OK. So. I'm a Chiropractor, and used to run an Alt health clinic in So Cal. I pretty much just did myofascial work and cracking, but worked with a mad scientist of a Naturopath as part of the staff. He was plugged in with the Hollywood crowd, so some of the people coming in looked awfully familiar (HIPAA....you would know them, but I can't say).
Trend: When Hollywood "insiders" stumble on something that works for them, Hollywood "wannabes" follow in droves. I swear they just hope to bump into a director in the waiting room, but what do I know (and yes, they really do carry head shots with them everywhere they go). Anyway..."cave-man diet" became a big thing. Raw organ meats version of the Atkin's deal.
I had several patients I was co-treating with Nature-Boy, and would see them for several weeks on, then month or 2 off, in cycles as part of a planned experiemental health regimen we were working on. All my new patient exams get a futurex body comp analysis as part of their intake process. Tells me how much of you is water, fat, lean muscle mass, etc. I staple them to the charts for future reference.
One guy comes in...kinda fit, but kinda pudgy, like a construction worker who likes his beer. We get lean mass and bodyfat on him. I don't see him for 8 weeks, and he comes in looking like he's been on serious performance enhancing drugs, and in the gym 6 hours a freaking day. I quiz him with the, "No, really, you can tell me...what are you on?" Nothing. Just the raw organ meats caveman thing. I'm thinking, "We'll see."
Steroids cause you to retain extra water...serious bloat. And for him to be this big, he's gotta be carrying water. So I run another futurex on him, thinking I got a body comp lie detector reading coming to hold him to. He's clean. I grill him at this point for the secret. "Raw organ meats, raw vegetables, raw fruits, organized around a food combining schedule". How often are you in the gym? "I don't do any physical training...my schedule doesn't allow it."
I still think he's full of it, until we get a clinic patient entering end-stage syndrome for AIDS. Nature-boy puts him on this stuff. The darned patient would eat it in the treatment rooms or waiting rooms while we made rounds, stinking the whole place up like raw dog food. Over a 12 week period, he not only rebounds, he also starts looking like he's on gear, and training in a P90-X program. Nope: Instructed by nature boy not to tax his system while it regenerates damaged tissues through the schmutz he's taking and eating.
Well, this pattern repeated itself enough times for me to know 2 things:
1. I think that stuff is just way to nasty to be able to eat myself. They take something like a whole kidney, throw it in the blender with some raw organic veggies & garlic & medicinal spices, and blend it to a puree. Pack that crap in a tupperware, and that's lunch. Dinner? Well, let's puree the pancreas, or a lung, or whatever. Just gross.
2. If I start losing the battle with some nasty disease process, I'm going to have my sense of smell and gag reflex surgically removed, and jump right on this nasty diet.
I have read a lot of the "science" behind it, and while it makes intuitive, anectdotal sense, I think the real science is still thin...RCT's with large enough sample sizes, correlating risk factors for common diseases and incidences of undesirable sequellae, etc. However, I have seen the results. Clinical outcomes may rank as weak evidence, but it's still evidence.
Hard part is, as Tellner pointed out, access to quality foods. The Naturopath had an arrangement with one of his patients, who was a rancher raising grass-fed beef in the hills nearby, then slaughtering under specific conditions. The meants were immediately air-chilled to near freezing, but not frozen, and delivered within hours to the consumers via private couriours. Not many folks will have access to these sorts of resources, and I sure as hell wouldn't trust raw organ meats from the downtown supermarket. Caveat emptor, or die, I suppose.
D.
