Cannot Sleep Without Raw Beef: But Why?

[aaron_c]

I couldn't tolerate tiny amounts of DHEA (nausea, fatigue at 5mg) until I started taking taurine (2g/day was enough to make the difference, can tolerate 150mg+ DHEA now).

Interesting...I couldn't take DHEA because a sliver of a low dose pill gave me terrific insomnia...although it's been years since I tried, so who knows now.

How much taurine did you try? Based on what you wrote, I can't tell if that is a critical issue or not.

I am not sure exactly how much Taurine I took before (when it appeared to swing me from excess to deficiency rather quickly), but I would guess between 500 mg and 1000 mg per dose. I tend to start low, and as I recall, it didn't take a whole lot to make me sleepy--although as I think I said, that quickly changed, and by the end of the day I had taken maybe five more one-gram doses before I decided that dosing myself every few hours, aside from swinging me between sleepiness and possible heart damage, would also make it difficult to sleep through the night and was definitely not an improvement over the status quo.

Again, it has been a while, so any numbers I just listed are my best guesses.

 

[xena]

Very cool thread

 

[rippe]

Maybe you find some interesting answers to your question in the rawpaleodietforum.com or you might look into what Aajonus Vonderplanitz said about his primal diet. It's quite interesting and more than just empty claims…
To be honest, raw meat, raw milk, raw bone marrow and raw liver (frozen because of the taste) had the most benefit to my well-being. More than any other supplement. Luckily I have access to local fresh gras fed galloway. So I don't need to freeze ist, because the immune system of those gras fed animals ist strong. Every time I eat steak tartar my concentration and mood is sky rocketing. But I eat it on an empty stomach when I'm very hungry and I don't mix it with cooked foods or carbs. Anyway I noticed that it gets digested quite easily.
I don't know what exactly it is in raw meet that makes some people feel good or sleep well and I didn't looked into it. But I suggest there is much more available b6 in raw meat than in cooked. To digest and assimilate proteins you have an increased need for b6, but at the same time b6 in sufficient amounts is only in protein foods. This was alway paradox to me, which was solved when I found out there is much more b6 in raw meat. So I stick to it. After one or two weeks it seems totally natural and you won't go back to cooked meat. Also I noticed that I need less food in general, because it is so nourishing.
I don't know. Just my personal observations.

 

[douglasmich]

im eating raw liver everyday

 

[rippe]

im eating raw liver everyday

That's cool! for me the taste was a bit to intense to get it down. even ceviche.

I always wonder about beef liver supplements. tiny amounts in capsules. (maybe denatured, dried, oxidized too?).
so I freeze raw gras fed liver and just rasp (or chop) about a piled tablespoon each day and swallow it quickly with liquid when it is still cold so it doesn't taste much.
but I always focus my mind on how raw animal foods will nourish me and will be assimilated becoming part of me. something that I actually never felt wenn I was eating bread and pasta. : )

I have no cfs but damaged mitochondria mainly deficiencies. when I became very low in energy and bedbound for most of the time, I was trying many things of course… sometimes I had a short boost in energy and it took me very long to find out that was the day after I was consuming cooked liver once a week. But there were supplements too of course. don't know if that might help anybody with cfs but I would give raw liver from a gras fed sourse a try. It is very complete and balanced food.

Be well guys!

 

[douglasmich]

That's cool! for me the taste was a bit to intense to get it down. even ceviche.

I always wonder about beef liver supplements. tiny amounts in capsules. (maybe denatured, dried, oxidized too?).
so I freeze raw gras fed liver and just rasp (or chop) about a piled tablespoon each day and swallow it quickly with liquid when it is still cold so it doesn't taste much.
but I always focus my mind on how raw animal foods will nourish me and will be assimilated becoming part of me. something that I actually never felt wenn I was eating bread and pasta. : )

I have no cfs but damaged mitochondria mainly deficiencies. when I became very low in energy and bedbound for most of the time, I was trying many things of course… sometimes I had a short boost in energy and it took me very long to find out that was the day after I was consuming cooked liver once a week. But there were supplements too of course. don't know if that might help anybody with cfs but I would give raw liver from a gras fed sourse a try. It is very complete and balanced food.

Be well guys!

i cut it into pills and take 15g per day. I was trying to figoure out why some days i wake up with zero anxiety. Sort of like ive taken a benzo. ANd it was the raw liver. I tested it again yesterday.

I buy organic and freeze it for a few weeks. Im not bothered. I have not gotton sick in a decade. And when i got sick, my health issues were cured for 3 days.

 

[shaya]

I just wanted to chime in and thank @aaron_c for posting his experience. I dont know how much more of this insomnia i could taken, and i think eating raw beef might of saved my life. Granted, im only getting 3 or 4 hours at a time, but this is waaay better than i was getting, and hopefully i will continue to get better sleep as time goes on. Thanks!

 

[humanrising]

wow!! so interesting! I have the worst insomnia some of its due to being in severe pain, no position I can get into that is comfortable but its not the only reason for the insomnia, I have all the fun dis-regulation stuff as well.
I have noticed that I feel the best when I eat red meat, its the only thing that makes me feel alert and gives me any sustained energy. I was a pretty conscious vegetarian for most of my adult life. I did fine on it but after my health challenges happened I really couldn't hold my own without animal protein. Now if I have an important doctor appointment or need to go out for more then a couple of hours I eat red meat. if I have a steak for breakfast I feel stronger all day. I don't want to eat red meat every day so I keep it to a few times a week.
You have me really considering this. I have tried every diet know to humanity and nothing other then red meat has helped any. So, if I can get my brain around eating raw meat I will let you know if it helped. what a blessing that would be. thanks for sharing your experience and so glad you have found something that helped you!!!

 

[aaron_c]

Hi @humanrising

I'll be curious to hear whether it helps you.

I am, however, not entirely sure that the benefits you describe would be due to (gamma glutamyl) taurine, especially as your meat up to this point has been cooked. I'm honestly not sure what the "secret ingredient" would be, although I do wonder about iron. My reservation is that I didn't think that iron boosts energy in the short term, even in people who are deficient. I think it takes a period of time for our bodies to integrate iron into hemoglobin. Hmm... In any case, I'm glad to hear you've found something that works!

 

[vb2005]

Any ideas if beef jerky or dried fish will work? I am 100% sure the secret ingredient is not B12 or some of other b vitamins - raw eggs have B12 but the author of this thread say they dont work.

 

[Alvin2]

Beef contains glycine, and you can buy it in supplement form (3 grams i believe the recommended dose iirc) and it increases stage 3/4 sleep. However i never found it put me to sleep plus the increased delta sleep only barely improves the ME/CFS

 

[pattismith]

Hi Everyone

Thanks for your concern. Since it came up, here is how I try to minimize risk:

1. I only eat meat that has been frozen for two weeks. According to the FDA, this will kill any parasites or their eggs.
2. I unfreeze the meat just prior to eating. I thaw out one pound packages just enough to cut them into single-serving portions, then refreeze them, and take out one portion when I want to eat it.

be careful, freezing doesn't kill bad bacterias, and unfreeze/refreeze is the best way to invigorate them!

 

[aaron_c]

Any ideas if beef jerky or dried fish will work? I am 100% sure the secret ingredient is not B12 or some of other b vitamins - raw eggs have B12 but the author of this thread say they dont work.

As I said earlier, my best guess is that the active ingredient is gamma-glutamyl-taurine, which is the storage form of taurine. I have recently heard that a company was looking at making it a supplement, so hopefully I will be able to test my hypothesis at some point. In any case taurine is broken down by cooking (thus the raw part) and regular taurine, although it alleviates the symptoms temporarily, causes an exacerbation of those same symptoms in a few hours.

I don't think Beef Jerkey or dried fish will work unless they were dried in a very low-heat process that didn't damage the gamma-glutamyl-taurine. And I'm not sure about the risks of eating raw fish, but I would assume that some of the same precautions should be taken to avoid bacteria-ridden meat and to kill parasites.

be careful, freezing doesn't kill bad bacterias, and unfreeze/refreeze is the best way to invigorate them!

I do appreciate your concern, but as I said earlier I have safely eaten raw beef for years now without ever coming down with food poisoning. Cows that have been exclusively grass-fed have much lower levels of e. coli in their guts, and I am careful to buy my meat from a local supplier I trust.

 

[pattismith]

@aaron_c , I have no idea why the raw meat works for your sleep, but in case you would find some Fold that makes you awake, i hope you will keep us updated!

 

[heyitisjustin]

im eating raw liver everyday

Be careful with how much liver you eat. I was taking 2 livers per week and ended up with both vit A & D toxicity. I was also consuming cod liver oil and vitamin D and these in total added up.