Taming the Carnivore-Sort Of

How in the world does a self-proclaimed carnivore subscribe to a flexitarian (vegetable-based) diet? I’ll let you know if I ever get there. Some of my earliest and fondest memories are of Dad grilling out every weekend of summer – hamburgers on Saturdays and steak on Sundays. I remember being quite small and sitting at our kitchen table watching hungrily as Dad cut up my “meaties” into small bite-sized pieces. Ever since I’ve had teeth to chew it, meat has been a staple in my diet.

Then along comes Dale Bredesen, M.D., who tells me that if I want to prevent Alzheimer’s, I need to start thinking of meat (beef, pork, poultry, seafood and every other type of animal) as a condiment. A condiment? As in the squirt of mustard I put on top of my hulking cheeseburger?? I don’t think so. Perhaps this particular step in Bredesen’s ReCODE protocol will prove to be my kryptonite. Though I’ve long said goodbye to the bun, I don’t think I’ll ever pass on a cheeseburger.

The flexitarian aspect of Bredesen’s recommended Ketoflex12/3 diet, which he outlines in his book, “The End of Alzheimer’s,” means eating a largely plant-based diet, especially non-starchy vegetables. Protein, he says, should be limited to 1 gram per day for every kilogram you weigh. With a quick question to Google, I learned I weigh about 60 kilograms, so I should eat about 60 grams of protein per day.

“What happens when we eat more than 1 gram of protein for each kilogram of our body weight?” Breseden writes. “Biochemically, there is some conversion to carbohydrates, and this may contribute to the very insulin resistance we’re trying to reverse.”

Bredesen also urges consuming the majority of your protein through non-meat sources, such as nuts, eggs and soy. He says to make sure what meat you do eat is limited to 2-3 ounces a few days per week and is from pastured, 100 percent grass-fed organic whenever possible. These meats, he writes, “preserve a good omega-3 (anti-inflammatory) to omega-6 (pro-inflammatory) [fat] ratio, thus reducing their inflammatory character.” Standard American farm animals are fed a grain diet to fatten them up. Lo and behold, a high-grain diet has the same effect on animals as it does on humans: It makes them fat (with too much omega-6), inflamed and prone to infection, hence the ubiquitous use of antibiotics.

If you have access to pasture-raised, grass-fed meat and have no problems affording it, then you may not have to worry about cutting meat quite to the extent Bredesen recommends. Unfortunately, this high-quality meat can be difficult to find for some and also can be cost prohibitive. If you’re like me, and you stand in the grocery store aisle and stare longingly at the grass-fed beef selection but you have to hold on to the cart for support when you see the price, it can be very discouraging. The majority of meat I consume is from the traditional, far more affordable, grain-fed meat simply because I can’t afford the higher quality. I wish it could be the other way, but finances prohibit it. This, however, has helped serve as motivation to just try to limit my meat intake instead.

While I eat plenty of tree nuts (cashews are my particular favorite) and some soy, eggs have really stepped in as my meat replacement. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat plenty of meat – possibly more than I should and definitely more than Bredesen recommends – I’ve just been trying to replace a few meals a week with eggs with the hope of increasing that as time goes by. Allow me to stress that eggs are one of the healthiest food items a person can consume. Those who avoid eggs or only eat the whites or, worse yet, buy the egg substitute, need to please try to let go of the outdated and misguided belief that cholesterol and saturated fat are bad. (I will have posts on cholesterol and fat in the near future.) According to David Perlmutter, M.D., author of “Grain Brain,” and Mark Sisson, author of “The New Primal Blueprint,” the yolk is the healthiest part of the egg.

“The erroneous but strong messages about egg restriction that emanated from the United States primarily since the 1970s have unfortunately stuck around for far too long,” Perlmutter writes. “Scores of studies have confirmed the value of eggs, which are quite possibly the world’s most perfect food. … In addition to their healthy cholesterol, whole eggs contain essential amino acids we need to survive, vitamins and minerals, plus antioxidants known to protect our eyes… . Moreover, they contain ample supplies of choline, which is particularly important for aiding healthy brain function as well as pregnancy.”

Eggs should be from free-range, pasture-raised chickens (or other poultry if you prefer) that are fed an omnivorous diet. The chicken brand that boasts in its commercials that they feed their chickens a strictly vegetarian diet has it all wrong.

“Chickens afforded their natural omnivorous diet of bugs, lizards, worms and grass can produce eggs with up to 10 times the omega-3s than conventionally raised eggs,” Sisson writes. “Anyone who has tried a farm-fresh egg from a pasture-raise chicken can attest to the incredible flavor intensity – and distinctive orange-tinted yolk (from beta-carotene) – compared to a conventional egg.”

Please note that cage-free and free-range are NOT the same thing. While cage-free is an improvement to tiny cages in which the hens have no room to move or stretch their wings, some are still faced with over-crowding. Some farms ditch the cages but then pack as many birds into a barn as they can, still preventing them from achieving proper, healthy movement. I live and work in a heavy agriculture area, including many poultry farms. One such farm made a request (all farms, in my state anyway, must have a permit from the state to operate) for a new cage-free facility – 1.696 million hens (yes, I said million) divided among 16 barns. That’s approximately 106,000 chickens packed into one barn. A large barn, yes, but still just one building. It’s difficult to even fathom what that looks like. The proposal was eventually abandoned due to concerns about its impact on an already distressed watershed. But facilities of this size are not uncommon. And more than likely, these birds are not being fed an ideal diet.

Free-range eggs, just like healthy meat options, can be rather expensive in the store. I am very lucky because I have a friend and a sister who raise their own chickens and sell them for cheaper than store prices. I also have a goal to one day have a few hens of my own. The great thing is raising chickens is becoming increasingly popular, and many people likely wouldn’t have to look far before they found a local farmers’ market with someone selling or even someone who lives near them who has a sign out in front of their homes offering eggs for sale for much cheaper than in-store options.

Another great source of omega-3 fats is seafood, so I was surprised when Bredesen lumps it in with meat as something to be limited. He says serving size should be closely watched as seafood packs a lot of protein and also contains the toxin mercury, a known contributor to Alzheimer’s. Large-mouth, long-lived species, such as tuna and swordfish, should be avoided entirely because they have particularly high amounts of mercury. The seafood to embrace due to their lower mercury content are the SMASH fish: salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines and herring. Wild-caught should be purchased over farmed fish for the same reason as other meats: Lower-quality food and living conditions lessen the amount of omega-3s and other nutrients.

I’ve said in the past that I’ve never been one to count calories or any other measurement of food, except for when I started to cut added sugar. So I really have no idea how many grams of protein I consume in a day, other than a very vague ballpark. I know it must be a lot since I’ve been allowing myself as much as I want in lieu of carbs, but I also figure I’m not eating an over abundance since I have successfully lost weight and ended my blood sugar issues. I’ve wondered if I should make a point of counting my protein, but then the reality of that sunk in. Was I really going to purchase a food scale and begin weighing every piece of meat I ate? No thanks. The thought of counting protein seemed too much of a pain when not all of it could be calculated through a nutritional facts label, forcing me to either get a scale or try to figure out a rough estimate.

So this aspect of my diet I told myself not to worry about, at least for now. I do try to make a conscious effort, as stated above, to not eat quite as much meat as I used to and now eat more eggs, nuts and soy. But it might just be a cold day in you-know-where before I limit my cheeseburger (or any other meat) to no more than a couple ounces a day, a few days a week.

Previous Post    Next Post