Author Topic: Zero Carber Here!  (Read 5093 times)

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Offline ZeroCarbJackie

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Zero Carber Here!
« on: July 03, 2013, 08:42:40 am »
     Hi everyone!

     I'm a zero carber who joined in order to talk about health with like-minded people, and I'm sooo excited to have found a place FULL of like-minded people!

     I was vegan for six years before beginning a paleo diet. It was then that I found out I have a digestive disorder called fructose malabsorption, which was found after I'd been diagnosed with IBS. Eliminating all fiber has really given me back my life, and I'm super interested in all the science and research behind carbs, fiber, insulin, etc., and their effects on the body. I'm also a nursing student, due to graduate in less than a year!

     Being that I was vegan for six years, I guess that goes to show that I'm a hippie at heart. I love people, animals, the earth and consider myself a "conscientious carnivore." I try to be as eco-friendly as possible, and am grateful for the lives that are given in order to give *me* a life. I've done a lot of research on the environmental aspects of the carnivorous lifestyle and have found that it's actually more environmentally sustainable. I was so misguided for so long, and now all I want to do is share my info with those who care to listen.

     I look forward to making some friends here and getting into some good discussions about health! I just started a blog and hope that sheds some light on the dietary path I've chosen, as it's hard to find a lot of information on it! Not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to it, if not, mods, please feel free to remove! I can't figure out how to make a signature or a profile yet, still figuring out how to navigate around here. zerocarbjackie.blogspot.com

Offline van

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Re: Zero Carber Here!
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2013, 09:03:07 am »
Jackie, welcome.  You'll find a couple, maybe more, zero or vlc peoples here.   And I'm sure we all will welcome your experiences.  Out of curiosity,  did you come from ZIOH and Charles's site?  Also wondering about the fructose malabsorption, and why that would 'exist' with you?  Maybe I have some of it myself.   I usually try to point to Ron Rosedale for people interested in going low carb.  I think he makes such good sense in his lectures.  He has a site and blog with some very good information, and twenty years of practice using low carb. 
   On another note,  a friend pointed this out to me once,,,  I have goats and had no use for the baby male goats when born.   My caretaker would then raise and butcher them happily.  I said to him I didn't see how he could get that close to them and them kill them.  He said, as he pointed to some of his out in the big green field of grass, see that one there.  He wouldn't be able to play, bask in the sun, enjoy eating that lush grass if it wasn't for you.  So actually meat eaters provide life to animals that never would have existed.   I still think this has truth,, as long their envirorment is pleasant  they room to graze and move, and appreciate nature.   Van

Offline ZeroCarbJackie

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Re: Zero Carber Here!
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2013, 09:22:17 am »
 Hi, Van, and thank you for the welcome!

 No, I haven't come from ZIOH. I have read the board, but it's so inactive, and some of the rules seemed kind of questionable, so I never bothered joining.

 As far as fructose malabsorption, I'm convinced that most people have a certain level of it. What it is is my small intestine doesn't have enough fructose carriers in it, so fructose just sits there without exiting, which causes bacterial overgrowth and a lot of fermentation in my gut -- which is why I always looked nine months pregnant. It was particularly odd because I'm 5'7" and 120-125 lbs. at all times, so my large stomach was striking. It was extremely painful. Some other fun symptoms of it were acne, lethargy, mood swings, insomnia, etc. All the result of known chemical reactions that happen as a result of the disorder.

 Fruit isn't the only thing that contains fructose, but also vegetables, and grains contain long chains of fructose molecules called fructans, meaning that I basically can't eat anything other than meat -- which is fine with me!

 I'm not sure if I always had it or if it's a recent development due to having been vegan for so long. I never ate a ton of carbs prior to being vegan. I hated cereal, oatmeal, bread, rice and pasta. I liked meat and vegetables, and fresh fruit was an occasional treat that wasn't often in the house. We ate lots of salads and steaks/fish/roasts, etc. I don't recall having any pain or bloating until I went vegan. It got worse when I started a fruitarian diet known as 80/10/10, which destroyed my health within a year. Luckily, ZC has completely reversed all of my issues. But I'm not sure if I had this and didn't know, due to my never really eating grains or tons of sugar, or if it developed as a result of loading my body with carbs and fruit due to different forms of veganism.

 I've never heard of Ron Rosedale, but I'll definitely check him out!

 I think people forget that agriculture is a huge enemy of the environment, and farming grains kills entire ecosystems. Every time a field is plowed, it kills animals. Every time a field is sown, it kills native plants that feed insects and animals. Topsoils are being depleted. It causes tons of pollution due to farming practices and shipping. And additionally, there's the issue of pesticides killing everything off. No one eats without also causing the death of other animals. It's a sad reality of life. What's sadder to me, though, are the vegans who are feeding their dogs and cats vegetables and denying the natural order of things. Animals are designed to eat other animals, and we aren't exempt from that either.

Offline goodsamaritan

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Re: Zero Carber Here!
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2013, 10:18:43 am »
Does this mean you are here to try and shift to RAW carnivore?
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Offline miles

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Re: Zero Carber Here!
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2013, 07:42:38 pm »
How long have you been zero carb for? Please share your future experiences with the forum, good and bad, so others can learn from them. I ate zero carb and felt good at first, but gradually deteriorated and ended up with a lot of problems stemming from it which took time to recover from... Humans are omnivores and have always eaten a mix of plants and animals when they can. Humans don't produce vitamin C, and we have a large colon which is vulnerable to infection if we do not support our good bacteria which live off of fiber. It's just not worth it eating ZC... If you feel best eating only animal foods - first, I'd recommend you eat plenty of organs and enough fat as a percentage of energy, but also that you still eat some vegetables each day.. Just a small amount even, just to keep your gut-bacteria ticking over, and to keep getting a small amount of vitamin c and minerals.

Also, it might be less irritating to your gut to obtain your carbs from gluconeogenesis, but it's stressful on the body to do that, and you could find that your digestion gets weaker over time as I did. Therefore it might be good to consume a small amount of carbs each day to stop your body from having to obtain them from protein. Even if your body is running on ketones for most of its energy, you still need carbs to make glyco-proteins and such(1).

(1) http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2010/11/dangers-of-zero-carb-diets-i-can-there-be-a-carbohydrate-deficiency/

Of course, as you've found so far, you can go for some time ZC feeling great, and so maybe you would be best eating miniscule amounts of plants/carbs for now(just enough to keep your gut bacteria alive) to allow your gut to heal, and then gradually building up to a maintenance level of absorbable carbs(starch/sucrose/glucose/fructose 30g/day minimum? guess) and fibre(10g/day? - guess).
« Last Edit: July 03, 2013, 07:48:53 pm by miles »
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Offline ZeroCarbJackie

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Re: Zero Carber Here!
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2013, 04:09:14 am »
 goodsamaritan: It's something I'm considering and kind of naturally shifting toward. My history with veganism had me terrified of meat. I'd never cooked it myself or anything. While paleo, I cooked my meat to FDA standards... used a thermometer and have all the temperatures memorized for every kind of meat. However, since going ZC, I've become repulsed by well done meat. I started wanting it medium rare, then had some undercooked steak at a restaurant... it was bloody and everyone thought I should take it back. I was like a wolf, gobbled it all up within about a minute. I now crave my meat rarer and rarer. So raw carnivory is something I'm investigating right now.

 miles: I've been ZC since April, and I will definitely keep everyone posted. Probably mostly on my blog, but I'd really like to talk to more people who live similar lifestyles, so I'd like to be active here. It's frustrating that so many ZC-specific places are so inactive! The subforum here seems pretty inactive too. Understandable given the lack of popularity, though.

 Thank you for sharing your experiences. As a raw fruitarian for a year, I was so attached to the idea that it was the perfect diet that I didn't want to believe it was destroying me. I stuck with it, believing everyone who told me my symptoms were detox. It almost killed me -- literally. I will not make that mistake again.

 So if I start to feel ill or have weird symptoms, I will definitely keep your story in mind and do what my body needs for me to do, whether that means a diet change or supplements. But, believe it or not, I've actually been hospitalized a few times because of vegetables! Similar to those with Crohn's, diverticulitis and other digestive disorders, I've been advised by mainstream doctors to take it easy on the veggies -- permanently. While I have a list of I think like three vegetables I can tolerate and one grain (white rice) without a ton of pain and symptoms, they still cause enough distress that I don't feel like ZC is much of a choice, at this point. I'm pretty sure 30g of fructose would kill me. At the very least, I'd have to be hospitalized again. But I definitely remain open if my body changes in any way!

Offline eveheart

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Re: Zero Carber Here!
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2013, 08:12:52 am »
I eat very low carb raw - included are animal-source carbs plus occasional homemade fermented vegetable juice, seaweed, and the rare avocado - to manage diagnosed and undiagnosed health issues (digestive, endocrine, autoimmune, stuff like that).

Early on, I found that eating raw meats defines a new level of feeling good from which I can measure how foods affect me. I started with omnivorous raw paleo with a two week commitment, and felt the best I had felt in years. Then I started paying attention to other details such as keeping my fat and salt levels up and carb levels down.

There seem to be two reasons for avoiding cooked meat: toxicity and digestibility. To me, the toxic by-products of denaturing flesh are subtle. In contrast, the improved digestibility of raw meat is immediately obvious.
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