raw meat diet

Question
Hi Geoffrey,
I've been doing the primal diet for 3 years (went to see Ajonus)and have been edging towards going to only raw  meat. Lately I'm using butter with the meat and also eat eggs with butter, and drink mineral water. I also will eat leaves of lettuce or dandelion once a day with butter. I do this because I think I am thirsting for the organic salts. I'm thinking that if I was eating the organs it would supply what it is I am craving. I find that when I drink the juice (which I was making very green)I get tired. I don't know how to keep my energy constant. I'd like to stop with the dairy, but do you feel satisfied enough from meat only without the dairy. What does your diet look like? I love that I can ask someone!

Celeste  

Answer
Hello Celeste,
I ought to mention that I have been doing the Primal Diet for roughly the same time as you(3 1/2 years) so take my advice with a pinch of salt! The people who usually ask questions here are usually non-Californians who have just started the Primal Diet, and who don't have access to Primal Diet  Potlucks where they can ask questions etc.As I was in much the same position as them at the start, taking 6 months   to find the right food sources etc., I figured
I could make things a lot easier for them than it was for me.

First of all, if you want to try an all-raw-meat diet, you will have to steer clear of lean muscle-meats and go after innards mainly(ie:- brain, bonemarrow,liver,kidney,tongue). This is because people who eat only muscle-meats tend to get into a state of "rabbit-starvation", where they can't process the protein they eat because they don't have enough of the raw animal fats which are needed for the absorption of protein.This is apparently what happened to many American settlers who ate only the muscle-meat from lean animals such as horses and rabbits. The Indians(and Eskimoes), who ate all parts of the animal, (like our caveman ancestors) never had rabbit-starvation.
You can still eat muscle-meats, just make sure they are fatty muscle-meats. So, for example, eat fatty wild duck or goose or deep-sea fish but generally avoid lean turkey.Generally the fattier the muscle-meat (or innard)
the better it tastes, which makes things easier.Since innards from fish and fowl are usually removed before the sale or are too small for real nutrition, it's probably best to mainly buy innards only  when you meat from the   ruminants(ie:-Buffalo/Bison/ox/lamb/)- pork muscle-meat is the exception as it can be quite fatty(and tasty).

Your consumption of (solid) vegetables might be a (minor)
problem.AV does state that vegetables alkalinise the digestive system. Also there is phytic acid in the veg which can interfere with the absorption of other foods.Having said that, every summer I eat very small amounts of samphire(a
a very salty herb growing on beaches) once every 2 days or
so and I find it helps me to some extent. However if I increase the amount too much, or have it with my raw meat then I start feeling a bit queasy in the stomach.
I seem to remember, vaguely,that lettuce is one of the vegetables with the least amount of minerals and vitamins(but I may be wrong), but dandelion is a great herb, full of minerals and vitamins, though with a slight diuretic effect.

As for veggie juice, I have heard  some  reports from people on various Primal Diet Internet chatgroups,
who complain of fatigue etc.
from excessive veggie juice. This inspired me to avoid drinking raw veggie juice right from the start of this Diet.Recently, however, I have been regularly drinking some raw broccoli/celery juiced veg on the way to the gym(once every 5 days or so)
,and I have found that it improved my levels of concentration and increased my energy levels a little, so I'm finally getting my own juicer. I certainly don't intend to include raw veggie juice as 25% of the diet, which is what AV recommends, as from past experience raw animal fats are the key to my health(and because veggie juice usually
tastes disgusting!)
, but I figure  a couple of glasses of veggie juice every week(every month?) might help alkalinise the blood etc
.So I see veggie juice
more as an occasional medicine instead of a food).
In your case I suggest you just stop drinking the veggie juice altogether for 3 months, and see how your energy levels improve.Even if they do, I'd recommend drinking an occasional glass of veggie juice  perhaps only once every 2 months, if only to avoid my mistake.

I am extremely prejudiced against raw dairy, as a result of
incurring some awful health problems from it, so this
is going to be a somewhat biased account!):-
When I first started the diet I lived off only raw -muscle-meats and raw eggs,and my health improved slightly(my nose was not as blocked-up as it was in my cooked-food days when I drank lots of pasteurised milk).I then found a source of raw dairy and started drinking 2-4 pints of raw milk a day, plus copious amounts of raw cheese and raw cream.I very quickly found that my nose was blocked-up like before, I was in a constant state of lethargy, needing to always sleep during the lunch-period, and still felt dog-tired afterwards. I also spent a lot of time in the toilet/bathroom because of constant diarrhea/urination.Even worse, the horrible stomach-aches, which I had only had previously when I ate cooked-meats,suddenly re-appeared and
also I became very seriously addicted to the raw milk, losing my appetite for muscle-meats and innards. This went on for 5 months during which AV and others said it was just a detox, that it would pass etc. I then gave up all raw dairy, stopped eating to excess only to fullness,
and within 3-4 months most of my previous health problems(CFS etc.) vanished and I became full of energy
. I was somewhat annoyed with AV at the time.I was at first worried about where I was going to get my raw animal fats from, but I'd read several (dull) Paaeolithic science articles which stated that our cave-men ancestors would eat the innards first for the raw fat, preferring brain and bone-marrow over other parts, and that they would leave the muscle-meats out to hang and soften until they were more digestable.Anyway, I immediately switched to eating organ-meats which tasted great, which solved my earlier problem of not finding raw muscle-meats tasty enough and I definitely don't miss the raw dairy.
 I have since found that while there are many RPDers like me who have given up on raw dairy(because of constant
tiredness), there are many others who either have no problems with it, or who had temporary detox symptoms from it lasting for a few months before stopping altogether.It has been claimed on one e-chatgroup
that the severity and length of these detox symptoms with raw dairy are in direct proportion to the amount of pasteurised dairy consumed prior to the Primal diet.So my raw dairy experience may just have been a very long detox, resulting from the fact that I had had a regrettable fondness for vast amounts of pasteurised dairy
in my cooked-food days.Obviously, since I have to be able to function at work, I dare not touch raw dairy again, even for detoxing, so I'm sticking to a 100% RawPalaeo Diet(and I definitely don't miss the taste of raw dairy).(I have been told that most people can handle raw butter on this
diet, so I might try that in the future if I ever find a reliable supply, I just figure if raw milk, cream and cheese can be so harmful to me then raw butter is unlikely to be beneficial even if it is without detox symptoms).
, but that's just my personal pro-Palaeolithic viewpoint).

My diet is thankfully very varied or I wouldn't be able to carry on with this diet. I can't understand how so many Primal Dieters have no problems with eating the same old foods again and again week after week (ie:- beef/lamb/chicken/pork/eggs), especially since they mainly eat muscle-meats. I found very quickly, 6 months after avoiding raw dairy, that my tastes changed constantly, so that I needed to go to different farmers' markets each time. I found that the best-tasting meats came from wild sources, unsurpringly, and I'm lucky enough to have found
a farmer who provides me with wild-boar and wild venison innards every 6 weeks or so - He also provides me with
(organic) brain(which is very difficult to get hold of in the UK, after the hysteria over the BSE crisis) as well as
organic pig and ox innards.
At the same market I also get raw oysters(which are a nuisance to open but very tasty),wild mallard(male duck)breast,ox tongue/innards, goose/pheasant/quail and duck eggs(they all taste so much better than chicken eggs).I also go regularly to various fish markets where I buy swordfish, giant prawns and deep-sea fish like monkfish.I have even ordered heather-fed lamb over the Internet which was pretty good.In the USA(where you live?) you of course have much
more choice over the Internet - you can get Bison(from NorthStar Bison)and plenty of exotic meats(even zebra/rattlesnake and alligator)- though I have to admit as a supporter of the environment I'd feel a bit awkward eating meat from such rare species!
I also buy organic fruit but I have to be very careful. If I eat more than 5% of my diet as fruit, I tend to get an appetite for even more fruit- the extra fruit  gives me lots of instant energy, but an hour or so later leaves me feeling dog-tired (rather like what happened to me in my fruitarian days). I therefore make sure these days to have no more than 1 handful of fruit a day, though not with raw fat - I prefer eating one food at a time.My
favourite fruits are mainly blueberries and blackberries
-berries taste great and are more in line with what our Palaeolithic ancestors ate).
 I never touch honey these days either. I used to buy vast amounts of unheated organic honeycomb , when I
first started out on the PD, and after about a year or so I noticed that the honey started tasting like concentrated sugar and it seemed to make me a little tired.I do still eat quite a bit of sundried pollen and a tiny bit of royal jelly as that seems to be helping, but honey is no longer on the menu.
Generally speaking,once I have my juicer, my diet will probably end up being approx.
90 % raw organ meats/fatty muscle-meats/eggs, 5% raw fruit and 5% raw Veggie juice.
Hope This Helps
Geoff Purcell
London UK

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