carnivore | Zero Carb Health

About Stress

Andrew Scarborough’s new update on his life with Brain Cancer inspired me to write a post about Stress. I want to point out this quote by Andrew Scarborough, “Stress raises blood glucose and I became very aware of that the hard way, but I successfully adapted strategies to deal with that.”

So many people do not understand the significance or the presence of stress in their lives because “stress” is their normal. They don’t know any other way. I was one of those people, stress was my normal my entire life.

It wasn’t until just a few years ago, after several years of over the top stress, and my health starting to suffer, even though I had been eating the healthiest diet I know of, Zero Carb, when I took a hormone test and found out I had 4th stage Adrenal fatigue. I believe my diet (5 years of Zero Carb at the time) probably saved me from further damage to my health and probably aided me in recovering so fast. (Ketogenic diets decrease oxidative stress.)

The Zero Carb Dogma Explained

“Eating meat sounds so restrictive only to those who are behind the veil. Once that veil is lifted, one realizes that this really is the only way to be free of restrictions.” – Margot, 9/09.

I guess it’s time to defend Zero Carb Health (ZCH) and Zeroing in on Health’s (ZIOH) position on the Zero Carb Carnivore Diet. With the new surge of interest in the Zero Carb Carnivore diet, sparked by Dr. Shawn Baker and his podcast with Joe Rogan, we are seeing old familiar term’s used to describe our way of eating and specifically aimed towards the original Zero Carb groups (ZIOH and ZCH). Dogmatic, religious, narrow minded, too strict, cult, militant, zealots, etc.

Zero Carb and Ketones – Why They Don’t Matter

ketone chart By – Dana

High ketones are a sign of inefficient fat burning. If you have high ketone readings or if you can easily produce high ketone readings, you are not 100% fat adapted. Of course, if you are on a Zero Carb diet, you are in ketosis all the time, but our ketone levels become stable, just like our blood sugar levels.

The science on this is very new and very misunderstood. Dr Phinney has done the most research on it, but even he is misunderstanding. He thinks elevated ketones, in a target range, are a great thing and we should strive to be in “nutritional ketosis”. I wish he would try Zero Carb, so he can see what happens when people eat the human optimal diet, meat, with no restrictions or counting macros.

The Human Natural Diet and the Evolution of the Zero Carb Diet. (Part 6)

Tri-Tip The Human Natural Diet and the Evolution of the Zero Carb Diet. (Part 6)

(Part 1), (Part 2), (Part 3), (Part 4), (Part 5)

by, Dana

Ten years ago, when Zero Carb was just starting, Kimkins was the popular fad diet. Kimkins was a low carb, low fat diet. Most people who come to the Zero Carb diet, did so via a low carb and or a low fat diet, so many of our members were low carb, low fat or Kimkins refugees. Due to the fear of saturated fats, high cholesterol and heart disease, we had to stress eating fat. Eating animal fat is healthy, the human body loves animal fats. Animal fats give our bodies the fuel it needs to build a strong healthy body and brain. But people were conditioned to eating skinless chicken breasts, lean pork and fish, because those were the healthy white meats. We had to tell people to add fat in the form of butter, lard, tallow or bacon grease because if you do not eat enough fat, you will have no energy, and you will eventually give into carb cravings or quit the diet, altogether. Most of us added fat to our meals. It was like our bodies were fat starved. We craved it. We seeked out fat scraps in restaurants, butcher shops and grocery stores. We were fat crazed!
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Your Zero Carb diet recommendations sound like too much food!

T-Bone By – BJ, 10+ Zero Carb veteran.

Do I have to force myself to eat the amounts on the sample menus? No? But then, I don’t understand why you give ‘general amounts’ at all…?
Much as the guiding precepts are actually very simple at heart, these are things which still confuse and/or concern people.

To try to address some of them, I’m re-posting a comment I made in a thread about the zero carb diet sample menus, where some of the responses were a little bemused at least, or even actually concerned, about how much food they felt was involved:

The sample menus, the recommended amounts and the general guidelines we tend to give on ZC, about food volume et al…as well as why we emphasis and encourage what seems to some people bafflingly ‘large’ amounts…and so strongly also encourage the freedom to eat freely and generously, to all, irrespective of their weight, as opposed to trying to ‘calculate’ anything at all in any way…and why we even give or try to define these recommendations at all…are covered in this post:

Zero Carb – Surviving Social Situations and Holidays

~ By Caitlin Tilton

There are all kinds of tricky situations – we completely understand! Family gatherings, social, business lunches, etc. There are cultural differences to consider, in some cases, also.

For big parties, the office holiday party, church pot luck dinners, and similar – these are often the easiest to deal with. As has been said before, most people don’t even notice! In the early days, do yourself a favor and eat BEFORE a meal. It will be so much easier on you if the choices are limited.

Bring one dish you can eat. Cheese platters, (with pepperoni, sausage, and crackers, if necessary), deviled eggs, shrimp, meatballs, crust-less quiche, sliced deli meat platters, a roast beef, there are really a lot of party foods you can bring, if appropriate.

The Human Natural Diet and the Evolution of the Zero Carb Diet. Part 2

Mouse Cat The Human Natural Diet and the Evolution of the Zero Carb Diet. (Part 2)

(Part 1), (Part 3)

By Dana

What are humans supposed to eat? Figuring out an animal’s natural diet is easy. All we have to do is look to nature to see what wild cats and dogs eat. In my case, all I have to do is pay attention because my cat brings his natural diet into the house. (lucky me) But, what about humans? There really are no wild humans to observe today dwelling in their natural habitat, living as they have lived prior to world industrialization.

Pork Rinds with sour cream and a few drops of hot sauce dip.

By – Dana (4/2016), updated (12/17)

If the 30 day meat and water challenge existed when I started a Zero Carb diet, 10 years ago, I wouldn’t still be eating Zero Carb. I would not have made it 30 days.

The thought of just plain meat and water was repulsive to me. I was a foodie and a gourmet cook! I loved flavor, texture, color and variety! Read More

Zero Carb Traditional Pemmican Making Tutorial

ZC pemmican By – Dana Spencer

I was looking on Pinterest for a Zero Carb pemmican recipe and was surprised to find there isn’t one. There are many recipes for “Pemmican”, but they are not Zero Carb traditional Pemmican. Traditional pemmican has 2 ingredients, dried lean meat and fat. The addition of other ingredients compromises the nutritional value as well as the shelf life. Read More

Zero Carb – Not Eating Enough

By Dana 8/16/2015

I have eaten an all meat zero carb diet for 7.5 years. After about 3 years of eating a Zero Carb Diet, my life got crazy…really crazy. My stress level was high before, but it went through the roof for about 3 years. I learned what “burnt out” means. Read More

Zero Carb Health

Tag: carnivore