Curb your Carbs! Eat your Meat!

Recently, I was contacted by a lady called Debbie in relation to a special diet she wanted to tell me about. Around the same time, I was contacted by another long-time “check the evidence” reader, John, in relation to a diet he had switched to – an exclusively carnivorous diet! John reported that he had been on a vegan diet for about 15 years, but decided to switch, following his own research.

The common element, here, was that both diets included much more animal fat than most people think would be healthy these days.

This put me in mind, initially, of the ethical issues associated with eating meat and animal-derived food substances. In the west, there has been a general movement towards vegetarianism and veganism in the last 30 years or so. I myself have tended to eat less meat, having been brought up on what might be called a “meat and 2 veg” type of diet! Another thing I eat quite a lot of is breakfast cereal and it wasn’t until recently that I came across some interesting discussion of how cereals were introduced into our diet. Consumptions of cereals began when humans started living in villages, towns and cities and organised agriculture had been developed. A superb video discussing an “alternative history of agriculture” notes how 11 independent regions of the world all started using varieties of wheat about 10-12,000 years ago. This wheat has a genome more complex than that of humans. Researchers quoted in the video argue that the wheat must have been genetically manipulated to make it viable as a food source. The video also points out that early cereal-based diets were not very suited to humans and the agricultural processes employed to grow the wheat were very labour-intensive. Also, the video discusses archaeological finds related to the health of bones and teeth of individuals from communities that practiced organised agriculture to those from hunter gatherer communities. It concludes that those from hunter-gatherer communities were considerably healthier in most respects. It also argues they probably had more free time to enjoy life!

This put me in mind of earlier research I’d read about a Paleodiet – and how this is much healthier for most people. In this diet, you would eat:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Nuts and seeds
• Eggs
• Lean meats, especially grass-fed animals or wild game
• Fish, especially those rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna
• Oils from fruits and nuts, such as olive oil or walnut oil

You would avoid:

• Grains, such as wheat, oats and barley
• Legumes, such as beans, lentils, peanuts
• Dairy products, such as milk and cheese
• Refined and added sugar
• Added salt
• Starchy vegetables, such as corn, jicama, peas and white potatoes
• Highly processed foods, such as chips or cookies

I have only written about diets a few times before. For example, way back in 2009, when I briefly wrote about a friend who had successfully treated Type 2 Diabetes by changing to a “live food” diet.

Dietary Dilemma

Returning to the letter I received from Debbie, she was responding to a post I made where I mentioned the research of Dr Paul Chazot which showed that the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease can be effectively treated using infrared light. Debbie had noted the research she had done in an effort to improve her daughter’s mental health had some cross over with topics in Chazot’s video. Debbie explained to me that her daughter had recovered from type I bipolar disorder after years of debilitating mental health – simply by following a diet. The sort of diet she described (and discussed below), “flies in the face” of all current nutritional advice. Debbie argued that the effects of the infra-red light therapy were essentially the same as those of the diet she and her daughter adopted.

The diet that her daughter followed was

• high in fat
• moderate in protein
• low in carbohydrate – specifically sugar and fructose

Debbie noted that symptoms of dementia indicate that “the brain is in trouble” and that 97% of Alzheimer’s sufferers developed some kind of psychiatric disorder, such as depression, anxiety, personality changes or something similar. She noted that, people with psychiatric disorders are far more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those without – so there seem to be clear links between these diseases and conditions.

Debbie noted that, in the same way that physics and chemistry are considered completely different in the sciences, so psychiatry and neurology are “poles apart” – academically speaking, despite them being practices of studying the brain. However, both disciplines are finding common ground – when their patients experience life changing results after they follow a high-fat, low carbohydrate and low sugar/fructose diet.

For example, Dr Mary Newport treated her husband’s Alzheimer’s Disease by switching to a high-fat diet. Similarly, Dr Christopher Palmer saw dramatic recovery of patients with severe psychiatric disorders when they adopted very similar diet (this is covered in his book “Brain Energy“). Others have noted the beneficial effects of a high-fat, low carbohydrate diet on patients who suffer from epilepsy.

Debbie also notes that the Charlie foundation was founded by filmmaker Jim Abrahams when his son Charlie began having severe seizures as a baby. In his frustration with medical professionals who were offering nothing but ineffective drugs as treatment, Jim began his own research. He, too, found that following a certain diet could essentially cure epilepsy and the principles of this sort of diet were laid down by physician Russell M Wilder, over a hundred years ago. Wilder noted that his epileptic patients became seizure-free when fasting. He developed a diet which, essentially, kept the body in “the fasting state” while still able to take in nutrition. It was a high-fat low-carb diet!  Abrahams son Charlie became seizure-free when eating this way and Abrahams went on to make a film called “First Do No Harm,”  about his experience and miraculous discovery. (This story reminds me of Lorenzo’s Oil.)

Why Does a High Fat, Low Carb Diet Work?

In the letter I received from Debbie, she discussed some of the science behind the high-fat low-carb diet. It appears that when glucose in the brain is not being regulated properly, it begins to damage the mitochondria. (Mitochondria are considered the “power source” or “battery” of a cell). Significant or ongoing “Mitochondrial disturbances” seem to trigger seizures and mental health issues in general. The brain does not have to use only glucose for energy though – it can also use ketones. Ketones are only used when insulin is low, such as when you haven’t eaten for some time or fasted. While using ketones, the mitochondria begin repairing and returning to normal function. A high-fat, low-carb diet does not elicit a “glucose response,”  as it does not spike insulin – so the brain keeps using ketones for energy.

Returning to Dr Chazot’s Infrared light therapy video, he talked briefly about mitochondria – but only in the context of it/them being the “powerhouse” of the cell. It is now becoming recognised that mitochondria are so much more than that. Broadly speaking, they help in the regulation of metabolism, but they also (as described in Dr Chris Palmer’s “Brain Energy” book):

• Help produce and regulate neurotransmitters.
• Help regulate immune system function and stress responses.
• Are involved in cell growth and differentiation.
• Are involved in making, releasing and responding to hormones.
• Create reactive oxygen species (ROS) and they help clean up ROS waste products.
• Play a primary role in gene expression.
• Help maintain existing cells and eliminate old, damaged cells.

Debbie notes that when mitochondria in the brain are struggling to maintain their functions, we begin to exhibit a range of psychiatric and neurological dysfunction, so it is likely that the red-light therapy is having an effect on the mitochondria in some way.

Debbie rightly asked – why go to the trouble of expensive light therapy when the route of the problem is in what we eat? She then mentioned another researcher named Thomas Seyfried – in a paper entitled “Cancer as a metabolic disease,” co-authored with Laura M Shelton, they state:

“Being a Sport”

Prof Tim Noakes – has noted how athletes perform better on a zero-carb diet. He talks about some athletes either unable to talk about their low-carb/no carb diets – due to sponsorships – or that they just don’t want to give away information that gives them the advantage. Elsewhere Noakes has discussed historical evidence of humans being much taller “super athletes” – when they were “zero-carb hunters.”

It is also worth becoming aware of how excessive consumption of certain vegetables in a diet can create problems. One example is where excess consumption of spinach lead to the formation of kidney stones – although the evidence can be debated here. Apparent problems with a plant-based diet have been noted by Liam Hemsworth and Sally K Norton in their book “toxic superfoods”.

“But I thought a Plant Based Diet was the optimum!”

Debbie noted in her letter to me that even the most open-minded people struggle to accept the idea that a diet consisting of a lot of fruits, vegetables and grains is not the panacea to optimum health that we have all been told. That is to say that talk of eating more meat (etc) in a diet may already cause some people’s hackles to rise and say “no, no – no!”

But for those of us that have “pierced the veil,” it is quite easy to become cynical and distrusting of the healthcare systems in use in Western Countries – which seem to be oriented around treating the symptoms of illnesses, not the underlying causes – therefore maintaining an active “customer base” and “repeat business.” Additionally, in the wake of the COVID scam, we have really seen how most of western healthcare is (or can be) controlled by vested, wealthy and powerful interests – to the point where it will deliberately harm (or even kill) people.

In considering these facts, then, it is hardly surprising when we learn that dietary guidelines that most people are given (which seem to be primarily set by groups in the USA) promote a high carbohydrate diet. This is discussed at length in a lecture titled “Brainwashed — The Mainstreaming of Nutritional Mythology” by Georgia Ede, MD, a nutritional psychiatrist. In the last 30 or 40 years, there has been a general attitude to diet which demonises the consumption of animal fats and animal derived protein. Of course, some of this has been done for ethical reasons – in relation to the well-being and suffering of animals, but farming practices in (at least) Europe, the USA and Australia have been modified to try and address some of these areas.

It is true that recommended diets seem to include (or don’t discourage the consumption of) carbohydrates – particularly sugars. Inspecting the ingredient labels on the processed foods we eat reveals how often sugar and sweetener are added. So, if science is now showing fats and proteins are vital to good health, is it any wonder that we now seem to have a mental (and general) health crisis?

When you look into the science, it seem that it is just another area where we’ve been lied to. The WHO and Bill Gates want more (all?) people to become veggie or vegan – but to make these foods appealing to more people, they are often highly processed. Gates and others have been trying to market “food like” substances – such as lab-grown meat and insect protein. These are not wholefoods.

In her letter, Debbie notes the efforts to demonise humans, in both the climate change narrative and in the context of humans being meat eaters (again, there has been considerable promotion of vegan and vegetarian diets over the last few years – even claiming that rearing farm animals would lead to more severe “climate change” effects. However, the whole “climate change” meme is ridden with conclusions based on incomplete sets of evidence or studies funded by vested interests – please read my book on “Climate Change”)

Debbie stated that in her own bitter experience, she has found that animal fats and protein are absolutely essential to optimum human health and fruit and vegetables are not. She notes that the Inuit tribes living in Arctic conditions traditionally didn’t eat fruit or vegetables – just fresh fish and seal or birds. They seem to be some of the healthiest people on the planet and only when their diets began to include grain and similar substances, did they begin to develop diseases such as diabetes. Similarly, their dental health suffered. Debbie notes the work of Weston A Price in his study of indigenous tribes.

As alluded to above, Debbie suggests that the ultimate goal now is to eradicate foods produced in livestock farming in favour of highly processed fortified “food-like” products produced in large out-of-town food technology centres. They will of course be marketed to us as healthy and as a way of “saving the planet.” I would agree that this is just more “corporate propaganda” – and it only serves to increase the likelihood that future generations will be “as stupid and as sick” as possible.

Debbie also mentioned some other YouTube channels which cover topics related to mental health and diet, such as:

• Metabolic Mind
• Metabolic Health Summit

Finally, a book that Debbie mentioned was “The Big Fat Lie: The True Story of Fat and Why It’s Good For Us” by Nina Teicholtz.

Another Experiencer

Around the same time as I received the letter from Debbie, I also received an email from a chap called John, who had been vegan for a number of years but then he switched to a carnivorous diet. He wrote:

Again, what John says may be even harder to accept than what Debbie reported, but he included many links (a few of which I have included below) to support what he was saying… This led me to a paper entitled “Pilot study shows ketogenic diet improves severe mental illness.”

There were quite a few areas where the research that Debbie told me about overlapped with the research John mentioned, such as what is discussed in a video on Dr Anthony Chaffee’s channel called “I Ate ONLY ONE Food And My Parkinson’s REVERSED!.” The description on this video reads:

In the comments, a poster with the moniker “paulaelliott47” states:

Thank you, lovely lady, Mimi,  for coming forward. Your story is my story.  I’m a year and a half away from a walker and cane.  My daughters think I was mis-diagnosed and the diet was just a coincidence.  I try convincing people they don’t need medication and horrible health issues and regular hospital and doctor visits.  I go once a year and my insurance gives me no choice.  This journey takes first, fear for your life, second research and lots of it (mine is months of youtube) and then, third, discipline.  The big reward is FABULOUS health for a multitude of issues!   I was vegetarian until thanks to finding Dr Chaffee’s video about plants not being human food.  That made sense to me and overnight I was in.  I’m 79.   All my Parkinson’s symptoms (and I had them all) are gone except a small tremor in the morning and I hope to see that gone soon.

Of course, it’s easy for folks to dismiss these sorts of postings/videos just as “anecdotal evidence,” yet there are scientific papers that support these accounts. John wrote:

I hope you have found this information of some use, and I thank all those who have been involved with making me aware of it and those who have made such “heresy” available to us!

Overall, I would say that different diets seem to work for different reasons for different people. There is also the general idea of eating for the enjoyment of it… Most of us are fortunate enough to have a choice in what we eat, and we deliberately eat or drink things that are “bad for us” (me included!) This article should make the reader more informed about the choices in diet – and some of the effects of those choices.