Over the weekend I was asked if carnivore, zero carb, or low carb can help with fertility and hormone issues.
First, the disclaimer: I can’t guarantee anything or make any promises.I’d bet my life savings, but I can’t promise.
Short answer: YES!
Keeping your carb intake as low as possible will keep your insulin low. Many issues with fertility and hormone imbalance at any age can be traced to a constant flood of insulin. Metformin can help to lower insulin, but this presents two problems from my understanding. 1. It goes back to my analogy concerning diabetics – rather than change your diet, the doctor prescribes another medication. Where if you just reduce the foods that are causing the issue, you wouldn’t need the medication. 2. It simply masks the issue and many women trying to become pregnant do not want additional medications in their system, and therefore the baby’s.
Long answer: YES!
When you consume sugar and carbs, they become glucose in your body. Insulin is released to level things out. If you are having sugar and carbs throughout the day, the insulin and your pancreas never has a break. Insulin is a storage hormone – storing glucose, fat, salt, and water. This is a stressor on your body, also keeping cortisol levels high. Cortisol is a stress hormone.
This is the perfect storm to create insulin resistance. This means your hormones are not receiving the proper signals. It’s like a break in the communication system in your cells. You stop ovulating, or ovulate infrequently. Your cycle may be irregular, you may develop PCOS. All of these things will go against what your body was made to do. With those hormones now being out of whack and receiving no communication, pregnancy loss is also a higher risk.
SO, consuming very low carb foods like berries, spinach, some nuts, etc., will go a long way to reducing your insulin and keeping glucose levels nice and steady. Though carbs are NOT essential even during pregnancy.
Protein’s Role
Consuming more protein will help with muscle support and building another human! Eggs, burgers, bacon, steak, chicken, wings – any beef, pork, chicken, or fish. As we get older, prioritizing protein is even more important. Keeping carbs at a minimum, steady glucose levels, and low insulin, are important to reduce inflammation. Protein keeps muscles strong to protect bones. Low insulin lowers cardiovascular risk.
Fat’s Role
Fat is also essential in healing and supporting hormones in all humans. I’m talking about animal fat – eat the fat on the meat, have some cheese, cook in tallow, lard, butter, or ghee. Healing your hormones and eating to support them is a big deal! Hormones require fat. Every cell in your body requires fat to function properly.
Check out YouTube videos from Kelly Hogan, Neisha Berry, and others who had hormonal imbalances, PCOS, Hashimoto’s, and once they were able to heal, they were able to successfully conceive and have healthy, full-term pregnancies.
This is also helpful information for women who are going through menopause!
For several years now, long before I found the carnivore diet – and even before discovering paleo, low carb, and keto – I have seemingly instinctively known that what we eat may be causing health issues. The whole food pyramid and ‘my plate’ graphics seemed off to me. I had no idea why at the time, and it took years of digging into various resources to finally understand that everything we have been taught about diet and nutrition is complete and utter bullshit.
For me, it started with my children’s diagnoses: one with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, like me, which led me to researching gluten and sugar; one with ADHD, like me, which led me to the chemical additives in food; and one with epilepsy, which led me to learning about the keto diet. Now it has taken several years, but I have experimented with so many variations and seen so many improvements in my own health. So much information has come to light regarding root-cause and the reversal of diseases and disorders through the elimination of many different foods.
My Carnivore Healing Experience
Brain Fog
The very first thing I noticed when I cut out grains and sugar was mental clarity. I knew then that I was really on the right track. It’s an extremely scary thing to be mid-sentence, speaking to your boss or co-worker or customer, and completely lose the words and thoughts you’re trying to convey. Sure, everyone loses their train of thought once in a while. But this was more than that.
Brain fog is one of many side effects of Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism. And it isn’t improved upon with medication. It didn’t matter what dose of levothyroxine my endocrinologist had me on, I could not effectively communicate. I was so scared that this was early onset Alzheimer’s or dementia! Come to learn, dementia is referred to as type 3 diabetes and I had been diagnosed as pre-diabetic at one point! More on that at a later date.
I noticed a marked improvement in my mental clarity once I greatly reduced my intake of grains and sugar. Even more so when I started removing all processed foods, including keto approved treats, and began eating only animal products. The elimination of the foods that were harming my body, and therefore my brain, and the increase of proteins and fat – yes, fat! – was the combination my body was quite literally dying for.
Eating Disorders
When we think of eating disorders, we often think of anorexia and bulimia. Those two seem to get all the attention. To a degree, they are almost glamorized. Binge eating disorder is more common than you’d think, and often leads to other eating disorders.
Food addiction and binging began for me at a very young age. I was maybe 4 or 5 years old and can remember sneaking food and hiding to eat it. By the time I was 12 I hated myself and my inability to control myself around food. I was 22 when I became anorexic and was bulimic at age 25. By 35 I regained the 112 pounds I had lost, plus an additional 50 pounds by binging again. Doing what we have always been told is necessary to lose weight, I tried calorie restriction, weight-loss programs, exercise…nothing worked. Until, that is, I stopped eating grains and sugar. Then, the weight began coming off. Dieting, calorie restriction, is disordered eating. Yet that is what we are told is necessary to lose weight.
I continued counting calories and trying to fit into a certain number of macros even while following the keto diet. I lost a lot of weight this way, but my brain was so overloaded and stressed out trying to track everything – and I was so hungry all the time! Now that I am a carnivore, none of that matters. I eat the animal products I want. Counting, tracking, and restricting is not necessary. Meat and fat fuel my body and my brain. I am well nourished and losing weight at the same time.
Insulin Resistance
I am not a medical professional, but I think I understand that insulin resistance is the disorder in which the body is producing insulin with little effect on glucose levels. Glucose levels remain high in the blood and cause type 2 diabetes, which is the need for additional insulin to help the body process the glucose in the blood. The body isn’t able to keep up with the demand. So rather than removing the foods that cause the glucose to rise, we take a pill or an injection.
My endocrinologist told me I was insulin resistant and pre-diabetic and handed me a prescription for metformin. That seems crazy to me. It’s like, if you’re allergic to peanuts, but you continue to eat peanuts and use an Epipen or take Benadryl to stop the symptoms, rather than just no longer eating the damn peanuts. This absolutely blows my mind!
Hirsutism, PCOS, & Hormone Imbalance
Receiving a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s, hirsutism, and PCOS came with prescriptions for each issue also. But I had to learn on my own what each of these things meant.
Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism is an autoimmune condition in which the body produces antibodies that fight off the hormones produced by your thyroid as if they are invading with malicious intent. When in reality, those hormones are necessary for your body’s daily functions – like…well, literally everything. Thyroid hormones are responsible for every cellular activity in your body. Hypothyroid means your body isn’t producing enough hormones. Hashimoto’s means no matter how much thyroid hormone your body is producing, your immune system is fighting those hormones off.
Hirsutism is a condition that causes women to have dark, whisker-like hairs growing on their face – like a beard. This is often caused by hormonal imbalances, like poly-cystic ovarian syndrome, aka PCOS.
PCOS is linked to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. See the pattern here? PCOS results in ovarian pain, bleeding, ruptures, infections, and infertility. Due to not having been diagnosed or treated for all of these issues until I had suffered for decades, my menstrual cycle stopped in my late 30s. Not that I missed it or wanted it back, but that is just not normal!
But, I’m happy to say that PCOS is not an issue anymore. My beard growth has dramatically slowed. And the hair on top of my heads has stopped falling out – another side effect of hypothyroidism, insulin resistance, and hormone imbalances. I attribute this to my body no longer having to try to deal with trying to process ridiculous amounts of carbs and having the much needed protein and fat to heal.
Anxiety, Depression, & Mood Disorders
Anxiety, depression, and wildly fluctuating moods are more symptoms related to everything that was wrong with me physically. I was malnourished even when I was obese. My whole body ached after the smallest household tasks and my brain was so cloudy. Adding more medication was not the answer. It couldn’t be! It was time to start removing things I was putting into my body.
Allow me to give you a recent example. Five months ago I had surgery to repair a small rotator cuff tear. During that time I lapsed back into keto, eating all the Rebel ice cream, because I had an owie and I deserved it, right? See, I’m not always the brightest bulb. And my sweet, loving, attentive husband will give me absolutely anything I ask for. It doesn’t matter if I tell him not to, under any circumstance, give into my request for sweet tastes. The moment I ask, he caves. Sweet tastes are my weakness. And I, apparently, am his. So while I claimed to be a carnivore, I was feeding my addiction, very literally, for sugar.
The fact that it wasn’t actual sugar doesn’t matter. It still lit up my brain’s dopamine response due to the sweet taste. And guess what! I became addicted to that f-ing ice cream! I ate an entire pint of it every single day. Sometimes two pints. It’s embarrassing.
Between the non-nutritive ingredients and being back on the addiction path, my mood tanked. Anxiety and depression were back. Did I ask my doctor for prescription to combat anxiety and depression? Hell no! I knew where I went wrong and I knew how to fix it. Of course it wasn’t easy. But there is no way I will every hand over my power again. That is exactly what some food does to me. It takes my power. When I eat only animal products, all the power is mine. I am in control.
Carnivore, Low Carb, and Keto Resources
So where do you find all the information I talked about? So many places. If social media and group support is what you need, I really recommend checking out The Steak and Butter Gang over on Mighty Networks. You can join here. There is so much love there, so much expert information and support. You won’t regret joining.
If you prefer books, here is a list that I cannot recommend enough. Many have audio versions as well.
Check them out. Let me know what you think. As always, thank you for taking the time to read my little posts. I truly appreciate it!
xoxo
~ The Candid Carnivore
PS: Link disclaimer – I am an Amazon Associate and while there is never any additional cost to you if you purchase via these links, I may receive a tiny commission from Amazon. For the Steak and Butter Gang link, I receive no compensation to promote this group. The coaches and members just bring me joy, so I like to share and invite others to join.
