Dirk’s sense of well being is the best it has ever been after changing to a Carnivore Diet

I am a 75 year old Australian and my wife and I have completely turned our lives around with a series of changes as we learned more and more about how diet can influence health. To get a perspective about the struggle over about 30 years – yes 30 years I will tell you about each step and misstep over the years.

Until we finally got it right, I have always been overweight for the most part and an Asthmatic. In retrospect I believe I was Insulin Resistant as a child, largely because of a very poor diet with a large component of sugary food. My favourite drink was Coca Cola!

I finally lost some weight during a year of compulsory National service in the South African army as a result of an incredible amount of exercise, in spite of a diet based on huge amounts of carbohydrates and sugary drinks. At the time of completion of my 12 months in the Army I weighed 77 kg. (170 lbs)

Over the next 27 years my weight steadily increased to 110 Kg (245Lbs). It was at this stage that I was accidentally diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. I was immediately put on medication by my GP and told to loose weight by eating less and exercise more. I took this advice very seriously and tried very hard to follow this advice. Being a keen cyclist this was my focus and I was eventually doing 3 to 5 hours of cycling, doing between 50 and 75 miles most days. It was at this time that I came across a book called Sweet Poison. I did manage to loose some weight and got as low as 95 Kg (205 lbs.) but this became a plateau. Throughout this time (all told about 8 years) I faithfully followed the various GP’s, some in Australia and another in New Zealand.

My GP eventually suggested I needed to improve the management of my Weight and Diabetes and referred me to an Endocrinologist who specialised in the management of Diabetes. He very quickly had me on a combination of 5 Diabetic medications Plus a Blood Pressure medication and a Statin. I must stress that throughout my period of treatments by the medical profession, my glucose level
was under control. I felt very unwell and no matter what I did my weight stayed stubbornly high.

By accident I came across the Diet Doctor and Dr Jason Fung’s website. I became a junkie internet researcher and started eliminating all sources of sugars and obvious sources of carbohydrates like bread, pasta and pizza. My weight started to drop and I then started to systematically drop my medications, starting with the Statins and Blood pressure medications. Soon I had to drop some of the Diabetic medications to prevent me from going into hypoglycemia. 

I tried to talk to my doctor about what I was doing and was warned that there was no way that I could fix my diabetes and by discontinuing my medications I would be heading for an early death and Alzheimers disease. By this time I had lost complete faith in the standard of care for Diabetes and my wife and I decided to
listen to the people who were promoting alternatives.

Over the next few years, we gravitated from a Keto diet to a Carnivore diet. This is what we now follow. Our weight has dropped to an ideal level. In my case 73 Kg (162 Lbs), our sugars are well controlled and our triglycerides and HBA1C are in the non-diabetic range. Our Cholesterol, total, HDL and LDL are all at ideal levels. We also now have a doctor who accepts that we are following a diet that works for us. He accepts that we have assumed a lifestyle that allows us to live without the use of medications.

I could write a whole book on the journey we had to go through.

By the way, my asthma has disappeared with the Carnivore diet as well!! My sense of well being is the best it has ever been.