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27:00 · Jan 15, 2025

My Multiple Sclerosis IMPROVED With A Carnivore Diet! | Pennie Roehr Part 2

Dr. Anthony Chaffee explores the fascinating concept of food monotony in nature and how nutrient density eliminates the need for dietary variety. He explains why humans crave variety - because they're eating nutritionally deficient foods that require constant supplementation from different sources. When consuming fatty red meat, which contains all essential nutrients in perfect proportions, the body naturally maintains appetite regulation without needing calorie counting or macro tracking.

The episode features an in-depth interview with Penny, a multiple sclerosis patient who has been carnivore for two years. She shares her remarkable journey from progressive MS symptoms to complete remission, explaining how eliminating plants stopped her flare-ups entirely. Dr. Anthony Chaffee provides compelling scientific insight into autoimmune conditions, proposing they're not actually the body attacking itself, but rather normal immune responses to plant toxins and chemicals that bind to our cells, with the body caught in crossfire during the defense process.

Key Takeaways

  • Fatty red meat provides complete nutrition with perfect amino acid profiles, eliminating the need for dietary variety that stems from eating nutrient-deficient foods
  • Multiple sclerosis can enter complete remission on carnivore diet - Penny experienced zero flare-ups in two years except when she briefly reintroduced plants
  • Autoimmune diseases may actually be normal immune responses to plant lectins and chemicals attacking our cells, not the body attacking itself as commonly believed
  • Cholesterol and saturated fat are essential for myelin protection in the brain and nervous system - restricting these nutrients can worsen neurological conditions like MS
  • Why Nutritional Variety is a Myth - Carnivore Diet Simplicity
  • Multiple Sclerosis Recovery on Carnivore Diet - Patient Story
  • COVID Lockdowns and MS Mobility Decline - Physical Therapy Struggles
  • Autoimmune Disease Root Causes - Lectins vs True Autoimmunity Theory
  • Cholesterol and Multiple Sclerosis - Brain Myelin Protection

This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube and may contain errors or inaccuracies.

[Music] yeah when you and you understand that you don't have to keep eating variety all these different sorts of things I think the the main thing with variety is that people are eating a deficient diet that they're the the theity of nutrients and the things that they are eating and so they have to change up what they're eating because they have to get these other other vitamins and minerals and proteins and fatty acids that they they they are lacking so you can't eat the same meat I mean I've noticed that in myself I I was I was in my my pgy 2 years so my second year as a doctor you know I was trying to you know stay lean and play rugby and things like that which is difficult when you're working crazy hours and I so what I would I would sort of bring to work I would just make like a big spinach salad with some you know whatever dressing like Bernstein's dressing or something like that I always lik them actually that was that was always my favorite dressing and and and uh with like a chicken like a whole roast chicken i' pull it apart and put it in there and put like you know you know uh roasted peanuts and things like that in there you know so I was trying to get some things that people said these are good things to eat I just wanted the chicken really and I just sort of ate this stuff along with it I just wanted the meat really and so when I would when I would do that um the First first day I like a this tastes so good it just felt it it just tasted great the next day it tasted good but it wasn't as good third day it was sort of like it was all right and the fourth day I was like what the hell am I eating and uh it didn't make sense to me I was like why why is this tasting differently why is this why is this different every single day and why is it getting worse you know why you know shouldn't it just taste the same it should have tasted the same every single day it's the same chemicals I mean it should give the same chemical reaction it doesn't and so you know what that is I think is that you know you're you're building up you I was eating you big tub of spinach every single day my body's like hey you need to shut that down you know that's that's bringing in more stuff you don't want and you know chicken's fine but it's you know it's fairly lean doesn't have much of fat in it and just it's not going to taste as good so um I think that that that's probably why and um and then you need to sort of change things up so you sort of are are getting you know the different constellation of of nutrients and you sort of balance out eventually that's right think anyway and then when you just eating uh you know very nutrient-dense food that covers all the essential vitamins minerals nutrients Cal fatty acids proteins Etc and getting in the right proportions which is very important especially for proteins and amino acids that you don't need that you know that's all you want cows don't get sick of grass Lions don't get sick of gazelle elephants don't get SI the hell elephants eat so you know it's just like that's what they're supposed to eat that's where they're getting their nutrients from and that's and it tastes good to them for that reason and so you know uh nutrition in in nature is very monotonous it's just the same stuff day after day after day we're the only ones that that break from that and that I think has to do a lot with nutrition the deficiency in the nutrients and the things that we're eating the different toxic levels and the the relative addictiveness of the different things that we're eating so we we feel We crave certain things and then you just have to eat all over the place it's very erratic and it it makes no sense that you have to eat a balanced diet what the hell is a balanced me a steak is a balanced diet it has a perfect balance of all the vitamins minerals amino acids and fatty acids that you require for Optimal Health that's a balanced diet um the fat and the lean are the balance that's the balanced diet a balance of plants and this and that no we're talking about a balance of nutrients and you get all that balance of nutrients you get that just an eating fatty meat that is the balanced diet uh has evidenced by the fact that the Inuit exist and the nette exist and the msai exist and they have you know up until very recently just eaten exclusively Carn carnivorous diet until they started getting more exposure to um you Western societies um that were sort of the Bringers of plagues and chronic disease chronic disease stems from western expansion and and that's because of the western diet I believe and they used to be called diseases of the West now they're just called diseases of civilization and now they're just called getting older or human diseases because now they're going into animals the animals that are in our care not the animals in the wild and um you know oh well you can say what you want about the Inuit or the this or that well what about the fact that we know humans were alive and well in the Arctic Circle during the ice ages please tell tell me which plants they were eating during that time and why that was required at that time if it was if it was required all of those people would be dead you'd not be able to live for thousands tens of thousands of years in those conditions without ever having access to plants um unless you didn't need plants that's all there is to it I mean it's very straightforward um but I think that's why is because you're getting such balanced nutrition it's perfect you don't need anything else um that that's why you just it just taste great every single time and um but it only tastes great when you're hungry and then it stops tasting great when you're not hungry which is how you self-regulate which should happen it should be self-regulatory if it's a biologically appropriate diet you shouldn't have to self-limit you shouldn't have to track calories or macros um you could do that but you shouldn't have to do that if you do have to do that then you're probably eating the wrong thing but you I say is is that you know if you have if you need a calculator to figure out what to eat you're eating the wrong thing you know you should be able to to self-manage it you know Calas don't bust out calculators to figure out their macros about you know getting fat or anything like that they just eat yeah you know they eat what their body tells them to eat and then they stop and then they do it again when they're hungry again so yeah and when you do that it makes life a lot simpler and much more enjoyable and then you have so much more time in your day where you're not thinking about preparing or eating food and you're not just obsessing with eating all the time you can just you can just go out and do things you know like I've been I've been working all day I haven't eaten yet I don't feel like eating I'll be fine you I'll have a you big steak tonight that will be great and that'll fuel me for another 24 hours and I won't have any any sort of um issue with that um which I which I really appreciate um un I love that part of the diet not having to worry about okay it's breakfast I need to eat okay it's 11 o' noon I need to eat lunch okay it's five o'clock oh I need to eat dinner you know I just eat when I'm hungry and if I'm not hungry I don't eat you know so I I love that about the diet I don't have to think about CU like before when my kids were younger trying to meal plan like man if I could have just started this back when my kids were younger that would have saved so much time on you know meal planning and it it's it's stressful to meal plan and then try to prep and to try to cook it it's very stressful and you feel like that's all you spend your time doing is just you know making breakfast in the morning and then you got to do lunch and then you got to make dinner it's like you're only getting a couple hours of free time during the day and then the rest of time you're spending prepping and cooking yeah so with this you just okay for me it's I'm good with a cold burger or beef dog or some cheese or pork rinds I'm good you know and but for other people they got to spend you know I I watch other people and I'm like I'm so glad I don't have to do that anymore I'm I'm satisfied and I haven't had a vegetable since 2022 you know so it's been almost two years since I've had a vegetable and my numbers are great I'm very health minus my fall a I'm act besides the MS you know fighting the damage from the MS my vitamins my levels are great I'm very healthy I haven't been sick since starting the carnivore diet you know whereas before I was getting sick yeah so and you know I had in 2020 when Co hit I had just gotten over my bless my son he just shares everything with me so anytime he would get sick I'd get sick and he got influenza right before everything right before Co hit and gave it to me and um I had just gotten that gotten over that and then Co hit and I think that's when because we were in the heart of my daughter did travel volleyball so we were you know traveling everywhere constantly going to tournaments my kids also competed in taond do you know I was staying mobile I was struggling you know my husband would stay arm in-arm with me and guide me because these were very packed venues but I was still mobile up until 2020 and then Co hit and that's you know everything came to a hole and I was at home stuck in a chair you know because I had just gotten over influenza and I was like in the very beginning I was scared to death of covid I was like I don't want to get this I don't want to go through what I just went through because for me it would take me a lot longer to get over these you know these illnesses it my family they my son I think got through it in less than a week and for me it takes like a month so it's like you know I stayed indoors I did exactly what we were supposed to do the first couple months and afterwards I'm like okay this is ridiculous you know and I just yeah that's a whole another topic the mask and but yeah in the very beginning and I think that's where you know my main problem is why my mob ility declined because I was sitting down all the time I wasn't moving around where I was before and so that's the one thing you know if you've got the mobility use it definitely don't sit around that that and now I'm fighting to get my Mobility back you know I have almost 30 years of Ms damage done to me and so I'm you know carnivore diet wasn't it stopped the MS but it didn't magically make me walk you know my family is looking like well you're not walking yet I'm like well I have that's like you know a house being on fire and you know you put out the fire well you still have to rebuild the house do because you put out fire the house doesn't just magically rebuild itself and like my body has to heal I have a lot of damage so that's you know that was my mistake going into the carnivore diet thinking oh I'm going to be walking within six months no you know I'm still fighting and I'm kind of plateaued in my physical therapy because I'm battling through the muscle spasms right now which you know most people who are have MS can relate to it the muscles just get so tight it's like I can't you cannot battle once your muscles are so tight you can't battle through it no matter how strong you are so you know now I'm going to try dry needling and hopefully you know that'll release those muscles to where I can start building my strength up more to be able to you know start learning how to walk again and get you know my left leg going because my left my left side is my weak side and hopefully you know I haven't driven in probably six months now hopefully start driving again and start getting my you know living a normal life but it just takes so much time you know and that's I don't want people to think you know oh she's doing great you know doing the carnivore diet yeah I stopped the MS but I still have everything that Ms Left Behind yeah that I got to battle through I'm not just magically healed yeah so hey guys just want to take a second to thank our sponsor at carnivore bar I don't promote many products because honestly all you need to be healthy is to just eat meat for those times that you're out hiking road tripping or stuck at work and you want nutritious snack that is just meat fat and salt if you want it the carnivore bar is a great option so I like this product not because it's just pure meat but also because I want the carnivore Market to thrive as well and the more we support meat only products the more meat only products that will be available in the mainstream so if this sounds like something you'd like to get behind check it out using my discount code Anthony to get 10% off which also applies to subscriptions giving you 25% off total all right thanks guys well I was just going to say I I think that's a very important point to make is that I really like your analogy with the house fire and you put out the fire but that doesn't regrow the house there's damage and you can you can rebuild you can repair but that takes time it's not it's not just bang it it's it's back it's normal and that that's really important for things like autoimmunity because what what a carnivore diet I think that carnivore diet is is hitting the underlying root cause of autoimmunity what I think autoimmunity is is not autoimmunity it's not our body attacking itself because your body physically can't attack itself um I should probably do a video on this but the you know I took postgraduate Immunology um before medical school and it the the concept of autoimmunity and molecular molecular mimicry was really really hard for me to swall it did not make sense to me because I studied Immunology at a postgraduate level and when your immune cells are maturing in your bone Mar and your thy is they are exposed to every single antigen in your entire body every single possible molecule in combination molecules your body is capable of making your body you're you exposed to these immune cells that make these antibodies Etc and if they react even weekly with these they are killed so there's no mature IM cell that's you know probably maybe somebody has some sort of weird issue where they they're making they that security system and maturation process has been broken down a bit possible but there's no direct evidence of that um that that your body is not capable of making antibodies that attack itself it's not possible and so you have molecular mimicry you have the attack this over here and this antibody is similar enough to your body over here that you get a cross reaction no because if you if you were capable of making uh anything that weakly attached to your own body it would have done that without the virus vector or other sort of molecular mimicry because it was capable of making an antibody that was able to attack this in this way that crossreact that means it's capable of making an antibody that would have reacted to that in the first place so that can't happen and so that's not what's happening I don't think I think what's happening is like Celiac we know Celiac is gluten mediated autoimmunity so you have gluten which is a lectin lectin or proteins with carbohydrate substructure that bind to the different antigens and proteins and molecules on the surface of our cells and damage them and damage the cells and cause leaky gut cause different sorts of things to get into your body that would normally never be there but also cause an immune re response and an auto what we call an autoimmune response with people that have Celiac because now you're making antibodies to attack that gluten that is attacking your body so the the gluten attacks your parasites the intestinal cells and then you make antibodies that attack them but because they're on your cells the cells get damaged and so you get flatten you get damaged to the microa and the Villa you get flattening of these structures and you can't absorb food properly and um things that aren't supposed to be getting in are and things that are supposed to be getting in aren't and so this really damages people and they get very sick but then you stop eating gluten what happens that damage goes away and it heals and repairs but you still have those antibodies so why aren't they attacking your body anymore you have the antibodies but they're not attacking because they're not there's no gluten there to attack because they're attacking the lectins the gluten that are on your cells and so I think that's what's going on with every other autoimmune issue as well I don't think they're autoimmune issues I think it's perfectly normal immune response and you get these lectins or glyphosate or other sorts of of compounds that get into your body start attacking your body your structures and your nerves nervous system and your immune system is doing exactly what it's supposed to do which is defend you attack these because they're attacking right and so stopping and eating these things you stop these lectins you get out the glyphosate you get all these and that's why I think ruminant meat is so good you get all these antigens out of there um you know even when they're being fed things are not supposed to because they'll ferment it first and break those down they can ferment and break down glyphosate so they don't actually get a bunch of glyphosate in their system or chickens pigs things like that that can um um and so you're not getting that in in your body and so all of a sudden you're you're cutting out the root cause which is that these chemicals whatever they are are attacking your body and your body is making an immune response towards them and your body is getting hit in the crossfire your cells your nervous system your thyroid things like that are getting hit in the crossfire so you just stop eating those things now there's nothing for them to attack even though those antibodies are circulating they have nothing to attack just like in Celiac and that's what I think is happening but there is already damage done and we have to recognize that and so while you're stopping the disease the disease is the ability for your body to be damaged so you're stopping that disease process but there's already damage from the you get burned in that fire right okay well you can take the fire away you can get somebody out of the fire they still have burn damaged skin and some of that's going to heal and but there's going to leave scars and you're going to have problems with that you know that's that's what happens so you you you remove the fire there's no further damage there's no more burning happening but you there's still damage and you need to recover from that and so you know there is such a thing as damage done and it takes a long time especially with the nervous system because the nervous system takes months and months and months if not years to to heal bully and so putting all these things in place are you know are are very important getting the right amount of B12 and folate and and vitamin D and and all these then the Omega-3s like DHA and EPA that don't exist in Plants the Omega-3s and plants are not what you need for your nervous system and they don't turn into what you need for your nervous system and so uh it's very important to get that and then remove all those things that are causing the damage in the first place and allowing your body a chance to heal so I mean the simple fact that you have not had a flare up except for when you went off plan speaks volumes you know you really haven't had sounds it you haven't had a flare up in two years except for that one time and it's it's cause and effect at that point you stopped eating these things didn't have a flare up you started eating them again you got a flare up you stopped again went away again it's pretty damn clear and um you having had that experience you know for a cold Frozen fact that this is a cause and effect relationship and so now you're just like absolutely not I'm never going to touch that again which is U you know which is very good um unfortunately I have to I have to run cuz I have another appointment um I'm very sorry going really enjoyed this conversation but I did want to ask you just one thing real quick have you had a subsequent MRI um recently since you've been doing carnivore with your neurologist which is great that that your neurologist is you know is is at least keeping somewhat of an open mind saying like oh okay look there there might be something to this even if he's not fully on board yet at least he's not saying oh this is crazy you're going to kill yourself he's recog izing that hey look I think you actually have put this into remission and maybe that's something to think about but have you had a subsequent MRI to see um where you are now with your lesions not yet and if I would have thought about it I before I started carnivore I never thought I'd get this far with it or have these results I should have had an MRI you know I haven't had an MRI in years my doctors never really pushed for it so yeah I definitely want to get an MRI soon to find out you know when I get through this healing process I guess you say you know I'm curious to see you know compare what the lesions are like on My Brain and Spine and see if there's you know if some have cleared up but one thing I do want to add one thing that through my research that I found out about cholesterol I know you're big Advocate on cholesterol you know cholesterol protects the myin correct yeah well it's made out of it yeah yeah so why you know I sat there and ate lame Meats salads and fruits I wasn't getting cholesterol so you know it's like why you know I even asked you know the doctor I said why are we not educate cholesterol our brains are made up of what 70% cholesterol that it's a large propor well your brain is is 60 to 70% uh fats lipids and cholesterol yeah and and a major part of that is is going to be cholesterol and especially your white matter the milin is is predominantly cholesterol and saturated fat yeah and I asked him I said why are we not educating you know I have been with him for 21 years I was diagnosed 21 years ago why one time did you not mention hey up your cholesterol no we're suppressing the cholesterol you know and I'm like no wonder I have so much damage you know my it's like I had nothing protecting the myin yeah so yeah now my cholesterol levels are up and now I know the actual truth about cholesterol and it's like you know why why are you not educating people well his response is there's not enough studies like oh okay like but could yeah well there are there are plenty of studies that show if you disrupt the normal cholesterol metabolism of the brain you get very serious neurological compromise as a result and neurological uh deficiencies and deficits and developmental issues as well and uh but that's all we've been trying to do for the last 50 years is disrupt the normal cholesterol metabolism of the brain and the body because every cell makes cholesterol because they have to have it it's so vitally important and your brain makes it uh just like every other cell in your body and so it's vitally important and and yet we are doing everything we can to destroy our body's ability to make and utilize cholesterol which is um only going to lead to disaster and we have we have plenty of studies showing that and uh you know so you can you can point that out and uh just look just go on PubMed or Google Scholar and look up um you know cholesterol metabolism brain and uh right you'll find tons and tons and tons of paper papers on that and it's very important very very important especially for development yeah absolutely well I know I've caught a lot of grief from that and it's like no you need the cholesterol trust me on this one yeah yeah well Penny thank you so much for that it's absolutely wonderful uh spending this time with you thank you so much for for taking the time out I know this is the the first interview you've done and we a bit nervous but I think you did great and I think that everyone will really benefited uh from hearing your story and really appreciate you taking the time and stepping out of your comfort zone to to share your story with us thank you for that well thanks for having me and letting me share my story you're very welcome and thank you everybody for watching hopefully that has helped uh people and put their mind at ease if they're thinking about starting a cornivore diet especially for autoimmune issue like Ms and if you know anybody who suffers with Ms which a very very serious disease please do send this on to them as well as my other videos on Ms um because this is something that uh will hopefully change in the next few years we're getting ready to publish a case series on people like Penny who have improved not only their symptoms of MS on Carnivore diet but actually shown um reduction in their lesions on MRI which is here to for unheard of in the literature as far as I know so that's something that is very powerful and uh it it is hopefully will give somebody hope who maybe doesn't have as much as they need it so if if you know someone who falls into that category please do share this with them thank you all very much and we'll see you next time hey guys thank you very much for taking the time out to listen to what I had to say if you like it then please like And subscribe to my YouTube channel and podcast and if you're on YouTube then please hit that little bell and subscribe and that'll let you know anytime I have a new video out which should be every week if not more and if you could share this with your friends that would help me get the word out and let me know that you like what what I'm doing thanks again guys
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