Detox or bad reaction to beef?

[HoneyBadger]

Lately, I've been noticing done symptoms that seem to crop up after eating raw animal fat. Last time I had similar symptoms, it was after eating raw, grass-fed lamb fat. The fat was delicious, soft, and chewy with that melt-in-your mouth consistency. The beef fat I had yesterday tasted very similar. However, after both instances, I woke up the next morning feeling pretty down emotionally, weird sore throat feeling but not as bad as when I've had an actual cold, general feeling of malaise/achiness/tiredness. These symptoms lasted a day or two last time and I'm just wondering if this could be a possibly detox from the animal fat or fits a negative reaction to animal fat? Any input? Thanks

[Projectile Vomit]

Always hard to answer questions like this as I'm sure there are all sorts of relevant things you've been eating or doing that you haven't disclosed. At any rate, how often do you eat raw fat like this? Sometimes it takes my body a day or so to get used to eating suet or back fat straight before bile secretion rises to the occasion. When I do eat fat, I will ease into it over a few days rather than eating a huge serving without breaking my GI tract in.

It could also be that the fat you're eating isn't as high quality as you've been led to believe. It's been my experience that many farmers are less than honest about how they raise animals, and vegetables or fruit for that matter. They recognize that they can get a price premium for foods produced to the highest standards, but aren't always willing or able to produce foods to those high standards. I had been buying raw goats milk and goat meat from a producer for the last year-and-a-half who claimed that he raised his goats solely on forage (browse and hay) and promised me on several occasions that he never fed them any grain. Just last weekend while we were chatting at the farmers' market he let it slip that he did feed them some grain, and when pressed he finally admitted that they get a couple pounds of grain per day, which is a sizable share of their daily calories. He even admitted that he didn't buy organic grain, so the grain ration likely contained GMOs. The price premium that went along with claiming to produce 100% grain-free goat meat was obviously too big for him to pass up, even though he made no effort to live up to the promises he made to his customers, including me. Needless to say I will no longer buy from him.

[HoneyBadger]

Hey Eric, thanks for replying. You mention that you usually ease your GI system into consuming raw animal fat. Can I ask what symptoms you get when you don't ease your system in to it? Also, I really trust the farmer where I get my grass-fed beef from. I work with his wife and they both know I consume the meat raw and how important it is for me to know that they are truly 100% free-range and grass-fed. They  are humble, trustworthy people who run a small family farm. The first time I ate a decent amount of the raw fat was yesterday but it wasn't that much, maybe 1-2 oz.
The lamb I bought from Albertson's and although it was labeled as being grass-fed...it's always difficult to tell but I was in a financial bind and decided it was better than non-grass-fed meat. I only ate about 1-2 oz of the fat then too and no ticked the same symptoms the day after so that's why I'm curious if it could be a detox from the raw fat.

[eveheart]

Like Eric says, when you eat in a different way, your body may need a moment to reconsider what it is doing, especially considering that so much digestion is aided by your own bacteria, and bacteria are food-specific to some extent. This is especially relevant when it comes to considering what is the "normal" gut microbiome because normal changes depending on what you are "feeding" your gut's bacteria.

You might reconsider what you mean by detox. Your body detoxes all the time. Detoxing is the liver's main function. Every cell cleans itself continually. The lungs detox our gasses. The colon absorbs the nutrients and poops out the waste.

I think this idea that the intestines and other organs need to have their toxins detoxed is a bit of a fad. Instead, I think the focus should be on not ingesting toxins as they are found in many processed and manipulated foods.

I have found it best to visit the ranches that I buy from. Curiously enough, here in northern California, I favor halal ranchers raising lamb and goat. They slaughter and dress the animal while you watch.

There are some great pastured cattle and bison ranching operations here, but the slaughter operation is USDA-controlled and not very transparent because the consumer really has no way to follow the meat from hoof to hook. If you know the rancher and know that you are really getting the meat from the animals on his ranch, I'd consider that a good sign.

[Projectile Vomit]

Can I ask what symptoms you get when you don't ease your system in to it?

Symptoms vary depending on what else I've eaten within 10 hours of eating the fat, and how active I am. Common symptoms include stomach ache, loose stools, stools that are very green or yellow, or a general feeling of fatigue as my body adjusts to getting a lot more calories than normal from fat instead of from a balance of carbs, protein and fat. The fatigue is especially prominent if I am very active that day, such as doing CrossFit workout a few hours before or after eating the fat or within a couple days of getting most of my daily calories from fat.

1-2 ounces of fat is actually a lot of fat. When you consider how calorie-dense fat is, one ounce of pure fat is usually around 250 kilocalories, and two ounces is around 500 kilocalories. That's a lot of calories to eat at one sitting, no matter what food you're eating. Now granted, suet and back fat aren't 100 percent fat, there's some connective tissue there and some water, but these foods are still extraordinarily calorie-dense so they are very different for your body to process than if you were to eat a large serving of salmon or a leaner red meat like steak that happened to have some fat along its edges or was heavily marbled.

To give a sense for how I balance my meals to avoid feelings of fatigue, when I incorporate raw suet or back fat into a meal so as to achieve the 40-30-30 ratio that seems to work well for me (basically a raw Zone diet, where 40 percent of calories come from raw carbs, 30 percent from raw protein, 30 percent from raw fat), this usually involves just adding 3-5 grams (not ounces) of pure raw fat. This is a small amount, since it takes 28 grams to make an ounce. Realize that other ingredients in a meal, such as raw meats of various sorts and certain raw fruits (like avocados or olives, both of which I like), also contribute fat.

[goodsamaritan]

My guess is:

- you currently have mold / fungus issues / candida issues / leaky gut issues

You need to resolve those issues first.

In the meantime switch to raw ocean fish.

[svrn]

First of all make sure your meat is from a highly quality source and i dont mean whole foods. Whole foods beef is garbage, i dont care how grass fed they say it is, it is just terrible. Also make sure that your meat was never frozen. Find a good butcher in your area that does organs and all that, a real grass fed butcher. If you cant find one in your area by simply googling then try finding a farmer on eatwild.com. If that fails northstarbison.com will have you covered with the highest quality meat you'll find anywhere shipped unfrozen to your door overnight.

Now if you are doing everything right in that regard, you should never worry about a detox. If you are diehard about being "paleo" then consume lots of raw eggs and raw fat during a detox, fish is always better during a detox especially oysters to get a super mineral boost to bind with toxins, get more minerals by chewing celery and parsley and spitting out the pulp, swallowing the fiber will alkalize your digestive system and impair your ability to digest animal foods.

If you are not diehard paleo, then during detox make a shake with eggs honey butter milk and lemon all raw and drink twice a day. eat unsalted raw cheese throughout the day and vegetable juice made with a masticating juice. Hold off on the sweet fruits, bland fruits like tomato cucumber and bell pepper are fine.