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Personal transformation and diet

• In my mid-20s I was clinically obese, insulin resistant, and dealing with daily debilitating migraines, chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, arthritic pain, high blood pressure, IBS, dental problems, acne, three daily medications, and anxiety severe enough that I could barely leave my house.
• Diet is the most powerful lever we can pull; within about 12 months of changing what I ate I lost 107 lb, moved out of the diabetic range, became migraine-free and energetic, and saw my IBS and acne disappear.
• Acne and spots are intestinal permeability, mainly from grains, and removing bread was the biggest first lever I pulled.
• I then built substantial muscle while eating almost zero carbohydrate, became British champion and number one in Europe as a professional bodybuilder in my category, and later moved into endurance sport.
• My obese father showed where my genetics were taking me, but diet and lifestyle changed how my body received its genetic information through epigenetics; animal proteins and natural fats are powerful enough to change that trajectory.
• Growing older does not inherently mean progressive aches, pains, and decline; the body does not degrade in the way mainstream media and pharmaceutical companies say, and lifestyle gives us control over how long and well we live.

Sugar as an addictive reward

• Fed rats given choices involving sugar, cocaine, and heroin chose the sweet option in the majority of cases; sugar is a drug and is more addictive than heroin. [1]
• In another rodent maze experiment, rats preferred Oreos over rice cakes, especially the sugary center, and lab testing found a higher brain response to the high-fat/high-sugar food than to morphine, cocaine, and heroin. [2]

Glycation and glucose requirements

• Excess glucose in its reactive linear form binds through a Schiff base and Amadori reaction to form advanced glycation end products; fruit-derived sugar reaches the same endpoint through a Heyns reaction.
• AGEs activate NOX and NF-kB pathways, generating reactive oxygen species and inflammatory cytokines that damage cells and DNA, dysregulate LDL, and drive inflammation and aging.
• We need glucose, but we do not need dietary carbohydrate: a 150 g/day glucose-use figure attributed to Dr. James DiNicolantonio is far above my calculations during full ketogenic adaptation.
• My calculations put red-blood-cell glucose use at about 4.3-13.5 g/day and total glucose need at roughly 15-37 g/day, while prolonged ketosis upregulates monocarboxylate transporters and allows ketones to supply at least 95% of brain energy.
• The body makes about 20 teaspoons of glucose each day through gluconeogenesis, so the usual exogenous carbohydrate requirement is zero; glucose is required, carbohydrate is not.

Stress, cortisol, and addiction

• Cortisol is essential for energy, insulin and metabolic regulation, cardiovascular function, blood pressure, gluconeogenesis, memory, immune function, and survival, and the HPA axis normally shuts its production down through negative feedback.
• Modern life creates many repeated smaller stresses; general adaptation syndrome moves from alarm to resistance to exhaustion when that load becomes continuous.
• Persistently abnormal cortisol disrupts sleep, muscle, fat distribution, skin, libido, immunity, pituitary function, blood pressure, thyroid and reproductive hormones, energy, mood, and other downstream systems.
• Elevated cortisol lowers dopamine and serotonin, linking chronic stress directly to addictive eating; when I was depressed or anxious I used pizza, chocolate, grains, seed oils, and other high-carbohydrate foods to change how I felt.

Dopamine, carbohydrate, and impaired control

• Sugar releases dopamine through the mesolimbic reward pathway, but repeated intake downregulates that pathway, requiring progressively more sugar to obtain the same reward.
• All carbohydrates break down into sugar, so this includes pizza, rice, pasta, muesli, bananas, brown rice, sweet potato, and other foods commonly regarded as healthy.
• More sugar damages or blocks the prefrontal cortex, reducing sensible decision-making, and adversely affects the hippocampus, weakening memory of the previous negative consequences.
• This is why repeated sugar exposure makes it easier to rationalize another binge and harder to act on the decision to stop.

Grains, glyphosate, and neurotransmitter production

• Most grains and vegetables are sprayed with herbicides such as glyphosate, which blocks the shikimate pathway used to make tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine, the aromatic amino acids needed for dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine, and other neurotransmitters.
• Glyphosate can block neurotransmitter production by as much as 95%; if bread, pasta, and rice are eaten every day alongside depression, that is probably the main cause.
• Even unsprayed grains remain high in lectins and phytic acid, and phytic acid can block absorption of zinc, iron, and magnesium by as much as 100%.
• Those minerals are required cofactors for neurotransmitter production and many other functions, so losing them further suppresses dopamine and serotonin production.
• Sugar and seed oils then give a short dopamine and serotonin bump while further downregulating those pathways, producing a vicious cycle of cravings, anxiety, depression, and escalating intake.

Insulin resistance and the kynurenine pathway

• Sugar raises insulin, which clears glucose and many amino acids from the blood while leaving tryptophan relatively available; tryptophan then makes serotonin and melatonin, producing the short-term good feeling after sugar.
• Repeated exposure eventually causes insulin resistance, which can take up to 15 years but now occurs much earlier, including in children as young as seven or nine with type 2 diabetes.
• In insulin resistance, tryptophan is diverted through the kynurenine pathway, glutamate rises, GABA falls, and glutamate excitotoxicity develops.
• This glutamate toxicity underlies ALS or motor-neuron disease, MS, Parkinson's disease, hypoglycemia, seizures, DNA damage, depression, and anxiety.
• Sugar therefore creates depression and anxiety that drive another search for sugar, locking the same biochemical cycle in place.

Breaking the cycle with food

• The first step is to stop sugar and seed oils so aromatic amino acids can again make neurotransmitters naturally; every exposure further fuels the addiction.
• Predominate animal proteins and natural fats. On a low-carbohydrate diet, low-carbohydrate vegetables can occupy about one-quarter of the plate, with the rest filled by animal proteins and natural fats.
• Broccoli, spinach, and kale are more damaging because of oxalates and sulforaphane, but early in a low-carbohydrate transition they can be the lesser evil when kept to a small portion.
• Saturated fat, omega-3s, vitamin D, amino acids, and ketosis increase BDNF and inhibitory control, so fatty steak, pork, chicken with skin, fish, lamb, eggs, cheese, Greek yogurt, and similar foods help suppress cravings.
• CCK signals fullness; if cheese or another protein-and-fat food is unappealing while sweets remain attractive, that is a craving, not genuine hunger.
• Falling off the wagon does not end the process: the rule matters more than the exception, and the response is to return to animal proteins and natural fats and keep the pattern consistent.

Light, insulin, and ketones

• UVA exposure to the eyes increases melanocyte-stimulating hormone and nitric oxide, blunts cravings, and improves how we feel; take glasses off, do not look directly at the sun, open a window, and get whatever sunlight is available.
• Carbohydrate raises insulin, insulin raises lipoprotein lipase, and that sends fatty acids into fat cells; if you want to store fat, eat carbohydrate.
• Increasing protein and fat shifts metabolism toward fatty-acid beta oxidation and ketone production, using fat from food or body stores.
• Ketones reduce inflammation and hunger, reverse aging, and become increasingly effective as ketogenic adaptation develops over months or even years.
• Ketones, MCTs, or exogenous ketones increase adenosine signaling, lower glutamate, restore the glutamate-GABA balance, and help block depression and anxiety.
• A man who was suicidal stopped eating and drinking to end his life; after several days, rising ketones restored the glutamate-GABA balance, he felt happy, and he was no longer suicidal.
• Ketones are the magic elixir, whether produced through ketogenic eating, fasting, MCTs, or supplementation.
• Carb and carb-associated products are the root cause of all anxiety and depression, with chronic cortisol overload, HPA-axis damage, insulin resistance, and neurotransmitter disruption driving the cycle.

Coffee, DNA, carbohydrate caveats, and consistency

• Coffee blocks the adenosine receptor and raises glutamate; major anxiety or depression requires removing coffee, including decaffeinated coffee, because mycotoxins and acrylamides remain involved.
• Caffeine can contribute, but it is far less problematic than coffee, and isolated caffeine can allow someone to maintain caffeine use without the same glutamate increase.
• Broccoli quite literally damages DNA; this is connected to epigenetics and was left for another session.
• We are predominantly water, protein, and fat, with only about 1-2% sugar or polysaccharide, so under normal circumstances there is no need for dietary carbohydrate.
• Warmer weather and high-UV environments are caveats where some exogenous form may be required, but generally the requirement remains zero because gluconeogenesis supplies the glucose still needed.
• MCT or C8 oil and exogenous ketones are daily tools for raising ketones and suppressing anxiety and depression; glycine and citrulline malate are sweet amino acids that can help blunt a sweet craving.
• A slide of compounds essential for life is used to make the point that plants contain zero of those compounds, that over half of the compounds needed for optimal health are not found in plants, and that only one is found in high quantities in vegetables.
• Every vitamin and mineral needed is available in abundance in animal proteins together with protein and natural fats, so animal proteins and natural fats are the default.
• There is no magic formula for sugar addiction beyond consistency: every day without sugar weakens the craving cycle, and after a lapse the answer is to return to animal proteins and natural fats.

References

1. [08:28] Drug versus sweet reward: greater attraction to and preference for sweet versus drug cues — https://doi.org/10.1111/adb.12134
2. [09:26] Are Oreos Addictive? Nucleus Accumbens C-Fos Expression Is Correlated with Conditioned Place Preference to Cocaine, Morphine and High Fat/Sugar Food Consumption — https://www.conncoll.edu/academics/internships-student-research/student-research-projects/are-oreos-addictive-nucleus-accumbens-c-fos-expression-is-correlated-with-conditioned-place-preference-to-cocaine-morphine-and-high-fatsugar-food-consumption.html

Australasian Metabolic Health Society

• AMHS was established in July 2023, has more than 200 members, and operates as an independent not-for-profit professional society across Australia, New Zealand, and the wider Australasian region.
• AMHS is led by a board chaired by Professor Karen Dwyer, with advisors James Muecke, Rod Taylor, Gary Fettke, and Peter Brukner, plus a geographically broad scientific committee of clinicians, researchers, and academics.
• The AMHS mission is to prevent and reverse disease by addressing root causes through the full spectrum of therapeutic carbohydrate reduction, alongside exercise, sleep, and emotional health.
• AMHS does not accept sponsorship from ultra-processed food, pharmaceutical, or supplement companies; independence is essential for evidence-based, non-industry-influenced education.

The education gap

• The core problem is a disconnect: low-carbohydrate and ketogenic therapies have a vast, established, high-quality evidence base, but translation into health-professional and university curricula is glacial.
• Misconceptions that carbohydrate reduction is too hard, unsafe, a fad, or unsuitable for older people contribute to fragmented care; some health professionals have even disowned patients for raising it.
• Conflicting advice from isolated multidisciplinary practitioners leaves patients caught in the middle and adds stress to their care.

RACGP CHECK

• A case-based RACGP CHECK publication, developed over almost a year by Dr Ronald Schweitzer, Dr Louise Phillips, and Dr Liz Fraser, places therapeutic carbohydrate reduction in its integrative-medicine category and includes it as a first-line therapeutic option. [1]
• The case centers on a patient with hyperinsulinemia, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver disease, and prior gestational diabetes; the unifying problem is carbohydrate intolerance, making carbohydrate reduction a crucial first-line option.

Education and advocacy

• Monthly private Grand Rounds create a safe space for experts to share cutting-edge research and practical education, clinicians to share case studies, and participants to engage in open Q&A and debate.
• Low Carb Foundations courses and a 10-module online course provide structured training, especially for dietitians, diabetes educators, nurses, and other health professionals.
• AMHS publicly challenged South Australia's LiveLighter "toxic fat" campaign because it used calorie-in/calorie-out and "eat less and exercise more" messaging; its overt focus on obesity was body-shaming and wrongly pointed to self-control rather than hormonal balance. [2][3]
• Persisting with 12-year-old nutrition advice while ignoring current science will not reduce chronic disease and risks making it worse. [3]
• AMHS is also working with medical schools and partner organizations on university curricula and fit-for-purpose dietary guidelines, while supporting a draft guidance statement coordinated by Dr Laureen Lawlor-Smith. [4]
• Diabetes Australia's article "What's better, butter or margarine?" prompted an AMHS open letter over saturated-fat portrayal, cardiovascular-risk links, nutrient density, and preference for ultra-processed foods over natural fat sources; the article was later amended. [5]

Member experiences

• Aman, a final-year medical student, joined after seeing a friend improve with ketogenic metabolic therapy and valued the combination of open-minded debate, scientific depth, and practical education.
• Counselor Vanessa Creedler used the Low Carb Foundations network in food-addiction work and found that collaboration with metabolically aligned practitioners transformed patient care.
• GP Dr Eugene Khoo has seen patients with type 2 diabetes come off medication and also credits low carb with changing his own health after being overweight, unwell, and following bad advice.
• Dietitian Cassidy Dotson moved from conventional guidelines and professional isolation into a collaborative network; her clients had better energy and reduced medication reliance.
• Health coach Carla Carter applied Dr Alex Petrushevski's Grand Rounds session on homocysteine to a carnivore client; testing found high homocysteine, followed by B vitamins and a food-based approach. [6]
• Clinical nurse consultant Philip L. has seen substantial improvements in wound, bowel, and bladder management among clients with neurological conditions, including people he had thought were untreatable.
• Organized collaboration across health professions can break down silos and create real change in communities.

References

1. [05:17] Integrative medicine — :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
2. [09:03] Hard-hitting ads launched to tackle a weighty issue — :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
3. [09:08] AMHS responds to South Australia's Live Lighter campaign — :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}
4. [10:42] Cardiovascular disease and metabolic health — :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}
5. [10:51] What's better, butter or margarine? — :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}
6. [14:17] Homocysteine and Methylation — :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}

2022 — first carnivore attempt

• A year postpartum at about 180 lb, I returned to keto for weight loss, then found carnivore through Reddit and initially thought eating only animal foods sounded dangerous.
• I read The Carnivore Cookbook by Maria and Craig Emmerich, including its material on plant compounds and oxalates, and decided to go fully carnivore. [1]
• Within a few months I was around 140 lb, sleeping better, and felt that I had lost substantial weight and inflammation.
• The weight came off my upper body but not my legs; swelling, pain, bruising, nodules, and resistant leg fat led me to identify lipedema as the likely explanation.
• Severe nighttime leg cramps then began. Magnesium, sodium, potassium, and electrolyte products did not help, and after about three months I quit carnivore and returned to a standard American diet.
• I later understood that food and sugar addiction were part of the relapse: sweets and carbohydrates were being used to handle stress and emotions, while my lipedema, inflammation, weight, and general health worsened.

Returning through the lion diet

• By December 2025 I was about 175 lb and getting sick every two to three weeks; influenza followed by pneumonia became the point where I decided to quit sugar again.
• Overeaters Anonymous gave me accountability and a 12-step recovery structure, but by April I still had marked pain and inflammation in my thighs and wanted an elimination diet.
• I went directly to beef, tallow, salt, and water for three weeks. I lost about 10 lb in roughly two days alongside a rapid drop in water weight and inflammation, and the leg pain was gone within three days.
• I then added eggs, chicken, fish, cheese, and other carnivore foods one at a time. Milk triggered the same compulsive pattern as sugar, yogurt did not agree with me, and leftover ground beef seemed to trigger leg symptoms that I suspected were histamine-related.
• Around three months the leg cramps returned. Increasing magnesium made them worse, so I removed magnesium, potassium, electrolyte products, and most supplements; the cramps stopped and have not returned through six months.

Six-month results and current eating

• At six months I am still fully carnivore, though not lion diet, and am about 30 lb down at roughly 145 lb. My thigh measurements are also slowly decreasing despite lipedema fat being highly resistant to diet and exercise.
• Sleep is deeper and more continuous, I function better after a short night, and the fatigue associated with hypermobile EDS is much less debilitating, while the connective-tissue disorder itself remains unchanged.
• My goal has shifted away from achieving a particular bikini-body physique toward strength, health, energy for my son, and long-term consistency; I am strength training and tracking progress.
• Most days are two or three simple meals: eggs with butter and turkey Canadian bacon, steak or chicken with butter, burger patties, chuck roast, fish, or other plain meat. I prefer leaner steaks with added butter and do not rely on carnivore breads, desserts, or organ meats.
• I am the only carnivore eater in the household: my son is selective with food and my husband needs carbohydrates because of a liver condition, so I regularly cook their food while eating separately without being pulled back toward former trigger foods.
• Beef liver is pretty much the only supplement I take. Tracking food and macros helps me distinguish hunger from an urge to eat through emotion and helps me keep protein high enough for strength training.

Food addiction and recovery

• Food had been my comfort since childhood. I often ate large amounts of sweets secretly, hid the evidence, felt temporary relief and then guilt, and eventually felt unable to function without the behavior.
• Carnivore removed much of the constant food noise and made it possible to sit with family or friends around former trigger foods without wanting them, but changing the food alone did not resolve the underlying addiction.
• Milk showed that compulsive patterns could transfer even within carnivore, so recovery also requires ongoing emotional and spiritual work, vigilance, community, and attention to the problems underneath the eating.
• I now think of myself as a recovering food addict: cravings can still occur, but I can remember how those foods affected me and no longer use food as the source of comfort or happiness.

Lipedema

• Lipedema is painful as well as cosmetic and can worsen through hormonal transitions such as pregnancy and menopause; later stages can severely impair mobility.
• Keto has already been studied in women with lipedema with great benefit, while I want a comparable study of a carnivore diet because that has not yet been done. [2]
• Estimates put lipedema around 11–12% of women, with many unaware they have it. Intervention with carnivore, proper exercise, compression, and other interventions can keep it from getting worse and keep women from reaching stages three and four where they would have to have surgery just to be mobile.
• My own disease has stayed at stage one, pain has fallen sharply, and thigh measurements are decreasing slowly; the experience has changed my expectation from rapid cosmetic transformation to patient, long-term improvement.

Starting carnivore and staying in recovery

• There is no single best way to begin carnivore. I needed to jump in completely, while someone else may do better moving gradually from low carbohydrate eating toward carnivore.
• For anyone coming from food addiction, removing trigger foods decisively may be easier, but the larger priority is not doing recovery alone.
• Overeaters Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery, and my Christian faith became central to recovery; surrendering the addiction to God and staying connected to a community gave me the support to keep going.

References

1. [01:42] The Carnivore Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Success on the Carnivore Diet with Over 100 Recipes, Meal Plans, and Science — https://www.victorybelt.com/the-carnivore-cookbook
2. [30:37] Effect of a ketogenic diet on pain and quality of life in patients with lipedema: The LIPODIET pilot study — https://doi.org/10.1002/osp4.580

College transition and therapeutic keto

• College can sharply reduce control over food and meals; when nutritional ketosis, therapeutic ketosis, or medical keto is helping a mental health condition, preparation before the transition and practical supports can maintain ketosis.
• The Dorm Room Keto guide gives specific and big-picture ways to keep keto going in college, and many of the same ideas also help people who simply want to eat better. [1]

Nutrition and micronutrient screening

• Medical education gives too little attention to nutrition in brain health; many people lack basic micronutrients needed for a healthy brain, good mood, and good cognitive function.
• Many obvious micronutrient insufficiencies and deficiencies can be seen with basic blood work, so physicians and prescribers can learn simple functional nutrition and functional blood chemistry analysis without requiring a multidisciplinary team.
• Useful tests include B12, B6, a carnitine panel for anybody doing a ketogenic diet, and vitamin D; lab ranges used to define nutrient sufficiency can be outdated, wrong, or miscalculated.
• A recent B12 study found that a value around 500, commonly accepted as normal, can still be too low while nerve damage is occurring, so definitions of normal in the medical literature need updating. [2]

Feasibility and dorm-room options

• Keto is doable and can also be affordable in many circumstances, and Mariela Glandt's work with low-income populations shows that limited budgets do not make it impossible. [3]
• Advice from a doctor, dietitian, or other expert can make keto seem too hard for college and favor something more manageable even when that person has no experience with the situation; experience from people who have done it shows that it is doable.
• Dorm appliance rules vary, but even where hot plates, air fryers, and pressure cookers are prohibited, a mini fridge, microwave, electric kettle, and blender can make keto workable.
• No-cook options include deli meat with cream cheese, pickles, olives, cucumber, mayo, or dressing; cheese and nuts; Greek yogurt with berries; canned tuna or chicken with mayo and pickles; salads with pre-cooked meat; pre-cut vegetables with guacamole, cream cheese, or tahini; and good-quality hot dogs from convenience stores.

Dining halls, preparation, and practical support

• College cafeterias commonly have salad bars and are more likely to offer plant-based options than low-carb or keto options, reflecting a nutritional bias; the salad bar can be supplemented with higher-fat and higher-protein foods such as canned tuna, canned chicken, and avocado mayo.
• Cafeterias may also have single-serving dressing, nut-butter packets, and butter pats that can be taken back to the dorm when allowed and used later.
• Maintaining nutritional ketosis for mental health requires preparation so meals do not catch someone off guard; some people plan a week at a time and others do not think that way, and both can work.
• Preparing roughly three times as much food keeps extra meals in the mini fridge; friends with apartments or functioning kitchens can lend kitchen access, and people who care can help with meal prep, so asking for help and cooking together can work well.

Social pressure and disclosure

• New peers may see different food choices as strange, and people can feel judged by someone eating differently even when it has nothing to do with them; questions, interrogation, or pushback can come from feeling uncomfortable, judged, threatened, or self-conscious.
• This social reaction can happen at any age, including when an adult declines cake; it is not age-specific, but peer opinion can feel especially important in college-aged groups and can magnify the issue.
• Affirming what other people are doing can calm the situation so they do not feel threatened, while an explanation can stay limited to what feels safe: "This is how I have to eat to feel good," "My brain doesn't work as well if I don't do this," or "I'm a biohacker and this is how my brain works best."
• A full explanation about mental illness is not owed to someone who is not emotionally safe; openness can match the depth of the friendship, and keeping that information private is not inauthentic.

Using the food budget differently

• Meal delivery may fit the budget after comparing it with existing spending on eating out, GrubHub, and prepared food; self-managed breakfast and lunch can leave room for a delivered dinner.
• Where a school allows students to skip the meal-hall plan, that money can go toward a local meal-prep service or personal cook; low-carb or keto services may need a few rounds of adjustment to reach medical macros, and MCT oil can cushion a meal that comes with too many carbs when tolerated.

Mental health symptoms and first dietary steps

• The KIND pilot trial in college students with major depressive disorder found a ketogenic intervention doable, safe, and seemingly effective for depression. [4]
• College is a time when anxiety increases and more serious mental illness, a broader spectrum of psychiatric symptoms, and mental health disorders can emerge.
• When mental health symptoms begin, a first step is asking whether the food is actually food or mostly highly processed food and moving to a whole-foods diet by pulling out highly processed foods.
• Mental health difficulty in college is hard when students are there to perform, achieve, and connect; removing Doritos and sugar is easier than the symptoms already being experienced, and a dorm mate can help with different food choices or meal prep.
• Not every mental health symptom requires ketogenic therapy; cleaning up ultra-processed foods, alcohol, and possibly drugs can help, and moving to whole foods is also the first step on the way to ketogenic metabolic therapy.

Maintaining a helpful ketogenic diet

• When keto is already giving therapeutic benefits and well-being is better on it, college difficulty does not require giving it up; there are many ways to make it work, and people nearby, including unexpected sources of help, can assist.

References

1. [01:03] Dorm Room Keto for Mental Health — https://mentalhealthketo.com/2025/04/17/dorm-room-keto-for-mental-health/
2. [06:27] Vitamin B12 Levels Association with Functional and Structural Biomarkers of Central Nervous System Injury in Older Adults — https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.27200
3. [08:24] Keto Offers Hope in the Bronx: Endocrinologist Uses Diet to Help Underserved Patients Recover Health — https://www.metabolicmind.org/resources/news-views/podcasts/metabolic-mind-podcast/keto-offers-hope-in-the-bronx-endocrinologist-uses-diet-to-help-underserved-patients-recover-health/
4. [21:40] A pilot study examining a ketogenic diet as an adjunct therapy in college students with major depressive disorder — https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-025-03544-8

Animal welfare and shared goals

• Carnivore eating is connected to caring about animals, personal health, and the environment, with avoidance of caged or indoor-kept animals and active use of grass-fed, regenerative, locally sourced meat.
• The meat comes from a farm about five miles away; foods such as avocados are not, being flown in from the other side of the world.
• Vegans and carnivores have the same three basic motivations: animal welfare, personal health, and the environment. Both are trying to achieve the same things through different approaches.
• Most carnivores seek animals that are not confined to cages and food aligned with nature, ethics, and animal welfare.
• Gratitude toward animals eaten is compatible with caring about their welfare.
• This material was heavily researched and formed part of the presentation that led to a second social-media ban.

Crop farming and hidden animal deaths

• Crop farming also kills animals. A Smithsonian source gives roughly 672 million birds exposed annually to pesticides on U.S. agricultural lands, with about 10%, or 67 million birds, killed. [1]
• Over 50% of gray-tailed voles perish during alfalfa mowing. [2]
• About 52% of field mice die during field activities. [3]
• About 77% of rats perish during field activities. [4]
• Rats, snakes, worms, slugs, mice, insects, and other small animals have just as much right to live as cows, so their deaths should not be valued less.
• Every time a combine harvester goes through a field, animals are caught in machinery and habitat and ecosystems are destroyed.
• These deaths go largely unnoticed because people eating crops are not directly eating the animals, but avoiding meat does not mean avoiding animal deaths.

Soil and ecosystems

• Repeatedly plowing and turning over fields releases carbon, microbes die, and the soil eventually becomes desertified.
• Animals are needed on the land to urinate and defecate, allowing microbes and grass to thrive and supporting insects, birds, and the rest of the ecosystem.
• Once the microbes in the ground are destroyed, worms and other insects disappear, birds lose their food, and the wider ecosystem dies off.
• The evidence is heavily tilted toward the idea that not eating meat means not causing death, but crop farming also causes deaths.

The 23-deaths comparison

• For the hidden cost of crop farming, 1 hectare is 2.47 acres, the given figure is 274 animal deaths per acre, one acre will feed somebody for a year, and the stated total is 23 animal deaths per vegan per year.
• The calculation uses what is regarded as the lowest possible figure through organic and pesticide-free production and does not add animal harm from glyphosate.
• An average vegan therefore indirectly causes 23 animal deaths per year under this calculation.
• Not directly eating an animal does not remove responsibility for a predictable death caused by producing the food.
• Accidentally hitting a deer while driving is an accident; knowing that every drive on the road will kill a deer creates responsibility even without an intention to kill it and while trying to avoid it.
• Once these crop deaths are known, the same principle creates responsibility for those predictable deaths.

One cow per year

• One cow is more than enough to feed one person for an entire year, with the calculation giving about 378 days of food from one cow.
• A beef-based carnivore therefore directly causes about one animal death per person per year.
• Using the figures given here, that is 23 times fewer deaths than the stated 23 animal deaths per vegan per year.
• Eating chicken, lamb, or other animals could raise the carnivore total to several deaths per year, but it remains considerably below the stated vegan total.

Why I am carnivore

• Caring about animals includes not killing even a spider; it is either left in the house or put back outside.
• Animal welfare, personal health, and the environment are the three reasons for carnivore eating, and they are also the three reasons people become vegan.
• The conclusion is: "A true vegan is a carnivore."

References

1. [03:43] When it Comes to Pesticides, Birds are Sitting Ducks — Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
2. [04:39] Density-Dependent Responses of Gray-Tailed Voles to Mowing — DOI 10.2307/3808937
3. [04:49] The effects of harvest on arable wood mice Apodemus sylvaticus — DOI 10.1016/0006-3207(93)90060-E
4. [04:52] Fate of Polynesian Rats in Hawaiian Sugarcane Fields during Harvest — DOI 10.2307/3799612

Saturated fat opening

• Saturated fat has a straight carbon backbone, packs together tightly, and is usually solid at New Zealand room temperature; polyunsaturated fat has double bonds that create more exposure and fragility and allow easier oxidation.
• About 16 meta-analyses tested randomized trials swapping saturated fat for polyunsaturated fat; 15 showed no effect from reducing saturated fat on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, or cardiovascular events, while the Hooper Cochrane review showed no mortality effect but did show an effect on cardiovascular events. [1]
• The raw data behind that review contained about 988 cardiovascular events among people who reduced saturated fat and 986 among those who did not; the positive meta-analytic result came from random-effects methods overweighting small, bias-prone studies.
• Simon Thornley's 2019 inverse-heterogeneity reanalysis found no effect, and a Lancet publication said dietary guidelines should be changed. [2][3]

Why sunshine and vitamin D became the focus

• New Zealand has the highest per-capita rate of melanoma and fatal melanoma in the world, ahead of Australia, and getting sunburnt and overexposed to UVB is a public-health risk.
• In the low-carb and keto community, especially with strict keto, carnivore, or longer fasting, people somehow seem to improve their sunburn resistance; there is surprisingly little data, so the later evidence is mainly mechanistic and animal work.
• Age compounds the vitamin D problem: the ability to produce vitamin D from the same sun exposure falls about 13% per decade, so at 70 it is about half as effective as in a younger person. [4]
• Skin colour, ancestry, latitude, and season therefore matter: an Indian living in Melbourne and an Irishman living in Cairns should behave very differently in the sun, with phenotypically appropriate latitude affecting what is suitable.

Vitamin D metabolism and supplementation

• Vitamin D3 is hydroxylated in the liver to calcifediol, which is what the usual blood test measures, and the kidney then processes it to calcitriol, the active form used throughout the body, including glucose uptake and bone health.
• Chronic kidney disease can block the kidney step and lead to calcitriol use as a medicine; fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome impair the earlier D3-to-calcifediol hydroxylation step, helping explain disappointing vitamin D trials.
• Low vitamin D is implicated in many chronic diseases and bone health, and Australia and New Zealand have very low vitamin D levels, which may speak to the success of SunSmart campaigns; some groups, such as obese Korean boys and older Middle Eastern women, are essentially universally deficient.
• Supplementation works at quite high levels: a single 50,000-IU dose in a week improves vitamin D status, and a single high dose after excess sun exposure can mitigate many negative aspects of experimental sunburn, although the practical instruction remains not to get sunburnt. [5]
• People with obesity have received doses up to 500,000 IU a day without toxicity in this example; that dose is not recommended here, but supplementation can probably go higher than the usual 1,000-2,000 IU while toxicity is monitored.
• Calcifediol bypasses the liver step and is much more effective than normal D3 in this comparison: among frankly deficient people with metabolic syndrome, some became sufficient after one month while none on normal D3 did, and after three months more than a third were sufficient versus about 8% on normal D3. [6]

Immune function and metabolic trials

• With sufficient or optimal vitamin D, the chance of viral or bacterial infection is about half as high and recovery is about twice as fast, and supplementation trials in children improve this as well.
• In the Spanish severe-COVID trial, 76 patients were randomized so that 50 received calcifediol and 26 received standard care; 1 of 50 in the calcifediol group went to ICU versus 13 of 26 in the other group. The trial is small, but the effect size is astonishing. [7]
• A recent meta-analysis of randomized vitamin D supplementation trials across metabolic health shows no change in weight, but small effects on blood pressure, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, and CRP; the effects are encouraging but small, with high doses around 4,000-5,000 IU and low doses around 1,000 IU. [8]
• Adding vitamin D during weight loss shows no overall effect, but subgroup analysis shows more weight loss when someone starts frankly deficient and supplementation actually moves them into sufficiency. [9]
• A cancer trial shows a small favorable difference in cancer mortality that is not statistically significant; benefit is still plausible and dosing may be part of the problem. [10]

Sunlight, skin lipids, and dietary fat

• Keratinocytes have phospholipid bilayers, while ceramides fill the spaces between cells, waterproof the skin, and undergo a hormetic response to UV; sunlight helps put ceramides into the right chemical order and remove the ones no longer working, so sun exposure is needed to maintain that layer.
• What is eaten changes the phospholipid bilayer: more polyunsaturated fat puts more polyunsaturated fat into it, more saturated fat puts more saturated fat into it, and changing the omega-3-to-omega-6 ratio changes every cell's barrier; both saturated fats and essential polyunsaturated fats are needed, and changing the bilayer can change the cell's fragility or robustness.
• Cholesterol is also required in these bilayers, particularly in skin cells, where it confers heat and UVB resistance; cholesterol is also the beginning molecule needed to make D3, so there is no reason to avoid it here.
• Mechanistically and practically, avoiding industrial seed oils is a good idea even though the bigger epidemiology is not overwhelming; in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and Nurses' Health Study, seed oils have an effect on skin cancer and skin-cancer mortality, with effects that are not large in these confounded cohorts. [11]
• In the 1988 hairless-mouse UV study, 5% and 20% polyunsaturated-fat groups developed skin cancers similarly, while the saturated-fat group stayed on the bottom line and none developed skin cancers; when polyunsaturated fat was introduced, the cancers caught up. This does not mean butter stops human skin cancer, but polyunsaturated fats are implicated in the mechanism. [12]
• In another hairless-mouse UVB study, higher-omega-3 and higher-omega-6 groups stayed the same weight, but by the end only about 50% of the higher-omega-3 group had developed skin cancer versus everyone in the higher-omega-6 group; tumor number and size also differed substantially, and the protected mice had more omega-3 in their skin phospholipid bilayers. [13]

Practical closing points

• Vitamin D is a crucial part of metabolic health, but liver and kidney dysfunction create a catch-22 around activation; hydroxylated D3 forms may help bypass this, while the K2 and magnesium feeding studies did not show enough effect to make those cofactors worthwhile.
• Skin health is probably important and diet probably affects it; if there were ever a reason to stay away from polyunsaturated seed oils, the mouse evidence would be it, but none of this changes the instruction not to get burnt.
• An Australian rub-in sunscreen used at the surf club once tested in a consumer magazine as having essentially no sun-protection effect; that product issue has since been resolved and it does stop burning, but it raises the question of absorbing UV-filter chemicals through active skin.
• A recent review finds roughly 18 sunscreen chemicals in tissues where they do not normally belong and implicates them in harm in both animal and human studies, particularly endocrine disruption: low testosterone in teenage boys, low sperm count and motility in males, and estrogen and other sex-hormone disruption in women. Birth-weight and IQ changes were both seen in mice, with some evidence in humans where more work needs to be done. [14]
• To avoid burning, use a shirt or hat or use a sunscreen that does not rub in; zinc oxide or titanium oxide are the appropriate examples because they do not get absorbed.

References

1. [01:49] Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease — https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD011737
2. [03:15] How reliable is the statistical evidence for limiting saturated fat intake? A fresh look at the influential Hooper meta-analysis — https://doi.org/10.1111/imj.14325
3. [03:41] Dietary guidelines are not beyond criticism — https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30278-7
4. [08:33] Vitamin D Synthesis Following a Single Bout of Sun Exposure in Older and Younger Men and Women — https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082237
5. [15:58] Oral Vitamin D Rapidly Attenuates Inflammation from Sunburn: An Interventional Study — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2017.04.040
6. [17:18] Calcifediol is superior to cholecalciferol in improving vitamin D status in postmenopausal women: a randomized trial — https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4387
7. [18:37] Effect of calcifediol treatment and best available therapy versus best available therapy on intensive care unit admission and mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19: A pilot randomized clinical study — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsbmb.2020.105751
8. [20:38] The impacts of vitamin D supplementation in adults with metabolic syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials — https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.1033026
9. [21:42] Vitamin D3 supplementation during weight loss: a double-blind randomized controlled trial — https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.113.073734
10. [22:13] Vitamin D Supplements and Prevention of Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease — https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1809944
11. [27:57] Fat Intake and Risk of Skin Cancer in U.S. Adults — https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-17-0782
12. [28:35] Effect of dietary lipid on UV light carcinogenesis in the hairless mouse — https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-1097.1988.tb02882.x
13. [31:09] Effects of high-fat diets rich in either omega-3 or omega-6 fatty acids on UVB-induced skin carcinogenesis in SKH-1 mice — https://doi.org/10.1093/carcin/bgr074
14. [34:13] Endocrine and Reproductive Health Considerations of Sunscreen UV Filters: Insights from a Comprehensive Review 2014-2024 — https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-025-00492-9