Lately I have been eating a zero-carb carnivore diet.
After 35 days on this diet I ate a cheat meal of ice cream and pizza.
This was a big mistake.
Eating so much sugar caused a cascade of cravings that were difficult to ignore and I ended up eating ice cream several times over the next few weeks.
After developing the willpower to say "no more" I experienced something I never experienced before: The Keto Flu.
Each time I previously went on a keto or zero-carb diet I was never a big eater of sweets beforehand. Because I never ate many sweets, I never went through the keto flu (which can simply be called carbohydrate withdrawal).
Pure sugar produces a very extreme and obvious withdrawal.
When I originally started the zero-carb diet my only source of carbohydrates were natural (it was raw goat's milk).
Transitioning to a zero-carb diet meant only removing the raw goat milk and it was easy. I experienced no withdrawal symptoms whatsoever.
That all changed when I added cheat meals in the form of ice cream, once every few days or so.
To get back on track on the zero-carb diet I had to go through a very real carbohydrate withdrawal, which was not pleasant. It mostly consisted of strong cravings for carbs and being tired and foggy-headed.
With the understanding that sugar (via ice cream) creates a terrible withdrawal and with the understanding that vegetables and fruits have always robbed me of energy and caused me severe bodily pain and discomfort, I can only come to one conclusion...
Carbohydrates are not food.
If carbs aren't food, what are they?
Drugs.
When I eat carbs I get all of the symptoms of a drug addiction.
I need the carbs to feel better and when I don't eat them I go through withdrawal.
When I eat nothing but meat my mood is bright.
When I eat carbs, any carbs in any amount, my mood becomes dark and it doesn't brighten until I eat carbs again.
Then the mood brightens but fades again soon, causing me to constantly crave carbohydrates to sweeten my sour mood.
When I don't eat carbohydrates at all, as on the zero-carb carnivore diet, my mood is always steady and stellar. I always feel happy, calm, and content when I eat zero-carbs.
However, that all changes the moment I eat any carbs.
When I do have carbs I feel fine for the first hour or two, but soon - very soon - the cravings kick in.
What happens is that I crave carbs the same way a heroin addict craves heroin.
Every time I break the carnivore diet and eat a cheat meal, a meal with carbohydrates, I have to go through the withdrawals which can be very tough.
Eating one carb meal is enough to trigger carb cravings that can last days and can be very hard to say no to.
It's insidious. You feel terrible during the carb cravings, so you eat carbs and feel better, for a few hours, and then the cravings come back stronger than ever.
Carbs aren't foods
Why do I say carbs aren't foods? Because they aren't fulfilling. When you eat carbs you want to keep eating and keep eating. You never become satisfied. When I eat steak I eat until I'm full and then I stop, satisfied. Not so with any carb meal, I can eat and eat and eat and never be satisfied. Finally I have to stop eating when there is no more room in my stomach. I don't stop eating carbs because I'm satisfied, I stop because I can't physically eat anymore. Carb eaters have to eat food every 3 hours or so because they are always hungry and never satiated. I can eat meat once per day and be fine.
All carbs are sugar
There are no such thing as good carbs and bad carbs. We all know sugar is bad, but the reality is that all carbohydrates are sugar. Yes, vegetables are sugar. Grains are sugar. Fruits are sugar. Sugar is not nutrition, it is degeneration. We all know that sugar rots teeth. Think about what the sugar does to your bones. When I ate nothing but "good carbs" via vegetables and fruits my body felt like it was rotting and my bones felt as though they were disintegrating. My body feels better on pure sugar than it does on "good carbs", though the withdrawal from pure sugar is far worse.
Carbs make you fat
Fat gain has nothing to do with the amount of calories you eat. All people who eat nothing but meat, even 5 lbs of meat per day, are always lean, muscular, and strong. All obese people are carbohydrate addicts who are severely ALLERGIC to carbs. But what about Asians who stay lean on carbs? The Asians are malnourished and have very little energy. Essentially the skinny ones are wasting away because they don't eat enough meat/fat to keep any weight on.
Carbs can keep you both skinny and/or fat. If you eat nothing but carbs you will be malnourished and skinny like the Asians. If you eat carbs with meats and fats you can easily get fat or obese like the Americans (especially if you eat man-made carbs like pure sugar, potato chips, chocolate bars etc.). Even if you don't become obese you will develop a swollen belly from eating carbs. Just look at most of your fathers for proof of the swollen carbohydrate belly. When you have enough calories/carbohydrates you will become fat from eating carbs. Period. Modern Asians are getting fatter by the day. If you eat nothing but meat and no carbs your body will achieve perfect harmony - not too fat and not too skinny.
Carbs make you bloated
When you eat carbs you get bloated. People look for a million ways to get rid of the bloat, not understanding that it is the "foods" we are eating that are causing. It isn't normal to be bloated. When you eat only meat you don't get bloated ever. You always feel lean and light. When you eat carbs you feel bloated and heavy. Carbs make your body feel disgusting, so why do we eat them? Because they are addictive. Carbs are also inflammatory, so many fat people and many people with big bellies aren't actually fat, they are inflamed.
"Aren't carbs addictive because they're good for you?"
No, quite the opposite. All of the things we get addicted to are very bad for us. Alcohol, drugs, cigarettes etc. None of the addictive substances in the world are good for us. And actually, we get addicted to what we're most allergic to. The biggest alcoholics have the biggest alcohol allergy. The fattest people have the biggest carbohydrate allergy. Yes, fat people are allergic to carbs and that is why they are so swollen. Fat people can stop being fat within a year if they give up carbs and eat only meat and other animal foods.
So what's the solution?
The only solution is to kick the habit. No tolerance. Just say no. "Low carb diets" suck because when you eat any amount of carbs, even 30 grams per day, it is enough to make your crave more and more. You're in a constant negative cycle when you eat any amount of carbs. It is much better to eat a zero-carb all-meat diet. You can stop eating carbohydrates and eat natural food for humans which is animal products and you can feel much better.
It is only meat that is satiating. People eat carbs, grains, and vegetables, simply because they are too poor to afford enough meat to eat. We in the western world have the ability to eat our natural food, meat, and we have the ability to be healthy. But we don't choose this path because we don't know the truth. We've all been told the importance of carbs, but what we're not told is how the agriculture companies paid for this information to be given to us.
The reality is that we are here to eat meat, we are hunters, we are not here to eat grains because we are not ruminant animals. We have the digestion of a dog and a cat, not the digestion of a cow. Carbs are not for us, they cause allergic reactions (fat gain), they cause diabetes, tooth decay, cancer, and many other debilitating illnesses. If carbs are actually food, why is it that people who eat nothing but carbs, vegans, are the sickest people on the face of the earth? Vegans are the sickest people on earth because they are eating drugs (sugar) instead of food (saturated fat, protein, and cholesterol).
The healthiest people who ever lived, as detailed in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, are the societies that lived on animal products. Carbohydrates are modern foods made possible by modern farming and modern factories. You would never be able to eat so many carbohydrates without modern factories producing them. They are unnatural for us, and quite dangerous. Now you know the truth. Eat a steak and don't feel guilt about throwing away the rice, potatoes, green peas, flour, and vegetable oils. Those things are not food meant for humans.
How to Get Through Carbohydrate Withdrawal
You just have to do it. If you are a big carb eater what you can do is slowly lower your carbohydrate intake over time. Replace one carb meal with a protein/fat meal. Continue doing this until your carbohydrate intake is low and then you can cut out carbs completely and not have to deal with many of the symptoms of carbohydrate withdrawal/keto flu.
Or, you could simply cut out the carbs and spend several days going through this withdrawal period. At the end of, say, 3-7 days you should feel fine. Actually, you should feel better than fine. You should feel absolutely fantastic when you give up carbohydrates. I do. I only feel not so good when I eat any amount of carbohydrates at all. Without them, my outlook is stellar. With them, well, my outlook is not so good. So I just don't eat them and it has worked out well for me.
Here are some comments from readers of B&D who stopped eating carbs and starting eating only meat...
I've done the carnivore diet for the last 6 months. I'm 54 years old, lean and muscular. I have a six-pack all the time. I'm 6'2" with a 29" waist. I eat mostly rib-eyes and 70% lean hamburger meat. I eat eggs. Sometimes I will add extra yolks (not extra whites) to increase the fat level. I will add sour-cream and certain cheeses to my meals to increase the fat percentage. Eating like this keeps me so satiated that I also intermittent fast for up to 18 hours a day. I just don't get hungry on this diet as long as I eat enough fat. -Marcus
I have been preaching this to everyone I know for the longest time. I personally lost 30 pounds very quickly eating pretty much just meat ... I told a buddy about this a while back and he lost about 110 pounds in less than 4 months. -Jack
I ate a all red meat diet after my doctor of 6 years told me I had low testosterone and was thinking of giving me injections I said hold off. I Ate nothing but steaks and went back a few months later after some blood work and he was shocked. Not only was my testosterone completely fine now, but everything else was too. Low estrogen, healthy cholesterol, phosphate, insulin everything. He said this is the best I've ever seen you. So it's all meat for me. -Anthony
I've been on the carnivore diet over three months now, started August 1. It has changed my life. At age 41, I feel the best I have in years. More energy, and thinking so much clearer. Stick with it and the cravings go away completely as long as you are strictly carnivore. -Ryan
The proof is in the pudding, friend. Carbs aren't food for humans. Try it for yourself and you will be able to clearly see this truth. When you start eating the carnivore diet you very quickly begin to realize that carbs are not even food, they are an addiction and it is better to just say no to them.
Until next time.
Your man, -Victor Pride