Hui healed from anorexia and veganism on a carnivore diet

The Background: Hui’s Research and Vegan Diet Experience

Hui is training to get her MD and Ph.D. and says you would think she would know a thing or two about eating. Through her education, Hui has been studying how the brain drives humans to eat and stop eating. Her Ph.D. research focuses on neuroendocrine control of acute hunger, satiety, and the body’s long-term energy balance. And so, Hui spends a lot of time studying the effects of various nutrition paths.

Hui says, “You’d think someone like me would know to nourish myself well.” Unfortunately, Hui followed a vegan diet from 2013 to 2019 for ethical reasons. She says, “My health suffered tremendously.” While following the vegan diet, she didn’t recognize many warning signs of being malnourished. Hui almost immediately stopped menstruating once she started the vegan diet. She says, “ I stupidly did not take the warning signs seriously.”

While following the diet for several years, Hui’s health declined. By December 2019, Hui’s weight had plummeted to just 69.5 pounds– typically expected for a nine or ten-year-old child. Hui was hospitalized for anorexia refeeding.

Hospitalization and Standard American Diet: Negative Effects

She said while hospitalized, the inpatient facility forced her to eat a large amount of the Standard American Diet in a short time. The high-carbohydrate and highly processed foods Hui was forced to eat while in treatment caused her to develop horrible inflammation and edema– swelling in the body’s tissues.

Hui was discharged from the hospital in January 2020 and said while the “hospital stay did restore my weight,” it did so in the “fastest and unhealthiest way possible.” After she left the hospital, Hui attempted to continue to eat the hospital-taught recovery foods, but she felt deeply repulsed by the highly unhealthy foods she was eating.

Again, her signs of anorexia began to creep back, and she began to relapse. At one point, her doctors told her she needed to reenter an inpatient facility.

The Carnivore Diet: A Positive Turnaround

However, Hui’s life began to turn around when she met a rancher from Kansas. Her new friend drew her closer to understanding how cattle are raised and beef processing. She also learned about the carnivore diet, which she decided to try.

Hui immediately began to feel the positive effects of eating a meat-only diet. Hui had bloodwork taken before she was a carnivore diet follower and nine days into the diet. Her body healed so much in those nine days that her doctor no longer felt she needed to be checked into an inpatient facility.

A Critique of Eating Disorder Treatment Facilities: Lack of Proper Nutrition Education

Hui has been following the carnivore way of eating ever since and says she has no plans to look back. It saddens Hui that, to this day, eating disorder treatment facilities do not teach about proper nutrition for humans.

The diet she was forced to eat while in the hospital facility did little to heal her body, unlike the carnivore diet, which has her feeling more alive than ever. Hui says thanks to the carnivore lifestyle, she is in a much better place mentally and physically and has healed herself from the damage the vegan diet caused.