I had eaten the Standard American Diet for most of my life but with a heavy emphasis on “healthy” grains and “low fat” everything. As I went through college as a young adult, I found my health declining.
My waist circumference went over 40 inches, my BMI went over 35, and I was so exhausted that I fell asleep at the wheel while driving several times. Through nothing more than sheer luck, I didn’t kill myself or anyone else on the road, but as a man in his early 20s, keeping one’s eyes open at 5:00 pm shouldn’t be a problem!
I realized I had to do something, so for several years I followed the traditional advice of low fat, lots of healthy grains, and elimination of meat products. As I was not making a lot of money, going vegetarian was an easy way to accomplish this.
Vegetarianism Didn’t Work For Me
Not only did I fail to lose any weight on a vegetarian diet, I was constantly hungry and miserable. I stopped sleeping well at night and fell asleep in class and even at work. My free testosterone was measured at 202, about 1/3 of where it should have been at my age.
I had no sex drive, constant aches in every joint of my body, frequent nosebleeds, headaches, and a constant malaise that would probably have been diagnosed as clinical depression if I had access to medical care at the time.
Discovering The Low-Carb Diet
After hearing some success stories on the internet with low carbohydrate diets, I eventually decided to try it, and the change was almost immediate.
Within a month, I had lost around 10 pounds, I no longer felt groggy in the afternoon, and I felt full of life for the first time in years. After college, I made it a lifestyle and began to incorporate more and more meat while displacing grains, roots, fruits, and, yes, even lots of vegetables.
The Benefits Of A Meat-Based Diet
My blood triglycerides and blood pressure went to optimal levels. My HDL cholesterol improved, and my LDL (though never elevated before) stayed in a healthy range.
I had so much energy that I began working out religiously, taking great joy in barbell training and progressing rapidly in my physical strength while seeing my body get leaner and stronger.
I was no longer hungry all day, my joint pain was gone, and I finally felt as if my body was being used and nourished the way it had evolved to be.
The assumed issues of constipation, upset stomach, cramping, vitamin deficiency, weight gain, hypertension, and so forth that we have been told would be the result of eating a lot of meat have proven to be completely false, in my opinion.
In fact, I used to be a victim of bouts of upset stomach and diarrhea multiple times per week, but now that is a thing of the past.
A Life Transformed By A Meat-Based Diet
I have subsequently sustained injuries where surgery was recommended. I had a herniated disc and a SLAP tear (labrum tear) in my right shoulder. Both of these resolved quickly while eating a diet of 90+ percent meat.
Meat healed me. Meat gave me a quality of life that I never dreamed of.
The dietary recommendations of eating a diet of primarily grain and vegetables made me sick and are based on very shaky science.
I implore anybody with influence over dietary recommendations for any population to re-examine the role of meat in a healthy diet and keep in mind that there are a huge number of confounding factors with meat consumption.
Meat consumers tend to eat a lot of their meat between two pieces of bread with a bag of chips and a large sugary cola. They have a tendency to ignore all health recommendations in general and thus tend to smoke more, drink more, and drive without their seatbelt.
Now I enjoy a full life and tell others about how I have improved virtually every aspect of my life by eating lots of meat and little else. I have seen those close to me heal their bodies and reclaim a quality of life they thought was behind them.
