Mike’s Struggle with Gout and Diet Approaches
After years of trying everything from the standard American diet loaded with sugar and processed foods to a vegan diet, Mike finally discovered the healing benefits of a carnivore diet. In the process, he healed his painful gout symptoms and optimized his health in every way.
Mike struggled with gout for many years. Gout is a painful form of inflammatory arthritis in which uric acid builds up in the joints. As Mike’s condition worsened, he became immobilized and unable to continue his daily activities. He often needed crutches to get around his house and couldn’t keep up with his active children. “I had flare-ups every couple of weeks,” Mike shares. “I used to run and go to the gym regularly, but during a flare-up, I couldn’t do anything except lay on the sofa. I would get really depressed. I took my mobility for granted.”
Eliminating Foods and the Discovery of a Meat-Based Diet
Mike started eliminating foods one at a time to determine if a particular food was causing his flare-ups. “I just narrowed my food choices. Meat was the only food I didn’t seem to have any inflammatory reaction to.” Mike was surprised at this result because traditional medicine and advice from his doctor was that red meat was the likely culprit for gout. But Mike quickly learned this wasn’t true for him.
“Keto helped me in many ways, but I still ate massive amounts of spinach, almonds, and seed oils. I still got gout flare-ups frequently,” Mike explains. Eliminating those foods and sticking to a meat-based diet has given Mike the relief he was searching for.
Transitioning to a Carnivore Diet and Its Benefits
For three years, Mike had some success with a ketogenic diet. After all the other approaches he had tried, keto gave him the best results in terms of energy, mood, and overall health. “My main focus was to improve my overall quality of life,” he says. However, Mike still had a significant health problem that needed to be solved.
“Since switching to carnivore, my satiety is much better than it was on keto,” Mike reports. He eats one large meal a day, typically ribeye steak or ground beef. He includes eggs, liver, oxtail, pork, and suet to add variety, but he doesn’t mind eating the same thing daily. “Where I’m at with my carnivore journey is to keep things as simple as possible. My goal with eating now is simply to fuel my body, and I find I don’t crave many different foods as I did before.”
Since Mike was already fat-adapted on a keto diet, he had no issues transitioning to carnivore. “Getting rid of all the fiber from plant foods has made my digestion even better!” he points out. Still in remission from gout a year later, Mike is back to living an active lifestyle and enjoys training at the gym again. He is now a coach and continues to share the benefits of a meat-based diet with others. “Carnivore has optimized not only my health but life in general. I enjoy more energy and a better quality of life now!”
