I Was a Vegetarian for 36 Years – Then This Happened
Experience is more important than 1000 books and training courses
I was a committed vegetarian for 36 years – the last ten of which I was almost a vegan. I firmly believed that this was the right way to eat ... until my body taught me otherwise. The following is the story of my eating habits.
As a child, I grew up with the usual home cooking, ie a mixture of meat, dairy and cereal products, as well as vegetables and fruit. I became a vegetarian when I was 25 years old. It happened like this: I suffered from a chronic sore throat. None of the five doctors I consulted over the course of five months could help. Finally, a homeopath gave me a remedy, and I ate only salads for five weeks. That brought me healing. The scientist in me wanted to know: Why? So I read books on nutrition and became convinced that a wholefood vegetarian diet was good for me and for everyone else.
I radically changed my diet to vegetarian and initially felt comfortable with it, although I was and remained excessively slim. At a height of 5 foot 8 (177 cm), I weighed only 121 pounds (55 kg) ... although I had already weighed 132 pounds (60 kg) when I was 18 and was still eating meat. When I ate a lot, I put on two to four pounds (one to two kilograms), but as soon as I returned to normal-sized portions, my weight went back down to 121 pounds (55 kg). Not only did I have a low body weight, I also had little physical strength. But I didn’t attach any importance to this.
I remained physically weak for 25 years, but otherwise felt well. I was so convinced of this style of eating that I even trained as a nutritionist, wrote a book, and gave lectures and seminars.
From 2011 onwards, symptoms of physical decline gradually became apparent. It started with a slipped disc, from which I only recovered slowly. In 2017, I had a hernia. There were complications during the operation and I had to have another operation three days later. Again, it took me months to recover. In 2019, my left knee started hurting; at times, the pain was so severe that I could hardly walk. This was soon followed by pain in my right shoulder, which also got worse and worse. Physiotherapy treatments were unsuccessful for both my knee and shoulder. To make matters worse, I also had chronic pain in my mouth. My gums were inflamed and one tooth or another kept hurting. I went to the dentist every few weeks, who fortunately was my friend ... otherwise he would probably have thrown me out. He patiently checked every time ... and every time the diagnosis was: “The tooth is fine.”
What was wrong with me? I was supposedly eating healthily and was also physically active ... that is, as far as my condition allowed. I also took naturopathic remedies. But nothing helped. I was only 60 years old and felt like a wreck.
At the beginning of 2022, I also experienced acute digestive problems. I had constant bloating and very soft stools several times a day. I had learned that white rice heals the gut ... but days of rice cures didn’t help, nor did taking probiotics. I became more and more desperate.
Then came cosmic salvation: I stumbled across a YouTube video by Dr Eric Berg. He talked about pain in the right shoulder and why it can be a symptom of a fatty liver. I knew that drinking too much alcohol could cause a fatty liver... but I hardly drank alcohol.
Dr Berg explained how consuming fructose can cause a non-alcoholic fatty liver. Household sugar contains 50% fructose; and it is also abundant in many types of fruit and in many supposedly healthy sweeteners such as agave syrup. Fruit juices are also rich in fructose. The liver is the only organ that can process fructose and is therefore quickly overwhelmed by a high-sugar or sweet diet. This can lead to a fatty liver. The liver swells and displaces the surrounding tissue, which continues up into the muscles of the right shoulder; the result is right-sided shoulder pain that cannot be relieved by physiotherapy. I found my situation 100% reflected in this description.
I appreciate the way Dr Berg communicates his findings and experiences and backs up many of his statements with scientific studies. So I watched more of his videos. Dr Berg’s contributions shook my nutritional worldview massively; but they provided explanations for all the symptoms I was suffering from. He explains why a ketogenic diet is the best diet for us and that – and how – it supports the body’s self-healing mechanism.
In my desperate situation, I was ready to give up my 36-year-old perspective and give a new one a chance. Firstly, I had nothing to lose. Secondly, Dr Berg’s explanations were logical and, therefore, understandable. And thirdly, it was a very interesting self-experiment.
„One's own experience has the advantage of complete certainty.“
(Arthur Schopenhauer)
The term ‘ketogenic’ means that the body gets energy from fat instead of carbohydrates. The basic formula of the ketogenic diet is: low carbohydrates, moderate protein, high animal fat. This is almost the opposite of how I had been eating for the last 36 years. Carbohydrate-rich foods such as cereals and legumes had been the basis of my diet. From now on, I cut them out completely: no more rice, bread, pasta, beans or lentils, and no carbohydrate-rich vegetables such as potatoes and beets. I also avoided sugar in any form and seed oils, such as sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, and safflower oil. Only olive oil and avocado oil remained on my menu.
I switched from one day to the next. After just two days on a ketogenic diet, my digestion was back in order. I had no more bloating and normal bowel movements. I was impressed.
Grains, nuts, and seed oils are rich in omega-6 fatty acids, which promote inflammation. As I had been eating mainly these for decades, it was no wonder my body was chronically inflamed in several places. Inflamed tissue had probably also contributed to both the slipped disc and the hernia – and also delayed the healing process. After a few weeks on a ketogenic diet, all the inflammation had subsided. My liver also recovered, as the shoulder pain decreased day by day and eventually disappeared completely.
I am not offering a description of the ketogenic diet here or making any recommendations. I am only sharing my personal experiences and thoughts. If you are interested in this form of nutrition, you can find information on the Internet, get competent advice, or gain experience yourself.
Here is an account of what I have been eating since April 2022: I regularly eat red meat (beef, lamb, game), liver, fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel), eggs, beef kidney fat, butter, ghee, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, pak choi), asparagus, avocados, and sauerkraut. I occasionally eat berries, mushrooms, green salads, olive or avocado oil, and raw milk cheese, preferably from sheep’s milk. I use a generous amount of salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar as seasonings.
I pay meticulous attention to top quality. Organic production alone is not enough for me. Some of the legal guidelines for something to be labeled ‘organic’ are ridiculous. Organic food should not be produced according to legal guidelines, but solely according to what is natural. For example, grain is not natural food for cattle, nor for fish. Wild fish do not eat grain. Wild cattle, wild sheep, etc do not eat grain either. But even in organic farming, cattle, fish, and other animals are fed grain. As grains are rich in omega-6 fatty acids, which promote inflammation, the meat of these animals not only loses some of its health value, but actually can become a burden. I have, therefore, sought out farmers as sources for my food who feed their animals almost only on grass. When I eat fish, I only eat wild-caught fish.
As a scientist, I always question everything, including myself. That’s the only way I can gain new insights and grow mentally. So after six months on a ketogenic diet, I did an experiment. I ate a portion of basmati rice with my meat and vegetable dish. A few hours later, I had stomach pains and the next day I had diarrhea.
In my experience, a vegetarian diet has made me ill and an animal-based diet has made me well again. Dr Berg and many others have had similar experiences. So is this true for all people? Below, I share two of my thoughts on this.
First. Vegetarian animals, such as cattle, sheep, and horses, eat most of the day. They have to because their food is low in nutrients. Carnivores, such as lions, only eat occasionally. This is enough for them because their food is rich in nutrients.
Carbohydrate-rich foods such as cereals and legumes are rich in nutrients, although not as rich and high in quality as animal foods, but they are not an appropriate diet for us or for most animals. A carbohydrate-rich diet puts a strain on our bodies because our digestive organs are not suited to it. For example, it overstresses the pancreas. The pancreas has to secrete excessive insulin to regulate blood sugar levels, which is greatly unbalanced by carbohydrate-rich foods. Snacking between meals exacerbates the situation. Over time, this leads to insulin resistance, which can develop into pre-diabetes, which can become diabetes. Grains can also inflame the gut; gluten intolerance and inflammatory gut diseases are evidence.
If we eat animal foods with a high fat content, we can easily manage with two to three meals a day. We don’t need any snacks in between, and the pancreas has much less work to do. For example, I now only eat twice a day. This gives my digestive organs enough rest between meals and is therefore good for my health.
Second. Many people in India and China eat a vegetarian diet. When we see pictures of them, we notice that many of them are spindly and have hardly any teeth in old age. This reflects my experience after 36 years on a vegetarian diet: this diet weakens us on all levels – right down to the teeth, which are an indicator of vitality. Much of this only becomes visible with advanced age.
Naturally, hunger and appetite would tell us what to eat and when – and how much. This is so for every animal. But we are controlled by countless programs that generate over 99% of our actions and thoughts. We do what we have learned to do. We think what we have learned to think. We eat what we have learned to eat. We believe what we have learned to believe. That’s how I came to be a vegetarian. The many books and articles I have read on the subject and the training courses I have taken have programmed me. In addition, like-minded people reinforce each other ... ie reinforce each other’s programs. Therefore, finding the truth is anything but easy. See my articles “Why the Question ‘What Am I?’ is Important and Magical” and “How to Become What You Truly Are in 7 Steps.” Another challenge is that many industrially processed foods create addictions; such as the addiction to sugar. This also takes us away from nature.
Life is lived forward and understood backwards. Today I know - from experience:
Books are not sources of truth. They only reflect the author’s perspective. When we read and do training courses, we gather information, perspectives, and programs. When we carry out our own experiments and thus gain experience, we gather knowledge.
A vegetarian diet is malnutrition. It can take decades for this to show.
A carbohydrate-rich diet promotes inflammation.
A high-fat animal-based diet strengthens and heals.
Is that the last word in wisdom? I don’t know. Every person only has a perspective, which results from their life history.
Further:
Dr Eric Berg’s YouTube channel
Article “Why the Question ‘What Am I?’ is Important and Magical”
Article “How to Become What You Truly Are in 7 Steps”
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Sugar is the worst.
🤗🤗