If you’re into the first days of a carnivore experiment and you’re experiencing acid reflux (heartburn), or low appetite for protein―like the idea of steak sounds totally gross and makes you want to gag―this can be indicative of low stomach acid.
Stomach acid is really important. It breaks down the protein in the food that we eat. It’s extremely acidic―a drop of it on your living room floor would burn right through the carpet―and it’s supposed to be that way!
Without enough of it, instead of moving further down the digestive track, food just kind of sits in the stomach, rotting (gross, I know), then expands and begins to push back up into the esophagus. That’s what causes acid reflux.
Here are 5 things you can do to help support your body’s ability to digest protein and get you over the low-appetite hump.
Chew thoroughly.
Chewing 30 times each bite, until the food is liquid in your mouth, will help relieve the burden on your stomach acid to do the breakdown of food.
Limit how much you drink at mealtime.
Liquid dilutes stomach acid, so keep any liquids with meals to less than 8 ounces.
Supplement to boost stomach acid.
You can take an HCl supplement with the first few bites of your meal, especially in the first few days. I took 10-15 of the Biotics Research HydroZyme with each meal, and it definitely helped a lot.
PS. I used my knowledge as a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner to put together a little “Carnivore Starter Kit” of supplements, including the HydroZyme, that helped make my transition way easier with better digestion and lessened sugar cravings & carb flu― email me if you want to get in on this. ?
Eat easier-to-digest meats.
Meats that have been slow-cooked or pre-broken down are easier for the body to digest. When you cut into a meat that flakes apart easily, you can see how the heat and water has gone in and partially broken down the meat.
You can try: ① A roast cooked at 220 for 5-6 hours, ② Drinking bone broth, rich in amino acids, and ③ (sounds weird, but) cooking ground beef and pulsing it a few times in the food processor so it’s minced very finely.
Consider adding in spices.
If the idea of steak is making you gag, consider instead making meatballs out of ground beef, turkey, or pork, and seasoning it with plenty of salt and spices. While it’s not pure carnivore, as entrepreneur Tim Ferriss says:
The imperfect plan you stick to is better than the perfect plan you don’t.
Eventually, as your appetite increases, you’ll be able to phase out the spices if you decide to do that.
And, remember that this is temporary! Your body will adjust with time and your appetite for meat will get better, I promise. ?
Photo by José Ignacio Pompé on Unsplash
I am on day 4 and definitely experiencing acid tummy and nausea. I have no appetite for meat. Thanks for this article. I will give your suggestions a try. I do want to succeed on this diet and heal my mood and thyroid issues. I have tried every diet out there from vegan to paleo. I have no where else to go.
Good luck with the acid tummy and nausea. I know there can be a little of an adjustment period. Eat as little as your body is asking for when you just start out. Limit fluid intake at meals. You got this!
Anne, I too have tried both of those. I tried paleo first then raw vegan for 14 months because the ‘vegan junk science’ said it would cure all my aliments and auto immune issues. All it did was make everything worse. I stumbled on Dr. Berry on youtube and have been doing carnivore for 32 days. Ive lost 21 pounds, my sinuses are completely clear, my skin is clearing up, dry scalp is gone, energy through the roof, no more brain fog, depression and anxiety gone, ankle swelling gone and my fasting glucose has gone from 120 to 111. I honestly cant wait to see what the next 30 days brings. Reversing my pre-diabetes would be wonderful!
Thank you Teresa, this gives me hope. I have so many health and weight issues, I need this to work!!
I have a hiatal hernia and the acid reflux is now nightly even though I stop eating at 6pm. I’m up right now (12:31 am) in fact because of the worst reflux I’ve had to date. I’ve been carnivore for a month and nightly reflux for a month.
Reflux is super uncomfortable and makes sleep so difficult! Sorry to hear you’re experiencing that. Make sure you’re chewing really thoroughly, at least 30 times per bite, so the food becomes liquid in your mouth, because it will reduce the burden on your stomach acid to chemically break down the food. Another thing is to not drink too much water with a meal, as it dilutes stomach acid. Lastly, avoid distracted eating with a phone/book/tv show. Paying attention to your food will help your brain send signals to the rest of the body to get ready for digestion.
What also helps for me, put your bed on the side were you lay with your head about 20 cm higher so the acid stays in the stomach and sleep on your right side, i don’t drink with mealtime and eat little portions.
What about burning after one year 90% carnivore? Looks like high acidity to me.
Hi Veronica, definitely make sure you’re doing the simple lifestyle stuff first: Make sure you’re chewing really thoroughly, at least 30 times per bite, so the food becomes liquid in your mouth, because it will reduce the burden on your stomach acid to chemically break down the food. Another thing is to not drink too much water with a meal, as it dilutes stomach acid. Lastly, avoid distracted eating with a phone/book/tv show. Paying attention to your food will help your brain send signals to the rest of the body to get ready for digestion.
You can also try supplementing with zinc, as your body needs zinc to make stomach acid that is strong enough to break down the food and keep it moving along rather than sitting in your stomach and causing heartburn. I would also recommend seeing a medical professional to see if there’s some structural issue such as the esophagus not closing all the way, allowing the stomach acid to bubble back up.
I recently dove head first into carnivore because I couldn’t get help with some long covid problems. Fatigue, high cortisol but not cushings, low thyroid, rejected the meds. I’m going into wk 2 of virtually no carbs. Not much problem beyond my original. Actually have had less bad reactions after meals (rapid pulse & weakness) which I already had. I had a weak moment after 10 days and ate literally one french fry. Within 20 min I had long lasting heartburn and felt nauseous. Does this mean when & if I decide to add a little carbs back I will have stomach problems? Also, what to take for it. Think I heard cider vinegar?
Thanks
Hi Janice, this is something you will want to talk to a medical professional about, however, it might be worth doing a reintroduction test with the simplest forms of a couple different carbs to see how your body tolerates them. By simple, I mean without any other ingredients like oil or spices. So you could try a quarter cup of peeled boiled potatoes one day, or cooked plain white rice the next day, and just see how your body tolerates it.
I’m thinking of trying carnivore but I keep seeing that it might increase cholesterol and heart disease, I come from a family with bad history on heart disease and blood pressure issues, would it be problematic for me?
Thank you
Hi Carla, these are really common worries, especially with all we’ve been taught on cholesterol being bad for you. I would recommend checking out Carnivore Code for a deep dive into the science and understanding why cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease. You can also check out Dr. Jason Fung’s resources for the science on the same thing.
Is Jason Fung an MD or a chiropractor?
So glad I stumbled on this page. I’m one week into carnivore and am having *the* worst heartburn–never had it before. Can’t understand why eating meat is doing this. And yes, normally I love meat, but wow, I’d be happy right now if I never had another steak again! 😉 But seriously, this is bad enough to make me reconsider if I can go on with it, but we’ll see. I hear such amaaaazing benefits–I’m doing this for health, not weight. Thank you!!
Well that’s helpful. I have low stomach acid, and realized a month ago that whenever I eat carbs they are fermenting to the alcohol in my stomach. And I can’t you know damage my body w alcohol all the time. So carnivore. I used to do keto on and off. And as I said low stomach acid was always a problem. I did start to take HCl supplements together with enzymes. I will order the one that you recommend too. The question however. Will I be able to digest food eventually without supplements?
Hi all! I was quite overweight and hit plateau where I could not lose weight no matter how much I counted calories and no matter how hard I worked out.. plus I had developed several ailments and allergies. So I decided to try ketogenic diet. It worked very well for me and I lost a lot of weight. I adapted drinking lemon water with ACV, which was very calming to my stomach. But I saw that something was still bothering me that I was probably eating, causing flare ups of my arthritis in my fingers. Started diving into searches for something else and decided to do the ultimate elimination diet so that I might single out what bothers me. Carnivore diet.
I feel absolutely great! Strong, alert, relaxed, focused, tons of energy, my mood is great. But after 3 weeks I started getting acid reflux. It’s very annoying and makes me not want to eat. I tried using lemon water with ACV but it makes it worse. How can I naturally increase my stomach acids without using supplements? I would like to steer clear of any types of medications or supplements as I haven’t used even a simple pain pill for over a year due to my changes in diet. Any suggestions good people out there? Much appreciated! 🙏