As a kid I loved meat, fish, cheese and butter. Since I am from Switzerland, I certainly had my share of good quality cheeses. In particular the goat and sheep cheeses were my favourite.
Unfortunately, Switzerland is also famous for its delicious chocolate. I stuffed my face with it daily. I was definitely a sugar junkie.
Fruits and vegetables had little appeal to me. Salad was okay, but only if it was soaked in a creamy French sauce.
What I did not know was that I was actually allergic to casein, wheat and lactose!
This was expressed in high anxiety, depression, and severe PMDD ( PMS with depression and suicidal thinking). I also had Selective Mutism and massive shyness since I was a child. That was such a struggle socially, and I missed out on a lot of things because of it.
Around 1995, age 21, I heard about the bad influence of sugar and pasteurized dairy for the first time from Dr. Max Otto Bruker. But I was addicted to both sugar as well as dairy and could not stop eating them. Dr. Bruker was possibly the first Doctor who went against the sugar and dairy industry. However, he was unaware of plant anti-nutrients and the oxalate issue at the time and recommended sprouted wholegrain.
I was gluten intolerant, so becoming a vegetarian did not improve my health issues. Around age 26 my soy consumption increased. And for about 12 years I consumed a lot.
Around 2007 I had an autistic burnout – from sensory overload, too much activity, after having run 6 marathons on the wrong fuel, too much work, too little rest and solitude. So I weaned off of sugar and dairy after a Chinese-American Natural Doctor told me to.
There was not much change really (I was still eating lots of soy and rice and vegetables) – so I took a break from all my activities and this helped somewhat. The solitude and rest was probably what my body needed most. At the time I was not aware I was an introverted autistic with C-PTSD. I tried so hard to fit in, to be like everybody else.
Around 2014 I became a vegan and in 2016 I even tried the fruitarian and raw food approach, though it was extremely difficult not to cheat with cooked vegan food. My health-issues did not go away as I had hoped. I developed very common vegan malnutrition symptoms: chronic hip pain, back pain, headaches and migraines, massive bloating and digestive issues.
I felt exhausted all the time and tired after every meal.
In the morning I woke up feeling stiff with pain in my hip. At work I had to sit down a lot, not being able to stand longer than 30min without feeling back pain. I had brain fog and it was hard for me to focus, to talk, and I had trouble with sensory overload. Depression was another issue and chronic anxiety.
Dry skin in winter was unbearable, I could not sit cross legged as my skin would start to itch. During the night I would wake up, skin itching and dry no matter how much I tried to oil it!! I had cravings for who knows what, and my hair started to fall out too. Wound healing took ages and I also felt pain in my liver and pancreas area after each meal.
In 2018 I had a massive debate with meat eaters, and it left a big impact but it took me a whole year to decide that I wanted to go back to meat eating myself.
December 2018 I started with eggs. Carefully, not knowing how my body would react. Next was salmon. I always loved salmon. I still felt unsure if this was the right way to go. I felt guilty and when I read the labels on the sausages in the meat section I expected to be jumped on any second by a militant vegan, war hammer swinging!
So I “confessed” my new way of eating to my Somatic Experience Practitioner. She actually congratulated me, saying that she herself had left veganism behind many years ago as well. For nervous system health veganism simply is not beneficial.
So I tried the paleo and autoimmune paleo protocol, at first. I watched many Ex-Vegan videos and Lierre Keith’s book The Vegetarian Myth was a true eye opener. I realized how similar my symptoms were, which helped me tremendously and gave me the confirmation I needed.
But somehow I just did not feel as good as I thought I would feel with the autoimmune paleo diet. Then an ex-vegan friend told me about the carnivore approach. She reversed her fibromyalgia and many other issues and said she felt amazing.
So after trying autoimmune paleo for 3 months I decided it could not hurt to go carnivore and see if it would heal my body. I also started to watch many youtube videos and read many books about the topic.
To my amazement, my body started to heal. After only 4 months Carnivore (April – August 2019):
- back pain gone
- more energy
- I can stand for hours now
- hip pain gone
- morning stiffness gone
- more mental clarity
- better cognitive function
- better stress resilience
- sensory overload less pronounced
- better verbal interaction
- brain fog gone
- digestive issues completely gone
- no more gas
- depression gone
- PMDD gone, menstruation is regular and very mild
- less anxiety in particular from Omega 3 intake
- migraines are less often
I highly recommend the carnivore way of eating. It is amazing. Give it a try! But do it gradually. Give the body enough time to adapt. Don’t go cold turkey. Do a baby steps approach. No need to rush.
