Zero Carb All Meat Diet...?

Hi there,

Does anyone have any opinions on this kind of high saturated fat/no carb diet.
It seems quite extreme, do you guys think there would be benefits? And what of the IH Top 6 would we still need if one were to try it?

This guy thinks it helped him keep his hair.

http://www.carnivorehealth.com/main/2009/5/17/diseases-of-civilization-hair-loss.html

cheers

I don't think the exclusion of carbs entirely is the way to go. Refined carbohydrates are a completely different animal and should be avoided. However, carbs like brown rice should still be included IMO.

I actually agree with most everything the article says, but I think the whole zero carbs thing is unnecessary and probably even unhealthy. There are three "macro-nutrients" and each of them are necessary for different purposes, and each have good forms and bad forms.

All Carbohydrates, whether it be grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, eventually are converted to glucose and used by the muscles and the brain. In fact, the brain relies primarily on glucose for energy, and if you follow a high-protein diet with minimal to zero carbohydrates your cognitive abilities will suffer. Keep in mind, protein will convert to glucose but it is not the preferred way of maintaining it and not very efficient.

However, I think the main point is that there are healthy carbohydrates and not so healthy carbohydrates. All carbohydrates do break down to glucose, but some break down more quickly than others and this is where the problem lies.

Simple and refined carbs cause high spikes in insulin followed by storage of the glucose in the liver and muscles. The body tends to overcompensate and you experience a sugar-high followed by a low causing you to hunger for more simple or refined carbs. Also, the pancreas is pumping out insulin to store glucose and triglycerides and this can cause the chronic diseases mentioned in the article.

Wouldn't a better way of accomplishing the goals the author is getting at be to avoid refined and simple carbs, minimize carbs in general to that which the body actually needs, and try to find the optimal macro-nutrient ratios for each individual person? I believe this ratio varies widely from person to person, but I doubt anyone should go down to zero on any of them.

Wow didn't notice that. Props to IH... his reach is far and long

Recently I have been thinking about trying a Gluten free diet first as I think there is some credence to it. When I eat meals that are high in gluten I often feel much worse and my allergies seem to flare up. Unfortunately all of these diets are really hard to follow if you don't prepare all of your meals.

I think this diet is very useful if you're prone to hypoglycemia, but needless to say, no one diet is correct for everyone.

For a person to convert to a full ketogenic diet, devoid of carbohydrates takes the body some weeks to acclimate itself towards glucose conversion from protein on a more efficient level. Once it is acclimated there isn't much of a draw back, but in this society even if one is benefited by this type of diet, it is certainly not the most convenient way to eat but one thing seems certain, it's pretty hair friendly.

Personally, I believe the closest thing to reality is that there are at least three primary metabolic/nutritional types. Protein, mixed, and carbohydrate and of the later, only 15% fall into this category. Regardless of which type, laying off the refined carbohydrates is the way to go. These macronutrient differences among individuals maybe do to differences in how their bodies store glycogen and produce insulin and Glucagon.

Diet heavy in animal protein= excess uric acid in the blood, from the excess protein that the body does not need , this causes huge shed

dont believe me just try it

HanginInthere - In food and medicine no one person reacts the same as others. Myself and others thrive on a high meat diet, but not everyone does. Of the three types of nutritional types, protein types require high purine intake, mixed types need a mixture of purine meats and carbohydrate types do not benefit from purine meats.

Uric acid from meat is not really a concern, but before explaining that, what does elevate uric acid quite dramatically is high fructose corn syrup and second to that is consumption of vegetable oils.

In contrast to some animals, humans avoid the overproduction of uric acid by decreasing the activity of xanthine oxidase. This enzyme is about a 100 times lower in humans than in animals.

fritzenburg wrote:Hi there,

Does anyone have any opinions on this kind of high saturated fat/no carb diet.
It seems quite extreme, do you guys think there would be benefits? And what of the IH Top 6 would we still need if one were to try it?

This guy thinks it helped him keep his hair.

http://www.carnivorehealth.com/main/2009/5/17/diseases-of-civilization-hair-loss.html

cheers

I have read many times that you can live without any carbs. The thing is that it is far from being practical and most importantly unnatural, because humans have been eating meat, fruits and veggies (source of carbs) forever. We evolved to be omnivores.

What we shouldn't be eating is things like grains, milk, hydrogenated oils, aspartame, HFCS, etc, etc. Those are thing we didn't evolve to eat and some of them don't even exist in nature.

What's the best things you can do for your health? drop grains. Next best thing? Drop dairy. Or at least consume only fermented (predigested) dairy products from organic grass-fed cattle (like various cultures in the world do, and get many benefits from it).

At the end I believe, based on my own research and experience, it all comes to this:

You should follow a Paleo Diet (what humans evolved to eat) AND consider your metabolic type (proportion of each type of food).

HanginInthere wrote:Diet heavy in animal protein= excess uric acid in the blood, from the excess protein that the body does not need , this causes huge shed

dont believe me just try it

Maybe the real problem would be:

Consume a lot of meat AND develop insulin resistance (by consuming the foods we all know)... now THAT would be problematic. You can worsen the situation by choosing meat high in omega-6 (grain-fed), loaded with chemicals and pesticides, etc.



AFAIK, some eskimos have an all meat diet (very high in fat... including saturated fat... booh! fear!) and they all live long and healthy lives, compared to "civilized" people dying at a young age, full of pain and diseases.




Just take a look at this article:

Eskimos Prove
An All Meat Diet
Provides Excellent Health
Part 1

http://www.mendosa.com/stefansson1.htm

i Would not disagree that uric acid levels might rise with excess sugar, seems to coincide with my hair loss
however

before i added my dht blockers i shed hair like mad, i had terrible inflammation, redness itching oiliness

very sensitive shedding to my diet, any small change too much meat sugar salt caused shedding

after the dht blockers kicked in 6 months or so after i started them, no dietary malfunction caused inflammation or shedding
i could pretty much eat what i wanted and my hair did great

Whilst I do not mean to discourage anyone from trying this type of diet out, you do need to consider Lex:


http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/journals/lex's-journal/

He sticks to raw meat exlusively - for five years now apparently. Done no wonders for his regrowth - if there was any at all - *and* that's all assuming he lost all that hair before starting this diet.

That guy has an interesting journal there. Given his age I'd bet that his hair loss had begun long before his experiment. However, let's not forget also that 1) a change in diet will probably not result in regrowth of hair, unless perhaps one is at the earliest stages of hair loss; 2) the diet (specifically here insulin) component is merely one of many components in the hair loss battle - stress, hormones, external and internal toxins, level of genetic predisposition, etc are other factors that a diet which minimizes insulin would not fully take care of.

Remember if this guy is eating an all meat diet, unless he is donating blood or taking iron chelators, you can be sure that he has too high iron. So it won't matter how low on the glycemic index he is eating, he will still have high insulin resistance because of the iron.

Espio,

I think it is more complex than that. It might be truth he has higher iron levels. But he's getting also more nutrients naturally, like alpha lipoic acid, minerals, fats, etc. The fact he's not using any carbs are all might be providing benefits normally not obtained in other diets...

Also, we should always keep in mind that AGA is a multi-factor problem, not just a matter of iron and oxidative stress.

Also Carnosine, which is found in red meat is a powerful antioxidant and protects against some of the most pernicious free-radicals. The studies on ketogenic diets clearly demonstrate better glucose and insulin levels.

CS-

so you are saying red meat is ok to eat in large quantities? I've cut carbs way down in my diet, but have been eating red meat probably 5-10 times a week. Is this safe? can it have any negative effect on kidneys?

Although possible, I find it extremely hard to believe red meat would actually cause hair loss.

No one hear will ever do a full blown all meat zero carb diet for the rest of ones life. I'm also very skeptical of people that claim to eat an all meat diet or all raw diet.
Even if a zero carb diet did stop hair loss , I would rather be bald. Even if theses guys are on a full blown zero carb diet I don't think they will remain on it forever.

I also have read a zero carb diet can induce Hypothyroidism which would actually cause hair loss.

180degreehealth.com is a good place

Also Inuit and Eskimos did not eat a zero carb did (although at times they went many weeks / months doing zero carb), they still ate good amounts of land / sea vegetables when they had access.

big mike - When consuming red meat, especially standard (non-grass-fed), then taking an Omega-3 supplement such as Krill is very important, so that the inflammatory Omega-6's can be balanced out.

Aside from that, eat as much as you desire.

Thanks for the replys!