Top two “what about” when you tell people you eat meat only or fiber and vitamin C. What about vitamin-C on carnivore diet?
I addressed fiber in my previous posts and videos. In my case, eliminating fiber completely from my diet resolved my lifelong constipation.
Check out my video about here:
Vitamin C is the second “what about” on the carnivore diet. The common belief is, that the main sources of vitamin C are fruit and vegetables. I also believed this to be true most of my life.
Even in the carnivore community, there seems to be this anxiety to meet all your nutritional needs, hence the focus on “nose to tail” trend. Personally, I think it’s a great idea to include organ meats, but if you can’t stand liver, and this is what prevents you from going carnivore, you should pass on organ meats, at least for now.By now, nobody disputes that eating of organ meats will give you full spectrum of vitamins and trace minerals. But the good news for the carnivores don’t end here. There is vitamin C in the muscle meat.
VITAMIN C IN MUSCLE MEAT
Vitamin C in fresh meat was discovered about 100 years ago, but somehow forgotten. If you try to look it up the USDA database, you will find that muscle meat is listed as having no vitamin C.
This, however, isn’t true. The credit for this discovery belongs to Amber A’Hearn who researched it thoroughly, including contacting of USDA herself and asking about their tables. And what she found is that there is vitamin C in muscles meats, but it is habitually omitted from the nutritional tables at USDA. Zero vitamin C in muscle meat, is only an assumption by USDA!
In fact, as Amber A’Hearn points out, in earlier writings of Lancet, going back to 1882, it was known that fresh meat contained vitamin C, but that it was lost in dry/hang meat.
She also found some German sources showing measurements of vitamin C in muscle meat.Check out full blog post by Amber here.
VITAMIN C COMPETES WITH GLUCOSE FOR TRANSPORTATION INTO CELLS
Both glucose and Vitamin C require help from insulin before they can get into cell membranes. High levels of glucose blocks vitamin C entry into the cells. Vitamin C and glucose are also similar structurally. This explains why vitamin C and glucose compete for uptake into the cells.
If, however, you are on the carnivore diet, your glucose levels will be minimal, and your insulin will be entirely available for Vitamin C transport. It then makes sense that that even long-term carnivores don’t die of scurvy. If you eat fresh, quality meat and animal fats you will get enough of vitamin C.
My video version of what about vitamin-c on carnivore diet is here:
SHOULD YOU SUPPLEMENT VITAMIN C?
Dogmas aren’t my thing, so If I think I could benefit from supplementing of vitamin C, I would do it.
I would take vitamin C intravenously, or I would take it in mega doses if I suspected I am coming down with a cold. I took mega doses of it, while pregnant to reduce the risk of stretch marks and have an easier delivery (Dr. Klenner protocol).
I wouldn’t take Vitamin C on a daily just because I don’t eat fruit and vegetables.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As carnivore movement is getting bigger, and spans over many years, we now have people that are on carnivore diet for the last 20 years, and we have to yet to see a case of scurvy.
