Science Man eating 6-9 pounds of butter and cheese a day develops ‘cholesterol hands’ while on carnivore die

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A man who told doctors he ate nothing, but 6–9 pounds of butter, cheese and hamburgers every day for eight months ended up at Tampa General Hospital with yellowish lumps of cholesterol developing on parts of his body.

The backstory:

According to JAMA Cardiology, a man, who is only identified as being in his 40s, told doctors that he got diet advice from the internet and began following an extreme carnivore diet.

For eight months, he only ate 6–9 pounds of butter, cheese and hamburgers a day. He stopped eating all carbohydrates, such as bread and sugar.

At first, he said he felt great. He lost weight, became more energetic and had more mental clarity.

But after about eight months, he started developing yellow lesions on his eyelids. Over the next month, the yellow lesions appeared on the palms of his hands, the soles of his feet and his elbows.

hand.jpg

Doctors diagnosed him with xanthelasma, a rare condition that impacts about 1% of patients with high cholesterol.

What is xanthelasma?​

Dig deeper:

Xanthelasma is yellow raised deposits of cholesterol that appear under the skin because the body cannot process it.

It’s usually seen in people with familial hyperlipidemia, a condition in which patients cannot process cholesterol.

Dr. Konstantinos Marmagkiolis, an interventional cardiologist with Tampa Heart, Tampa General Hospital and USF Health co-authored a study on the patient for JAMA Cardiology said the lesions are not painful, but there is a concern about cholesterol.

According to Dr. Marmagkiolis, the patient checked his cholesterol levels every year for five years and they were normal. But his cholesterol increased five times abruptly after following the extreme carnivore diet.

What is the carnivore diet?​

Big picture view:

The carnivore diet is a type of keto diet and consists of cutting carbohydrates and eating nothing but meat and animal products. The idea is that by cutting carbohydrates, the body will use fat for energy and people will lose weight.

Dr. Marmagkiolis says that when carbohydrates and sugars are abruptly decreased, the body starts using fat as the main fuel for energy. The body then goes into a process called deep ketosis, which is when it produces ketones.

Without using carbohydrates, there is a very stable energy level in the body. Dr. Marmagkiolis says the ketones are very good steady energy or fuel, and there is dehydration.

Patients are not retaining water, and they are losing fat and people usually feel great after starting a carnivore diet.
The carnivore diet gives results very fast and people who follow it will feel great in the first weeks or months.

Dangers of carnivore diet​

The other side:

However, the problems start when people start eating too much fat, like this patient, and when cholesterol increases, it can deposit not only under the skin, but in other parts of the body and cause heart attacks and strokes.

Dr. Marmagkiolis recommends starting slowly.

He advises following a low-carb diet in the beginning and then moving on to a more balanced diet.

If someone does decide to follow the carnivore diet for a long period of time, they should work with a doctor or cardiologist to monitor their cholesterol levels.

Treating xanthelasma​

Dr. Marmagkiolis says there is no treatment of medication for xanthelasma.

He says that even if the cholesterol is treated, the xanthelasma remains.

hand2.jpg

Dr. Marmagkiolis added that there are some good therapies a dermatologist can perform for aesthetic reasons, but doctors need to use the lesions as a marker of high cholesterol, which may be the first step of the body saying it cannot process cholesterol anymore, and it may deposit it in the body. That could be the first sign of atherosclerosis, the deposit of cholesterol in the arteries which increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

source: https://www.fox13news.com/news/man-...s-cholesterol-hands-while-carnivore-diet-jama
archive: https://archive.md/J40Sp
 
In my state they are staffed by people from their early 20's and up. I see a lot of people in their 30's and 40's working at the deli counters. 50+ as well. Yeah it's a pain in the ass getting them to slice the cheese and meat how you want it. Some will do it and others it's like pulling teeth or walking on a broken leg.
No the deli counter at the local store just doesn't have cheese for slicing behind the deli counter. They slice meat but all the cheese. Is pre weighed and wrapped. I mean I guess I could bring them one of those and have them slice it but I haven't.
 
The protein braps must be insane
 
I don't believe he's actually eating 6-9 pounds of butter and cheese. That's an absolutely enormous amount of food and even competitive eaters would struggle to eat that much at a competition, let alone every day.

That's also over 15,000 calories worth of food. Dude either works out as much as a pro athlete (which would be impossible with that much food inside of him), is extremely obese (which he clearly isn't from the photo), is a bulimic, or is a liar.
 
"See, cholesterol and meat are bad. Have more chemicals, THATS what's healthy"
Anything is bad in excess. Like meat is good for you, but eating FUCKING 6-9 POUNDS a day is horrible for you. UPF’s are really bad but that doesn’t mean eating a ton of butter is good.
is a bulimic
If he was I think the problem would be less high cholesterol, and more that his throat collapsed.
 
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That's a fairly excessive amount of butter, cheese and ground beef. Every single fucking day. I'm honestly trying to picture eating that amount every single day and it's kind of mind boggling. Like picture 9 fucking pounds of butter. That's 36 sticks of butter. I don't even think my grocery store sells cheese by the pound but fucking 9 of those. 9 fucking packs of ground beef the size I use to feed two people sometimes for two days depending on what I make out of it or whatever combination of all three that adds up to that equivalent.

Every single day.


I don't think this dude's diet of an insanely retarded amount of cow products every day is really representative of what I usually hear about when I hear about carnivore diets.
I think he must mean 9 pounds of cheese butter and ground beef combined because 9 of each just seems so improbable.
To be honest so does eating 3 pounds of it breakfast lunch and dinner.
 
When it comes to the body, balance matters. Your physical activity as well as what you eat. Every food group has its role to keep your body running.

That said, fuck heavily processed foods. Those are just pure poison. The safest bet you can take is to avoid eating foods that are laced with HFCS and cooked with vegetable oils. The latter is the main reason why so many third worlders die of heart problems aside from eating extremely fatty foods.
 
bulletproof coffee
You know, I was feeling pretty good about my scrambled eggs, plain yogurt (+blackberries/ I am not doing keto), and butter coffee for breakfast today until THIS GUY had to come along and make me look at his vomit-inducing hands.

My stomach is turned. Why did he let it get so bad? Did he not think that MAYBE his extreme food choices might be causing this? I swear I think I'd be poking and picking at it constantly trying to get that stuff out to to go away somehow (possible or not). And the doc who is quoted as saying he shouldn't get it treated because it's a good marker of high cholesterol - what? Stupid. His readings show up "ok," but clearly his body needs lower, so do that. Or whatever. Walking around with interior matter showing through your skin is horrifying. Yuck.
 
Keto is great but these fucking idiots are something else. I've seen their Facebook groups where they brag about stuffing themselves with the fattest food imaginable all topped with cups of melted butter.

Keto (or maybe a bastardization of it) is a great fit for online personas in a number of ways.

1. They get to present it in Very Smart scenarios "you heard this was unhealthy I bet. Heh, well..."

2. "Yeah I'm pretty much the opposite of those pussy vegans. Those guys are not manly at all and if I were ever at an event with vegan food I'd crash in with big boxes of meat BBQ from DEAD ANIMALS yelling Real food's here! being carried by a real man!"

3. A confused countersignaling thing, "yeah I'm so absolutely healthy and fit and energy-hungry I need HUGE AMOUNTS of this stuff the rest of you unhealthy flabby types are afraid of." (this is done with pizza-mentions a lot too by non-keto)
 
I think he must mean 9 pounds of cheese butter and ground beef combined because 9 of each just seems so improbable.
To be honest so does eating 3 pounds of it breakfast lunch and dinner.
I assumed it was combined but even combined it's pretty unreasonable. Just a single pound of butter a day is pretty unreasonable.
 
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Dont get me wrong, I fucking love my red meats and butter, but I also know that a balanced diet is important. Thanks Dr. OZ.
 
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