Introduction
“Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating, and not sedentary behavior.” Gary Taubes, “Good Calories, Bad Calories.”
Gary Taubes blew my mind. His argument is that carbohydrates make us fat by stimulating insulin secretion. Insulin drives fat storage. The modern civilized diet keeps insulin levels elevated. This leads to obesity.
Overeating and sedentary behavior are symptoms, not causes, of a body that is laying down fat. This is exactly the opposite of what most of us think. I love it when someone challenges my preconceived notions. If you have a curious and open mind, read this book.
The Predecessor
Gary writes about Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the early 1900’s Harvard anthropologist-turned-Arctic-explorer. Stefansson lived with the Inuits of northern Canada and Alaska for the better part of a decade. The Inuits live on an almost complete meat diet. Stefansson ate the same while he lived with them.
Stefansson was amazed at the health of the Inuits and his own well-being on such an “unbalanced” diet. Stefansson published his observations and was met with extreme skepticism.
So, Stefansson and another explorer, Karsten Anderson, began a highly supervised dietary experiment at Bellevue Hospital in New York in the winter of 1928. Their diet consisted of nothing but meat for one year. Despite dire predictions by many experts, the end of the year found both men in good health and spirits.
The Plan
I am repeating this experiment for six weeks or more. I will eat nothing but meat and eggs. I will take no supplements. I will drink nothing but water, coffee, and tea. Sorry, I won’t give up carbs and caffeine at the same time.
Super Bowl Sunday was the last day on my typical varied American diet. I fasted overnight and gave a blood sample Monday morning, February 2, 2009. These will be my baseline measurements. If you are brave enough, make a prediction how my baseline measurements will change.
I will maintain my normal routine. I won’t exercise other than what I do on the farm. I usually walk about two miles in the course of a day.
I’m 5′10″. I have an athletic build. My weight Sunday night was 168.5 lbs. That makes my BMI: 24.2. That is at the upper end of the normal range. I don’t anticipate fast weight loss or gain. I would like to lose 10-20 lbs. and won’t be concerned if I do.
My blood pressure is consistently low/normal. Baseline blood pressure was 116/78.
I will document my diet and weight daily in my diet journal. Here are my baseline measurements along with my ending values after 6 weeks on an all meat diet.
| Test | Normal | My value, start | Ending value |
| Total Cholesterol | Under 200 | 225 | 433 |
| HDL, good chol. | Over 50 | 76 | 106 |
| LDL, bad chol. | Over 30 | 140 | 318 |
| Triglycerides | Under 150 | 43 | 44 |
| Uric acid | 4-8,gout = 10 | 3.9 | 4.7 |
| BUN | 8-22 | 14 | 25 |
| Creatinine | .6-1.4 | .89 | .98 |
February 4, 2009 at 6:50 pm |
although I don’t have hard numbers like your Doctor, my prediction is that you will see a drop in Cholesterol, HDL, LDL and Triglycerides.
Your eyesight will improve and you will be prone to less heartburn and flatulence.
James
http://www.realestategozone.wordpress.com
February 5, 2009 at 12:50 am |
Thank you James, for being brave enough to make a predicition. You are also not afraid to buck conventional wisdom. Is that an oxymoron?
Matthew
February 5, 2009 at 4:00 pm |
The numbers look ok. The normal levels of creatinine are 0.6 to 1.4 and BUN is 8-22. I have a cookies, ice cream and some frozen blackberries if you are getting any cravings and cave on your diet
Matt
February 8, 2009 at 3:15 am |
I am basing my predictions off of what I read in the Atkins diet book.
It’s fun just to take a guess. You should start a pot on what the final numbers will be.
1)Make a grid and everybody gets to guess a number value in each category.
2)Once a number is taken, nobody else gets to guess it.
3)Most numbers right wins meat for a week.
February 8, 2009 at 3:32 am |
Interesting idea Wildpen!
I don’t know about meat for a week, but I definitely could get some meat to the winner.
Readers, let me know if you are up for this.
Which number is most important?
February 8, 2009 at 4:07 am |
I googled meat diet and found a paper published about the Bellevue study. I thought this article is interesting about fasting glucose. I am unclear if someone else has done the meat diet for 1 year since 1929.
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/reprint/83/3/747.pdf
February 8, 2009 at 4:28 am |
2 other articles from this study published in 1930 you may have to click manual download.
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/reprint/87/3/651
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/reprint/87/3/669
February 8, 2009 at 12:33 pm |
I like the idea of documenting your extreme diet experiment. This is obviously a conscientious choice and personal challenge. Many early explorers of the arctic, such as Earnest Shackelton lived off all meat diets for extended periods of time. Shackelton even performed one of the most famous open boat journeys across the Weddell sea on an all meat diet.
Predictions: Your body will take about two weeks to adjust to the new diet. You may find different meats make you feel different. Your cholesterol numbers will likely go up. You will continue to have food cravings and will be glad to eat a variety of foods once the diet is over, but it take a couple weeks to get reacquainted to certain foods. Lactose intolerance may be an issue, but given the duration of the diet, probably not.
February 10, 2009 at 12:50 am |
Thank you Doug for your comments and predictions.
Thank you Dr. Solverson for your research. These are the original papers from the Bellevue study. I found them very interesting.
I am looking forward to seeing the results of my second blood test. We should have a contest to see who can predict the closest. Check out my contest page to enter.
February 16, 2009 at 12:53 pm |
Thank you, curiousfarmer, for asking me to visit and express an opinion on the extreme diet you are trying – nothing but meat and eggs for six weeks.
Yes, I do have an opinion, and it appears that I hold a minority view on your site
, so I thank you for seeking out other viewpoints. First a disclaimer – I’m not a doctor or a scientist, just a regular person trying to unravel the mysteries of a healthy diet and food system.
My opinion is that an extreme diet of this nature, followed over the long term, would have negative health impacts. But over six weeks? Who knows? I’ll be curious to see what results you have. I wouldn’t be surprised if you feel good for awhile.
I know that the Inuits and Masai are often held up as examples of cultures that were healthy on diets heavily dependent on animal products. But what about all of the other cultures in the world that are/were healthy that never depended much on animal products? I believe that it’s incredibly difficult to reduce the cause of those cultures’ alleged health to only the significance of animal products in their diet. From what I’ve been reading the preponderance of evidence for a healthy diet falls on the side of eating a whole food, plant-based diet where meat is a part, but not the focus of the diet.
One thing I’m sure of is that the typical American diet of processed food and factory raised meat is destroying our health. If we took all of that out and concentrated on sustainably-raised organic whole foods and meat I suspect we’d all be healthier, almost irrespective of what the percentage of plant versus animal foods was.
Good luck with your experiment!
February 17, 2009 at 1:47 am |
Curious Farmer – This is quite the interesting experiment. I predict you will continue to lose weight, and your HDL and LDL will increase. In addition, I predict your cravings for carbs and sweets will drive you mad!
February 17, 2009 at 2:41 am |
Thank you for your comment Tracy. The internet quickly breaks us into like-minded tribes. Staying within your own tribe becomes boring and is dangerous to an open mind. The action is always on the edges, the intersections, the meeting places, the rendezvous.
February 17, 2009 at 7:57 pm |
Please stop before you hurt yourself. Seriously.
Read http://www.atkinsexposed.org/ to see what bodily and mental damage you could do to yourself.
There is a quick summary of what will happen to you from my review of the book Carbophobia at http://www.foodbubbles.com/blog/2008/11/21/carbophobia-a-fulfilling-romp-into-the-science-of-atkins-and-other-fad-diets/
February 17, 2009 at 11:03 pm |
Wow! Thank you foodbubbles for challenging my open-mindedness. Thank you for your comment and concern. I will stop if I don’t feel well. Don’t worry, I love vegetables and fruits and will jump back on them when this experiment is over. I hope I can go the six weeks to see what changes take place. Aren’t you curious?
February 18, 2009 at 2:33 pm |
Frankly, I’m not curious. I know what happens to people on those diets. The “meat diet” experiments have been done, both naturally and in the lab (the #s refer to scientific references available at http://atkinsexposed.org):
Although pregnant and breastfeeding women may be at most risk, “The [Atkins] diet is potentially dangerous to everyone,” warned the Chair of the Medical Society of New York County’s Public Health Committee.[171] In all of the editions of his Diet Revolution, Atkins cited the “pioneering” work of “brilliant” researcher Gaston Pawan.[172] When Atkins was brought before the Senate investigation on fad diets, the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee read a statement submitted by Dr. Pawan himself who supported the AMA’s condemnation of the Atkins diet and explained that he used very high fat diets only for “specific experimental purposes” (emphasis in original.) in hospital settings and would never “recommend a very high fat diet indiscriminately to obese subjects for obvious reasons.”[173]
The symptoms of ketosis include general tiredness, abrupt or gradually increasing weakness, dizziness, headaches, confusion, abdominal pain, irritability, nausea and vomiting, sleep problems and bad breath.[174] One study found that all those subjected to carb-free diets complained of fatigue after just two days. “[T]his complaint was characterized by a feeling of physical lack of energy… The subjects all felt that they did not have sufficient energy to continue normal activity after the third day. This fatigue promptly disappeared after the addition of carbohydrates to the diet.”[175] From a review published in a German medical journal, “[lightheadedness], fatigue, and nausea are frequent, despite what Dr. Atkins claims.”[176]
In World War II, the Canadian Army had an illuminating experience with ketogenic diets. For emergency rations, infantry troops had pemmican, which is basically a carbohydrate-free mixture of beef jerky and suet (animal fat). The performance of the infantrymen forced to live off pemmican deteriorated so rapidly that they were incapacitated in a matter of days. As reported in the journal War Medicine in 1945, “On the morning of the fourth day of the diet, physical examination revealed a group of listless, dehydrated men with drawn faces and sunken eyeballs, whose breath smelled strongly of acetone.”[177] A ketogenic diet, concluded one medical review, “can be associated with significant toxicity.”[178]
Danish obesity expert professor Arne Astrup, M.D., of the Centre of Advanced Food Research in Copenhagen published a September 2004 review of the Atkins Diet[515] in The Lancet, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world.[516] Long term Atkins adherents “start to suffer headaches, muscle cramps and diarrhea,” Astrup concluded. “This is consistent with a carbohydrate deficiency. They simply do not get enough carbohydrate to supply the tissues with blood sugar. That is why the organs start to malfunction.”[517]
In a study funded by Atkins himself, most of the people who could stick with the diet reported headaches and halitosis (bad breath). Ten percent suffered hair loss. While most people lost weight–at least in the short-term–70% of the patients in the study also lost the ability to have a normal bowel movement.[511]
February 18, 2009 at 11:16 pm |
I am actually doing the Atkins diet right now and feel really good.
How long before these effects set in?
February 26, 2009 at 3:50 am |
Matt,
I love that you are doing this. My prediction is that you will have lower cholesterol of both types and lose weight, but will experience significant food cravings. Eskimos traditionally ate raw brains and eyeballs, kidneys, and other things you may not be consuming. Supposedly these provided vitamin c, which is found in raw but not cooked meat.
February 27, 2009 at 2:26 am |
I think you are right, Sam. I find myself craving liver, which I could never eat before. Also, I’m eating everything more rare. Weird.
March 3, 2009 at 11:33 pm |
You’ll be fine. This isn’t extreme, it’s a lot closer to what our paleo ancestors ate. The modern industrial diet of highly processed agricultural foods is the extreme,
, especially the SAD, with emphasis on concentrated sugars and vegetable oils. The sanctioned “healthy” diet is only slightly less extreme.
March 4, 2009 at 6:51 am |
I personally have experienced nothing but good in removing sugar and starch from my diet. There is a transition period during which one can be rather uncomfortable, but what would you expect when giving up a drug like sugar?
My asthma and allergies disappear, my skin clears up, I sleep better and I can focus and work for longer periods.
Another site you may find informative is Dr Michael Eades’s: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/
March 13, 2009 at 4:07 pm |
I’d like to ask foodbubbles which part of the Atkins diet are all the citations above referring to. Atkins has three phases where only the first actually has one in ketosis, and that is only for a very limited period of time. After that, a participant enters into the 2nd and 3rd phases where carbohydrates are elevated to a reasonably moderate level just outside of ketosis. Many of the low carbohydrate plans have participants consuming carbohydrate levels from 60-100 grams daily. That is more than enough to avoid the detriments noted above while maintaining healthy energy levels all day long. I followed this type of diet while performing moderate exercise and went from 328lbs. down to 218lbs. I dare you to say that is all water weight with a straight face. Good luck with the meat diet. I am sure you’ll be fine. And remember kids, nearly all science is bought and paid for these days.
April 13, 2009 at 10:15 am |
So how did it go? It’s been 6 weeks by now, right? I predict higher cholesterol but from a surge in GOOD cholesterol. You’re overall ratio of good:bad will have improved. I predict lower triglycerides, and you’ll drop some pounds. This diet is not at all what I’d call extreme. Big-macs and pizza is “Extreme”. You’re lacking any plants, but it’s still healthier than the typical American fare people poison themselves with.
May 4, 2009 at 9:43 pm |
Matt,
I know I’m coming into this discussion late but as I read the chart your total cholesterol went up to over 400? Is this the same number they use to benchmark ~200 as a point over which they consider it a concern? Or am I mixing this up with the LDL “bad” cholesterol?
I’m also reminded of the Lewis & Clark expedition. Those hardy folks ate several pounds of meat per day and subsisted almost exclusively elk meat the entire second winter–and some of them lived into their 90s–quite exceptional for the time.
What is your take-away now that it’s been a a couple months? Have you had your vitals re-tested?
May 6, 2009 at 11:49 am |
Hi Peter,
Since I passed out last time I took a blood test and my insurance company wouldn’t pay for it, I’m waiting until next winter to retake. I’m also thinking of repeating the meat diet without eggs next winter. Perhaps eggs affected my cholesterol.
My take-away is, “health is a positive sense of humor.”
May 11, 2009 at 3:01 pm |
I didn’t realize you passed out last time. (I must have missed that post.) I hate needles too, and even got therapy to help me with it. Now when I give blood tests I lay down. I’ve never passed out, but laying down would help prevent it. Something you may want to try.
May 22, 2009 at 12:37 am |
[...] Meat Diet [...]
August 27, 2009 at 5:32 pm |
Have you read Fat by Jennifer McLagan (or Bones by the same author)? It had some interesting information how fat is crucial to good health. She talks about fat from different animals as well as butter, ghee, and clarified butter. Some highlights include that fat is very necessary for proper function of the immune system, mental acuity, protecting the liver, regulates the digestive system, etc. I notice that when I am not eating enough fat that my skin will dry and crack especially at the tips of my fingers. Also saturated fats don’t turn rancid as easily as unsaturated fats.
I did read about Vilhjalmur Stefansson. . .The key to the story is that he fell ill at first, then discovered that there wasn’t enough fat in the meat, ate meat with more fat and then resumed good health. The moral here is to make sure you get enough real animal fat in your diet, not less. I don’t believe those cholesterol numbers very much (brains are made from cholesterol!) and I am wary of artificial fats (margarine, canola, etc.) more than animal fats. As long as one eats real food, one should enjoy good health that is naturally balanced in all the necessary nutrients. Humans have survived many different types of foods in varying degrees of excess or depletion just due to various harvest failures. If there was a failure of one thing, you’d naturally just be eating more than usual of the other. The main focus is real food and its quality and you don’t have to worry about either at your farm!
By the way, Edith said that she hates beef short ribs because they are too fatty so when she got sick, I brought her over some of your delicious beef short ribs and she loved them and even had seconds. Her vegetarian daughter even had some too!
August 31, 2009 at 4:04 pm |
Thanks J9 for your comment! No, I haven’t read that author. Put it on my winter list.
I believe the last forty or so years where fat has been demonized will prove to be a strange deviation from the belief throughout most of human history that fat is good for you.
Always glad to hear people are enjoying my meats!
September 1, 2009 at 3:30 am |
I have to second the recommendation for the books Fat and Bones! Super books that I refer to often.