Carnivore diet

[Brett C]

If you watch the doctors that are pro carnivore they say the whole high cholesterol thing is not bad for you. Shane has studied it a lot and will hopefully chime in.

[GalvestonWader]

Im about a month in and down 18 pounds. Pretty strict on the food, I'd say about 95% carnivore but have still been smashing beers almost daily. Well I just cut that out and quit drinking 2 days ago. We'll see what happens. The past couple days I've really gotten bored with eating the same old thing and been craving other stuff. Maybe it's the lack of beer lol? Drinking only water sucks. I'd love some juice or something with some flavor.

I'm almost at my target weight anyway. Just want to lose a few more pounds and then if I can maintain that I'll throw in some cheat meals here and there to satisfy my cravings. But overall I'm very impressed with how quick the weight came off and I havent even been 100% strict carnivore.

[7sdad]

So got my bloodwork back yesterday. Had perfect cholesterol before starting carnivore back in October. Down 25lbs. Now doc is wanting to put me on a statin.

I had the same problem, started the diet and after two weeks had to get a blood test for work. Cholesterol had jumped way up and Dr wanted me to start a statin. After telling him I was on the diet he just told me to change my diet and come back in 3 months for a recheck.

[Brett C]

I had the same problem, started the diet and after two weeks had to get a blood test for work. Cholesterol had jumped way up and Dr wanted me to start a statin. After telling him I was on the diet he just told me to change my diet and come back in 3 months for a recheck.

Interesting, are you going to quit and change diets or change doctors ?

[7sdad]

Interesting, are you going to quit and change diets or change doctors ?

Same Dr for 35 years and I trust him so I guess I'm changing diets.

[Pistol]

So got my bloodwork back yesterday. Had perfect cholesterol before starting carnivore back in October. Down 25lbs. Now doc is wanting to put me on a statin.

The carnivore diet will increase your cholesterol. Your HDL should go up as well. Tell the doc that you want the lipid profile panel, which will tell you how much of the LDL is small particle and large particle. Also tell him you want a heart calcium scan, which is a simple CT scan of you heart to see if you have calcium buildup, the real predictor of heart attack risk.
My total is 309, but my HDL is 90 and my triglycerides are below 50. And I am doing a CT scan next week because she doesn't like the total number but is respectful of my wish to stay off statins.

I'm not going to offer medical or dietary advice, but I can say that I don't think the hard core version of this diet is for me. But I did it for one week to break my sugar addiction. Now I drink black coffee, a hard boiled egg for breakfast and my other meals have meat as the main portion with small amounts of vegetables. No breads and avoiding starchy vegetables as well.
I didn't need to lost weight. BMI was a 21 but stopping the sugar, I lost some weight and now my BMI is 18 or 19.

[Pistol]

Also, ask your doc for a metabolic health panel. Once you have all the numbers, Google PREVENT calculator on American Heart Association website. Plug the numbers in and it will tell you your risk.

[ThisLadyHunts]

So got my bloodwork back yesterday. Had perfect cholesterol before starting carnivore back in October. Down 25lbs. Now doc is wanting to put me on a statin.

This seems odd to me, that your cholesterol would have been within normal limits only three months ago and now so far out of range. I would have thought that, if anything, you’d have seen your numbers gradually trending upwards. Did your doc give you any insights?

Is your doctor suggesting the Carnivore Diet was the culprit for such a dramatic change in your cholesterol and, if so, why not just back off the diet rather than put you on a statin?

I am not a medical professional and am in no position to question the efficacy of your doctor’s diagnosis or his treatment plan. I would have many more questions if this were me, though.

[Shane]

This seems odd to me, that your cholesterol would have been within normal limits only three months ago and now so far out of range. I would have thought that, if anything, you’d have seen your numbers gradually trending upwards. Did your doc give you any insights?

Is your doctor suggesting the Carnivore Diet was the culprit for such a dramatic change in your cholesterol and, if so, why not just back off the diet rather than put you on a statin?

I am not a medical professional and am in no position to question the efficacy of your doctor’s diagnosis or his treatment plan. I would have many more questions if this were me, though.

Cholesterol levels in the blood can fluctuate widely pretty fast. Dave Feldman has showed this. He even found that by eating TONS of fat for 3-4 days prior to a blood test, you can drive your cholesterol number way down.

Cholesterol often goes up after starting a carnivore diet because you're losing weight and burning a lot of fat for a while. When you're burning off fat, it's circulating in your blood stream, making the number go up. It will balance back out once your weight stabilizes.

That said, cholesterol does NOT cause heart disease. And statins don't prevent heart attacks or prolong life expectancy. Statins cause lots of really bad side effects. Low cholesterol is associated with higher rates of cancer, dementia, muscle damage, other disease and death. There is less mortality in people with cholesterol levels above 300 than there are in people with cholesterol below 200. The lowest mortality rate is in folks with cholesterol levels between 220-240.

If your doctor thinks cholesterol is the devil, that's a great way to know that he/she is 50 years behind on his/her knowledge. Just about all the conventional medicine docs fall into that category, because they were trained (brainwashed) by pharma, and all of their continuing education comes from the same corrupt source. The docs aren't bad people. The vast majority of them are smart and caring good people. They've just been fed a bunch of bad information, and the insurance-controlled system forces them to comply with it. Most of them truly don't know any better.

Find a functional medicine doc that isn't captured and controlled by the pharma/insurance corrupt system.

[ThisLadyHunts]

Cholesterol levels in the blood can fluctuate widely pretty fast. Dave Feldman has showed this. He even found that by eating TONS of fat for 3-4 days prior to a blood test, you can drive your cholesterol number way down.

Cholesterol often goes up after starting a carnivore diet because you're losing weight and burning a lot of fat for a while. When you're burning off fat, it's circulating in your blood stream, making the number go up. It will balance back out once your weight stabilizes.

That said, cholesterol does NOT cause heart disease. And statins don't prevent heart attacks or prolong life expectancy. Statins cause lots of really bad side effects. Low cholesterol is associated with higher rates of cancer, dementia, muscle damage, other disease and death. There is less mortality in people with cholesterol levels above 300 than there are in people with cholesterol below 200. The lowest mortality rate is in folks with cholesterol levels between 220-240.

If your doctor thinks cholesterol is the devil, that's a great way to know that he/she is 50 years behind on his/her knowledge. Just about all the conventional medicine docs fall into that category, because they were trained (brainwashed) by pharma, and all of their continuing education comes from the same corrupt source. The docs aren't bad people. The vast majority of them are smart and caring good people. They've just been fed a bunch of bad information, and the insurance-controlled system forces them to comply with it. Most of them truly don't know any better.

Find a functional medicine doc that isn't captured and controlled by the pharma/insurance corrupt system.

Good information and interesting perspective. I couldn’t agree more with finding a good functional med doc. They’re few and far between now but it’s definitely a growing specialty.

[HoustonHunter94]

Cholesterol levels in the blood can fluctuate widely pretty fast. Dave Feldman has showed this. He even found that by eating TONS of fat for 3-4 days prior to a blood test, you can drive your cholesterol number way down.

Cholesterol often goes up after starting a carnivore diet because you're losing weight and burning a lot of fat for a while. When you're burning off fat, it's circulating in your blood stream, making the number go up. It will balance back out once your weight stabilizes.

That said, cholesterol does NOT cause heart disease. And statins don't prevent heart attacks or prolong life expectancy. Statins cause lots of really bad side effects. Low cholesterol is associated with higher rates of cancer, dementia, muscle damage, other disease and death. There is less mortality in people with cholesterol levels above 300 than there are in people with cholesterol below 200. The lowest mortality rate is in folks with cholesterol levels between 220-240.

If your doctor thinks cholesterol is the devil, that's a great way to know that he/she is 50 years behind on his/her knowledge. Just about all the conventional medicine docs fall into that category, because they were trained (brainwashed) by pharma, and all of their continuing education comes from the same corrupt source. The docs aren't bad people. The vast majority of them are smart and caring good people. They've just been fed a bunch of bad information, and the insurance-controlled system forces them to comply with it. Most of them truly don't know any better.

Find a functional medicine doc that isn't captured and controlled by the pharma/insurance corrupt system.

It is very refreshing to see and hear people finally coming around to this. Statins are great for your future Alzheimer's. You nailed this one Shane. I just hope more people are finally coming around to seeing the big picture here.

[7sdad]

High cholesterol can lead to plaque buildup in your arteries, which can narrow blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

[Shane]

High cholesterol can lead to plaque buildup in your arteries, which can narrow blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

That's the old, outdated dogma. It's actually not true. Do some reading about Ancel Keys and his Seven Countries Study, which was where this lie started. Long story short, the sugar industry paid him to falsify a research study to blame cholesterol for heart disease, when in reality it is caused by inflammation. Sugar in the diet is highly inflammatory. The food industry is corrupt.

The reason the pharmaceutical industry jumped on the bandwagon is because they came up with a pill that lowers LDL. So they convinced all the docs and then all of us that LDL is the devil in order to sell us the drugs. "Normal" cholesterol used to be 300. They've lowered what they call "normal" a few times. 30 years ago it was 240, then 220, then 200, and now they are saying "as low as possible". Every time they lower the target, more people get the statin prescription. If your doc doesn't prescribe enough statins for people with numbers higher than their target, his insurance payout rate is cut.

Meanwhile, heart disease, dementia, cancer and other disease rates are going up. Their fix doesn't work. It is actually counter-productive.

[GenrlSamBuseton]

Cholesterol levels in the blood can fluctuate widely pretty fast. Dave Feldman has showed this. He even found that by eating TONS of fat for 3-4 days prior to a blood test, you can drive your cholesterol number way down.

Cholesterol often goes up after starting a carnivore diet because you're losing weight and burning a lot of fat for a while. When you're burning off fat, it's circulating in your blood stream, making the number go up. It will balance back out once your weight stabilizes.

That said, cholesterol does NOT cause heart disease. And statins don't prevent heart attacks or prolong life expectancy. Statins cause lots of really bad side effects. Low cholesterol is associated with higher rates of cancer, dementia, muscle damage, other disease and death. There is less mortality in people with cholesterol levels above 300 than there are in people with cholesterol below 200. The lowest mortality rate is in folks with cholesterol levels between 220-240.

If your doctor thinks cholesterol is the devil, that's a great way to know that he/she is 50 years behind on his/her knowledge. Just about all the conventional medicine docs fall into that category, because they were trained (brainwashed) by pharma, and all of their continuing education comes from the same corrupt source. The docs aren't bad people. The vast majority of them are smart and caring good people. They've just been fed a bunch of bad information, and the insurance-controlled system forces them to comply with it. Most of them truly don't know any better.

Find a functional medicine doc that isn't captured and controlled by the pharma/insurance corrupt system.

Great post. Even if cholesterol was as bad as they say, prescribing statins BEFORE discussing lifestyle modifications is insane. Treating the symptom and not addressing the root cause is far too common in modern medicine, unfortunately.

[GalvestonWader]

Question, is there an electrolite drink that is carnivore? Or something other than just water? I'm getting super bored just drinking water. I need something with a little bit of flavor.