Also, Marty's system intrigues me and I want to try it. But I need the spoons to learn something new.

Fortunately, my new job, writing, is one I've been practicing my whole life. As my energy comes back, I hope to try new things.

Brain fog is one of the reasons I'm no longer conventionally employable. But as the autoimmune gets better, so does my brain.

I have eaten the FDA's standard diet for 37 yesrs and got fat (nearly obese). I went Vegan. lost weight and over 4 years became VERY ill. I added meat back to my diet and was good until menopause. I revisited keto then quit alcohol and was very healthy, despite a cancer scare. I added fasting and then COVID happened. I restarted eating sourdough and drinking wine only to take a 10 kg unwanted detour. I have now quit alcohol and sourdough, gone back to carnivore in early Jamuary 2024, and have shifted 6 kg. BUT, this time I have very loose stools. So I hope my bowels right themelves soon. I do eat some sauerkraut, and fasting is not really a big part of my diet now.

Hi Mintaka!
Well, that is one way to shift 6 kg, maybe not a healthy long term strategy.. Loose stools are common on a zero carb diet:



https://optimisingnutrition.com/is-...ntial-nutrient/
This article gives advice on the minerals and nutrients missing in zero carb diets and how to correct the side effects.

The ON website has quite a few articles about carnivore diets.



Did Diet x fail you? https://optimisingnutrition.com/tried-every-diet/

Thanks Jey! I am hoping it settles down. I found out this morning that coffee might be making it worse.

UPDATE: I ate a piece of multigrain gluten free sourdough and it seems to have settled my bowels. Relief.

Glad to hear! I get my fiber from coconut, in a smoothie. (Surprisingly difficult to find UNsweetened coconut shreds, too!) Coconut wraps have replaced sandwich wraps. I also discovered how my autoimmune seems connected with oxalates, and paying attention to that really helps me.

I was all animal foods for most of 2019, and it did wonders for my autoimmune flares.

But this triggered oxalate clearing symptoms that look like. A public health expert has a website:

https://sallyknorton.com/symptoms/

with a listing of the symptoms. This was totally new to me a year ago. And now, key to my success.

UPDATE: On 20 Feb, I finally gave up dairy. The intent was to eat only beef and water. I quit coffee and tea about a week after quitting cheese. The chronic bowel discomfort has disappeared! The scoots have gone too.
The foods which seem to irritate my bowels are bread, cheese, coffee, tea and alcohol.
I intend to go to the end of April beef and water only.

So pleased to hear of progress! I hope you are pleasantly surprised, as I was

If beef and water works for you, great. But there are many nutritious foods between only that and the 5 foods that irritate your bowels..some variations on carnivore do use eggs, seafood and fermented dairy. Consider yogurt for restoring gut health. But glad to hear you are better!

On the topic of loose stools and carnivore. People can have all kinds of issues with sudden changes in diet (Mintaka, if you just started carnivore in January, you're still very new to this way of eating). Some people get loose stools, some get constipation when starting new plans.

This is n=1, but I've never had an issue with loose stools on carnivore. When I was eating lots of veggies/fiber on various low-carb/keto plans in the past, I had a terrible time with constipation. The more fiber I ate, the worse it got, and even landed me in the hospital once for 4 days with a very bad case of diverticulitis. For several years after that, I had many additional bouts of diverticulitis, some coming close to hospital stays again. Since going carnivore in August 2021 and ditching ALL fiber, I've not had a single flare-up.

Here's a video from Laura Spath talking about "Healing Constipation, Hemorrhoids, and other unpleasantness with a Carnivore Diet." Mintaka, you might find it interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUggFivSt54

I am not a stickler for labels. In fact, I hate labels. Some hard-core people in the carnivore world are purists and insist you're not truly carnivore unless you eat only beef and drink only water. A lot of others are more lenient, eating seafood, eggs, fermented dairy, yogurt (as Janet says), which is fine. If it's from an animal, I eat it. I figure if my cat doesn't see something as food, I shouldn't either. Or course, I once had a cat who loved uncooked frozen French fries!

Marty Kendall has a lot of great ideas and they work for some people (they've worked brilliantly for Janet, for example). I just don't believe his is the final word on nutrition. Do what works for YOU. It's hard work, and it may take years to figure it out, but once you do it all falls into place.

Message for Mintaka and WearBear.

Since I spend much of my on-line Life Down Under, have a new resource on Carnivore, Nutrient Density and an interview with Sally Norton about Oxalates. On X, YouTube, etc. TheMeatMedic. At 4 months he was all in on carnivore, but now at a year, he has added some cautions, a good list of blood tests to check, nutritional deficiencies, etc

https://youtu.be/DwsibKY5sw4?feature=shared. (Oxalates)

A balanced review of observations about benefits and results.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Carnivore diet


https://youtu.be/Tbb5MF9F_M8?feature=shared

Mintaka. Are you still on beef and water? This Brisbane doctor covers chronic diarrhea in his update.

Thanks! I'm glad he's thrilled about oxalate, but he doesn't give any reason to be down on carnivore except for things that are mostly oxalate.

We'd also argue a lot about cholesterol. Does cholesterol matter when triglycerides are low? He doesn't say anything about that, but it's the only number I care about. He's talking to autoimmune/mental health patients. EVERY inflammation marker counts.

Putting carnivore and oxalates together is what hits my sweet spot. The oxalate expert he talks about, Sally K Norton, is on a carnivore (animal foods) diet herself. But she doesn't say anyone else has to be.

I appreciate he's got a diet that doesn't clash with his patient's heads quite so much. I do agree with him that oxalate poisoning is what causes so much autoimmune. We're both going out on a limb, there But I think we're right.

And it's true. There's relatively few plants which need to be eliminated right away. There's nothing essential about any of them.