How Going on the Carnivore Diet Blended Seamlessly with My Minimalism Lifestyle and Healed My Autoimmune Disease
It's not something I usually talk about. I'll make a passing mention of my "autoimmune disease" in other blog posts or articles. But this disease - and what I did to combat it - has all played into my minimal lifestyle.
About five years ago, I was diagnosed (first by me hoping it wasn't true, and then by a doctor, officially) with Vitiligo.
Vitiligo is a skin condition where the body essentially attacks the melanin in the skin, causing depigmentation. There are many ideas behind why this happens but no specific cause. Some say stress triggers it and other auto-immune diseases (which is very likely, and probably what happened to me) but also it can simply be a part of someone's genetic makeup just waiting to flare up.
Because there's no real "cure" for Vitiligo, I did a lot of armchair research. Like all autoimmune diseases, the best way to fight this disease (from what I've discovered) is with diet. And that diet is an anti-inflammatory one - the least inflammatory diet possible - which is called the carnivore diet.
This means no wheat (a biggie!), no other grains, no fruits, no vegetables, and no sugars of any kind. Nothing but meat (or meat-based foods, i.e. dairy, eggs.)
There are many routes to non-inflammation. Some folks say vegetarianism or veganism is the way to go. Some say the keto diet is good (Which, it is. I started first on keto and transitioned into carnivore.)
This post isn't to say my choice of the carnivore diet is a cure-all for every autoimmune disease. It's also not a diet for everyone regardless of if you have an auto-immune disease. I'm not a doctor, but a patient who has tried to quell the deleterious effects of this disease.
As one who has struggled with Vitiligo, I've found an option that has helped me tremendously. And that help - to stop the disease in its tracks - was to go full carnivore.
Many of you won't agree with this diet and many of you will. One of my friends thought I was joking when I said I was going "carnivore." I can assure you, it's a real thing and there are many people on this wonderful diet.
After reading about and researching the carnivore diet - and then actually attempting it - after almost two years on it, I can attest that I feel better than ever and the disease has stopped spreading!
Again, this may not be the answer for others with Vitiligo. I'm just telling you what worked for me.
Warning: This diet comes with a very minimalistic way of eating.
Having come from eating whatever I wanted for the previous forty-some-odd years - to essentially eating only a couple dozen food items today- it has taken time, patience, and willpower to change. It's not easy. Some days, I want the whole loaf of bread, you know? I want the variety.
But at the end of the day, when I feel great and I know my disease is in remission, it is all worth it. And honestly, I can't imagine eating any other way now. It's incredible how adaptable we human beings are.
So, what is the carnivore diet? The most succinct answer I can give is this: meat and water.
That's it.
Now, I've added eggs, some dairy in small amounts - like cheese, butter, or full-fat yogurt occasionally, and heavy whipping cream. But I eat beef primarily, with seafood, chicken, and pork as alternatives. I also like bison but have a hard time with goat or lamb. I'm sure it's fantastic, but I have a difficult time with the texture.
Also, full disclosure here: I cheat occasionally. I'm about 95% carnivore, not a full 100%. And here's what that is:
I have a cup or two of coffee every morning, still have an occasional glass of red wine, I have a single piece of dark chocolate after dinner too (come on, I have to live a little) and I also eat a vegetable about once a week. That vegetable only being avocado.
But the rest of my diet is all carnivore for the rest of the time.
Being a minimalist helped facilitate my transition into carnivore. I knew how to let go of things I didn't need and shouldn't have because of the practice I'd put into minimizing my whole home. The best part of this diet, other than the most amazing fact of feeling and looking good, is it makes eating and shopping for food simple.
Is the diet easy to do? No. There is nothing easy about giving up ice cream, bagels, and fruit smoothies. Nothing. At first.
But when I could visibly see the havoc wreaked on my body, knowing that what I put into my body was causing it pain, it wasn't an impossibility to let it go. In fact, it was the only thing I could do to try to control the disease.
I had no choice.
Once I began to slowly shift away from the standard American diet (I still miss bread a lot. Especially flour tortillas - Mexican food is my favorite) I began to change everything else around me, meaning: all the products I use on my body changed too.
I wrote about that for No Sidebar; how I minimized my health and beauty products. I did this because I was a minimalist and I did it for my health. Can I tell you how difficult it is to find pure products? Something without chemicals? Almost impossible.
One of the biggest issues was finding something for my face. I needed a moisturizer that works for morning and night and after looking into tallow (fat-rendered suet from cows), I found one.
Now, hear me out. Tallow? I can hear you say. Yes. Tallow. It's been filtered to the extreme, so it has no "cow" or "beef fat" smell. It's a fantastic thick moisturizer, and with natural essential oils added, I'm a true believer.
I looked into many companies that sold tallow moisturizers and when I finally found Pure Good, I had to share.
Here are three reasons why I chose this one over any other:
- It's American-made (Win!)
- It's from a small business (Double win!)
- This product is double the size of most other companies' Tallow products. (Triple win, for sure!)
I had to tell you about it because I wished I'd been using this for the last few decades instead of all the garbage moisturizers full of phthalates, parabens, and chemicals. Pure Good's products are fantastic. This moisturizer is now my favorite.
So here's the rundown: You don't have to be a minimalist to be a carnivore. You don't have to be a carnivore to be a minimalist. And you don't have to have a disease to go carnivore. I wish I'd started this way of eating, oh, about thirty years ago.
But if you're like me, and you need to clean up what you put into your body and what you bring into your home, the carnivore diet may be what you're looking for.
It's been a long, strange, arduous journey that has led me to the healthiest I've ever been, but I'm finally there. And having a minimal diet has made my minimalist lifestyle all that much easier.
The best part of this whole scenario is that I feel better than I've ever felt. It's kind of hard to believe. We think we're supposed to feel run down and lethargic. To feel aches and pains. I'm telling you, this diet - and the deletion of sugars and grains especially - has changed my life. Filling my body instead with good fat and lots of protein has made all the difference.
If you don't put junk into your body, you tend to not have junk coming out of your body. For me, that meant the stop of the spread of Vitiligo.
Vitiligo will probably always be with me. Some of my depigmentation may never get re-pigmented. But the fact that I was able to stop the spread all because of my diet blows my mind. And being a minimalist made that transition into the carnivore diet all that much easier.
The carnivore diet may not be for you, but I had to share about it all the same. Try it for a week or two, see if you don't feel better. Maybe you only need to do some carnivore. Maybe try swapping a meal of carbs for one just with meat, and see if you start to notice subtle changes.
Create the diet that works best for you, just like minimalism. I can't do Project 333. I can be a minimalist with my wardrobe, but not to that extreme. In the same vein, I can't do 100% carnivore. Sometimes, when the need for Mexican food is at an all-time high, I'll "cheat" with corn tortillas, and wow ... that sure is nice.
Create the diet - like minimalism - that works best for you.
It changed my life. And quite possibly, it could change yours too.
Book Pairing: The Carnivore Diet, by Shawn Baker
YouTube: Visit Dr. Anthony Chafee's channel for some of the most in-depth and educated material about the carnivore diet out there.
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