary approach that works to improve a leaky gut will improve your autoimmune symptoms.