The Pro-Metabolic Approach to Mast Cell Activation and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
What to Eat (and Avoid) When Your Nervous System and Immune System Are Both on Fire
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME) often go hand-in-hand: one is a hypersensitive immune response, the other is a crash in energy production. The overlap is staggering: histamine intolerance, post-exertional crashes, food sensitivities, insomnia, gut issues, and chronic inflammation.
And yet, in today's mainstream health culture, you're often told that nutrition doesn't matter. That what you eat has no real impact on these conditions, that nutrients can't touch what's "broken," and that the only path forward is pharmaceuticals and symptom suppression. You're expected to manage, not recover. To cope, not heal.
But this simply isn’t true.
Much of the insight in this approach is inspired by the excellent breakdown in this article on healing histamine intolerance and MCAS, which explains how nutrient deficiencies, chronic stress, environmental toxins, and microbial imbalances contribute to overactive mast cells and energy collapse.
There is a massive body of evidence — and growing clinical experience — showing that chronic illness is not a random stroke of bad luck. It’s often the result of a body that’s been undernourished, overburdened, and inflamed for years. A nervous system locked in fight-or-flight. A liver overwhelmed by environmental toxins, synthetic hormones, and mold. Gut bacteria producing excess histamine. And mast cells acting like your immune system’s faulty fire alarm — going off at every little thing, leaving you exhausted, itchy, swollen, and reactive.
The right foods can stabilize mast cells. The right nutrients can repair mitochondria. And when you stop flooding your body with inflammatory, hard-to-digest, immune-triggering ingredients, everything starts to shift.
That’s where the pro-metabolic approach shines.
Instead of bouncing between low-histamine elimination diets, vegan detoxes, or keto flares, this strategy focuses on giving your cells fuel and safety at the same time.
🔥 Foods to Avoid with MCAS & CFS
These foods are commonly high in histamine, gut-irritating, or hard on the liver, immune system, and mitochondria. They are also not part of a truly pro-metabolic framework.
Fermented & Aged Foods
Sauerkraut, kimchi
Vinegar, kombucha
Soy sauce, miso
Aged cheese
Cured meats (salami, prosciutto, bacon)
PUFA-Heavy & Inflammatory Fats
Vegetable oils (canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower)
Peanut butter, nut butters
Seeds (chia, flax, hemp)
Walnuts, almonds, cashews
Vegan "Health" Traps
Lentils, black beans, chickpeas (especially canned)
Tofu, tempeh, fake meats
Nutritional yeast
High Histamine or Histamine-Releasing Produce
Avocado, spinach, tomatoes, eggplant
Citrus, bananas, strawberries
Dried fruit (unless verified very fresh)
Other Common Triggers
Leftovers (histamine increases over time)
Bone broth (high glutamate)
Chocolate, caffeine
Alcohol
✨ Foods to Eat for Calm, Energy, and Recovery
These foods are low in histamine, nourishing to the nervous system, and aligned with a pro-metabolic philosophy. They support gut integrity, blood sugar balance, and mitochondrial repair.
Pro-Metabolic Proteins (Low Histamine)
Fresh white fish (cod, sole, haddock)
Pasture-raised egg yolks
Freshly cooked ground lamb or beef (lean, no leftovers)
Goat milk yogurt (plain, fresh)
Collagen or gelatin powder (no additives)
Easy Carbohydrates for Mitochondrial Fuel
White rice (cooked fresh)
Mashed peeled white or sweet potatoes
Well-cooked carrots, zucchini, yellow squash
Ripe peeled apples, pears, mango, papaya
Fresh blueberries or cooked peach
Nourishing Fats (Histamine-Safe)
Virgin coconut oil
Cold-pressed olive oil
Occasional ghee (test tolerance)
Extras That Help Heal
Raw carrot salad (binds histamine, estrogen, and endotoxin)
Chamomile, marshmallow root, or ginger tea
Aloe vera juice (inner filet)
Why It Works
Pro-metabolic foods aren’t just about metabolism. They’re about cellular safety. They keep blood sugar stable, reduce stress hormones, lower histamine production, and support the liver in clearing out estrogen and toxins.
This approach gives your body what it needs to repair: glucose, minerals, amino acids, and gentle support for the gut-liver-brain axis.
If you're tired of getting worse from "healthy" foods and you're ready to heal your nervous system and immune system together, pro-metabolic eating is the strategy you've been looking for.
Need help building your low-histamine, pro-metabolic plan? We build personalized protocols that help you stabilize symptoms without starving your cells. Reach out for 1:1 support or browse our course library to learn how to eat for cellular healing.
How to Eat Pro-Metabolic (Even If You’re Totally New)
If you’ve been trapped in diet culture—counting almonds, fearing fruit, or surviving on coffee and cortisol—you’re not alone. Most of us have spent years chasing thinness while unknowingly wrecking our metabolism in the process.
Enter the pro-metabolic approach: a way of eating that nourishes your body instead of fighting it. It’s not a trendy detox or a quick-fix gimmick—it’s a return to biological sanity. Pro-metabolic eating is about restoring cellular energy, supporting your thyroid and hormones, and teaching your body how to feel safe again.
If you’re brand new to this world, here’s your clear, science-rooted roadmap to getting started.
What Does "Pro-Metabolic" Even Mean?
At its core, pro-metabolic means supporting the body's natural ability to make energy—primarily through the thyroid and mitochondria.
When your metabolism is working well:
You feel warm and energized
Your digestion hums
Your sleep improves
Your cycle is regular and painless
Your mood is stable
You burn food efficiently—without stress
Most mainstream diets (keto, fasting, veganism, calorie restriction) achieve quick results by slowing your metabolism down—forcing the body into stress mode. Pro-metabolic flips the script. It feeds the body what it needs to thrive.
Principle #1: You Need to Eat More—Not Less
Most people have no idea how underfed they are. If you’re eating 1500–2000 calories a day and wondering why you’re cold, tired, bloated, and gaining weight—that’s your metabolism screaming. Your body downshifts to survive.
A healthy adult woman generally needs:
2,000–2,500+ calories/day
A healthy adult man generally needs:
3,500–4,500+ calories/day
You may need even more if you’re healing, exercising, or coming off years of restriction. When you give your body enough energy, it stops hoarding fat and starts functioning.
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors—and even our grandparents—ate far more food than most people do today. We didn’t start gaining weight from eating too much—we started gaining when seed oils wrecked our mitochondria and we responded by slashing calories. All that did was slow us down. Just one degree drop in body temperature lowers caloric needs by nearly 1,000 calories/day, and hardly anyone is sitting at 98.6 degrees anymore.
Principle #2: Carbs Are Not the Enemy—They're the Fuel
Your cells run on glucose. Your liver converts T4 to T3 (active thyroid hormone) using glucose and fructose. Your brain, heart, and reproductive system all rely on it.
Carbs don’t make you fat—PUFAs and stress hormones do.
Choose easy-to-digest, nourishing carbs, like:
Fresh-squeezed or not-from-concentrate orange juice
Raw honey, maple syrup
Ripe fruit (banana, mango, melon, apple, berries)
Sweet potatoes, white potatoes, carrots
White rice, masa harina (corn flour), sourdough (if tolerated)
Dried fruit like pineapple, dates, or mango
Avoid excessive:
Hard-to-digest starches (beans, whole grains, bran)
Artificial sweeteners
Low-carb/fiber-heavy substitutes that tax digestion
Principle #3: Protein Matters—but Type Is Key
Protein is essential for hormone production, liver detox, skin repair, and blood sugar stability—but not all protein is created equal.
Pro-metabolic proteins are:
Bioavailable (easy to digest and assimilate)
Low in inflammatory amino acids like tryptophan and cysteine
Top picks:
Dairy (milk, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese)
Collagen (bone broth, gelatin, collagen powder)
Eggs
Shellfish (especially shrimp, oysters)
Lean red meat (beef, lamb)
Skinless poultry (chicken, turkey)
A solid target is 1g/pound per day, depending on body size and goals. Another good goal is up to 1/4 of your protein from collagen and gelatin, and the rest from low-fat dairy and lean meat, to balance your calcium/phosphorus ratio. Calcium builds and maintains bones while phosphorus supports energy and cell function, and getting protein from half dairy (high in calcium) and half meat (high in phosphorus) helps balance these minerals to protect bone and metabolic health.
Principle #4: Ditch the Seed Oils—But Don’t Go Keto
Your body needs some fat—but too much, or the wrong kind, shuts down thyroid and mitochondrial function.
The worst offenders are PUFAs (polyunsaturated fats), found in:
Vegetable oils (canola, soybean, sunflower, corn)
Nuts and seeds
Nut butters and vegan spreads
Pork and poultry fat (especially with skin) - because these animals are monogastric (one stomach) and store the oils they are fed. Even organic and pastured-raised pork and chicken are usually still fed seed oils.
These fats oxidize easily, promote inflammation, and damage cellular metabolism. They also accumulate in your fat tissue and take years to detox.
Stick with saturated fats in moderation:
Butter or ghee
Coconut oil
Tallow
Dairy fat (in full-fat milk or cheese)
For most, 15–20% of calories from fat is ideal while healing the metabolism. Going higher slows things down. That’s because high fat + high carb creates a metabolic “swampland” where fuel can’t flow efficiently—your body gets stuck storing instead of burning.
Keeping fat low lets carbs do their job: refill glycogen, increase thyroid output, and drive real energy. The challenging part is keeping fat low—but the good news is you get to eat more food, enjoy plenty of carbs, watch symptoms disappear, and eventually maintain a leaner body on higher calories.
Principle #5: Eat Every 3–4 Hours
If you’re skipping breakfast or intermittent fasting, your body is likely surviving on adrenaline and cortisol—not a good long-term plan.
When blood sugar drops too low, your body raises stress hormones to compensate. This wrecks thyroid conversion, breaks down muscle, and causes energy crashes, irritability, and poor sleep.
A good rhythm is:
3 solid meals + 1–2 snacks per day
Front-load your calories earlier in the day
Always pair protein + carb (never carbs alone)
Principle #6: Salt + Sugar + Saturated Fat = Yes
You heard that right. Your body needs salt to make stomach acid, adrenal hormones, and digestive enzymes. And sugar (from fruit, juice, honey) feeds your cells, not your waistline—when paired properly.
Skip the low-sodium fear-mongering. Salt your food to taste. Balance blood sugar by eating sugar with protein, not alone.
Principle #7: Heal Digestion, Don’t Fight It
If you get bloated or constipated eating this way, it’s not the diet—it’s your damaged digestion from years of stress and restriction. That can be fixed.
Start slow. Build resilience.
Helpful supports:
Raw carrot salad daily (antibacterial, anti-estrogen)
Apple cider vinegar before meals
Bone broth, gelatin, or collagen for gut lining
Prokinetics if you’re sluggish (ginger, artichoke, vitamin B6)
Ox bile or betaine HCl for belching or fat intolerance
What a Pro-Metabolic Day Might Look Like
☀️ Breakfast: orange juice with collagen, eggs, sourdough toast with a little butter and lots of jam, and nonfat Greek yogurt smoothered in honey.
🍓 Snack: lowfat cottage cheese with a bowl of pineapple, gelatin gummies, and a skim milk cappuccino with maple syrup.
🥩 Lunch: grilled chicken breast, white rice, cooked carrots with butter.
🥕 Snack: raw carrot salad with ACV and salt, a glass of fresh lemonade with a side of honey-sweetened Greek yogurt, and a handful of fresh berries or melon.
🍠 Dinner: lean ground beef and shrimp, mashed sweet potato, sautéed squash with butter, and bone broth with sea salt.
🍬 Dessert: 1 cup skim milk hot cocoa with 1 scoop collagen, 1 tbsp honey-sweetened gelatin, and gummy bears.
How Do You Know It's Working?
Watch for these metabolic green flags:
Warmer hands and feet
Better energy without stimulants
Stronger libido
Regular, painless periods
Less bloating or constipation
Improved sleep
More stable moods
If those signs are trending up, you’re doing it right—even if weight shifts temporarily while your metabolism heals. That’s just water from restoring glycogen stores (carboHYDRATE), and we either increase calories slowly enough to minimize it or follow with a short, strategic cut once your body is ready.
Final Thoughts
Pro-metabolic eating is not about perfection or dogma. It’s about rebuilding trust with your body. It’s about reversing the damage from years of deprivation and learning to thrive—not just survive.
Yes, it’s different from what you’ve been taught. But if you’re cold, tired, bloated, puffy, overweight, hormonal, or just plain stuck—it might be the path back to the version of you that feels vibrant, capable, and alive.
What Is the Pro-Metabolic Diet?
So... What Is Pro-Metabolic Nutrition, Really?
If you’ve ever felt worse on keto, gained weight from "clean eating," or hit a wall with intermittent fasting, this might be the missing piece. Pro-metabolic nutrition isn’t a brand or a fad. It’s a way of eating that works with your biology instead of against it—especially your hormones, thyroid, and energy systems.
It’s not about tracking every macro, or cutting everything out. It’s about finally giving your body the fuel it actually wants: real food, the right carbs, and a break from metabolic stress.
It All Starts with Your Metabolism
Most people think metabolism just means how fast you burn calories. But your metabolism is actually the engine behind everything—your energy, mood, digestion, hormones, temperature, and sleep. When it’s sluggish, everything feels harder. When it’s supported, your body runs like it’s supposed to.
Pro-metabolic nutrition is about helping your cells make energy more efficiently—especially in your mitochondria (your body’s little power plants). More energy = better function across the board.
Wait... So Carbs Are Good Now?
Yep. Your body, especially your brain, thyroid, and ovaries, prefer glucose. And when you deprive it for too long (looking at you, keto and low-carb), stress hormones spike and your system slows down.
Pro-metabolic eating isn’t about eating ALL the carbs. It’s about the right kinds, in the right combinations:
Ripe fruit and fruit juice
Raw honey and maple syrup
Root veggies and tubers
Maybe white rice or sourdough, depending on tolerance
Carbs help you:
Sleep deeper
Keep your hands and feet warm
Support your cycle
Improve thyroid output (T3!)
Restore liver glycogen (aka stable blood sugar + less hanger)
So Why Not Just Add Carbs to My Normal Diet?
Good question. If you add carbs on top of a high-fat, high-PUFA (seed oil) diet, it backfires. Your body gets stuck in “metabolic swampland”—can’t burn fat or carbs efficiently.
That’s why pro-metabolic protocols often start with low fat and high-carb, with protein held steady. That way, your system actually gets a chance to shift gears and heal.
What About Protein?
Yes, protein matters—but balance matters more. A lot of people (especially carnivore/keto crossovers) are eating tons of muscle meat but still feel awful. That’s because:
Too much methionine (from muscle meats) without glycine (from collagen) = stress
Not enough carbs = more cortisol
So we focus on protein sources like:
Dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese)
Gelatin and collagen
Eggs, fish, and liver (in rotation)
Minerals: The Spark Plugs of Metabolism
You can eat all the right food and still feel off if you’re low in minerals. Sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, copper—they run your cellular engines.
Pro-metabolic plans include:
Orange juice + salt (adrenal cocktails)
Bone broth
High-mineral fruit
Milk + honey
You’ll feel the difference in your sleep, mood, and digestion.
What Pro-Metabolic Nutrition Actually Looks Like
Mostly carbs: fruit, juice, honey, roots, dairy, sugar
Low fat: to reduce mitochondrial congestion
Moderate, bioavailable protein
Eating frequently thoughout the day
Paying attention to biofeedback—not the scale
Increasing calories slowly to ramp up metabolism and feel amazing, without weight gain
Myth vs. Fact: Clearing Up the Confusion
Myth: Carbs make you fat.
Fact: Excess PUFAs + metabolic dysfunction + stress hormones make you store fat. Carbs, when paired with low fat and metabolic support, actually help your body burn more efficiently.
Myth: Keto is the only way to heal your metabolism.
Fact: Keto can suppress thyroid function and spike cortisol. It may help in short bursts, but it's not designed for long-term metabolic repair.
Myth: If you're not losing weight, you're doing it wrong.
Fact: Healing your metabolism often comes before weight loss. When your body feels safe and energized, it naturally starts to let go of what it doesn't need.
Myth: Low-carb diets are better for blood sugar.
Fact: Chronically low-carb diets can worsen blood sugar control long-term by making your body less efficient at using glucose.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t another food religion. It’s not about rules or fear. It’s about understanding how your body actually works—and feeding it accordingly.
If you’ve been cold, tired, bloated, foggy, or stuck in a cycle of restriction and rebound, pro-metabolic eating might be the thing that finally makes sense.
Eat the carbs. Support your metabolism. Feel like you again.
Healing Metabolism
Why has our metabolism slowed down, and how do we fix it?
Let’s set the record straight: slow metabolism isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something that breaks down—gradually, and often silently—through years of stress, under-eating, overtraining, low-carb diets, and toxic exposures that chip away at your thyroid and your cells' ability to make energy.
The good news? You can repair it. But not through crash diets, fasted cardio, or metabolism supplements from the checkout aisle. True metabolic healing takes strategy, structure, and bioindividual support. It’s not a quick fix—but it’s the only fix that works long-term.
What Happens When Your Metabolism Slows Down?
When your body senses a lack of fuel—especially carbohydrates—it downshifts into survival mode. Your thyroid, which is your metabolic thermostat, responds by decreasing output. And often, so does your liver, gut, ovaries, and even brain.
You might notice cold hands and feet, hair shedding, constipation or slow digestion, and weight gain or a stubborn plateau even in a calorie deficit. You may experience low mood, low energy, or anxiety, along with hormonal symptoms like PMS, painful periods, peri-menopause, or missing cycles. Poor sleep, low libido, and feeling "tired but wired" are common, as are mental health shifts like depression or anxiety. Gut issues often show up due to decreased organ tissue and downregulated digestion. Other symptoms include headaches, insomnia, fatigue, muscle cramping, cravings for sugar and salty snacks, constipation and/or diarrhea, cold intolerance, and flaky, dry skin.
Common Lab Markers in Metabolic Dysfunction
And here’s what we often find on labs (even if you’ve been told they’re “normal”):
Low T3 – the active thyroid hormone that fuels your cells
High TSH – your brain shouting for help
Elevated thyroid antibodies – signaling immune stress or autoimmunity
Elevated cholesterol – from excess fat intake and because low-carb diets suppress T3 which is required to convert cholesterol into hormones
Low vitamin D despite sun exposure – because your body isn’t converting cholesterol properly
Elevated prolactin – often a red flag for thyroid dysfunction or chronic stress
High reverse T3 – from excess inactive thyroid hormone that isn’t being properly converted to active T3
Low basal body temp + low pulse – cells aren't producing enough energy (ATP)
Low ferritin, zinc, selenium, or protein status – needed to make and activate thyroid hormone
Blood sugar instability – often with elevated fasting glucose or insulin, not from overeating but from metabolic downregulation and seed oil toxicity
T3 is the Real Driver of Metabolism
TSH and T4 get all the attention in conventional medicine, but they aren’t the whole picture.
T4 is a prohormone. It has to be converted into T3, which is what actually enters your cells and turns food into energy (ATP). This conversion mostly happens in the liver, intestines, and other organs—and it’s highly dependent on carbohydrates, minerals like selenium and iodine, and overall stress load.
That means your thyroid gland could be making TSH and T4 just fine, and you could still be functionally hypothyroid.
What This Looks Like in Real Life
Clients come to me all the time saying:
“I can't lose weight on 1400 calories.”
“I’m cold and tired all the time, but my doctor says my thyroid labs are fine.”
“If I eat more, I get bloated and gain weight.”
“I don’t even lose weight when I diet anymore.”
“I have high cholesterol, and my doctor wants to put me on a statin.”
Here’s the thing: most of these symptoms are rooted in low cellular energy. Your cells are ATP-deficient. And ATP is made with the help of T3. Without enough of it—or without the ability to use it—you’re essentially running on backup systems like adrenaline and cortisol. You feel wired, anxious, and depleted, and you never actually recover.
What Reverse-Dieting Really Means
The reverse-dieting process is about more than calories. It’s about sending a clear signal to your body that the famine is over and it's safe to thrive again.
In this phase, we:
Increase food strategically (especially carbs)
Focus on pro-metabolic macros to support liver and thyroid function
Encourage muscle building without overstressing the body
Track body temperature, pulse, and symptoms to gauge progress
Prioritize nutrient-dense, digestible food—not just more food
And no—this isn’t just a free-for-all. We’re rebuilding your metabolic infrastructure. That means we look at what your body can handle, not just what it “should” be able to do.
What a Repaired Metabolism Looks Like
When you get this right, your body starts working for you again. Your waking temperatures rise and your pulse steadies. Energy improves, sleep deepens, and mood lifts. Digestion strengthens, bowel movements become regular and effortless, gut infections clear up, and inflammation calms down. Food sensitivities start to fade. Your menstrual cycles smooth out and become more predictable. You build a leaner body composition while eating more food—not less. Lab markers like cholesterol and hormones normalize as your metabolism regains its rhythm.
You go from running on stress to running on energy.
“But I Don’t Want to Gain Weight…”
This is the hardest part for most people—and it’s the one that keeps them stuck.
If you’ve been under-eating or overtraining, your body needs a season of rebuilding. That might mean a few pounds of scale weight—but often, that weight is water, muscle, organ tissue, and glycogen - muscle fuel reserves. Your body is catching up.
Remember, you can’t burn fat from a body that thinks it’s starving. And you can’t make hormones from thin air. Sometimes you need to gain to lose—and to feel human again.
I call it this: Gain 5 pounds to lose 20, and eat more food for the rest of your life.
We may have to gain a few water weight pounds now to retrain your body to handle 50% more food permanently, so you can lose fat later—with a higher metabolic set point and the ability to keep the fat off and eat more food forever.
How Did We Get Here?
Let’s zoom out for a second. Humans evolved over hundreds of thousands of years eating real, whole foods from nature—fruit, honey, roots, tubers, meat, raw dairy. We didn’t track macros, skip breakfast, or swap butter for seed oil. Our ancestors moved their bodies, ate to satiety, rested when needed, and passed on resilient metabolic blueprints from generation to generation.
Even just 70 to 100 years ago, our great-grandparents regularly ate 2500–3000 calories per day for women and 3500–4000 for men—without the modern rates of obesity, insulin resistance, infertility, or fatigue. Meals were hearty: meat, milk, cheese, eggs, potatoes, fresh bread, seasonal fruit. Pie after lunch and pie after dinner! Our grandparents ate three meals a day and never needed to “hack” their metabolism. Their body temperatures ran warmer, their pulse was stronger, and they had the metabolic headroom to handle illness, stress, and create lean muscle without sacrificing function.
Then came the industrial revolution. Seed oils replaced animal fats. Processed food replaced traditional meals. Low-fat and low-calorie propaganda flooded our culture. And in the last 60–70 years, we've unintentionally trained our bodies to expect famine—while flooding our systems with fake food and toxins.
Calorie intake dropped. So did protein, saturated fat, healthy carbs, and nutrient density. Over time, body temperatures began to fall. And that’s no small detail: for every 1°F drop in basal body temperature, we burn roughly 1000 fewer calories per day. That’s how powerful metabolism is. You didn’t lose your “willpower.” Your body just adapted.
Now, most women are eating 1200–1600 calories and gaining weight. Men are averaging 2000-2200. The government tells us “based on a 2000 calorie diet”. That’s not a real thing! We’re tired, constipated, anxious, and inflamed—not because we’re broken, but because we’ve drifted so far from the blueprint we evolved for.
The good news? You can return to that baseline. You can teach your body to feel safe again, rebuild metabolic flexibility, and actually thrive on food. And yes—you can be lean, strong, and high-functioning at 2500-3500 calories a day.
What Happens After Metabolism Repair?
Once your metabolism is functioning well again, you’re no longer stuck in survival mode. That means you can actually enter a short fat loss phase—and stay lean—without crashing your hormones or cutting calories to unsustainable levels.
You become someone who can:
Cut strategically (and briefly) without rebound
Reach and maintain your goal body fat percentage
Keep calories high and energy stable after the cut
Stay lean while eating like a healthy, thriving human being
This isn’t new—it’s how our bodies are meant to work. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and even our grandparents just 70 years ago, regularly ate 2500-3500—without obesity, insulin resistance, or chronic fatigue.
Once your metabolic baseline is restored, your body stops fighting you. Instead of resisting fat loss, it participates. It trusts that you’ll feed it again. That’s the goal.
How Do We Know It’s Working?
We track the signs:
Your basal temperature rises toward 97.8–98.6°F
Your pulse steadies around 75–85 bpm
You tolerate carbs again
PMS, bloating, and fatigue begin to fade
Your cravings chill out
Your body feels warmer, stronger, and more stable
These changes often happen before the scale moves. That’s how we know we’re healing—not crashing.
Ready to Get Off the Diet Rollercoaster?
If you’ve been told your thyroid is “normal” but you feel anything but… if you’re eating less and gaining more… if your labs, hormones, and gut are a mess—there’s a reason.
And there’s a strategy.
I don’t share exact macros or calorie plans online because this work is deeply individual. But if you're ready to:
Restore thyroid function
Heal your metabolism at the root
Reclaim your body’s ability to feel warm, energized, and resilient
And finally get results that last—
Then let’s work together.
Ready to Start Your Healing Phase?
If this resonates and you're ready to stop guessing, I’d love to help you reconnect with your metabolic blueprint and build the strong, high-calorie body you were born for.
Click here to schedule your Initial Session with me and let’s map out your custom strategy for sustainable fat loss, thyroid repair, and metabolic resilience.
Spots are limited, and I work closely with each client—so if your body is asking for help, trust it. Let’s rebuild from the root.
Meditation
All humans can benefit from a meditation practice. Meditation is magical because it assists us in releasing the hold that the mind and emotions have on us. We learn to rest in awareness and to watch the mind’s thoughts and the body’s feelings, becoming the witness, the observer. The highest form of meditation, according to the masters, is to become aware of awareness, conscious of consciousness. When the thoughts arise in the mind, if we identify with them and think that we ARE the thinking mind, we create misery inside. When the feelings arise, and we block them or push them away in order to avoid feeling them, we harden our hearts and create more painful feelings in the long run. Thoughts are not who we are, and feelings are just sensations that want to be experienced, and released.
Meditation is the practice of becoming aware of what is constantly going on inside of us. Meditation gives us a break from being the “thinker” and allows us to be our spirit, the watcher, the observer of the thoughts and emotions. We get to rest back in spirit and feel the awareness within us. This practice allows us to clear away the garbage that is covering up our inate nature, which is joy and peace and love. That is what our spirit is made of, and we can’t experience that unless we uncover it. Children inately know this sense of spirit, they are present in the moment and notice the beauty in the world around them. We can look at the world with the eyes of a child, the beauty of our surrounding, the gratitude we feel when we see the big picture of this amazing planet and our place in it, the joy of being alive, the peace that comes from letting go.
Most of this world we have no control over. I don’t believe that spirituality is the feeling of solid ground, but that spirituality is the feeling of freefalling through space, hurtling down the rapids of life on an inner tube with nothing to hold on to. And rather than feeling fear about this, I believe that knowing how little control I have over life and its events helps me to stay in reality, helps me to let go and have faith and accept things as they truly are. And when I do this, I see a beautiful synchronicity to life and feel protected by life. This world was here for billions of years before me, and will be here long after as well. I am just a human on a speck of dirt flying through space around one of trillions of stars. My problems are not real, they are just thoughts in my mind and emotions in my body. True reality is that I only have a few years here on this amazingly beautiful planet, full of beautiful humans and animals and plants and rocks and mountains and oceans.
Meditation allows me to remember these things, these glimpses of reality. It allows me to quiet the voice in my head by ceasing to identify with it, and resting in the awareness of my spirit, watching this world unfold before me and enjoying the ride. If there are thoughts, I release them and watch them. If there are noises, I detach from them and hold my true center. If there is an ache or pain, I feel the joy deeper inside me and release my judgments of the sensations of the body. If my mind wanders, I guide it back to breath in this moment. We can use mantra - chanting a statement like “breathe in love, breathe out peace” or Om Namaya Shivaya, or anything we want to quiet the mind and give the mind something to focus on. Mainly I just attempt to hold awareness, being aware of being aware like a fun house mirror stretching into infinity. And I rest in spirit, in the present moment, full of love and light and beauty and joy.
Seed Oils: The Underlying Cause of Obesity and Disease
Seed oil started out as industrial machinery lubricant, and now the government is telling us it’s the healthiest food for the human body.
There is a hidden ingredient in our food that is causing obesity and common chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Although bacon cheeseburgers, carbohydrates, and sugar have traditionally been blamed for rampant obesity and metabolic disease, they are not actually the root cause. The hidden ingredient in our food—especially in almost all restaurant and processed food—doing the real damage to the human body is vegetable oil, more accurately called “seed oils.”
Seed oils are known scientifically under many names: linoleic acid, omega-6 fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Dr. Cate Shanahan, long-time nutritionist for the LA Lakers and author of Deep Nutrition, calls these oils the “Hateful Eight”—including soybean, corn, canola (rapeseed), safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, grapeseed, and rice bran oil.
None of these seed oils were historically part of the human diet. Our ancestors didn’t press oil out of soybeans or corn in the wild—in fact, humans didn’t eat grains or beans at all until relatively recently. Historically, our ancestors were hunter-gatherers who ate mostly meat and fruit. They primarily hunted large game (ruminant animals) and gathered eggs and ripe fruit. The traditional human fat sources included animal fat as well as fat from fruits like olives, avocados, and coconuts.
There are three basic types of fat: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. Saturated fat comes mostly from animal fats and coconut oil. Monounsaturated fats are found in fatty fruits like avocado and olive. Polyunsaturated fats are primarily found in seeds.
The 3 main kinds of dietary fat.
Saturated fat is solid at room temperature (think beef tallow and butter) because it is fully “saturated” with hydrogen, meaning it has no double bonds—so it resists bonding with oxygen and oxidizing. This allows the fat molecules to stack neatly, making them stable and solid. In contrast, mono- and polyunsaturated fats have one or more double bonds, creating “bends” in the chain that prevent them from stacking and make them liquid at room temperature.
If a fat is not fully saturated with hydrogen, oxygen can attach to those double bonds. Monounsaturated fats (with one bend) and polyunsaturated fats (with many) are therefore prone to oxidation. Oxidized fats go rancid and contribute to inflammation and disease in the human body.
The fats we eat get incorporated into our tissues. Every cell in the body has a phospholipid membrane—meaning the cell’s outer wall is made of fat. When those membranes are built from unstable polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, they become weak and prone to damage. This can lead to metabolic disease, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
graph from optimisingnutrition.com
About a century ago, polyunsaturated fats were introduced into the food supply. It started with Crisco, a company that chemically processed cottonseed oil to market it as a “heart healthy” alternative to tallow, lard, and butter. Prior to WWI, cottonseed oil had been used to lubricate machinery. After the war, the surplus was sold to Americans as food.
Not only were seed oils introduced into human food, but they were also used in animal feed. Monogastric animals (like chickens and pigs) store the fats they eat without converting them. So, when they’re fed seed oils, we consume those stored PUFAs when we eat chicken skin or bacon.
Cows, on the other hand, are polygastric (with four stomachs) and have gut bacteria that convert even corn and seed oils into saturated fat. So, corn-fed beef still produces saturated fat–rich tallow and butter. This makes ruminant fat (from cows, lamb, bison, etc.) the safest and most stable fat for humans. In the carnivore community, we say: “Cows are king.”
Even grass-fed cows contain a small amount of PUFA—red meat has ~3% PUFA in grass-fed and ~6% in corn-fed beef, or about 3 grams in a pound of 70% lean beef. Eggs also contain around 0.5g PUFA each unless the hens are corn- and soy-free. Since red meat and eggs are some of the best foods for humans, a small amount of PUFA is unavoidable—but the goal is to keep it under 10g/day.
Unfortunately, there is rampant misinformation in the U.S. about seed oils. Many doctors and nutritionists recommend high PUFA intake based on the idea that it lowers LDL cholesterol, which they associate with heart disease. But newer, more accurate studies show that lowering cholesterol does not prevent heart disease—and can even increase the risk.
Some researchers suggest that what matters is the ratio of omega-6 (PUFA) to omega-3 fats. But this is misleading. While omega-3s (like in fish oil) are technically PUFAs too, they’re not as harmful and may have some benefits. But focusing on the ratio is a distraction. The total amount of omega-6 fats is what matters most—and that number needs to be as low as possible. These fats are toxic, bioaccumulative, and extremely slow to detox.
The half-life of linoleic acid (the primary omega-6 in seed oils) is 680 days—meaning it takes nearly two years to clear just half of what’s stored in your body. It takes 4–7 years to fully detox from decades of seed oil consumption. Since this toxin is linked to obesity, diabetes, cancer, and other diseases, we need to avoid it like the plague.
So, how do we do that?
At home, it’s simple. Throw out all vegetable oils (they’re all seed oils), and use only beef tallow, butter, coconut oil, and high-quality olive oil. Avoid the fat from chicken and pork, but you can still enjoy the protein from boneless, skinless chicken breasts, fat-free ham, or lean pork loin.
Avoid all seeds, beans, grains, and nuts—they’re packed with seed oil and other plant defense chemicals.
The harder part is restaurants. Studies show up to 40% of the calories in a typical restaurant meal come from seed oils. Everything fried, sautéed, or dressed in sauce is usually cooked in them. French fries, ranch dressing, stir-fries, sautéed onions, chicken wings—it’s all seed oil.
However, a few restaurants use beef tallow fryers (e.g., some Buffalo Wild Wings locations) or butter-based cooking. Your safest bets are steak and burgers (no bun or mayo), since those are usually grilled without added oil. Ask for butter packets or bring your own. For salads, ask for oil and vinegar and add your own dressing. Call restaurants in advance when they’re slow and kindly ask about their cooking fats.
Even some “butters” in restaurants are 50% seed oil blends. Fast food burgers, surprisingly, are often 100% beef and free from seed oils—just add tomato, pickles, onions, and mustard if you like.
In France and Italy, traditional cuisine avoids seed oils. This is part of the “French paradox”—they eat lots of fat and carbs but don’t get fat or sick like Americans. Authentic European restaurants are more likely to use real butter and animal fats, but in the U.S., always confirm.
What happens when you stop eating seed oils?
After removing seed oils and keeping PUFA intake below 10g/day, I noticed rapid improvements. Within three months, I could eat moderate carbs without gaining weight or triggering intense cravings. I felt stable and normal again—like when I was a kid.
Another benefit? No more sunburn. Many people in the carnivore and pro-metabolic communities report that eliminating seed oils makes them more resistant to sun damage*. This makes sense—our ancestors lived near the equator and were exposed to lots of sun without sunscreen or clothing. It’s not the sun causing sunburns; it’s the unstable oils in our tissues and the chemical sunscreens damaging our skin.
What should you eat instead?
The best way to heal is to eat what our ancestors ate: meat, fruit, and eggs. Fruits (technically the sweet part of the plant that holds seeds) include not just apples and oranges, but also avocado, olives, cucumbers, squash, and coconuts. Some people also tolerate cooked root vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes. Meat and fruit don’t contain plant toxins or seed oils—and they’re what our bodies are designed to thrive on.
Beans, grains, and nuts? These are seeds, and they’re full of both PUFAs and plant toxins (gluten, lectins, oxalates, phytates, saponins, etc.). Humans aren’t designed to digest seeds—and our ancestors rarely ate them unless they were fermented or sprouted to reduce toxicity.
Even olive oil and avocado oil, while monounsaturated and lower in PUFA, are prone to oxidation if not cold-pressed and stored in dark bottles. Plus, studies show 80% of these oils on the U.S. market are adulterated with seed oils*. Thankfully, Costco’s Kirkland Signature olive oil and Chosen Foods avocado oil are among the few verified pure brands.
The food industry is not protecting you. From replacing tallow with canola in the ‘80s to allowing mislabeled oils today, there is massive fraud and corruption. But you can take back control of your health.
Start today. Throw out your seed oils. Choose beef, butter, eggs, and fruit. Bring your own butter to restaurants. Call ahead and ask about ingredients. Support restaurants that use real fats. Share this knowledge.
The benefits? You’ll lose weight, burn fat, stop sunburning, reduce cravings, and heal long-standing health issues. You’ll feel stable, energized, and in control again.
Even if you cheat and eat junk food—never eat seed oils. Just remember: it takes 680 days to clear out half.
Within 3 months of reducing PUFA to under 10g/day, I started healing and losing weight. You can too.
Additional references:
https://drcate.com/pufa-project/
https://drcate.com/category/food/seed-oils/
https://www.zeroacre.com/blog/linoleic-acid-facts
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195369/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27071971/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5492028/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24853887/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2373379/
https://www.worldatlarge.news/function-health/linoleic-acid-as-driver-of-heart-chronic-disease
The Sinus Infection That Wouldn’t Quit — Until Vitamin D Stepped In
Why should we take vitamin D, and how much?
I don’t get sick often, but when I do, it used to almost always be sinus-related. And it’s almost always winter. This time wasn’t especially painful—just relentless. I tried everything: antifungals, antibacterials, herbal remedies… nothing worked. A full month went by, and I still wasn’t better.
Then I came across an article by one of my favorite bloggers at the time discussing the role of vitamin D in viral immunity. My kids had just had short-lived flu-like symptoms when my sinus problems started—suspicious timing. I began to wonder: what if this wasn’t bacterial or fungal, but viral?
That’s when I discovered the Vitamin D Hammer protocol. I tried it—and within 24 hours, I felt significantly better. Within a few days, I was completely well. After weeks of frustration, it felt almost magical.
What Is the “Vitamin D Hammer”?
The Vitamin D Hammer is a high-dose, short-term protocol used to support the immune system during viral infections—especially in adults who haven’t been supplementing regularly. It typically involves:
50,000 IU in a single day, or
10,000 IU three times daily for 2–3 days
This far exceeds the FDA’s outdated recommendation of 400 IU/day. Research shows it takes ~9,000 IU/day for 97.5% of adults to achieve just 50 nmol/L serum levels—considered the bare minimum for sufficiency. Many experts now recommend 75–100 nmol/L, especially during illness.
Why It Works: Vitamin D as an Immune Modulator
Vitamin D is actually a hormone made in the skin in response to UVB light. It’s a powerful immune regulator that:
Enhances macrophage function (white blood cells that engulf pathogens)
Increases the oxidative burst needed to kill viruses
Reduces pro-inflammatory cytokines that can worsen symptoms
Protects against respiratory infections, especially in the winter
One landmark study found that vitamin D supplementation virtually eliminated seasonal influenza in children, with just one case reported in the group receiving 1,200 IU daily during winter months—compared to 31 cases in the control group.⁽¹⁾
Researchers who coined the “Vitamin D Hammer” reported:
“The results are dramatic, with complete resolution of symptoms in 48 to 72 hours. One-time doses of vitamin D at this level have been used safely and have never been shown to be toxic. The cost is less than a dollar.”
Why You Get Sicker in Winter
Flu season isn’t a coincidence. It’s a sunlight problem. In colder months, UVB exposure drops—and so does vitamin D production. That’s when respiratory viruses thrive.
Influenza symptoms were worse in lab subjects exposed in winter
Children with vitamin D deficiency had more frequent colds
Activated vitamin D is critical for turning on antiviral defenses
Beyond Viruses: Vitamin D & Chronic Disease
Once I started digging into the research, I was shocked at how many conditions are linked to low vitamin D:
Autoimmune disease (MS, RA): up to 40% lower risk
Diabetes (type 1 & 2): improved insulin sensitivity
Muscle weakness & falls in the elderly: 20–72% reduction
Back pain, fibromyalgia, low energy: all linked to deficiency
Cardiovascular health: lowers blood pressure and heart rate
Cancer: shown to trigger apoptosis in some tumor cells
Can You Get Enough from Food?
Not really. While vitamin D is found in:
Egg yolks
Salmon and cod liver oil
Beef liver and cheese
…the amounts are too small to make a real dent. Food alone won’t get you to the 9,000 IU/day threshold needed for sufficiency—especially in winter. I now supplement with 5,000-10,000 IU gel caps daily, and go higher if I’m fighting something off.
If possible, test your levels and aim for 60–100 nmol/L (30–40 ng/mL) for optimal immune support.
Summary
I kicked a month-long sinus infection in days using the Vitamin D Hammer. Turns out, most of us are deficient—especially in winter—and vitamin D is essential for fighting viruses, regulating immunity, and preventing chronic disease. Food isn’t enough. Test your levels, and don’t be afraid of higher doses when you need them.
Read the Research
(1) Urashima M, et al. Randomized trial of vitamin D supplementation to prevent seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010;91(5):1255-60. PMC2861286
Grass-Fed Cows Restore Soil and Rebuild the Land
How cows, just by eating grass, sequester carbon out of the atmosphere and put it back into the ground where it belongs.
Rebuilding Soil Health with Nature’s Original Regenerators
We’ve all heard about methane from cow burps—but what we don’t hear enough about is how properly raised cattle can regenerate soil, restore ecosystems, and bring dead land back to life.
The real crisis isn’t “carbon in the air”—it’s carbon missing from the soil. Topsoil loss is decimating our ability to grow food, hold water, and sustain life underground. When we lose living topsoil, we lose the microbes, fungi, and organisms that make the land fertile. Water can no longer absorb into hardened, dead ground—and the result is erosion, dust, and drought.
Nature’s Original Land Stewards
Most of today’s meat comes from factory farms—but this is a far cry from how cows and other ruminants once roamed the land. For millennia, wild herds of bison, elk, and deer covered the grasslands of the Americas. They moved in tight herds, kept together by predators, and grazed only the tops of the grasses before moving on.
As they moved, they trampled seeds into the soil with their hooves and fertilized the land with their waste. This is the original model of rotational grazing—and it works with nature. Not too long, not too short. Just like mowing a lawn, it promotes strong regrowth.
If grass isn’t grazed, it gets too tall, blocks sunlight, and dries out. If it’s grazed to the ground, it dies. Both situations lead to desertification—the death of topsoil.
Soil is Alive—But We're Killing It
Soil is made of carbon because it’s built from decayed plant and animal matter. That carbon should stay in the ground—where it feeds fungi, bacteria, worms, and the plant roots themselves.
Grasses and fungi have a symbiotic relationship: the fungi supply nutrients, and in return, the grass gives them sugar—made through photosynthesis from sunlight and carbon dioxide. But here’s the magic: when grass is grazed (but not killed), it pumps more sugar into the soil to “buy” more nutrients and regrow faster. This process rebuilds topsoil from the inside out.
What Modern Farming Gets Wrong
Industrial agriculture destroys this natural system. Tilling the soil—common in growing corn, soy, and wheat—breaks up fungal networks and sends soil carbon into the air. The symbiotic fungi die, the plants can no longer access nutrients, and farmers are forced to dump in synthetic fertilizers. Then come pesticides and herbicides, killing everything left in the soil.
This creates dead dirt. No worms, no bacteria, no water retention. Just dry, compacted ground that floods, erodes, and blows away in the wind.
And yes—this dead land feeds the factory-farmed animals and humans alike. Grains and beans are mass-produced to fuel a broken system. But neither humans nor cows are designed to eat those foods long-term.
Topsoil: Our Missing Organ
Topsoil isn’t just “dirt”—it’s a living, breathing organ of the earth. A single teaspoon of healthy soil contains billions of microbes. It absorbs and stores water like a sponge, supports nutrient-dense plant life, and builds resilience into entire ecosystems.
When Europeans arrived in 1492, the Americas averaged 10 feet of rich topsoil. Today? Less than 6 inches. Some experts warn we have fewer than 60 harvests left before soil collapse makes large-scale food production impossible.
Cows Can Bring It Back
Allan Savory—ecologist and founder of the Savory Institute—has shown that regenerative grazing can restore dead land into fertile pasture. With the right grazing patterns, cattle can create up to a foot of new topsoil per year, deep underground.
Savory believes that if we returned ruminants to the grasslands without clearing new land, we could rebuild soil health globally. Not by fighting nature—but by imitating it.
This isn’t about “fighting climate change.” It’s about healing the earth from decades of chemical farming and mono-cropping.
This is how we get back to real food. This is how we restore the ancestral cycles of life. And this is how we nourish the soil that nourishes us.
Learn More
Allan Savory’s TED Talk (Top 100 of all time)
Meat is Magnificent – Sustainable Dish
Regenerative ranching and carbon – GreenBiz
Meet Allan Savory – Pioneer of Regenerative Agriculture
Soil health and free-range farming – Inside Climate News
Cayenne Gargle: A Natural Cure for Strep Throat
Cayenne and salt together kill as much strep bacteria as antibiotics, and are much gentler on the gut and immune system.
Scientific studies have shown that there are many natural medicines that are just as effective as antibiotics against strep throat (Group A Streptococci). The most effective natural medicine against strep throat that I’ve found is cayenne pepper (active component: capsaicin). Two others that have shown promise in studies are oil of thyme or oregano (active compound is carvacrol), and cinnamon oil (Cinnamomum verum EO) - which was found in a study of essential oils to be the most effective essential oil, similar to a common antibiotic (Amoxicillin) in its antimicrobial activity against strep.
My favorite home cure for strep throat, that has worked over 20 times in a row in my family for over a decade, is to make a salt water-cayenne gargle and use it many times throughout the day as soon as one’s throat becomes sore. I use 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and 1-2 teaspoons of cayenne powder (as much as I can stand) in one cup of warm water, using one medium sip for each gargle. Spit the gargle out after. It’s important to start right away, and to keep the spicy residue on the throat and not drink water right after. Basically every time I eat or drink, I do another gargle of the salt-water cayenne, and I can feel the cayenne killing the bacteria on my throat. I do rinse my mouth out with plain water after the gargle, if the cayenne makes my mouth too spicy, but I leave the spicy salt/cayenne rinse on my throat.
Usually the pain is reducing by the end of the first or second day, if I am strict about keeping the spicy on my throat. The salt is helpful by creating an osmosis effect on the cells of the throat, drawing the bacteria to the surface so they can be killed by the cayenne, and rinsed out of the mouth. We also make sure to not eat any grains or sugars, so that we don’t feed the throat bacteria simple carbohydrates, eating mostly healthy animal fats and proteins, as well as fruits and honey for carbohydrates if needed.
People have also had success with the cayenne technique with young children by using Cholula mild hot sauce, which contains capsaicin, the active compound in cayenne pepper, and isn’t quite as spicy. It can be added to their food, like scrambled eggs, with a little sea salt, and eaten periodically throughout the day. Be sure to visit a doctor if a child’s sore throat doesn’t improve within a day or two.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4643145/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22807321
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25784902/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3638616/
Letter To My Daughter's Teacher
What I said when my daughter was exposed to vegan propaganda at school.
Just ate a huge steak covered in butter while I wrote this letter to my daughter's teacher.
Hey *,
I just wanted to drop a note to you about the earth day lesson that you gave the kids yesterday. My daughter was concerned and I would love to pass on some scientific information to you that you might not be aware of and might be interested in.
So, she let me know that you told the class that meat eating is bad for the planet and that a plant-based diet is best for the environment and our bodies. I am a nutrition researcher by trade (masters in biochem from the U and I'm also a licensed nutritionist) and I'm actually writing a book on the topic. Although in the past, science agreed with you, the emerging science is painting a very different picture.
It turns out that our ancestors were largely carnivorous and every primitive culture that we've studied ate an animal-based diet. Not only is meat NOT the cause of chronic disease (this is commonly called the diet-heart hypothesis and was started at the U where I went to school - the science has been disproven and it is now widely accepted science that all chronic disease is actually caused by sugar and grains) but the environmental science has been off, too. I discovered during my graduate work that all nutrition science in the US is industry funded, and the U of M nutrition department is funded largely by the grain industry, as well as Coca-Cola. The system is very broken and the science disproved the links between animal fat and chronic disease long ago, but the systems in place (including Big Pharma and the USDA - corporate grain and bean farmers) hugely profit off of this misinformation.
Although animal flatulance does contain methane, this addition to climate change is miniscule compared to the carbon that is removed from the atmosphere by grazing animals. When cows eat grass (just like in the wild), they cause the grass to dump carbon into the soil (because the grass has a symbiotic relationship with the soil fungus, providing it with sugar - a 6-carbon molecule - in exchange for micronutrients) sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and creating up to a foot of topsoil/year. If the earth's grasslands were covered in cattle, it would completely reverse climate change in our lifetimes. I am including some scientific articles for you to peruse if you are interested in learning more.
Although I completely respect your right to decide to not eat meat because of spiritual or animal-welfare reasons, I want you to know that it is scientifically a much less healthy diet and ironically, mass agriculture of grains and beans is actually the cause of desertification (removal of topsoil), which has contributed more carbon to the atmosphere and climate change than ALL fossil fuel use combined. Plant based diets are actually causing climate change, and grazing cows is one of the only things that can reverse it. And red meat is actually the healthiest food for the human body. Humans aren't grainivores, we don't have a gizzard (the organ that grinds grains into flour in the animal's body) and grains are one of the newest foods to be added to the human diet.
Her dad and I wanted you to have access to this scientific information and hold no hard feelings about your teachings because we know your motives were pure and you want our kids to be healthy and the environment to be saved. We would really appreciate it if you would look over this additional research I'm sending, and please not spread misinformation in the classroom. My daughter was so upset after your meat-is-bad speech that she went in the bathroom and cried. Since our family eats a meat-heavy diet (all grass-fed and organic, of course) this was hugely upsetting to her, and us. Since I began eating a meat-based diet, I have reversed my type 2 diabetes, all of my digestive diseases (SIBO, IBS, and celiac) have gone into complete remission, and I've lost 70 pounds and kept it off for over 5 years.
Thanks so much for listening. I highly recommend watching this TED talk from the leading permaculture scientist Allan Savory, it's one of the top 100 TED talks of all time, and explains how to reverse climate change and save the earth.
https://www.ted.com/…/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s…
And here is an excellent article by one of the leading scientific nutrition researchers in the US about red meat and how it's actually the heathiest food for the human body and was the primary source of nutrition for our ancestors throughout a million years of human evolution: https://chriskresser.com/red-meat-it-does-a-body-good/ He also has an entire ebook (free) online if you want to learn more about the science behind animal-based diets.
Thanks *, we really appreciate you, but we would like you to be aware of the way our daughter was affected by your lesson and have access to the alternative scientific information.
Love, Marissa
Gluten
Wheat is not human food and its protein, gluten, causes gut damage that leads to disease and weight gain.
It’s just the newest fad diet these days to go gluten-free, right? What is this stuff, “gluten,” anyway?
Turns out this newest “fad” actually makes a lot of sense when we look into it. Gluten is the protein found in wheat and most other grains. Although grains (the seeds of grass plants) are mostly carbohydrate, there is a little fat and protein thrown in there too.
So let’s talk about grains like wheat. Grains are the newest food to be added to the human diet, from an evolutionary perspective. We’ve only been eating grains for about 10,000 years, at most. And that’s only in certain areas of the world. When you look at the fact that homo sapiens have been on the planet for over 400,000 years, and our older ancestors dating back to homo habilis have been on the planet for 2.3 million years, this is only the blink of an eye. Actually, this means we’ve been eating grains for only the last 0.04% of the time our species has been on this planet.
Grains are not human food. We do not have a gizzard, which is the organ that grainivores have that grinds the grains into flour inside their bodies. This is why we have to grind grains and cook them in order to eat them. Grainivores also eat little sticks and rocks to help their gizzards grind up the grains. Have you ever seen a wheat berry? It’s like a small rock. We would never eat that in the wild, that’s why our ancestors did not consider it food for the first 99.96% of human history.
Grain-eating started with the agricultural revolution. Humans realized that they could stop following the herd they relied on for survival, and stay in one place, if they planted wheat fields and kept domesticated animals. Thus was born agriculture. We needed foods that could be stored when animal foods were scarce, and increasingly came to rely on grains and beans, in addition to root vegetables, squash, and other foods that could be stored. These were used to supplement the animal foods that were available at the time.
Humans began experiencing a great increase in sickness and disease with the adoption of this foreign food group. Although many of us think of ancient humans as living short difficult lives, this is the experience of more recent people, after the agricultural revolution (like the middle ages). Pre-agricultural humans, or hunter-gatherers, often lived long and healthy lives. There are mummies that date back to pre-agricultural times that have all of their teeth and are believed to be close to 100 years old.
Our human body evolved over millennia to be an amazing machine, when fed the right foods. Grains cause disease in multiple ways. First of all, there are a plethora of “anti-nutrients” in grains that strip vitamins and minerals out of the human body. The primary anti-nutrients are phytates, which bind to minerals and results in rickets, slowed skeletal growth, iron-deficiency anemia, and leaky gut syndrome. Leaky gut is a very common issue in our society today.
The main diseases that result from grain eating, besides vitamin and mineral deficiencies, are autoimmune disorders. When we eat grains, especially whole grains - which are actually worse for our bodies, the bran part of the grain that makes it a “whole grain” rips tiny microscopic holes in our intestinal lining. (By the way, the reason they tell us whole grains are better for us is because they cause a slightly slower raise in blood glucose. This is similar to saying that low-tar cigarettes are slightly better for you than high-tar cigarettes so you should smoke a lot of them.)
When we have these holes in our intestinal walls, intact proteins from our diet can leak into our blood stream instead of being broken down into individual amino acids. When the body sees certain intact proteins from our diet (like gluten and casein - milk protein) in our blood, it thinks this protein is a pathogen because many germs and pathogens are long protein strings. The body reacts with an immune response against the imagined invader. When this goes on for years, the immune system eventually turns on its host and causes auto-immune problems. These include: Type I Diabetes Mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis and joint problems, Crohn’s disease, colitis, celiac, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, psoriasis and eczema, hypo- and hyperthyroidism, depression, anxiety, Sjogren’s syndrome, and irritable bowel syndrome, among many others.
So why are grains the base of the food pyramid and why are we told to eat a diet high in “healthy” whole grains? Well, the most obvious explanation is because the grain industry likes it that way. They make a lot of money off of our grain-eating ways, and the health care industry makes a lot of money off of treating these diseases. The reason this misinformation has been perpetuated for so many years, especially in our country, is because nutrition research in America is almost exclusively industry-funded. There is almost no federally-funded nutrition research in the U.S., like there is in many other Westernized countries. This means that most of the nutrition research here is funded by groups like the grain and sugar industries. This obviously sways the results of the research, and which studies not only get funded, but which studies get published.
Many people are forced to eat a diet higher in grains and other cheap carbohydrates because animal foods are more expensive. There is also an incorrect belief that grains and plant foods are easier on the planet that growing animals. Ironically, these days we not only eat grains ourselves but feed it to our domesticated animals – like chickens, who are omnivores and eat worms, and cows who are supposed to be eating grass. But is it really cheaper when we look at the costs of health care, and living shorter lives? There is a quote I like that says something like, Pay for food now or doctor’s bills later. When the destruction of the soil and our bodies is taken into account, we find that grain eating is not actually cheaper or better for the planet.
But how can we possibly give up bread? The staff of life… Give us this day… Crusty baguettes and cake and donuts and cookies. Well, gluten-free has been a “fad” long enough that wonderful alternative have been put on the market. I have been off of gluten grains for almost a decade, and don’t miss them at all. One can still eat sandwiches, cake, cookies, and pizza – mostly made out of almond flour and coconut flour, mostly made at home. But I choose to eat healthy animal foods. And in addition to watching the pounds melt away, I got to watch numerous health problems melt away as well.
You Are Only As Healthy As Your Gut
Healing the gut can reverse auto-immune disease and obesity.
The Real Root of Autoimmunity, Anxiety, Bloating & Burnout
Welcome to the metabolic underground: the gut.
Once a fringe topic, the microbiome is now a full-blown scientific obsession—and for good reason. The trillions of organisms lining our digestive tract don’t just help us digest food. They regulate our immune system, mood, metabolism, hormones, and even how our cells make energy.
We are, quite literally, more bacterial than human.
(Our DNA? ~5% human. ~95% microbial.)
But here’s the part no one talks about in the biohacking, keto, or pharma-sponsored gut health circles:
The real root cause of gut dysfunction is low energy availability.
Not just the wrong bugs.
Not just gluten.
But a metabolism running on empty.
Your Gut Is a Tube. But What’s In the Tube Isn’t Technically You
Think of your body like a donut. From mouth to colon is one long tube, and what’s inside that tube—food, microbes, toxins—is not actually “in” you until it crosses the gut lining.
Enterocytes (your intestinal lining cells) are the gatekeepers. When healthy, they decide what gets absorbed and what stays out. When stressed, inflamed, or underfed, these gatekeepers break down.
The result?
Leaky gut.
Immune chaos.
Chronic inflammation.
And the perfect breeding ground for pathogenic bacteria and yeast.
What Damages the Gut Lining?
You already know the classics: antibiotics, NSAIDs, alcohol, processed food, and gut infections.
But let’s zoom out:
The biggest and most ignored culprit?
Chronic under-eating and low-carb dieting.
Your gut lining is made of cells that need a constant stream of glucose to regenerate every 3–5 days. Starve them of carbs and calories? You get…
Leaky gut (tight junction breakdown)
Low secretory IgA (impaired immune defense)
Sluggish motility (hello, SIBO)
Poor enzyme production (hello, bloating)
Weakened mucus layer (pathogen party)
Add in high-fat, low-fiber diets (carnivore or keto, anyone?) and you’re not just starving the good bugs—you’re overfeeding the bad ones.
Gut Dysfunction Is a Metabolic Feedback Loop
Let’s break it down:
You under-eat (or cut carbs/fat too low)
Gut motility slows, enzymes drop, and bacteria overgrow
Leaky gut develops → food proteins leak into bloodstream
Immune system attacks the “invaders” → chronic inflammation
You develop sensitivities, hormonal issues, anxiety, autoimmune symptoms
You restrict even more
And around and around we go...
The Gut-Brain Axis Is Real. But You Can’t Fix It Without Fuel.
Pathogenic bacteria and yeasts (like Candida or Klebsiella) produce neurotoxins—literally brain-altering chemicals that mess with serotonin, dopamine, and GABA.
This is why so many clients with bloating, gas, and reflux also deal with:
Panic attacks
Morning depression
Insomnia
ADHD-like symptoms
Autism spectrum behaviors in kids
PMS and mood swings
The gut doesn’t just digest food—it dictates your reality.
And while pharma would love to sell you Zoloft or acid reducers for the rest of your life, the fix isn’t in your medicine cabinet.
It’s in your kitchen.
So What Does Heal the Gut?
Not pills. Not powders. Not another low-carb protocol.
Gut healing starts with energy—bioavailable, carb-based, low-fat energy.
Start with Food:
Fruit and fruit juice – fast fuel, polyphenols, potassium, antioxidants
Well-cooked roots & tubers – gentle fiber for butyrate, microbiome diversity
Raw carrot salad – daily antimicrobial, estrogen-detox superstar
Bone broth & gelatin – nourish the gut lining and feed enterocytes
Low-fat dairy – casein for immune health, calcium for tight junctions
Sourdough & white rice (if tolerated) – bring back starches after healing
Herbs like ginger, oregano, fennel, thyme – natural motility boosters
Key Supplements (When Needed):
Grapefruit Seed Extract – kills pathogens, safe for daily use
Allicin or berberine – effective against SIBO/IMO
Biofilm disruptors – like InterFase or proteolytics
Prokinetics – ginger, magnesium, motility blends to keep things moving
Saccharomyces boulardii – crowd control yeast that kills Candida
Enzymes + Bile support – if you’re missing a gallbladder or have reflux
What About SIBO and IMO?
SIBO (bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine) and IMO (methane-dominant overgrowth) are both signs of slowed motility and weakened immunity.
You don’t get overgrowth if the gut is moving and the enterocytes are well-fed.
That’s why so many clients fail low-FODMAP, GAPS, or carnivore diets—they remove triggers but starve the root systems that keep pathogens in check.
The solution?
Restore carb intake
Normalize meal timing (no fasting!)
Kill the overgrowth + support motility
Rebuild the gut lining + reintroduce fiber slowly
But First: You Can’t Heal the Gut in a Starved Body
Read that again.
When I first wrote this article, I didn’t fully understand the connection between energy availability and gut health. I do now—and it changes everything.
The gut doesn’t just get sick out of nowhere. It breaks down when the body doesn’t have enough fuel.
If you’re under-eating (especially fat and carb-restricted), your body will immediately down-regulate digestion to preserve energy for more essential systems. That means:
Slowed motility
Weak stomach acid
Impaired enzyme and bile production
Thinning of the gut lining
And eventually… opportunistic bacterial overgrowth
We used to call these bugs “invaders” or “bad guys”—but they’re just doing what any organism would do when digestion slows and food sits undigested in the gut. They're opportunistic, not demonic.
Most “gut overgrowth” is really just carbohydrate deficiency + metabolic stress.
Once I started optimizing my clients’ macros—especially tripling their carbs, slashing dietary fat, and increasing total calories to meet or exceed 45 kcal/kg EA (energy availability)—something wild started happening:
Their digestion kicked back on
Their gut lining began to heal
One round of antimicrobials actually worked
They didn’t need to re-do protocols or go on 10-week gut-killing journeys anymore
Now, I never run a gut health protocol until we’ve optimized energy availability first.
If you don’t fix the fuel problem, you’ll always be chasing bugs.
What About Poop Transplants?
Yep, they’re real. And they work—especially for extreme infections like C. diff.
Fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) work by reseeding the gut with a full spectrum of healthy bacteria from a donor. But for most people, you don’t need poop in a pill. You need to stop starving your microbiome.
And for the record, you don’t need $99 microbiome kits either. Most of the results don’t change what actually works.
The Bottom Line:
You don’t need more elimination diets.
You don’t need more pills.
You need to feed your gut the way nature intended:
Fuel the body →
Heal the gut →
Balance the bugs →
Calm the nervous system →
Fire up the metabolism →
Reclaim your health.
Want Help?
I’m a Licensed Nutritionist with a Master's in Biochemistry, and I specialize in gut health through metabolic healing. If you're sick of bloating, constipation, reflux, or autoimmune flares—and want real healing through food—I’ve got you.
Book a session or join the waitlist:
hello@theprometabolicnutritionist.com
Recommended Reading: