Ex-Vegan (1 Year): Terrible Autoimmune Disorders Caused by Eating Plants

Watch on YouTube · 2019-09-07 · 17 min

[video] 0:00 I'm Cameron. I became vegetarian in 2016 initially, like I think maybe May, May of 2016 it would have been. I had a friend who was vegan actually and she had recommended that I watch the Cowspiracy documentary. And so I started off with like that. I was just like, it wasn't so much like I guess the animal rights, but I was just really like propelled by the environmental catastrophe that was looming or so I thought because of like meat consumption on a large scale. And so I just thought, oh God, this commodity meat and dairy industry, they're the worst, whatever, whatever. Never mind, like, of course, Monsanto and the soy crop and the whole, I mean, I was still eating processed foods, of course, as a vegetarian even initially. But so I made some definite adjustments to my diet as far as like trying to eat a little bit more healthy, but just as a response kind of to

[video] 0:56 seeing that documentary and getting a conversation going with my friend, I just realized I want to be a little bit more health conscious. I'm not trying to croak out here in a couple of years. It's the American food supply. It's very questionable. I just became a little bit more conscious of what I was eating. This is, like I said, May 2016. I was a vegetarian there until August of 2016. I moved from L.A., where I was living, to Germany, in Stuttgart, which is in the southwest of Germany, for anyone who doesn't know. And there, I actually started... I don't actually remember, honestly. I guess I just thought it was more environmentally sustainable. It was very ideological. But that was kind of my move from vegetarianism to veganism. And, yeah, I didn't have any, like, initial fatigue. I just remember feeling...

[video] 1:53 Feeling mostly pretty good. I think it probably was honeymoon. I started having rashes and, for me, zinc deficiency symptoms, if that makes sense for anyone. But it's where around your eye, it's just very red. And I would get rashes in the creases of my arms. And I had had heat rashes as a kid, but never really anything like this and it was kind of like I didn't have a direct correlation to a certain food I just would like randomly get it I thought at first it was like a cat allergy so I went and actually had a test done I was not allergic to cats according to this like to this test I also went to just like a standard medical doctor for like a general checkup there in Stuttgart and you know I was told you know, everything looks fine in terms of your blood work and everything. Here, have a cream, essentially.

[video] 2:52 And so I was, like, applying a cream, a topical cream. And so that became kind of, like, just standard for me day to day. And I was working, like, you know, just kind of, like, on the go. And so I was eating, like, a lot of, like, just pizza and things that were whatever vegan things I could get. So it was definitely not, like, a raw vegan diet. I was definitely undercooking lentils and beans though when I was attempting to cook. I'm still not great with beans and the exact amount of time and all of this, but now I'm a little bit closer to it. I've learned to sprout things actually. But at the time, I had no sense of this.

[video] 3:34 Let's see. Did you want to interject with anything?

3:41 No, it sounds fine. When did you start experiencing any kind of health issues?

[video] 3:47 Yeah, so like I said, August is when I went like full vegan initially. Probably it was like either late October, November of 2016. That's when I started like having, I mean, it was like also like winter Germany. I had never really been at that latitude living before through like a winter. So I was getting a lot less sunlight, I guess, than, you know, LA where I had just been. Um, and so I think I was just kind of thinking that it was a combination of these other things, but like many vegans, it just wasn't like registering to me that it could all be, I didn't have, I mean, I'd heard that your gut health was significantly benefited in all these different ways by being vegan. So, um, I had some kind of concept of like the importance of like gut health and like having a strong intestinal lining and all this stuff. But I didn't think like this just overload of like oxalates and anti-nutrients was impacting me in any way. But in retrospect, of course it was.

[video] 4:40 And I didn't even have, you know, any of the things that are more native to our digestive system like meats and loaded with like the collagen and all these different things that you need to actually kind of fortify that intestinal lining. These things just were not You know, so at the time I'm just like in total denial. I lived with a relative. She was not, with my aunt, she was not vegan. And so she was kind of quietly concerned about things, but like never was like too whatever. Like she just was kind of letting me do my thing. And so, and I just kind of insisted that everything was good, whatever, even though I had had to resort to using a topical cream every day. And I was, like I said, just having these random rashes and like bone degeneration and like, in a pretty major way. I feel like that, it's something that I think, like, I had had, like, an injury when I was younger, and so that I think it just kind of, like, exacerbated, though, like, this, like, a car wreck. And then I think, like, the year of being vegan kind of just made the bones, like, really didn't have, like, a lot of density.

[video] 5:39 And so then subsequently after being vegan, I actually had, like, another injury, which I think was, I'm kind of jumping all over the place, but I think it all just kind of compounded. But, I mean, it was a noticeable difference. Like I was just kind of achy at a certain point. I don't remember being like especially fatigued, but the obvious bad symptoms were mostly like, and like I said, this started probably like November 2016, but yeah, I would say it was really like to a point where I couldn't hardly deal with it in April. of 2017, next year. In June of 2017 is when I started eating meat again. But basically, just this, everything kind of, it was just this steady decline, like, all these different symptoms, again, I was just, like, totally, even though I didn't have, like, I wasn't someone who was publicizing being vegan, it was obviously, like, ideological, there was definitely an ego component to it. But at the same time, I didn't really

[video] 6:34 like that wasn't something I was publicizing, so I was just sort of privately dealing with all of this and the people around me weren't vegan. And so, I just kind of sort of justified a lot of different things to myself. I didn't necessarily discuss the symptoms with some of the friends that I had that I was talking to back in the States. I had some friends in Germany who had only known me as vegan, so I didn't really have a comparison. But yeah, like I said, just to answer the question, steady decline kind of throughout that year. And then it was only whenever I came back to the U.S. and started eating meat again that things got better. And even at that time, it was kind of actually like I wasn't. I'm now eating grass-finished. I have a direct farmer that I know who I know the situation at the farm kind of thing going on now. But when I initially came back, it was just kind of more like whatever meat seemed like it was a higher quality, but that was just like the general supermarket grass-fed thing. And now it's like a different kind of scrutiny that I have.

7:31 What did you notice when you started eating meat again? What symptoms were relieved, for example?

[video] 7:39 pretty quickly I stopped having any kind of like so when I say autoimmunity that's I guess kind of big I would get these like it wasn't just rashes on my skin it would itch like it was to a point of like that like it would make you kind of crazy and I kept thinking like I'm sure it had to do with the lack of vitamin D being where I was in Germany and not eating any fish not you know all this stuff but I think it was also just like the zinc you just aren't getting from plants and that's a huge part of like your skin you know it's like your actual the elasticity of your skin and your ability to rapidly heal and repair and all this so i would get this this autoimmune like attack my own immune system attacking like like i said in the creases of my arms or sometimes like through my neck here and then so it would be like these red spots right but then because of the lack of zinc it was the suspicious cycle it would just i would get the attack it would take forever to heal and it would just like get worse i mean i look back at it now and it's just crazy that it didn't even cross my mind that it would have had to do with just like

[video] 8:35 total lack of like every I mean just I also have like northern European Native American ancestry and so it's like I don't if I think about it like I'm introducing a lot of lentils and anti-nutrients and all these things that like I don't mean my ancestry wouldn't have encountered did you also take supplements during the time p12 or anything I just did the topical cream I think I tried like occasionally I would try one I was never like on anything

9:05 long term. Do you think that that made any difference?

[video] 9:13 I mean I suppose I could have been more managed like a manageable vegan maybe and extended it but for me it was pretty dire I mean I really within a year like there was significant bone loss like I said my gut health it was crazy I was like you know having a reaction to everything which is I think fairly common I've actually come across like for a lot of people especially in the paleo world which is fairly big here in Texas, in Austin, Texas particularly, there's a huge headquarters of all these different, there's this company here, what was a startup and is now this big tech company called Paleo Hacks is down there, and there's a big Paleo community centered in Austin, Texas. So thankfully, kind of coming back to Texas when I returned, I feel like in that way it was really beneficial because I came across a lot of these people, I had a friend who actually worked there,

[video] 10:03 So I was able to kind of just get good information on like, get quality stuff, get bone broth, get these things, you know, and this is like stuff that, of course, like the ancestry, all of our ancestry knew ancient traditions. But, you know, I just you kind of get caught up in this just like new wave way of thinking. And I think it's I don't know, it's almost like the lie of veganism is that it's like you're being primitive if you're not vegan or something like you're kind of. somehow like primitive is like a negative connotation though it's like you are if you're not vegan but you're like it has a negative connotation and it's almost like oh I'm

[video] 10:42 transcending that and it's almost if you think about it it's like broader like transhuman new world order like agenda 21 kind of connection i mean it's all actually it really does kind of line up if you give it any thought actually i mean i guess i did i would occasionally take like a spirulina thing like these little powders you know i would be like lena powder and supposedly getting some some b12 from that which is of course like different completely different but um right so

11:11 Did you also have any vegan friends, any contacts?

[video] 11:16 Yeah, yeah. So my friend who was in Sweden, who I'd seen that August when I, I think that was probably around the time I went vegan, but it wasn't because of her. She, she is the, actually the friend of mine who I'd mentioned before, who initially put me onto the Cowspiracy documentary, which I went vegetarian because of. But so I, at any rate, when I came to Europe, I went to visit her and, uh, And yeah, she just, she's, I believe, still vegetarian. I don't know her, exactly where she's at with it. We haven't really been in touch in the past, like, five months or so. But, you know, eventually I'll follow up with her. But yeah, we're, I mean, she's a great friend of mine, previously a roommate. But she was a big part of, like, my kind of, I guess, believing that you could kind of maintain. Because she kind of had, like, a pep about her. And, like, I... There were some like vegan friends that I had met when I went to visit her and they all seemed kind of like it wasn't like they were lacking energy. Of course, they could have just been like on a sugar high and I just saw them at the tip.

[video] 12:13 But I'm now realizing how it's – and through your channel as well, I'll say thank you. I discovered Natasha Campbell McBride and she talks about this recycling of energy. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, she talks about this recycling of energy from the sun and through photosynthesis, plants making a physical matter of this sunlight energy. And then, of course, the herbivores consume the plants. And then how we're actually a part of this, it just really puts it all in context. It's It's really kind of lacking humility in a way to be vegan, because we are, like, this is where we're at in terms of the food chain. Like, this is, we've evolved to this place, and I think it's just kind of lost on people. I had another friend, you know, when I was, like, younger, who I know had to go off a bit. I mean, it's like, before I even actually went vegan, she had already, like, she was kind of ahead of the curve, like, very progressive or whatever. But I think she, I remember being at a summer camp working with this friend and she like had to like leave because she had to go have a doctor's appointment. She was just talking about how she was chronically fatigued.

[video] 13:13 And I remember her saying, you know, she's vegan because the chef there actually made her like a different meal and made the vegans a different meal. It was a very like unique summer camp. But yeah, she, I remember she had to go back to eating eggs. And so, yeah, and that was like what kind of like saved her and like revived her. And she was like, Very energized to camp again. Thanks to eggs.

13:38 How do you see the future of veganism?

[video] 13:42 Unfortunately, I do. I mean, I don't think that, I don't trust the, well, I'll say I'm not hopeful of the willpower of the general population to resist this being imposed on us. People are very asleep, especially in America. People defend fluoride. They defend being fluoridated, their municipal water being fluoridated. Like, why do you want something like that added to your water? Why wouldn't you just want like a neutral water? Like, who knows? But people defend it because our public health agencies say that it's something that's good with your dental, blah, blah, blah. Well, people are dumber because of that, among many other things, including the GMOs and all this. So I don't really see – I see in terms of veganism, I do believe it's a part of a greater agenda. I do believe there are obviously decent, like, vegans who are actually doing it for the same reasons that I was. I acknowledge that.

[video] 14:28 But it's – and I think that people who are, like, ex-vegans tend to be some of, like, the best – the most aware people that you can encounter because they're, like, really acutely – they understand that, like, there's a big industrial, like, push, you know, this – huge supply chain. I mean, if Monsanto can't insert itself into everything, I mean, they're totally, you have these GMO, you know, the soy, what's it called? Impossible foods. They like got hit with the law. So this company that does all these like non-meat, like fake meat things or whatever, got hit with the lawsuit because they hadn't gone through like the correct, like the FBA didn't officially approve them or something like that. So I mean, there's But even then, you know, you cannot trust the governmental agencies in the U.S. I know in Europe they're a little bit more reliable. I understand you guys have some better. But the general population, at least here, leaves a lot to be desired.

[video] 15:22 People are not very aware of just, I mean, you just think if there's anything that you're going to pay any attention to in your life, it's going to be the food. that you're putting, like, what you rely on to sustain yourself, I mean, to the extent that you want to live, you have to care about that, right, you think, but people here don't really see things that way, and maybe in the general world, I don't know, people just, yeah, so that's kind of philosophical and broad, but I do feel like it's connected to, like, my initial going to veganism was ideological, and it was philosophical, and so I like to just kind of, like, for anyone who might be listening, I want to push back a little bit, I think, on this idea of, like, you know, primitive is not shouldn't have a negative connotation do you want to add anything else anything you remember some experience something important you want to share or anything you want to say to any vegans watching yeah there are a lot of different experiences but uh yeah i would just say overall i mean i endured a lot of suffering just from like a purely ideological place Don't do that.

[video] 16:21 Concern yourself with learning about nutrition first and foremost. And then I would just say keep the ideological dieting on the back burner. I mean, for me, the simplest thing I can say to anyone is defer to the ancient wisdom. There are all these traditions that we have that are totally worth passing on and continuing. And so I would say just kind of like... Don't be too ideological. Listen to your body when you're having issues. Acknowledge it. Be real. I think it's easier said than done. But, yeah, I guess just have the humility to admit that what you're doing might not be working and to just kind of like honor your body's response.

17:07 Okay. Thanks for sharing.

[video] 17:10 Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.