 The shocking truth about the carnivore diet that you need to know Now let's be clear. I have nothing against a carnivore diet as an Elimination diet in fact some of my patients use it on a short-term basis to break a cycle of gut inflammation and leaky gut and And it does support their gut help because it removes all lectin-containing compounds from the diet and Let's be clear Plants do not want you to eat them even so-called Friendly plants that appear on the plant paradox diet But in some people their gut is so damaged that even the defense compounds of Simple plants like romaine lettuce or broccoli is enough to cause damage to people's health I'll give you a famous example that I've talked about before Years ago, we got a Nutribullet blender and my wife decided to make a kale smoothie. Why not? Kale's great for you She blended the kale smoothie and I drank it on the way to work and About an hour later. I was in the bathroom with blowout diarrhea What the heck happened? Well, I can tolerate kale which is bitter which has a lot of Plant defense compounds more bitter more better when I eat it whole or cooked and it's digested slowly, but when we take rock ale and Pulverize it all of a sudden all of those potentially mischievous Compounds we're hitting my gut wall and my gut said holy cow We got to get rid of this stuff and Quite frankly. I haven't had a kale smoothie since Some of my patients are so sensitive to These plant compounds that I have them with irritable bowel or leaky gut Nuke their vegetables cook them forever pressure cook them to destroy these compounds But even that and some people is not enough and we've seen success fly Eliminating all of these compounds. In fact, I've written before that a lot of these diets like the Adkins diet like the Drinking man's diet, which was a very low carbohydrate diet basically eliminated these plant compounds and that's one of the reasons they work for so many people so Maybe I was the father of the carnivore diet of some people have accused me But before we say well if plants are so bad for you all of us should be eating a carnivore diet not so fast First of all, there's absolutely zero evidence of long-living people eating a carnivore diet a Society that follows a carnivore diet does not exist and One would think with so much experimentation With food around the world for millennia If a carnivore diet was as good as its proponents say it is for long-term health Surely we should have been able to find a society that has long-term great health on a carnivore diet and that Simply does not exist. In fact looking at areas of the world that have extreme longevity the blue zones and other zones that I've talked about in my book all Of these areas have one thing in common and no, it's not that they eat beans and rice or grains Sorry, that's absolutely not true All of these areas in general eat a very low Animal protein diet and as I've written about in all my books That's what appears to be the major driver of this longevity Now the other thing if you're going to embark on a carnivore diet Let's be careful about our food choices that are available by eating animal products first of all There is a sugar molecule in beef lamb and pork called new five g see That sugar molecule is distinctly different from the sugar molecule that lines the blood vessels of chicken fish and us We have an Antibody that can be developed when we're exposed to new five GC containing foods That we will attack our own blood vessels with that antibody So we don't want an autoimmune attack on our blood vessels and there is Considerable experimental evidence that one of the reasons that red meat Promotes heart disease is actually from this molecule new five GC Prompting an autoimmune attack on our blood vessels. The other thing that's concerning is that tumor cells Can use new five GC to hide from our immune system to Cloak of themselves Now here's the deal you and I do not produce new five GC So they only place a tumor cell could get new five GC Is for you to eat it in beef lamb or pork and that's why there is an Association now just remember association does not mean causation, but there is an association association between red meat eating and Cancer particularly colon cancer and even breast cancer so our species became Completely different one of the reasons we think is because of this new five AC mutation Okay, so you're not going to eat beef lamb and pork that's pretty easy Oli chicken instead that has new five AC. Well, not so fast first of all Most commercially available chicken is incredibly high in the lectins and antibiotics Now wait a minute Lectins I thought lectins were in plants and that's true lectins are primarily in plant foods Well, you've heard the phrase you are what you eat But more importantly you are what the thing you're eating eight so if you feed chickens Lectin containing foods like corn and soybeans, which is what most chicken feed is made of the lectins in those corn and soybeans will become part of the chicken meat and It's always amazing to me when I have people with tough autoimmune diseases that we take away their organic free-range chicken and Their autoimmune disease finally abates and it's because those organic free-range chickens were being fed organic Corn and soybeans So what can you do try to find? pastured chickens, but even that is Troublesome as you know, we've had Farmer Dan from lectinlightchicken.com on this podcast and Farmer Dan from Texas has Perfected lectin free chickens using lectin free Feed in his pastured chickens and I'm a huge fan of his why else well even though it is technically illegal Now to give antibiotics to chickens. There's a catch chickens can be kept in a warehouse with a hundred thousand chickens And they're not in cages. They actually hold themselves up by being crammed in there Legally, you can keep those chickens in that warehouse As long as you open a door to the outside for five minutes every 24 hours And the chicken has in theory the ability to go outside and that actually is the definition of free-range chicken the law which was passed in 2007 Actually allows you to feed chickens regular grain not organic If you if the price of organic food goes twice as high as regular You can switch the chickens to regular food and still label it organic because you meant well Now even though you it is illegal to feed chickens antibiotics if the veterinarian Who of course is paid for by the chicken company thinks that one of those chickens in a hundred thousand chickens is sick You're allowed to give the entire flock antibiotics to treat that one sick chicken in fact looking at chickens who have Supposedly never been given antibiotics in some studies 60% of those chickens have antibiotics in their flesh even though it's illegal to give them antibiotics certified as antibiotic-free There are interesting studies showing that urinary tract infections in women can be directly traced to contaminated chicken meat Antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria and chicken can lead to food-borne illness Almost once a month. We hear of a chicken related food-borne illness About one in six Salmonella infections and one in three campylobacter infections are due to antibiotic-resistant strains of those bacteria in the chicken you're eating Watch be very careful when it says no antibiotics labeled That is not your assurance that these chickens have not been given antibiotics Look for pasture-aged chicken. Know your farmer. Ask your farmer at the farmers market What do you feed your chickens? The correct answer is nothing They go out in the fields and eat bugs and grass, which is what they're supposed to do Okay. Well, what about eggs that could be a potential for the carnivore diet Well, if you're going to do that again look for pasture-raised or at least omega-3 eggs Empyroferably look for omega-3 eggs that have been fed algae. There are a number on the market But the deal with eggs in my humble opinion is Eggs should be a vehicle to get olive oil into your mouth and interestingly enough eat primarily the yolks That's where all the good stuff is and look for the really bright intensely orange colored yolks That's a guarantee Pretty much that those chickens have been outside eating bugs Give the whites to your dog. Your dog will love you for it Interestingly enough about two and a half eggs a day meet all the protein requirements for your needs How about fish? Please eat wild fish only Preferably smaller fish like sardines like mullet The best seafoods that you can get wild caught salmon Alaska salmon by law has to be wild caught If you see the words organic salmon run the other way They didn't follow the salmon around in the ocean to see if they were eating organically those are farm-raised salmon that have been fed organic corn and soy beans, so just because it says organic or Nordic salmon or Scottish organic salmon or Canadian salmon run the other way. That's not what you're looking for Try to stay away from larger fish The people that I see with high mercury levels in their urine or their blood in my practice are Dentist or sushi eaters These are not your friends swordfish tilefish Rupert has high levels of mercury and try to avoid these things and Naturally if you're having fish and chips or fried calamari That's not part of the carnivore diet. Sorry about that Okay, so why do people get good results with the carnivore diet? Well, it's because you're eliminating lectins But all of my carnivore diet patients when we look at their inflammatory markers Over time their inflammatory markers markers of vessel flexibility begin to get worse and worse so short-term to fix a problem with an affront of Plant compounds against your gut. I've got nothing wrong with that But long-term I can tell you in my patient population It looks like a recipe for disaster and again if this was such a good idea We should be able to find a society with Incredibly long-lived healthy people who have adopted a carnivore diet. I'm sorry They just can't be found Finally just remember as in general and I agree with dr. Walter Longo with this The less animal protein that you can get The better and when I asked my patients to reduce animal protein I see dramatic Reductions in a blood marker called insulin like growth factor and As a general rule the lower your insulin like growth factor the longer you live the longer you live Well and quite frankly the less chance of cancer developing. So why not go after that? so The is a carnivore diet a great idea Well as the ultimate elimination diet I have nothing wrong with a carnivore diet in the short term but once you fix the underlying problem and You know how to do that if you've been watching this podcast Once you fix that problem It's time to wean yourself from the carnivore diet And if you're going to do the carnivore diet Please try to think about Small fish try to think about shellfish like clams like scallops like oysters like mussels and Small fish like sardines. That's the safest way to practice a carnivore diet. I Think you're gonna love this one Fun fact the amount of lithium in your local water may have a Positive benefit on your brain health through the years