[danr4]

In 2019, age 30, I ate only red meat (and a little fish) for about 8 months. It was by far the peak of my physical condition. Better sleep, stronger workouts, no mid-day grogginess. Blood test results were as best as one could hope for, apart for the debatable "high cholesterol".

Unfortunately a couple of trips abroad (damn Italy) and I got back to a more standard diet. Have put on 15kg since. I've been longing to return to it, but the quality and price of meat here in Israel makes it so hard.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I had a similar experience, but with lots of noodles. I spent some months living in Singapore and I ate a lot of noodle and rice (but especially noodle) dishes almost every day, at lunch and dinner, because there are plenty of good ones there and I just can't get enough of them. I lost weight, slept better than normal (in spite of the commonly held claim that pasta at night is terrible for sleep), had less gas, felt better in general; in spite of not doing more physical activity than normal. Periods of more meat didn't work so well for me, though.

My experience doesn't fit well with the now popular position that pasta is the devil. And it's also different from yours. My conclusion is that people's bodies are different. What works for one person may not work for another, and probably that's a big part of the reason why it seems to be so hard for experts to agree on what we should eat.

[CynicusRex]

And I know of two people (bitcoin evangelists, lol) who had explosive diarrhea or an impacted bowel on a meat only diet, and had to be hospitalized.

Whereas my athletic performance on a vegan diet has never been better as well.

What to make of this? The body can adapt quite nicely to many foodstuffs as long as you do proper research on what foods to eat so you get all the nutrients you need. Not eating fruit and vegetables just seems folly to me.

[Daho0n]

>The body can adapt quite nicely to many foodstuffs

In a perfect world yes, but we live in a world where (at least in the West) pretty much everyone is addicted to sugar. A healthy body could switch between burning fat and burning glucose but I have yet to meet anyone who can do this without having been eating keto for a while. It's harder but possible as a vegan and I would recommend it to anyone. Just once and the body is better at switching back and forth.

[atarian]

That seems so counterintuitive to what I've been told about a good diet. Any resources you recommend where one can learn more about this?

[dennis_jeeves]

One great resource:

https://www.mostly-fat.com/eat-meat-not-too-little-mostly-fa...

Important tips here: pick meat cuts that are tasty (which necessarily will have a lot of fat, like the rib eye). Do not pick lean cuts ( gives some people digestion issues) , do not season except with salt. Seasonings interferes with one's taste buds to assess the quality of meat.

[hirundo]

This book got me started. I'm six months in and doing great on it:

https://www.amazon.com/Carnivore-Code-Unlocking-Returning-An...

[danr4]

I first heard about it on Joe Rogan - Jordan Peterson episode and then Shawn Baker - I'd suggest to hear the latter as he is a an orthopedic surgeon, weight lifter, and is 52 years old. Kinda gives it more credit.

The diet is pretty easy depending on how you want to approach. - it's only animal based food (meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese). I'd be careful with people who try to sell you something, search around on different ways to start.

I went cold turkey straight to only meat. It's hard, and it takes a few weeks for your stomach to get used to it. But I did it because previously I never managed to keep a straight diet because there were so many choices, so I kept slipping into the occasional sauces, stews, and FODMAPS. It was much simpler to go "okay i can only eat meat"

[atarian]

Thanks, I'll check those out. Sorry to see you get downvoted.

[danr4]

Happy to help. Remember to be careful, everyone's body works differently.

[taejavu]

Search for "The carnivore diet"

[femiagbabiaka]

IGF-1 is a hell of a drug. It will be interesting to see some anecdotal reports from current carnivore diet followers in a few decades.

[JPKab]

Why do we have to wait for anecdotal reports? There are numerous people who have followed this diet for decades in the US, but more importantly, there are entire tribes of humans who have eaten carnivorous diets for thousands of years. How much plant-based foods do you think the average Inuit consumes?

[femiagbabiaka]

1. Bigger groups === more and better data. I didn't know anyone growing up who was interested in ketogenic or carnivorous diets, now it's much more common.

2. Huge difference between the diet of a westerner following carnivore and traditional tribal carnivorous diets

3. The Inuits weren't particularly healthy, I'm not sure why their diet matters: https://www.leoandlongevity.com/post/inuit-health

4. And most importantly, there's a lot of research showing that high levels of IGF-1 associated with diets high in red meat are not good for longevity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjSl4n_KdOY

[JPKab]

That's a bummer about the meat quality in Israel. I'm guessing it's just super expensive???

[danr4]

The meat I can buy at any big US supermarket can only be found at mid-high end butcher shops, and costs about 3 times more.

[Daho0n]

The meat you can buy in any big supermarket in the US is awful quality that much of the world bans from importing. It's no surprise that meat is more expensive elsewhere.