As an osteopath I recommend the carnivore diet for skeletal and spinal health. The nutrients available in animal proteins and fat not only ensure we get adequate minerals for bone mineralization, but also protein and vitamin D for collagen formation. Bones are made up of 65 percent mineralized collagen, which gives bones their solid infrastructure, and of 35 percent collagen tissue which is shaped like a crisscrossed protein similar to a beehive. Plant anti-nutrients and an excess of carbohydrate leach the minerals necessary for collagen and bone for- mation. Since vitamin D is synthesized from cholesterol, a diet low in animal fat inhibits Vitamin D3 synthesis, imperative for bone density.
While intense exercise and overuse can tax skeletal function, this is mostly because precious nutrients are exhausted to maintain the activity level. All our tissue cells regenerate with adequate nutrition. Rest is necessary to give our biochemistry ample time to absorb and synthesize nutrients into building materials for the connective tissue that is bone, ligament, and tendon. A carnivore diet reduces the amount of time needed for rest.
I ask all of my patients who come to me for relief of back pain and joint pain to adopt a carnivore diet. I know that the synovial inflammation in their joints will dissipate when carbohydrates and plant foods are removed. Intestinal absorption will be accelerated and facilitated, getting vitamins, minerals, and protein into circulation more quickly. Tissue around compressed nerves shrinks. Blood and lymph flow more quickly, enhancing nutrition and the removal of waste from tissue cells. I can do all of this with my fingers and the osteopathic techniques I use to remove restrictions from muscle and bone tissue, but this would require the patient to come for treatment two or three times a week. They can do so much of this with their diet.
So many patients come to me with x-rays depicting spinal disk compression. They are concerned that they are damaged for life. But the compression, which is most often caused by coach vertebral rotation in a spine that cannot maintain the curves necessary to absorb gravity, will improve with both adjustment and increased energy to maintain posture. I explain that spinal disks are made up of cartilage and synovial fluid and will regenerate with improved nutrition.
Many practitioners blame their patient’s neck pain on cell phone use, and their back pain on hours sitting at a desk. But I see the exact same lesions in people who never sit at a desk—busy people who clean homes, people who work in fishmarkets, who farm, who run around children all day, athletes who surf, ride bikes, teach jiu jitsu. In their 40s their x-rays all start to tell the same story. They have been avoiding saturated fat all their lives, attempting to eat a plant-based diet, chose carbohydrates over fat and meat out of hunger. After three months on a carnivore diet, their x-rays tell a different story, and they enjoy excellent skeletal and spinal health.
Reviewed & approved by
Dr. Shawn Baker, MD & Carnivore.Diet team.
