Carnivore + Yams, what would I be missing - PaleoHacks.com

Carnivore + Yams, what would I be missing

2010-08-14T15:26:27Z

Let's say

Grass Fed Steaks, Roasts, Ground Beef
Free Range Eggs
Salmon
Bacon, preserve free
Yams
Kerrygold or other Grassfed Butter
Coconut Oil

Avoiding the vegetable anti nutrients and nutrients, what mineral, vitamin deficiencies can you forsee?

Answer by Ambimorph for Carnivore + Yams, what would I be missing

2010-08-14T17:14:11Z

If you take your items and plug them into a program like fitday (fitday.com) it will show you how you compared to the RDAs and what you are missing. However, I don't think RDAs necessarily apply to carnivores, because I think that eating carbs actually depletes nutrition, and so the RDAs are inflated.

For example, people who don't eat carbohydrates don't get scurvy, even if they don't meet the RDA for vitamin C. There is evidence that vitamin C competes with glucose for uptake, so that may be the mechanism.

Because of this, including yams might actually be a detriment to your total nutrient profile.

You might want to include some organs now and then. They are extremely vitamin rich.

ETA: There is a thread on getting all required nutrients on the Dirty Carnivore Forum that you might find interesting.

Answer by Drew aka CrossFit Junkie for Carnivore + Yams, what would I be missing

2010-08-14T17:21:10Z

Tubers can contain some of the same antinutrients as other vegetables. Vegetables contain more than just tons of nutrients, they also contain phytonutrients, and other substances that promote health. Yes, some have certain levels of things like goitrogenic compunds, but the benefit to eating green vegetables FAR outweighs the costs. The best way to do this is do switch up the type of veggies you eat periodically, to diversify the toxin load(however low it may be) and to make sure you're not missing out on any nutrients.

As for vitamin/mineral deficiencies, I recommend you go to fitday.com and plug in your food to see any deficiencies.

Answer by Paleo Seb for Carnivore + Yams, what would I be missing

2010-08-14T20:38:20Z

I think the diet you described would be just fine. I would personally include the occasional tongue, liver, heart, marrow and what not, for taste and nutrition.

To all of those calculating the fitday RDAs, you have to stay aware that the nutrient profile is often for grain-fed and factory produced food, which is very different than grass-fed beef, butter and eggs.

I tend to think that we probably put too much emphasis on variety. After all, some of the healthiest cultures had a diet with very few food items and they didn't have any problems even though they didn't have the occasional avocado or spinach.

If you eat liver once in a while and don't eat much carb otherwise, you'll get enough vitamin C.

As for calcium, it's more a matter of getting enough vitamin A, D and K2 which all work to utilize the calcium correctly. K2 levels are high in grass-fed butter, marrow, pastured eggs and liver, with butter and foie gras probably being the best sources. Weston A. Price found that cultures that had enough K2 didn't have bone or tooth problems.

Another indication of the importance of the fatty parts like marrow and brain is the fact that we went to such great length to get it when we often left the muscle meat for the dogs. Cats and dogs will always go for the brain and marrow first if they can get to it. It's sad that we don't really have data on the nutrient profile of marrow, we can only guess that it's some of the most nutrient-rich food available on earth.

Answer by Eva for Carnivore + Yams, what would I be missing

2010-08-15T03:01:42Z

Prob is that most of the magnesium is boiled into the water when you cook spinach. Estimates are that 60 to 90 percent of magnesium ends up in the water (plus many other nutrients). Magnesium is very water soluable and even more so at higher temps. So you will need to drink the cooking water or do a soup with it. Or you could eat it raw, but then there is a lot of oxalic acid which binds to calcium and increases calcium needs and calcium intake may already be low on a paleo diet.

Of course, the salmon provides a fair amount of magnesium. But to get that much magnesium, ie to meet your mg RDAs, you might need to eat salmon and spinach daily and that would mean astronomically high amounts of vit A from the spinach, which might be a concern, since it supposedly competes with vit D. PLus eating liver would be even more vit A.

Really, the whole vitamin thing is so tricky and each vitamin and mineral interacts with the others. For you super nerds check out this pile of complexity: http://www.acu-cell.com/acn.html I don't think it's safe to say that we know for sure that paleo eaters need any more or less of any of the nutrients. The science is just not there. I read one article about some ancient innuit bodies that were discovered that had hardened arteries and osteoporosis.

Just because a group is able to survive and live fairly well and better than those of us on SAD does not mean that is the ideal diet for humans. If you look at the human body, it looks a lot more like a tropics based creature than a polar one. A tropical creature likely ate fruit and veggies along with meat. Besides, as far as I know, none of us will be replicating any of the ancient diets EXACTLY. Therefore, we could easily leave out a food item that added specific very much needed nutrients to that diet.

Also keep in mind that phytic acid is not the only thing that leaches calcium. Oxalic acid, like in chocolate, and phosphorous, like in a typical paleo diet, also pull calcium out of the system. And there are typically no obvious signs of calcium deficiency at first because the body just quietly removes calcium from the bones if it needs more. Therefore, I think it wise to keep calcium intake at decent levels. If you want to be fully paleo, you can easily do this by eating cartilage and small bones daily.

Answer by Chris Ford for Carnivore + Yams, what would I be missing

2010-08-15T10:03:05Z

Definitely agree with the comments on organ meat from time to time, also bone broth might be a decent addition? Just keep the bones of all those fluffy animals you eat and make stock... makes the next bunch of fluffy animals even tastier!