April the Meat-Eater: My return to being a carnivore

In August of 2006, I made the decision to stop eating all meat products with the exception of seafood (which made me a Pescatarian). This transition was no easy feat, especially since I have always been an avid red-meat lover. However, once I learned about the health benefits to avoiding red meat (and other animal meats), I was convinced that I needed to make this drastic change in my diet immediately. The issues concerning the environment, the terrible animal cruelty in slaughterhouses, and the disgusting practices in the meat industry also heavily influenced my choice. After just one month of being a Pescatarian, I realized that moving away from a carnivorous diet forced me to be more conscientious about my food choices in general. I was becoming far more aware of what I was putting into my body, and this shifted my perspective on health as a whole. I started learning about nutrition, I started exercising for the first time in my life, and overall, I felt great about what I was doing to practice well being. It was my move toward taking care of myself in a holistic sense (exercising made me want to eat better, and once I started doing yoga as my means of exercise, spiritual health also became part of that combination… which in turn brought emotional and mental health).

Around the beginning of 2012, I was busy watching documentaries on food (Forks Over Knives, Food Inc., etc.). I also read Skinny Bitch and other such “nutrition” books/articles/blogs/etc. In February, I decided to take a serious step to stop consuming animal products as much as possible. My refrigerator stopped housing milk, eggs, and other forms of dairy (with the exception of my one great food love in life—cheese). I stopped buying soy products and converted to almond and coconut milk products instead. The point is, I did another drastic overhaul on my diet, diminishing my consumption of animal products and upping my consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and, of course, cheese.

All was well until May, when I was in the emergency room for eight hours, suffering from eye pain (which, at that point, had lasted for four days), lower-back aches, and a fever. All the signs pointed to something seriously wrong. I had a urinalysis and blood test… nothing. I was given a full eye exam… nothing. I was given a CT scan of my head… nothing. I was very unfortunately given a lumbar puncture (also commonly/notoriously referred to as a spinal tap)… nothing. When they ordered the MRI, I begged the doctor to release me. I couldn’t stand anymore. She did, but ordered me to closely monitor my symptoms and return if my situation didn't improve. Five nights passed of me breaking a fever through profuse night sweats. I went back to my doctor. They did more blood tests (once for Malaria and other such rare-bug diseases), and though they never did discover the cause of all these strange symptoms, they did discover that I have a heart murmur and that I have an odd form of anemia that was a pretty serious problem in terms of its affect on my red blood cells. This was the conundrum: I was eating more than enough iron (proven by two more blood tests) and there was no excess amount of iron exiting the body... so where was the iron going? And so I was given two more doctor referrals (one to a gastro-intestinal specialist and another to my gyn).

Absolutely exhausted from being poked, prodded, and examined, I decided to explore alternate methods of restoring my body to an anemic-free state. I recalled something I read about a year ago at my yoga studio in San Diego, which I have mentioned on countless occasions in this blog but will yet again take the opportunity to promote, Mosaic www.exploremosaic.com. It was about discovering my metabolic type. For more info, please check out Mosaic’s website. I did some research and decided to go ahead and try this out. Everything I learned about metabolic typing made logical sense, and it seemed to answer some of the questions I had from all the conflicting information I had learned through all the documentaries and books.

I purchased the book called The Metabolic Typing Diet by William Wolcott and Trish Fahey (available on Amazon), which explains the history of the diet and how it was discovered.

The crazy thing is this: 

Years ago, I made a decision about food because I thought it was what was best for my body. As I drove home last night after learning that I am a Fast Oxidizer (one of the metabolic types), I was both stunned-- to learn that what I have actually been doing (depriving myself of animal products) is actually having a negative impact on how my body and systems function-- and grateful-- to know that I have the chance to reverse my habits. Now, I am making major decisions to shift my diet back to what suits my unique system best. It has been a really fascinating journey, and one that I only wish I had learned about sooner. But maybe all this drama related to my medical fiasco was my body’s way to telling me that something just wasn’t working. The more I cut out of my diet in order to have one that I thought was healthier, the harder my body was working to adjust to what I was and wasn't giving it. Now, a disclaimer here: I still am and will continue to be super fussy about what kinds of animal products I eat. I still am someone who believes in being a smart consumer, which means, organic everything is key, being a locavore as much as possible is a true goal, buying free-range eggs/chicken and grass-fed beef is a must, and consuming Non GM foods. I am still not sure how I feel about eating pork and drinking raw milk… so perhaps more on that to come as the journey back to being a carnivore continues. But I will say that my one true guiding principle will be to listen to my body. It is trying to communicate with me all the time, letting me know the things I need. The problems come when the outside voices telling me what’s best for my own body are louder than what my gut, my intuition, and my well-being are trying to communicate. So, here’s to my new life as a meat-eater!