Just some random thoughts.

Exercise Soreness

I have noticed considerable less exercise soreness.  If eating meat was pro-inflammatory, wouldn’t I experience more soreness and worse recovery?  When we have injury or trauma, such as exercise, an abundant anti-oxidant called glutathione helps us repair.  Glutathione is also a free radical scavenger and a detoxifying agent.  Glutathione has 3 amino acids as building blocks: Glutamine, Glycine, and Cysteine.  And guess where the riches sources of these amino acids come from?  Meat and animal based products.  By eating more meat (especially red meat), am I providing my body with more raw materials to make endogenous antioxidants (internally) opposed to having to rely on exogenous antioxidants (those that I would have to consume)?

Mitochondrial Function

If you remember the mitochondria from high school biology, this is an organelle within each cell that produces our tangible energy called ATP.  We derive ATP from the conversion of fats and carbs after they have been shuttled into the cells for conversion.  A major player in helping this shuttling of fats into the cells is an amino acid called carnitine.  Carnitine is most abundant in animal based produces, especially red meat.

Essential Carbs

We have all heard of essential amino acids and essential fatty acids.  They are essential because we don’t make them.  We have to consume them.  But have you ever heard of an essential carb or starch?  Neither ave I.  The anti-meat people would say I’m doing great detriment to myself because of a process called gluconeogenesis (making sugar from my protein).  There are certain structures in the body that do require carbs but do we have to consume them?  Can’t we just rely on our body’s ability to convert what is necessary from protein into the carbs that would feed things like the mitochondria and red blood cells?  Eating carbs and starches versus converting carbs will change how insulin is released and regulated.  To me, insulin a WAY bigger predictor of morbidity and mortality than virtually any lab marker.

Cancer

I’ve had people comment that they went to a plant based diet because of cancer.  But if meat can provide a higher level of internal antioxidant status and free radical neutralizer, improve mitochondrial function, and not spike insulin, why can’t a meat based diet be tool in the prevention and treatment of cancer?  Can a plant based diet be a tool in the fight against cancer? Sure but that doesn’t mean it’s the ONLY tool.

That’s why I’m doing this experiment.  You don’t know unless you test.  People can have different blood sugar responses to different starches.  People can have different digestive responses to raw vegetables or meat.  Be your own experiment.  But don’t be dogmatic about applying what you have experienced to the masses. That’s when you cross paths into politics (forcing what’s beneficial for one onto the masses).  There are far more variables in life that will affect your nutritional outcomes than just what you put in your mouth.