Ohio woman was down to 70 pounds before switching to meat — but some experts urge caution
An Ohio woman claims that adopting a carnivore diet saved her life after she battled a lifetime eating disorder that nearly killed her.
Valerie Smith, 54, battled anorexia and other physical and mental health issues for decades.
Smith, who is 5’9″, once weighed 70 pounds and had a BMI of 11. She told Fox News Digital that she was repeatedly admitted to the hospital and kept alive with feeding tubes.
In 2017, after following a strict plant-based diet for most of her life, she slowly began transitioning to an animal-based ketogenic diet, which she credits for healing her mind and body.
Smith experimented with numerous different therapies for her anorexia and other conditions before turning to animal products.
In an interview, she stated, “I was actively in treatment for my entire life,” “Medical professionals and hospitals saw me. More than a dozen psychiatrists treated me. Over the course of three or four decades, I was taking a variety of various psychotic drugs.
“I spent a lifetime under traditional treatment and never got better.”
A 9-year-old was almost starved by a little-known eating disorder: “IT WAS TORMENTING HER.”
The hospitals recommended a plant-based diet “devoid of any animal protein,” Smith said. She followed their food plans, but she had trouble keeping her weight in check and had intestinal problems.
Smith had lost 70 pounds by the time she was 47, suffered osteoporosis-related fractures, and had repeated organ prolapse procedures. She was also at her lowest point ever in terms of mental health.
“And I also knew that even if I weighed more, it was not going to help my brain, because I had experienced that many times in those decades.”
Smith learnt about the advantages of the ketogenic diet and came across several metabolic psychiatrists while conducting research.
“I learned that animal foods and animal fats are a priority in the brain,” she stated.
“There are more than 100 neurotransmitters in our brain, and most of them rely on the amino acid profile that’s in complete animal proteins,” Smith continued. “Our brain is not going to function correctly if we don’t have the building blocks of animal products.”
After 35 years of not consuming any animal foods, she decided to experiment with adding them back into her diet.
Smith began modestly, eating only one morsel of beef per day. She added another bite every week. It took her eight weeks to get up to eating 8 ounces of meat.
At the three-month mark, she began seeing improvements — not necessarily in her weight, but in her mental health.
“My depression and anxiety were lifting,” Smith said. “At that point, I had not gained any weight yet, so it was not weight gain that healed my brain — it was the ketogenic diet.”
Smith continued to feel and look better as the months passed. She claimed that all signs of anorexia had disappeared after a year.
“Even my body dysmorphia was gone — and I had no drive to starve whatsoever,” she stated. “All the obsessive thoughts, the negative self-talk, the brain dysfunction — it was completely gone.”
“I had stopped battling with myself. It was easy.
