The few days I’ve tried it my numbers were not surprisingly amazing, but I doubt I could or would even want to do it long term, but it fascinates me nonetheless. Is there any actual danger in eating only meat?
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I never have as I am suspect of any diet that eliminates one or two of the 3 main foods, protein, carbs and fats, and only eating meat or plant foods.
I restrict carbs, not as much as I used to. In fact when I was first diagnosed with T2DM I followed Dr. Bernstein religiously limiting daily carbs to 10g or less. While this worked well in reducing BG, me losing excess weight I personally could not sustain it. I had low energy, was cranky and would kill for a baked potato.
Limiting carbs, eating healthy fats and no more than 100g of protein has been a happy medium for me.
This is just me.
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I have done it off an on over the years since I was diagnosed.
I have found that brain fog and tired where the two man things to overcome, and getting more/enough fat, and timing of it, was the solution for me.
At first I added coconut oil as a fat, and I would eat a few tablespoons a couple hours before I needed to exercise, work outside, etc.
I found a lot of pork type meats had a great fat/protein balance for me.
I have been doing this for the last couple weeks. Spicy pork sausage and scrambled eggs for breakfast, no lunch, and a couple pork chops for dinner.
Not that I don’t have days where I eat a sandwhich, or go out to eat, or have chicken strips for lunch, etc.
But with the Tandem pump using Control-IQ, I literally DO NOT BOLUS! (except when I cheat, of course) The pump slightly adjusts the basals, and I remain between 100 and 120 with ZERO thought on my part.
This part is a BIG quality of life thing.
I am not advocating this for a long term solution.
But if you want to ‘take a break’ from your T1D, this is about as close as you can get!
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I think that one of our members @Jim_YYC did carnivore combined with OMAD (one meal a day). They might be able to weigh in with more info.
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I’ve done Carnivore (one meal a day) for a couple of years, and have found a marked improvement in a couple of my inflammatory disorders (Lupus, arthritis).
It turns out that vegetables aren’t required in your diet, nor is fibre.
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I so so so wish I could have a pump that does that looping or control IQ stuff. I signed back up for another 4 years of Omnipod and then found out about these smart features and now I have to wait out my contract. It would be SOOOOOO nice to have that feature!!!
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I think I agree. It’s nice to have the mental break from all the work blousing with carbs and monitoring the swings and adjusting for exercise, driving, sleeping, when I eat only meat. BUT, it’s a new issue for me: no variety/restriction makes me anxious and want to eat ALL THE CARBS. I think the issue is ME. lol
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If you have the ?older? Omnipods I think you can set up loop with some work. Or of course wait until they release their approved loop early next year.
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Getting stuck in a rut is easy to do when you are used to eating a more varied/balanced diet.
On the other hand, you get to eat some more decadent things that have more fat on them than you normally would.
I think one part that a lot of people fail at with this type of meal structure is that without carbs, your brain REQUIRES a minimum amount of glucose to properly function.
And with how most things are, a lot of meats are low fat compared to what you should be eating when you only eat meat.
So, eat more fatty meat, or find another source for fat. Like I mentioned, getting enough fat into my diet was the single most important part of going this route.
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A carnivore diet is not sustainable for long-term health. I had a roommate who did this when he went to Hawaii. He seemed fine in the short-term but long-term abandoned it after some vague health problems.
Also, a carnivore diet isn’t necessarily a ketogenic diet, like the one kids use to control epilepsy.
Also keep in mind that even in the ketogenic diet, every specific food needs to be measured carefully to ensure you are eating a huge percentage of calories from fat. And the rest of the food needs to be carefully chosen to ensure you don’ thave nutritional deficiencies. I would imagine that balancing your nutritional needs with just meat would be challenging.
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