Rumors are going around the Zero Carb Community about a Doctor, Shawn Baker, wanting to conduct an experiment ( nequalsmany) to collect data about people who eat a zero carb carnivorous diet, specifically, meat and water. This could be exciting for those of us who live this lifestyle. We would love for our diet to get more exposure about how healthy it is, because we are tired of being in the closet about it, being shamed, condemned and bullied by doctors, family and loved ones.
I have to say I am not too excited by the Data he wants to collect. We have 10 years of observation and testimonials from thousands of people to easily produce the Data being sought.
We already know the results of this experiment.
Any person who has been active in the Zero Carb community’s ( Zeroing in On Health or Zero Carb Health) for at least a year can easily answer the questions sought by the nequalsmany experiment.
- What do we eat? – For the first 2-3 years most people will eat all meats, less and non optimal ZC foods. After that, most people tend to settle into a mostly beef diet, with ribeye steaks and ground beef (80/20) being the most popular.
- The cost? – Well, that depends on how much you eat. For the first 2 years, people tend to eat a lot. Our bodies are starving and it shows in the amount some of us need to eat, sometimes up to 5lbs a day! After 1-2 years our appetite calms down and we all settle into about 2-3lbs depending on activity.
Since meat is sold by the pound, the cost is very easy to figure out. If I eat 2 lbs a day and ground beef is 2.00/lb then I can eat for $4 a day. I typically eat 1lb GB in the AM and 1lb Ribeye at night. $2 + $8 = $10/day.
- Poop? – Our most popular topic. We poop less, because meat is nutrient dense and there is less waste when eating an all meat diet. Our bodies are no longer purging indigestible plant matter. Depending on activity level, some of us only go 1 x every 3 days or so. Some people go every day. Constipation is never a problem.
Rule of thumb – If you have loose stools cut back on fat, hard stools, eat more fat.
- Sleep – Most people sleep much better on a ZC diet. If a person has a high stress life, they may need to learn how relax so that they can sleep better. ZC alone does not fix everything.
- Sexuality and fertility? – Much better! I can’t tell you how many infertile women suddenly conceived after adopting a carnivorous diet.
- Weight? – Weight generally goes down, unless people are underweight or coming from fasting and/or restricting diets. The restricters can gain for months before the body decides to turn around and start shedding fat. Kelly, a long time ZC vet, posted about this here.
People in the 40-60+ range tend to have more problems losing weight, most likely due to age related hormone changes.
This is something I am currently working on. It’s looking like exercise may be the answer for these folks.
7. Diseases/Healing? – We have been blown away by the unexpected miraculous healing of many diseases achieved by simply eliminating plant foods and oils from our diets. There are too many to list, but we have an entire Thread dedicated to the Non Scale benefits of a carnivorous, zero carb diet in our Facebook Groups.
As somebody who has eaten a 99% meat and water diet (1% dairy, eggs, or other non optimal ZC foods) for the past 9+ years, I don’t see how my participating in a 90 day experiment of doing the same thing for 90 more days would be beneficial. Although, I support the experiment for the exposure it may bring to the Zero Carb way of life. 🙂
Some experiments I think the zero carb communities would be excited about;
Blood nutrient profiles showing we are not deficient in anything, especially vitamin C.
C-reactive protein (CRP) tests, let’s prove a carnivorous diet is anti-inflammatory.
Dexa scans, showing body composition change from a SAD diet, Low Carb and Zero carb diet.
Strength training results/ muscle building of SAD, Low Carb and Zero Carb eaters.
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