I have to agree: the idea that red meat is difficult to digest is a common misconception. Maybe if you haven't eaten any for years, there could be an adjustment period while production of enzymes and bile are adapting.
What was shocking to me and really drove the point home was my experience taking high doses of PPI for several weeks to treat H. pylori. I was taking 80 mg of esomeprazole per day which would have totally obliterated my stomach acid production, and expected my digestion to grind to a halt as I continued the 2-3 lbs of red meat diet. Nothing changed at all. I'm sure if I continued on the PPI long-term, I would start developing all the associated nutrient deficiencies with B12, minerals, etc. In the short-term though, it had zero impact on my capacity to digest huge quantities of beef.
This is an important revelation for the elderly I think, as stomach acid production drops with age, and makes digestion of foods that are actually difficult to digest (like unprocessed plant foods) more challenging.
Great and helpful anecdote. And good point about stomach acid production usually decreasing as we get older. This point actually reinforces the importance of eating closer to carnivore, as we age, due to ruminant animal meat being one of the most easily digested whole foods on the planet, at least by humans. Since stomach acid production does seem to decrease, as some people age, its grains, vegetables/ plants, nuts, seeds, and legumes, for some examples, that a person would want to consume less of as they age, along with any other high fiber foods out there.
It’s so funny to me, especially as a nurse, that people still think fiber aids in/ improves digestion. It’s literally the complete opposite. The best diets/ foods for optimal gut motility/ health/ bowel movement health, is a diet that is completely void of fiber. So having to prescribe medications/ supplements to patients that contain fiber, when they’re having constipation issues, makes me cringe every time. It’s comical, in a very sad and frustrating way. Comical in the sense that doctors are ignorant enough to prescribe/ people are willing to
take, something that does the complete opposite of its intended goal
As far as someone needing to adjust to a carnivore diet, or more of a carnivore based diet, u would theoretically think that there could be an adjustment period, where like u said, enzymes and bile production might need to adapt for a period of time, but idk if that’s what we see in real life. U clearly didn’t seem to have as much of an adjustment period as u had probably intended to see, when u first started, plus there are endless anecdotes online to read, and anecdotes to watch on YouTube, of people going from diets like vegan/ vegetarian, where they consumed no meat, to going carnivore, and seemed to do great right from the start. Apart from some of the loose stools that occur for some people when they go from a certain diet, to a diet full of much more fats than they’re used to. The period of loose stools are completely normal, and nothing to be concerned about. But again, every person I’ve seen go from say a vegan/ vegetarian diet, to carnivore, seemed to do great, and didn’t have a period where enzymes/ bile production needed to catch up/ adjust, in order to accommodate all the protein and fats coming in. Maybe the body is much smarter and more efficient than this. There is a reason why throughout evolution 99% of all species have died off, and we’re still here. It’s because our bodies are extremely fine tuned machines that are able to adapt way better than we probably could ever imagine. So again, in theory, I can see there being an issue drastically changing a persons diet up, and putting them on carnivore, but it just doesn’t seem to be an issue when we look at real world results/ anecdotes
