Carnivore in the Wisdom Years
A little about myself first.
I’m 69, by the time my blog comes out, and my health is much transformed since I started the carnivore diet on November 12, 2018. I’ve told the story on the blog before. But a short version is that as a child I was “sickly” to quote my sister. Diagnosed with type one diabetes at 16, growing up I had suffered with frequent headaches and constipation and stomach aches and getting sick often. Being diagnosed was a blessing because I became determined to get as healthy as possible in case a cure was ever figured out, so I could live healthfully after the cure. Then when I discovered in my 20’s that many people had figured out how to heal their own diseases by using healing therapies and diets, I believed that I too would heal my condition in this same way. Through my 20’s and 30’s
I researched health through books and was led to try every imaginable healing diet, herb, therapy, juicing, fasting in order to achieve a healing. I got close a few times but no cigar, as they say.
After many years and trial and success I found carnivore.
After one year carnivore and 2009
I found the Zeroing in on Health forum, before Facebook in 2010 and read about the early Zero Carb movement. People like Charles Washington who had been zero carb for several years and had become the picture of health, eating only meat. And Joe and Charlene Anderson who had eaten nothing but meat for the last ten years and looked 20 years younger and how Charlene had healed her many health issues. Today that 10 years has turned into 23 years and they are still a marvel. But it wasn’t enough to convince me so I started with the very low carb keto diet and waited until November 12, 2018 to start my own carnivore journey.
I’ve had many improvements in my health and I remain committed to the carnivore way of life. My issue is my friends and acquaintances and people I hear about. I hear complaints from people my age and older and even younger about not only aches and pains but much more serious health issues and they never even think that a simple change in diet could help them. They seem to think that these issues just come with getting older. That we are supposed to become disabled as we age and succumb to pain, fatigue and diseases and mental incapacities are inevitable! I am here to say, “it is possible to feel strong and capable every day. And to live happy and pain-free and medication-free as you age!”
How?
And why?
Succinctly, the carnivore diet consists of a diet in which only animal foods are eaten. Meat, sea food, eggs and dairy and animal fats. This diet had been written about for the last few centuries by such authors as I have collected over the years: Blake Donaldson in Strong Medicine, 1962;
Not by Bread Alone, Vilhjalmur Steffansson, 1946;
The Relation of Alimentation and Disease by James Henry Salisbury 1888;
What Must I Do to Get Well? And How Can I Keep So, Elma Fraser Stuart, 1889.
There are more than these books written in the past about the carnivore or all meat diet that can easily be found with a little searching online.
Back to the present. Here’s a quote by Dr. Anthony Chaffee a neurosurgeon who is a proponent of the carnivore diet, having himself been eating this way for 5 years twice; it once in his 20’s and more recently again the last 5 years. I tried to get a quote from a talk on YouTube called
24 Hr Part 2: Dr. Chaffee continues to field your questions. It’s a wonderful podcast but it’s told in a more conversational way and I was unable to quote, so I will paraphrase: he states how authors, such as Steffansson, and others through the years have recommended to eat a diet consisting of meat and fat and how many people throughout the world have now tried this ancestral diet and have improved all their markers of health, dropped their A1c, improved mitochondrial function and all other markers. He went on to say that in the 1800’s Dr. Salisbury was curing people of things like Rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, gout and Crohn’s disease with an all meat and water diet. And that Salisbury reported that native Americans living on an all meat diet were the healthiest population and tallest in the world at the time and living to 115 and 120 routinely. That he was reversing diseases which were thought to be unable to be reversed.
I posed a question on several Carnivore FaceBook groups to get some testimonials from the Elders of these groups because when I am researching I’m always interested in reading and hearing testimonies from people practicing what I am looking into. I know the science and studies can be manipulated by whoever is doing the study and I tend to trust individuals with their own experience. Here’s my question I posed:
I am writing a blog on The Wisdom Years and Carnivore. It seems that most of the carnivore experts are comparatively young. And I’m writing this blog for my friends, my family and others who are older and doubting how the carnivore or all meat diet could be a good thing. I’m 69 this month and have been carnivore for nearly 5 years. What can I tell my older friends who are cautious to start this diet—- I’m talking 70’s-100’s.
This was a very popular topic and I got more answers and lively engagement than I ever have on any other topic I might post about. So at least I know there are a lot of us older individuals who are pursuing this way of eating.
I’ll paraphrase some answers:
LB: Carnivore is very helpful as we age. It helps to combat sarcopenia, give you energy, helps with joints and ensures retention of muscle. Helps you maintain weight. The Standard American Diet, and vegetarian diets will cause loss of muscle and bone and may cause broken bones and falls. Next she mentions the dementia epidemic, the brain being mostly fat benefits from the carnivore diet and eating more fat.
I also received answers from doctors about their older patients, SY “I’m finding my older patients surprisingly open to carnivore. Just yesterday I heard that the mother of one of my patients who lives in a nursing home, tried carnivore and is having amazing results.
Many just say that they feel better than they ever have and wished they had heard about carnivore years ago.
C M Tells the story of his mother dying from full blown dementia at only 64 along with kidney disease caused from years of type 2 diabetes, while he is eating carnivore restoring his healthy blood sugar at age 53.
AW Instructs me to tell them: “ [Carnivore] will get rid of their heartburn, arthritic pain, elevated blood pressure and cholesterol issues.”
JM says: reduction of arthritis, better sleep and more energy.
GE has good results reducing rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and gaining strength, energy, metal acuity. Saying it’s the “best anti-aging protocol there is.” She’s 70.
JB calls the switch to carnivore from the keto diet has been transformational for her body and metabolism, active 76 year old woman.
And I’ll just quote Dana Spencer Shute, as she is a 14 year carnivore—-“I think this diet can greatly improve your quality of life, especially as you age. My husband will be 70 this year. He has no grey hair, he is on no medications, he’s healthy and is as active and strong as he’s ever been.”
GE said: I’m 70, have RA, on carnivore since 2018. Best thing I ever did. Increased strength, energy, mental acuity. Best anti-aging protocol there is. Has all necessary vitamins, minerals, etc. Rebuilding after years of damage, keeps doctors away.
Many simply say Transformational or I’m feeling the best I have ever felt!
Stephen Thomas, who has an excellent YouTube channel and is a Diabetes Educator and specialist and a phlebotomist states:
I'm 59 and I have clients in their 60s 70s and 80s. Benefits are reduced joint pain. Gut health improving, more energy and a spontaneous desire to start to lift weights! I have a few on my YouTube success stories playlist. Cognitive ability and recall improves dramatically. The reasons are removing seed oils and carbs, thus less inflammation and clearer signaling from hormones. This is two fold as hormone co-factors are now more readily available to make them! I would say skin improves, they look younger and some see grey hairs start to change and new growth can have slightly more of the person's original pigmentation.
When I was a raw vegan from 2003-2010 I developed very sore joints mostly when I tried to take walks. Walking was so painful! I was nearing ready to start using a cane! Hi I didn’t realize until I started eating meat on the ketogenic locavore diet that my pain was from a protein deficiency. I found a few articles about protein deficiency.
The 8 symptoms of protein deficiency as reported on Healthline in an article by Alti Arnason BSc PhD
These symptoms may very well be seen as symptoms of aging:
Edema
Fatty liver
Skin, hair and nail problems
Loss of muscle mass
Greater risk of bone fracture
Stunted growth in children (doesn’t apply here but is still interesting.)
Increased severity of infections
Greater appetite and calorie intake. (Not specifically age related but many people blame weight gain on menopause or aging)
And here’s a few more from an article by Erin Heger
“Symptoms of protein deficiency include fatigue, weakness, thinning of hair, brittle nails and dry skin.”
Once again these could all be seen as signs of aging.
Encouragement:
The carnivore diet includes all the necessary nutrients for a good healthy diet.
Many have found that the Carnivore Diet of beef, butter, bacon and eggs much less expensive than the Standard American Diet, or the Plant Based Diet. I myself, spend about $50 per week on groceries. When you exclude all packaged food except of course bacon, the only food I buy with an ingredient list, you are spending a lot less.
Try it for 30 days or better yet 90 days. I started with trying it for 30 days on November 12, 2018 and then I liked it so much I kept going!
Why did I like it so much?
No aches or pains at 69
No headaches
No allergies
No floaters in my eyes
I don’t get sore after a new
exercise
I have energy to exercise
Easier to cook
No chopping vegetables
No need for a compost
No stinky garbage
Grocery shopping is so much
easier, I’m in and out in a few
minutes. I’m shopping one
department.
Grocery list:
Beef
Butter
Bacon
Eggs
I’ll leave you with this challenge.
Try it for 30 days and let me know how you feel and how you like it.
And let me know if you would like me to be your coach.
Email aimeefieldsperrin@gmail.com
Instagra: @aimeefieldsperrin
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Thank you for reading!
Links for further research.
65-Year-Old Man Defies Aging with Carnivore Diet: His Astonishing Transformation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLFyyayG3mo&feature=youtu.be
Rancher and Carnivore for OVER 65 Years! (You Won't Believe Her Age!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnWdsEzx8F0&feature=youtu.be
80 Years Old and Thriving on an All-Meat Carnivore Diet | Mary Fields Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XLKySV0-o8&feature=youtu.be
78 Years Young and Healing with Carnivore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IafqZq-k8M8&feature=youtu.be
Carnivore Diet 101
https://www.doctorkiltz.com/carnivore-diet/