I have eaten an all-meat diet for over 7 years.
I would first like to start off by saying that I am not making any claims about what you should eat. That doesn't really concern me so much. I did this mostly as an experiment and it ended up helping me with asthma and epilepsy, so I stuck to it. What made me interested was reading a book called "Fat of the Land" by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. He lived with primitive Inuit for over 13 years. It is an excellent book.
Many people will speak about all of the health problems that Inuit face, but that is not primitive Inuit. Once the Inuit were eating more of a western diet, their overall health suffered greatly. They started becoming obese, getting heart disease, diabetes, dental health issues, and just about every other health issue that most modern people face. Primitive Inuit lived very different lives compared to Inuit that has been exposed to westernized diet and culture. Stefansson found 200 primitive Inuit skulls and none of them had any signs of tooth decay. This was the first fact that really got me interested. Once again, I highly recommend that book even if you are only slightly curious.
So, of course this kind of stuff got me interested. Then I found someone named Owsley Stanley who ate an all-meat diet for over 50 years. This was his forum post from 2006:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=287013
After that, I decided to just give it a try. The "adaption" period was very difficult for me. People say it is similar to trying an atkins diet or a low-carb high-fat diet except it is somewhat more difficult. I couldn't do it just by cutting out all foods beside meat, so I had to take it easy and gradually adjust to it.
Now, after 7 years, I mostly eat rib-eye every day and drink water. I also have a cup of coffee 3 times per week. I have no more asthma, no epilepsy, I lost weight, and rarely ever get sick. I used to get blood test often for the first few years, but everything was coming back normal. Even my blood pressure dropped to normal levels after about a month of eating this way. I used to weigh about 180 pounds and now I weigh 135 pounds no matter how much steak I eat. I eat about 1.5 to 2 pounds per day of rib-eye. However, at one point I was eating almost 3 pounds per day and still couldn't get my weight above 135 pounds.
My girlfriend also decided to do this with me and she is doing well after all of these years too. She never had a weight problem to begin with, but she did get sick often. So, this way of eating has helped her maintain her health and feel good.
Also, there is plenty of evidence to support this way of eating now. I will post some more resources for further reading below.
http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/
http://justmeat.co
This is an interview that someone did about me:
https://zerocarbzen.com/2015/03/07/zero-carb-interview-michael-frieze/
I also have a facebook group that has over 14,000 members. If you are interested in checking it out then go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PrincipiaCarnivora/
Once again, I am not claiming to be a health guru or anything like that. I think humility is such an important thing to have when it comes to the health of a human being. We need to be open to these situations so that we can have a better understanding of why this works for so many people. Also, it is important for anyone that eats like me to be open to criticism. This way of eating should be criticized and everyone should be skeptical before they try it.
It is important to be healthy and eating based on evidence and not based on some ideological beleif system is the key to living young as long as possible. I have learned that although we are all very similar biologically, we are also different in many ways. There is no one-size fits-all approach diet. I do believe we are meant to eat primarily meat based on biological and anthropological evidence, but I am not so certain about the all-meat diet. It works for me and many others, but only time and research will tell.
I hope you found all of this interesting. Feel free to comment below and I will do my best to reply. I will ignore anyone that is trolling or insulting me. Remeber, this is a diet and not a religion. There is no reason to get so emotional over it. I am looking to have a real disucssion and I welcome being challenged as long as you do it by the principle of charity (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity). I am not a health care professional, so it is possible that I could learn a lot from your comments. I have a background in biology (mostly bio-informatics), but 3 semesters of biology related courses in a university is hardly enough to consider myself an expert.
Very interesting, I have been doing low carb / keto for about 50% of the time the last years and when i am on it I defiantly feel better. Can only image what just meat for 7 years feels like.
How long would you say it would take to notice any benifits transitioning for just low carb (<20g per day) ?
The adaption to an all-meat diet is a lot more difficult than adapting to a keto or low carb diet. At least for me anyways. I ate a low carb diet for about a year before attempting an all-meat diet and the adaption phase was still a little difficult.
The mental aspect of it all is the cravings and the doubt. This way of eating would be considered as extreme by many people although it really isn't. Only in a modern and cultural context would make this seem extreme. In reality, its logical and has plenty of evidence to support it. Both biological and anthropological evidence. But, eating is learned through acculturation, so it is hard to unlearn things that you have believed since you were a child. It is like learning a new language almost. Also, its just hard to give up some of your favorite foods. Mine was pizza and I dreamed about eating it. My mouth would water just thinking about it. Variety was another thing that I struggled with, but you can find variety in the animal kingdom too.
They physical side of the adaption is also difficult. Many people get muscle cramps. The skin, mouth, and eyes can get dry too. Also, finding energy to do anything is almost impossible. The thought of eating meat and fat is sort of disgusting for the first week. However, after that steak becomes so delicious. My favorite food is now a rib-eye cooked rare. I honestly enjoy it every single day. It always satisifies me for many hours. It took about 6 months for me to physically adapt to this way of eating completely. After 6 months, I felt really good. I had all the energy i wanted, my skin was feeling great, I no longer felt dehydrated, and I have not had a single muscle cramp in 7 years.
I think for many people, this way of eating just isn't worth it. If you like to eat a few carbs here and there and it doesn't effect you then I probably wouldn't do it. Cheat days are not okay with this way of eating, because you will have to deal with adaption all over again.
However, for me, it changed my life. I had asthma, epilepsy, and was always sick. My nose was always runing, I constantly suffered with a sore throat, and I was over weight too. Allergies were just a normal part of my day. I got pneumonia often and that doesn't go well with asthma.
This way of eating stopped my asthma completely. I discovered that if I eat anymore than 5g of carbs then my asthma comes back. Also, I have only been sick three times in the past 7 years. I haven't even had constpiation or diahrea in all of those years. The highest fever I have had was 98 degree's farenheit.
I still have asthma, but only if I eat carbs. The source of carbs doesn't matter. Even if I eat too many eggs or heavy cream, then my asthma comes back. So, its directly carbohdyrate related.
Also, I used to weigh 180 pounds. My weight dropped down to 135 pounds in about 6 months or so. Now, I can't get my weight over 135 pounds no matter how much I eat. I can eat 3 pounds of rib-eye per day and my weight stays the same. Its nice being able to eat based on intuition and not have to worry about calories. Just like every other animal on this planet. I used to get fat so easy. I can gain weight by lifting weight and adding muscle, of course.
So, this was just my experience with it. Everyone is different and I am not trying to make any extraordinary claims. I just think this deserves some more attention. I think there is something to it. Inuit did it very successfully and so did the maasai. We have lived through many ice ages as well, so its certainly possible. I don't think that 1 cup of vegetables is keeping people healthy on a low carb diet. It simply isn't needed. There is nothing in plants that we need that cannot be found in the animal kingdom. And, it is more bio-available in meat as well.
Maybe, some people need fiber or something, but I have not had any issues with that over the years.
Who knows, but I will continue to do this until it becomes a problem. So far, blood test are great and so are my vitals. I feel as good as ever too.
Sorry for any bad grammar.