Updated on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 5:19PM by Danny Roddy

The single biggest hurdle I had to leap through to begin my carnivorous adventure was the fear of "low-carb induced hypothyroidism". When I began to explore research on the subject, I hit a brick wall of alarmist forum posts and erroneous pub-med articles of varied importance. But the consensus was clear, you must consume dietary carbohydrates to keep your thyroid healthy.

Over the years I learned to listen to my body and it was clearly telling me to restrict carbohydrates. I finally gave in, managed to ignore the fear mongering of conventional wisdom and dropped carbohydrates completely.

The question however is still valid.

Does a carnivorous diet positively or negatively affect the thyroid gland?

There isn't much data pertaining to the thyroid health of subjects who ate close to or a completely carnivorous diet, so I'll be dipping into ketogenic diet and fasting research. The difference being that a ketogenic diet consists of about ~50g of carbohydrates a day with the remaining calories coming from fat and protein. From here on out I will use the terms "carnivorous diet" and "ketogenic diet" interchangeably since in all likelihood they aren't much different.

First lets explore the reasons why we want a healthy thyroid. Here is a quick overview of the functions this butterfly shaped gland performs.

• Metabolic Rate - When people say "metabolism", they might as well be saying "thyroid". Within the endocrine system, the thyroid along with the adrenal glands are the biological engines that ultimately direct our hormonal metabolism.
• Setting Proteins - The thyroid can increase and decrease the rate of protein degradation.
• Creation of Thyroxine (T4) - The thyroid produces a couple of different hormones, the most important being T4 and…
• Creation of Triiodothyronine (T3) - T3 is the metabolically active version of T4. T3 is responsible for the thyroids metabolic influencing affects while thyroxine (T4) is considered to be a storage form of T3 waiting to be converted into T3 by the liver.

A carnivorous diet is very similar to the metabolic state the body is in when fasting. Without discussing too much of the technical jargon, a carnivorous diet will lower blood sugar, lower basal insulin, decrease inflammation, balance hormones, reduce oxidative stress and support the immune system. Fasting is the only other method that can match the incredible health promoting effects of a dietary decrease in carbohydrate consumption. The downside to fasting being that you have to eat sometime

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Updated on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 3:10PM by Danny Roddy

Let's talk about my past, my present and my quest for relentless improvement. I won't dip into my vegan experience, which you can read about, but I should start at the beginning with my dietary habits as a youngster.

My grade school menu consisted of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, and Cocoa Puffs. These nutritional power-houses were washed down with lactose infused fat-free milk followed by a tall glass of Tropicana orange juice, just like the kid on the commercial. I was the American dream. Sides that accompanied my main course were often of a cardboard box origin as well: Cinnamon Pop-Tarts, crumb mini doughnuts, coffee cake, or a peanut butter Eggo waffle all fit the bill as suitable choices to go along side my cereal super food. 

Hot on the heels of my cocaine like cereal addiction, was my penchant for Taco Bell. The recent purchase of a mountain bike had me riding to the local T-Bell nearly every day. Beaming with the feeling of independence, I indulged in taco supremes, nacho bell-grandes, chicken quesadillas a plenty. This particular T-Bell was one of the first I remember with an open soda fountain; thus enabling me to fuel my growing body with whatever ridiculous flavor the Mountain Dew corporation had thought of that week. 

Notable store bought items during junior high were: Gushers fruits snacks, Dunk-A-Roos, Lay's potato chips, root beer, Cactus Cooler orange soda, instant oatmeal, Pillsbury strudels, and not-for-the-weak Flaming Hot Cheetos. Looking back on it, I rarely ate meat unless it was honey glazed and came from the deli. I did eat a lot of ground beef from Taco Bell, but I'm not sure that counts.

High school and college was an onslaught of titanic-sized burritos and irish car bombs. It was at this point that the culmination of every poor nutritional decision collectively punched me in the face. I found myself in rough shape at the young age of 21. I had a very low libido, terrible anxiety, severe cold intolerance, digestive issues, sleep apnea, chronic halitosis, and a very itchy dandruff-ridden scalp. To top this off, all of my body hair started to fall out.

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