(Breather) Expanding on my show with Dr. Paul Saladino, “The Carnivore Diet to End Human Suffering, Challenge Your Fixed Beliefs, and Live a Radical Life,” I share details from the journey I’ve had so far experimenting with the carnivore diet.

It was just over two years ago that I ran into Danny Vega at Keto-Con in Austin, TX, who was raving about the benefits he was experiencing from the carnivore diet. However, at that time, I dismissed the idea because of my own fixed beliefs – doesn’t everyone know that fruits and vegetables are good for you? However, a lot has changed since then. I’ve done tons of research, and read some phenomenal success stories at Meatheals.com that show powerful health transformations occur when people cut out plants.

These days, either you have had extreme inflammation or an autoimmune disease, or someone you know has dealt with one, or is still trying to manage their symptoms. Acne, psoriasis, allergies, gastritis, arthritis, colitis, the list goes on…basically if you’re suffering from any kind of disease ending with “-itis” then you’re definitely dealing with some degree of gut permeability. So, how do you deal with that? Try going carnivore! Cut out plants – seriously. Of course, this is an odd idea to accept when you’re used to hearing about the wonders of greens all the time. However, the premise for going carnivore is centered around the fact that, for people who experience severe reactivity to the antigens in plant-food, removing plants from the diet has an incredible effect. When you read the testimonials from these people who’ve totally turned their life around from this simple dietary adjustment, it’s pretty hard to not want to jump on the carnivore bandwagon as soon as you can. Not only does it heal physical symptoms of autoimmune diseases, but followers report massive behavioral and cognitive changes too: ADHD, depression, anxiety, autism, even someone suffering from bi-polar disorder was able to get off her meds, all by simply eliminating plant food.

Obviously the carnivore diet is particularly enticing for anyone at their wits end, who’s just exhausted from trying to figure out what is wrong with them, and how they can help themselves. Most people who’ve come to the diet admit they tried it as a last resort, but the incredible benefits are what have kept them dedicated to it. However, even if you’re not suffering from terrible, debilitating autoimmune symptoms, this diet can still enrich your life and improve your health, because of what happens when you remove plants from your diet. The benefit of consuming plant food is the hormetic stressor it causes, right? But exercise is a hormetic stressor…and so is taking a cold plunge. My point is, why bother with the vegetables when you can rely on fasting and exercise as your source of stress on the body? The best anti-inflammatory response you can generate within your body is by fasting – no superfood or smoothie will affect your inflammation as well being in a fasted state. It’s all about efficiency – it’s not like our ancestors had access to food all the time. As weird as it sounds, starving a little does wonders for you.

So, I began my carnivore experiment, which went hand in hand with not consuming any calories till noon (thanks to my Fatty Popcorn Boy saga, I was already doing this). Have you ever cooked up some ground beef AND liver, then melted cheese on top? And then thrown in a few egg yolks in there too? Well, it’s certainly not a pretty, Instagram worthy lunch, but who cares when something this nutrient dense also tastes amazing? There are other options once you cut out plants – salmon is of course a classic staple, but what about one of my favorite things to buy from the grocery store, salmon eggs? Try fish eggs, try anything and everything that you, along with most people, used to ignore in the store: liver, organ meats. Sure, that stuff seems unappetizing or just straight up challenging to cook, but all you have to do is ask. Ask your butcher, reach out to people online – all the information is there for you. All you have to do is get over yourself and the old ideas you sometimes hold onto that can hold you back. This journey has led me to retiring my super nutritious breakfast smoothie, which happened to contain raw plant powder. Interestingly enough, I would often experience bloating and gas after ingesting this “super healthy” smoothie.

Sometimes when you embark on a new diet, it can feel extremely limiting. But experimenting with carnivore has had the opposite effect – it’s been an eye-opening challenge, with no deprivation in sight. In fact, it’s even given me a different perspective on things I used to eat, as well as the things I didn’t consume all that much – like fruit. After I started eliminating vegetables, I began enjoying the process of incorporating fruit back into my diet, especially eating the super-ripe fruit produced during the summer season. However, when winter comes, I won’t be eating much fruit. Why? Because our bodies are not genetically adapted to eat fruit during the winter, and since the quality of fruit is lacking then, why even bother? I’ll admit to being a dark chocolate snob, and now that I eat fruit, I’m a fruit snob as well. But in order to be healthy, you have to be a little snobby, meaning: you have to demand the best for yourself. The carnivore diet works so well because it forces you to focus on micro-nutrients, not macros. To think that I almost dismissed going carnivore because it contradicted my long-held previous beliefs!

I started this experiment as an already pretty healthy person, curious to see how this diet would impact me, and while I certainly have enjoyed the numerous health benefits, I have to say the best thing I’ve gotten out of going carnivore is that it’s allowed me to expand not only my palate, but most importantly, my mind. I’ll leave you with a Frank Zappa quote: “A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.”

TIMESTAMPS:

Brad tried the carnivore diet even though when he first heard about it, it didn’t align with his fixed beliefs. [03:51]

If you have some problems with intestinal permeability and you make a radical transformation in your diet, you can get sort of a reset affect or a healing effect. [06:10]

Lectin proteins can irritate the gut lining. We don’t need these plants to get an antioxidant response. [08:27]

Fasting is the foundation of healthy living, longevity and everything else. [11:23]

Brad’s experiment with carnivore diet went hand in hand with not consuming any calories until 12 noon. [14:31]

Learn to partake of nose to tail meats. [15:40]

Brad describes his carnivore diet experience. [17:31]

It is difficult to digest raw plant material, even nuts. [20:09]

Our biology is more similar to the animals and dissimilar to plants. [21:13]

So many people have not learned that ditching grains from your diet brings remarkable positive changes in your life. [24:13]

Switching from vegetable concentration to fruits is a new idea from Brad. [26:10]

So nothing is written in stone. Learn what is nutritious and healthy for you and enjoy eating it. [31:21]

LINKS:

• Dr. Paul Saladino Podcast
• Dr. Shawn Baker
• Human Performance Outliers
• Fundamental Health
• Meat Heals
• Amber O’Hearn
• Primal Blueprint
• Autophagy
• Fatty Popcorn Boy Podcast
• Ancestral supplements
• Dr. Cate Shanahan
• Carnivore Cooking for Cool Dudes
• Keto Cooking for Cool Dudes
• Brad’s smoothie

QUOTES:

• “Why not try to give up plants for a short period of time and see how your body responds?”
• “It’s not a bad idea to engage in critical thinking now and then to challenge your fixed beliefs now and then to open your mind to new information.”

LISTEN:

Get Over Yourself Podcast

Brad: 00:00 Welcome to the get over yourself podcast. This is author and athlete, Brad Kearns, discovering ways to be healthy, fit and happy in hectic, high-stress, modern life. So let’s slow down and take a deep breath. Take a cold plunge and expertly balanced that competitive intensity with an appreciation of the journey. That’s the theme of the show. Here we go.

Brad: 03:51 Greetings listeners, here are some insights from my carnivore experiment, my ongoing carnivore experiment, carnivores saga. You’ve heard me talk about it on other shows. My excellent interview with Dr. Paul Saladino, leading carnivore expert. Go back and listen to that. It’s an extremely compelling premise that the human diet could be optimized by emphasizing nose to tail carnivore style eating patterns. And with the strict carnivore approach we be talking about not eating plant foods, the wonderful, colorful bounty of life, the high antioxidant powerhouse, Broccoli, Kale, blueberries. Whoops. What an amazing initial statement to challenge your beliefs, uh, engage your critical thinking. And when I first heard about this, uh, let’s see, it was over two years ago now from Danny Vega, uh, over at the Ketocon show in Austin, Texas. He goes, yeah, I’m trying this carnivore thing. I’m only eating stuff that came from a cow.

Brad: 05:09 And I was like, that’s crazy. And he’s telling me how great he felt. His blood work all improved. He got leaner, stronger, and I just dismissed it because it didn’t align with my fixed beliefs that I’d held onto for so long. I mean, everyone agrees that fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet, right? Even the primal Paleo Keto people agree with the whole food plant based crowd where we disagree on so many other things, but at least we have that healthy foundation where we can all agree. And then here comes the burgeoning carnivores scene, which has taken off only recently and come into prominence. It’s nothing to ignore. The success stories are absolutely phenomenal. You can go read about it at meatheals.com and basically in cases of these health transformations we’re talking about people that for some reason had extreme reactivity to the anti-nutrients or the antigens that are contained in all plant foods.

Brad: 06:10 And by completely eliminating them from diet, they experienced amazing health transformations, particularly from a conditions in the category of autoimmunity or inflammatory. And that’s a lot of stuff for a lot of people. Anything that ends with “itis” gas dried is colitis, arthritis, allergies, all manner of skin conditions. A good example of autoimmunity, the immune system responding in an undesirable way, uh, due to complications with the body. And a lot of them now being traced to leaky gut syndrome. So when you switch over to carnivore, you kind of give your system, your microbiome a break, and you shift the composition of the bacteria in there due to this shift in the Diet. So if you have some problems with intestinal permeability and you make a radical transformation in your diet, you can get sort of a, a reset effect or a healing effect. And this is kind of cutting edge health science medicine.

Brad: 07:11 So maybe not highly substantiated any of this with mountains and mountains of studies. Uh, but when you see these people that are, uh, near their wits end, having tried everything to heal these autoimmune conditions, uh, there’s some healing seen in assorted cognitive and behavior conditions. Uh, ADHD, depression, anxiety, autism, even bipolar. Amber O’Hearn, uh, prominent carnivore spokesperson claims that she healed her bipolar diagnosis got off meds, uh, merely by switching her diet. Mckayla Peterson, daughter of the thought leader and author Jordan Peterson, uh, has been prominent in media. Joe Rogan podcast among others saying how she healed from this, a lifelong, uh, conditions of joint deterioration causing her to have joint replacement and complete suffering a disaster. For years and years and going carnivore, uh, had her, uh, transformed her health in a very short time. So, uh, if you’re not in that category of extreme suffering and at your wits end, uh, having tried medical intervention and it’s not working, uh, maybe the, uh, the carnivore premise is going to be less compelling.

Brad: 08:27 You’re less desperate to make a dietary transformation. But what’s interesting to me, uh, hearing Dr Shawn Baker, Dr. Paul Saladino and others describe the, the concept is that these plant foods, uh, do, are known to contain a variety of anti-nutrients and antigens. We write about these in the Primal Blueprint. There are known as a gluten is a prominent, uh, anti nutrient that’s contained of course in the wheat crop. And that’s a plant, uh, lectins, the family gluten is actually a form of Lectin. So these lectin proteins that can irritate the gut lining and cause this intestinal permeability, which is a, uh, upstream cause of many, uh, disease conditions, uh, of phytates, phytic acid which in in moderation can have a beneficial effect. But again, these things are challenges to our system. They’re toxins. And so when we ingest these mild plant toxins, what we get typically is an antioxidant response by the body.

Brad: 09:28 It’s a hormetic stressor. Uh, a brief, uh, natural stressor that delivers a net positive benefit. But again, we’re ingesting these, uh, moderate plant poisons, just like the dread pirate Roberts on the movie princess bride. Remember when he did the switching of the cups, uh, with a poison challenge? And in fact, he had, uh, habituated over many, many years to be able to tolerate the poison. So he had poison in both glasses and his foe, uh, dropped to the ground. Oh, what a great scene. Uh, but very relevant here. So we’re ingesting these mild poisons. Of course, they don’t knock you on the floor after having a bowl of broccoli. Uh, instead, they, uh, cause the body to respond with a, a net antioxidant response and net benefit. Uh, but the argument is, do we really need to do this to ourselves when we have all other assorted, other opportunities for hormetic stressors, namely a sprint workout, a plunge into cold water every morning, a visit to the sauna?

Brad: 10:28 These things all generate this hormetic response as well. And so back to the argument that we don’t need or require these plants to get an antioxidant response. Uh, it’s a very strong argument when you compare it to, and this is scientifically validated and widely agreed that when our body’s in a fasted state, that is when we operate with most effectiveness most efficiently, the best anti-inflammatory response you can get is to fast rather than to eat any special anti-inflammatory food. The best antioxidant response you can get is to be in a fastest state, even a state of starvation when your body starts to upregulate all these hormonal and cellular and metabolic processes to run at maximum efficiency as a life or death survival mechanism. Remember our ancestors did not have regular meals. They didn’t have drive through. They didn’t have Amazon prime two hour home delivery.

Brad: 11:23 So they had to go and go and go and continue hunting and gathering and whatever they needed to do to survive with peak cognitive and physical function without food for long periods of time. So when you are starving, fasting, you are upregulating all these wonderful internal processes. Antioxidant production. The master antioxidant known as Glutathione is produced internally in high amounts. When you’re fasted, it’s better than the acai bowl from the corner juice bar or the juice concoction or the pills or the pomegranate juice or all the antioxidant superstars that are purportedly in the diet. They don’t hold a candle to fasting. Our cellular repair processes are also upregulated. When we’re in a fasted state, you may have heard terms like autophagy. That’s the natural internal cellular detoxification process. Apoptosis is the program death of dysfunctional and precancerous cells. So we have autophagy, apoptosis..

Brad: 12:27 All these great things are going on in the body when we’re fasted. And in general, uh, one of the benefits of eating Keto or eating low carb is when we’re minimizing insulin production and the inflammation and oxidative stress that occurs when you have a high carb, high insulin producing diet, you’re upregulating these wonderful cellular repair processes. So fasting being number one, and that’s probably back to the carnivore experiment. My number one takeaway is that that’s the foundation of healthy living, longevity and everything else. And so to access the ability to fast frequently means that you become good at burning internal sources of energy, like stored body fat as well as ketones. If you’re in the Keto scene and your brain needs some energy, you transition over to ketone production when your carbohydrate intake is minimized in the diet or you’re engaging in long periods of fasting and all these wonderful processes keep you humming along.

Brad: 13:25 So by following a carnivores style pattern, obviously this is extremely low carbohydrate, uh, similar to Keto, uh, because the Keto folks are regulating their intake of the plant matter that can contribute to their, uh, carbohydrate limit of 50 grams a day. The widely touted. So carnivore is pretty much keto in many ways, but not necessarily, especially if you’re going in a high protein carnivore pattern. A lot of protein can also shut down ketone production in the liver, which, uh, requires these, uh, unique circumstances to, happen, including, uh, the ketogenic amino acid is predominating. So a lot of protein, will kind of put ketone production aside as an aside. Uh, but anyway, it’s pretty much a similar in terms of, uh, the metabolic processes that are occurring when you’re, uh, limiting your carbohydrate intake. So that was my big takeaway that, uh, fasting is, uh, trumps all, of course, this is my understanding.

Speaker 4: 14:31 I don’t think this would be highly disputed that when you’re in a fasted state, your body works most efficiently. Many, many experts say this. And so, uh, my carnivore experiment sort of went hand in hand with not consuming any calories until 12 noon. You can listen to the fatty popcorn boys’ saga. That’s the title of one of the podcast and a blog article where I decided to tighten up my game, noticing that my indiscriminant intake of various, uh, delicious foods and treat foods that started to become a routine foods, uh, left me with an opportunity to go on a focused, uh, journey to drop some excess body fat. So I chronicle that well in some other shows. Hopefully you’ll get some value out of that. Uh, but back to this, boy did that make it easy to go into this mostly carnivore pattern and not spike insulin, not spike glucose with foods that were a little higher in carbs, but instead get these increased extremely high satiety meals when I’m making a ground beef mixed in with liver, uh, with melted cheese on top and having that for lunch, maybe with a couple, uh, egg yolks in there too.

Brad: 15:40 It’s incredibly satisfying. It’s incredibly nutrient dense that, that, that I just mentioned right there. And again, we’re talking about nose to tail carnivores strategy. So we’re getting our wild caught salmon. We’re getting salmon eggs, one of my favorite little snacks to buy at the store. And of course emphasizing the highest quality sources of animal products that we’re talking about. Grass fed beef entirely a things like ground lamb, which is source from New Zealand, which is 100% grass fed. And of course upping your game, uh, with the organ meats, especially liver, the super food of the planet. That’s also been a great takeaway, plunging into the carnivore experiment and realizing just how important these organ meats are and how we have to really work hard to emphasize these in the diet at all times. Thank you. Brian Johnson at ancestralsupplements.com and Dr Cate Shanahan touting the awesome benefits of liver. Brian’s nickname is the liver king.

Brad: 16:36 I’ve been highly influenced by him and Dr Kate trumping on me to get those organ mates go into the store and bravely going over to the butcher and saying, what’s this? Can I try some of that tongue? Okay, how do I cook it and look it up on the Internet? Yeah, there’s all kinds of good stuff. Chicken hearts and chicken liver actually tastes pretty good. And I’ve grown more and more accustomed and appreciative of the taste of beef liver. And if you can’t stomach it right now, do what I did, which was to, uh, puree, uh, the organ meats if it was liver, uh, in with ground beef. And so you’re making these burgers, uh, have a couple of nice recipes in upcoming books, Carnivores Cooking for Cool Dudes. And, uh, Keto Cooking for Cool Dudes that a feature liver but kind of masked in or blended in with burgers so it’s not going to, um, it’s not going to disturb anybody, even if they profess not to be an organ meat fan.

Brad: 17:31 I was served some tongue and tripe at a, a carnitas gathering, a street gathering in Lake Tahoe. How Fun was that? So I was challenged on tongue and it is lingua. They call it at the Carne Ceria one of the most delicious meats you can get. So go down there by yourself, a tongue, a stick it in the Crockpot for 13 hours and you will come out with a delicious addition to your dietary game. And so easy to make too. So, uh, hitting those checkpoints, uh, with my carnivore experiment, which I will say was a very strict and intense for about three or four months where I was really making a devoted effort to stay away from plant foods. That meant no nuts, a little to no vegetables, little to no fruits, uh, was still leaking in my dark chocolate, which of course comes from a plant.

Brad: 18:21 So I was getting scolded for that by Dr Saladino who’s in favor of living a radical life and being strict with these things and getting a good test. But of course I wasn’t suffering from autoimmune or inflammatory conditions. So I had the C and C diet, I guess you could call it carnivore and chocolate. And at times I would throw in things like a sun dried tomatoes and guacamole would find their way onto my plate at times. But my big transition was to not go out of my way to find vegetable matter to cook up and include in my diet. Same with the a salad habit as a centerpiece meal. I just put that aside for awhile. Uh, and my super duper super nutrition green smoothie, which contained a lot of raw plant material in the form of raw kale, raw spinach, raw celery, and I’d make these big smoothies.

Brad: 19:09 You can see me on Youtube, uh, preparing this wonderful concoction with a lot of supplements, a supplemental agents in there like the creatine, like the organ meats from ancestral supplements, uh, MCT oil. And this was a goto drink that was giving me a lot of nutrient density. But during this experiment, instead I was fasting until noon and then going into these carnivore meals like eggs, uh, beef, grass fed beef with the liver and what have you. So I have to report also that my digestive function was absolutely stellar to the extent that it was completely unnoticeable. There was just absolutely never any gas, bloating, indigestion, and these occasional conditions that I will complain about a when I’m eating in a normal primal, Paleo ketogenic pattern. Right? So these morning smoothies with a lot of green matter in there, uh, numerous times I would experience gas and bloating in the aftermath of drinking these nutrient dense, uh, bombers.

Brad: 20:09 And that’s just part of, uh, uh, the reality is that it’s difficult to digest raw plant material, uh, even nuts. Some people have sensitivities to, and we can reference all these things on the list that are difficult to digest, uh, as support or part of the carnivores story, realizing that for example, we have to soak sprout and ferment, uh, numerous plant foods such as the lagoons and the nuts in order to make them edible. So we have to work really hard to get these things into an edible state. And then furthermore, we have to work really hard to break them down and utilize them for nutrition. Uh, for example, the betacarotene, the highly touted agent that comes in the, uh, orange and red foods like sweet potatoes and carrots, uh, has to go through an elaborate process to be converted into the fully formed source of vitamin a that all important vitamin a that, uh, betacarotene eventually converts to.

Brad: 21:13 And in contrast, liver is a, uh, powerhouse source of fully formed vitamin A in the form called retinol. And Dr Sal references study that there’s 21 units of Beta carotene equaling one unit of retinol. So when you have a little bit of liver in your diet, it’s like eating a ton of plant matter to get the same benefit in the specific vitamin a example. And there’s downstream examples of many kinds where the nutrition is more bioavailable in the animal state rather than in the plant kingdom. Uh, because our biology is similar to the animals and dissimilar to the plants. So all this stuff going through my mind, as I said on other shows, I was feeling guilty sitting there looking at my bowl of stir fry that I’d made for my family and been such a centerpiece for meals for many years. And it was a really, uh, interesting journey to engage my critical thinking, give it a full and fair test and to see how I came out.

Brad: 22:14 And as you can learn from the fatty popcorn boy, uh, recording, I easily lost, uh, seven pounds of excess body fat in three months. And that was due to the high dietary, satiety of my carnivores ish diet. Uh, the lack of choice and decision fatigue and lack of necessary willpower because I had just made the, uh, the designation or the distinction that I was gonna do this. And so a lot of these foods were off the table, especially my, uh, evening popcorn binges and, uh, whatever else, I was consuming a lot of nuts or whatever during the course of the day. So by narrowing your dietary choices, obviously temporarily, cause we wouldn’t want to miss out, miss out on the indulgent pleasures and luxuries and decadence of modern life. But by doing so, I easily transitioned into achieving a goal that is so esteemed and so frustrating for so many people.

Brad: 23:12 So another takeaway from carnivore is that I think this could be a, one of the most powerful ways to reduce excess body fat. Uh, of course due to the, uh, moderating of insulin production and the upregulating of fat metabolism, but also the, uh, narrowly focused, uh, choices so that you don’t have that decision fatigue in that willpower’s just going to be guaranteed success. Uh, you can only eat so many eggs. There’s so many pounds of steak, right, where you’re going to get completely full for a long and by default consume fewer dietary calories overall without any of these struggling and suffering that you experience when you’re doing a calorie restriction diet where you still have a sufficient level of carbs in there to spike blood sugar and get that sugar crash, that insulin insulin release, and then a, the propensity to go and eat food and quote unquote cheat on your diet or tailspin out of your diet.

Brad: 24:13 So I think that’s a really powerful, uh, argument for the validity of the carnivores strategy. Not to mention the test period if you have any, uh, autoimmune or inflammatory conditions. And remember when we started this primal thing, uh, 11 years ago, Mark Sisson and I talking about ditching grains out of your diet. This was news to me. I didn’t realize, I thought that was normal baseline and I felt fine. And that gas, bloating, indigestion, uh, afternoon blues, things like that were just normal and routine, unavoidable parts of life until I eliminated grains from my diet. I just heard Mark Sisson on a podcast talking about how his life absolutely transformed and that he’d actually suffered for 40 plus years due to the presence of grains in his diet. And he was highly sensitive. Uh, his digestive tract was highly sensitive to grains. He was torn apart and didn’t even know it for most of his life until the day that he gave up grains.

Brad: 25:14 So now we’re talking about, hey, why not try to give up plants for a short period of time and see how your body responds? And in my case, I guess my conclusion would be that I don’t feel like I was a sufferer, uh, where I need to have a strict approach to this. And now as I’m recording the show, I’ve purposely sort of, uh, loosened my purse strings a little bit and not had this strict approach where my food choices were narrow and what’s happening as I kind of naturally drift down this path. That’s the nature of my experiment, right? Uh, I’m still not going out of my way looking for a lot of plant material to consume. I’m fasting and a much easier going for longer periods of time without needing meals and snacks such as a handful of macadamia nuts or a a smear of almond butter onto a celery stock or things like that.

Brad: 26:10 This just because these meals are so satisfying and so nutrient dense, I mean look at a plate. If you’re eating and nose to tail carnivore pattern, there is no wasted space. There is no fluff, there is no scoop of rice that has minimal nutritional value and is only giving you calories, macro nutrients. It’s a micro nutrient rich diet and it satisfies at a different level than a diet with a lot of bulk in there. Uh, especially uh, grains and sugars, of course, as we know. So another interesting observation as I drift back into a less extreme dietary experiment is I’ve kind of flipped-flopped my preference for fruit instead of vegetables. So for 11 years, starting with the dawn, uh, the emergence of the primal Paleo Movement, we were told that vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet and watch out for that fruit intake cause it’s a lot of sugar and we can definitely overdo it in this day and age, especially with the year round availability of fruit.

Brad: 27:12 So easy on the fruit, easy on the fruit. And actually what I’ve done is kind of uh, gone easy on the vegetables, right? Partly due to that, uh, occasional digestive distress that I experienced from, uh, concentrating the vegetables into the smoothie. And secondly, because it’s the, uh, seasonal ripening time for the best fruits like berries here in the, um, uh, the, the western United States so that they’re, they’re in good shape, they’re super ripe. I anticipate, uh, again not consuming any fruits in the winter time. Dr. David Perlmutter, a popular author, expert Grain Brain and other books, uh, says flat out don’t eat fruit in the winter. Our bodies are not genetically adapted to that and it’s just sugar. And winter is a time where we, uh, would naturally reduce carbohydrate intake to align with our genetics and our circadian rhythm. And certainly the fruit is a vastly inferior quality.

Brad: 28:10 So I want to be a fruit snob, like I am as a dark chocolate snob and just get the very finest, uh, fruit during their natural ripening seasons in my area. How’s that sound? So I’m going hard for the berries. Uh, introducing some of the other fruits that are uh, ranked lower like the tropical fruits just for fun cause papayas tastes pretty good in a, a full fat Greek yogurt, a also allowable on carnivores of course. And uh, the rationale here, uh, the Dr Saladino explained very nicely on our podcast was that fruits are the least defensible part of the plant. It’s the final offering of the plant. So the plant doesn’t care if you pick the fruit off and go eat it. In contrast, the seed, the original essential life force of all plants is the most defensible part of the plant. So it has the highest levels of antigens anti-nutrients contained in the seed.

Brad: 29:10 And that was a funny one. When Paul cell, Dino was talking to Ben Greenfield on Ben show and Ben’s like, uh, so this kilogram of broccoli seed sprouts that I have in my freezer, are you telling me that’s the absolute worst thing I can eat? Absolutely. Because we’ve been told that the seeds, uh, sulforaphane that’s contained in the broccoli stocks. You hear Dr Rhonda Patrick Talking about that, that this has the highest antioxidant values and anti-aging properties because it’s the essential life force of the plant. So this is sort of a counter point where, yeah, go ahead. The fruit’s okay. A very minimal amounts of lectins. Phytates, uh, the, the anti-nutrients that we’re familiar with, maybe zero, I’m not sure. Uh, but most people don’t have fruit allergies. Raise your hand if you know a lot of people with fruit allergies, visa vis allergies to, uh, the, uh, other members of the plant family such as the assorted vegetables, especially the nuts, legumes, things like that.

Brad: 30:07 I know, man, lots to think about, lot to think about. So I’ll leave you with all that. And you know what, it’s not a bad idea to engage in critical thinking now and then to challenge your fixed beliefs now and then to open your mind to new information. And that’s basically what this carnivore movement is all about. And I can envision, uh, the longterm, uh, significance here that I’m going to, uh, make a considered effort to consume more organ meats, uh, for the rest of my life being that these are up there as the highest ranked most nutrient dense foods on the planet and possibly a fewer vegetables. Although when you eliminate them and then you let them leak back, you realize that, uh, there’s some taste value and uh, they, you can actually enjoy a well-prepared vegetable meal. So I will acknowledge that. But what’s funny is like when you’re sitting there looking at your bowl of broccoli and now going through my mind is, wow, could this stuff not only be not super nutritious for me, but even be a net negative might be slightly bad for me.

Brad: 31:21 It changes my mentality when I dig into the broccoli because I’ve been programmed to think, wow, I’m being so healthy here with this bowl of vegetables that I’m eating. Uh, does that, uh, contribute to the fact that I enjoy it? So that’s a real challenge. That’s a real mind. F isn’t it? When you know you’re looking at a bowl of ice cream, what if someone said ice cream has been determined to be the healthiest food on the planet? Hey, I think you’re going to like it even more versus now when you’re looking at something that’s indulgent going, I know this is really bad for me and I’m just going to have a little and feel guilty after all those things get into your head, besides the actual taste, uh, the literal, uh, pleasure to the taste buds and the digestive process. Cause remember that stuff happens quickly and then it’s gone.

Brad: 32:06 You swallow it and there goes the pleasure. So yeah, I’m tripping out about that stuff. And it’s an experiment in process. So, just as a summary, here’s the stuff that’s kind of leaked in more than anything else that’s in the plant kingdom. I love my avocado and guacamole, the sun dried tomatoes, which I just learned are a powerhouse source of potassium. Of course, my beloved dark chocolate, and also my Kombucha, which a Dr Saladino, uh, shook his finger out too because hey, it’s a tea and tea is a plant and so it’s not strict carnivore, but those are some of the stuff that’s, uh, getting back into the picture because mainly because I enjoy it, I would say. And then in terms of vegetables, absolutely. If I’m having a delicious omelette or sitting down to ethnic food like Thai food or Japanese food, I’ll have the seaweed salad.

Brad: 33:02 I’ll have the avocado curry with the sorted vegetables and delicious Li prepared vegetable meals. Of course, I enjoy that, uh, until further notice, uh, when I have a unexplainable autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, you’re right, this stuff is gonna go out and I’m going to do a proper experiment. So if you’re suffering, I would urge you to try it right now. Go to meat heals dot com and embark on an experiment. And if you’re not, uh, give it a, uh, a little bit of an experiment, maybe not super strict, but try to emphasize those nose to tail animal foods, which we know are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. Thanks for listening. We’ll check in later of course and get folks like Saladino back on the show is doing some fantastic work. So go check him out. Uh, and also Dr. Shawn Baker and Zach Bitter have teamed up to do a podcast called Human Performance Outliers that I recently appeared on and Dr Saladino, his podcast is called Fundamental Health and you will get some further exposure into this very interesting dietary trend.

Brad: 34:10 Thank you for listening to the show. We would love your feedback at getoveryourselfpodcast@gmail.com and we would also love if you could leave a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. I know it’s a hassle. You have to go to desktop, iTunes, click on the tab that says ratings and reviews, and then click to rate the show anywhere from five to five stars and it really helps spread the word so more people can find the show and get over themselves because they need to. Thanks for doing it.