# Zero Carb



## Moises (May 20, 2000)

Yesterday I started a zero carb diet. That is, only the carbs naturally found in meat. I might allow myself eggs as well. No vegetables. No dairy. I did a search and couldn't find evidence of others who had tried it.So far, so good.My plan is to continue this for one month. At that time I will assess whether I want to continue it or not.


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## pendragon (Apr 18, 2009)

Hi Moises,Wishing you luck and strong will! I've been on a minimal carb diet for about 6 months now, and it is definitely managing my symptoms. It took me a while to adjust to just saying "no" to some of my _favourite_ foods, but if you find it helps significantly, it's not hard. A month should be long enough for you to tell if it's helping.Do consider including eggs: they have a good balance of protein and fats. A couple a day should be fine, assuming you have no allergic reaction to them. I used to think meat and eggs might be trigger foods for my IBS, but having cut out the carbs, I realise they aren't.It can be difficult to get enough food energy when you cut out the carbs, and too much protein can be taxing on the body. Vegetable oil (I like sunflower), almond butter, eggs, cheese and cream have been things I've eaten in place of carbs. I use glycerol as a sweetener (it's a product of fat digestion with similar energy content to table sugar). Lettuce is about the only vegetable that seems really safe, but I'll have small amounts of broccoli occasionally. It gets a bit monotonous, but you never get hungry! And you can't complain about starting the day with bacon, scrambled eggs, and a hot mug of dandelion "coffee" with cream and sweet glycerol! Oh, and don't drink too much around mealtimes - protein and fat takes some time and effort to digest.Let us know how you go, and best of luck!


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## Moises (May 20, 2000)

Hey pendragon,Thanks for the good wishes.I don't think this will be too hard for me since it's I've done low carb (50-80 grams/day) for many years and very low carb (5-25 grams/day) for the last eight months.Prior to low carb, 8-10 bowel movements/day was the norm. So, I am firmly committed to low carb.I feel much worse if I don't do low carb. But I am not cured with low carb. I want to see if I notice any further improvements with zero carb. I tried meat-only for one week many, many years ago. I did not notice any improvement. But back then I was less sensitive to small improvements. My mindset then was that if I wasn't "cured" then I had failed. Now, my mindset is, if I can get 10-15% better, then that is a good thing. Also, back then, my thought was that meat-only would be a strange experiment. Now, I think that if it worked for me, it can be a healthy way to eat for the rest of my life. I view zero-carb as a variant of the "elemental diets" propounded by Gottschall, Pimentel, and others. Today is my 3rd day on the diet and my abdomen is distended with gas. My conclusion so far is that there's been no improvement.


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## Moises (May 20, 2000)

I started zero carb on June 6. Today is two months later, August 6.I am going to stick with this, but so far what I've learned is that zero carb has not been good.My best diet appears to be close to the one advocated by Mark Pimentel in his IBS book. I do best when I eat mostly meat. I do need some carbs, in the realm of 50-70 grams/day. And I do best when those carbs are the villainized white, processed grains like white flour and white rice or potatoes without the skin.I get diarrhea when I eat mostly carbs. I get diarrhea when I eat only meat and low-carb vegetables. I do best (though not a cure) when I eat mostly meat with 50-70 grams/day of white, processed, carbs.


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## Moises (May 20, 2000)

I am closing the book on this little experiment. I went 7 months of zero carb. For the first 6 months I had only meat and water, with eggs a couple of mornings when on vacation. During the end I tried adding coconut oil. My interim conclusion stands: a diet of mostly meat with Pimentel-level amounts of refined carbs is far superior to either zero-carb or paleo-type diets for my IBS symptoms.


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## TareBear (Jan 9, 2010)

I think maybe you are having trouble with insoluble fiber rather than soluble fiber.


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## MrBumwe (Oct 26, 2009)

zero carbs sounds pretty intense, did you loose alot of weight,,, did you have a health practioner monitoring your progress, I find the diet side of things quite overwhelming trying to identify exactly what is in different foods and what is a likely trigger.. I am currently on the SCD diet and feeling improvement,, out of curiousity what made you choose to be even more strict then the SCD diet (Gottschall), did you have no luck with the elemental diets???


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## Moises (May 20, 2000)

MrBumwe,SCD didn't help me. Vivonex Plus, a commercial elemental diet didn't help me. Pimentel's low-carb diet, with most of the carbs coming from refined grain did help me.I always wondered if my remaining problems were from the remaining vegetables in my diet. So, I got rid of everything except meat.Humans have lived on meat-only diets for centuries. Read books by Stefansson and E. Lucas Bridges. The idea that you'll get scurvy is a fiction.I just visited the dentist last week and my teeth were the best he's ever seen. He rarely has a patient whose gums don't bleed a little when he measures the sulci (pockets between gums and teeth) and mine did not bleed at all.So, zero carb is not inherently unhealthy. But I do better when I have a small amount of carbs daily. I am still experimenting with how many carbs are best for me. My guess is that it will be around 70 grams/day.I am glad SCD is working well for you. Although it didn't work well for me, I am forever grateful to Gottschall, because she indirectly pushed me into a direction that led me to experiment with adding more meat in my diet. And that's what got me from 10 BMs/day to 1 or 2.


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## thefelixcat (Nov 3, 2009)

I am looking to try this again as well. I made an attempt several years back, but ended up swinging from the D side of things to C, probably from the lack of fiber.


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## DietMan (Jan 15, 2010)

Moises, I think your post about how people survived on meats only for centuries is something that far too many doctors giving advice fail to remember(or learn in the first place). Its very true, all types of people have done just that for long amounts of time, and been fine. I'm not doing that for my GI problems, but trying to get closer to that than I was previoulsy, and cutting out all of the "new age" carbs that I can as they did not seem to help me. But your basic idea is something that for some reason is very easy for people to forget. Thanks for the post, I like it!


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## Moises (May 20, 2000)

Hey DietMan,Let us know if ZC helps you. It didn't help me, but it is viable, sustainable diet for many.


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## ziggy7 (Oct 24, 2009)

hi Moises this topic is great and a great test you did thanks for shareing the results also im curious on a few things1. you ate eggs and animal organs as well right so you did eat a tiny bit of carbs from them but nothing els2. what kind of meat did you eat did you eat the store bought meat or 100% organic meat? i have noticed lately eating buffalo has a great effect on me and i believe its because it is very organic and not like the factory cows that have fat cells loaded with toxins =/you see organic animals and some of them like deer eat so many different things you can only imagine how much more nutritious they are for us and i notice it soo far from just eating the meat of buffalo you probably can't cage them so the buffalo im eating must be organicalso you can't trust certified organic foods alot of the time they are hardly organicalso im planning on trying some test but there not entirely just for IBS-D since mine is basically fine now (thanks too low carb diet too) but the tests are to see how my body reacts like if i feel better and get stronger for exampleanyways the 2 tests im planning on trying out are 1. eat lots of true organic meats,organs,animal fats, ones that i know are organic and not just labeled organicand 2. trying these probitoticshttp://probiotics.mercola.com/probiotics.htmland eating some fiber and unripe fruit for them to feed off of for example a green banana cause i heard a green banana you won't absorb it all and alot of it will act like fiber and food for probiotics


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## BlueBerry Hill (Jul 19, 2009)

Good luck Moises! Hope the meat/carnivore diet continues to work well for you. Have you seen the web sight:http://forum.dirtycarnivore.com/If not, it might be to your liking as the sight is dedicated to those that mainly eat meats. I saw your mention of visiting the dentist and receiving an excellent report. Congrats! I eat a paleo/ low carb diet, and so I probably do not eat as much meat as you do, but since following the low carb diet, my IBS has all but been cured. And my dentist is amazed at how healthy my gums and teeth have become. I saw Dr Hill two weeks ago and during that visit he once again kept raving on and on about the improvement in my gum health. It was fun to hear! I finally enjoy seeing the dentist.


Moises said:


> MrBumwe,SCD didn't help me. Vivonex Plus, a commercial elemental diet didn't help me. Pimentel's low-carb diet, with most of the carbs coming from refined grain did help me.I always wondered if my remaining problems were from the remaining vegetables in my diet. So, I got rid of everything except meat.Humans have lived on meat-only diets for centuries. Read books by Stefansson and E. Lucas Bridges. The idea that you'll get scurvy is a fiction.I just visited the dentist last week and my teeth were the best he's ever seen. He rarely has a patient whose gums don't bleed a little when he measures the sulci (pockets between gums and teeth) and mine did not bleed at all.So, zero carb is not inherently unhealthy. But I do better when I have a small amount of carbs daily. I am still experimenting with how many carbs are best for me. My guess is that it will be around 70 grams/day.I am glad SCD is working well for you. Although it didn't work well for me, I am forever grateful to Gottschall, because she indirectly pushed me into a direction that led me to experiment with adding more meat in my diet. And that's what got me from 10 BMs/day to 1 or 2.


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## Moises (May 20, 2000)

ziggy7,I only had eggs a few times, when I was traveling.I did not limit myself to organic meats. I do not even think that that is very important. If possible, I think it helps to eat grass-fed meat, as opposed to grain-fed. That affects the omega 3/omega 6 ratio.I tried to stick with muscle meat. I had one or two servings of liver over 7 months. Liver has a high glycogen content.


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## Moises (May 20, 2000)

Blueberry Hill,I think dirtycarnivore is a great site that was set up by people with integrity. Thanks for pointing that out.


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

Sorry for necroposting. I am undecided about whether I should choose a low-carb or a zero-carb approach. The low-carb seems safer as there are many people following it and even some doctors openly in favor of a low-carb diet. Only problem is that low-carb doesn't seem enought to get rid of my IBS pain. So I may try zero carb and see how it goes.

Although I am IBS-D, recently I get some formed stools. The D is not bothering me. My problem is pain 7/24 that makes me suicidal.


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