18: What I Eat in an Animal-Based Diet + My Go-To Food Choices and Supplements

All right, welcome back to another episode of the Primal Shift Podcast. Now, if you've been following me for a while, you probably know that I, well, both my family and I really, we follow a somewhat animal-based diet, but that can really mean a lot of things to many people. It doesn't say anything about how much protein, carbs, fat you consume and in what ratios. So in this episode, I'll share with you because I was asked the question a lot, what are some of the foods and beverages that I consume frequently in moderation? occasionally. And I also talk about some of the supplements that I consume on a regular basis, how a typical meal could look like and some of the factors that influence my food choices. Because I've noticed throughout the year and throughout the season my food choices change sometimes dramatically where I eat a lot of the same foods for a certain period and then I switch and eat something else again for an extended period. you know, depending on several factors that I'll talk about in this episode. And I'll also talk about meal timing and maybe that's one of the things we'll start with to get out of the way. When I eat? Well, I typically have breakfast, meaning I break my fast, somewhere between 10 in the morning and noon. And that's on most days and that very often coincides with my morning workout. So I go work out at 8.30 and I come back 9.30 and then you know we, you know... prepare breakfast and we eat. So somewhere between 10 and 12. Sometimes it's a little bit later, you know, and sometimes it's a little bit earlier. If I want to intentionally push my dinner time in particular, if I want to eat at 4, let's say for whatever reason, we might have breakfast earlier. But usually somewhere between 10 in the morning and 12. Dinner I have, well we have as a family, somewhere between 5 and 6 p.m. Sometimes it's a little bit later. But I can tell if I'm pushing seven, my sleep is negatively impacted. So we try to eat as early as possible. And that's usually somewhere between five and six p.m. The factors that influence my food choices are these days very much based on biofeedback, meaning how do I feel? What do I, how does my body respond to certain foods or to consuming certain foods over... Michael Kummer (02:36.714) you know, several days, several days in a row maybe. You know, I might be perfectly fine consuming a sourdough bread, you know, on a Sunday, but if I do it Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, you know, I respond negatively potentially. And so I take that feedback into account and really try to assess how I feel, how certain foods make me feel, in what quantities and in what combinations. That's also very often important. You know, if you just consume a lot of carbs without anything else, you're... body might respond entirely differently than if you consume a lot of protein and maybe fat and then have some carbs at the end. Even if it's the same amount of carbs, you know, compared to an empty stomach. I also take my mood into account or in other words my mood really drives or my emotions potentially drive my eating habits. You know, obviously emotional eating is not a good thing unless it happens in a way that's conducive to optimal health. But you know, there are cases where I... particularly noticed when I am incredibly happy. Maybe because, you know, I don't know, something went, you know, a video received super feedback or maybe I, you know, got to work with a brand that I always wanted to work with or whatever the case might be, or, you know, we had a very good day or a very good month, maybe with MK supplements. I notice on those days where I am particularly happy, I'm more likely to have a glass of wine than on days where... I just don't feel like it. So a lot of people, I think, just based on what I've learned, tend to gravitate to alcohol when they're not in a good mood, when they're super stressed or whatever. For me, it tends to be the opposite. When I'm in a very good mood, when I'm super happy, I tend to have a glass of wine, maybe to celebrate, whatever. So mood is certainly a factor, but I try to assess. how my mood influences my food choices and to make sure it doesn't happen in a way where I'm, you know, stress eating, you know, or, you know, gravitating towards less than ideal foods because I'm stressed or anxious or whatever. So I pay very close attention to that. But if it happens in a, you know, in a good context, I don't mind. There are also obviously certain preferences, you know, and maybe also going real quick back to mood and emotion. You know, there are certain foods like there is a dish called Jause. Michael Kummer (04:59.422) You know, and it basically means it's cold meats like salami and prosciutto and, you know, hams, etc. Cheese, olives, you know, maybe, you know, honey and jelly. And that's very much a dish that I grew up with. So I have a lot of positive emotions associated with that type of food. And so for me, I can have yauze, I can have those cold meats with cheese every single day and I will never grow sick of it. I will never be like, oh, you know, I can't have that anymore because I've had it for the last 200 days. I can really have that every single day. For me, it's kind of a comfort food and, you know, fortunately, you know, that there are worse comfort foods out there. So I don't mind, especially with raw cheeses and, you know, uncured, you know, cold meats. I mean, you know, pork is obviously not as good as beef. But you know, considering our metabolic health, I don't mind, you know, making those choices sometimes. Then there are obviously certain preferences, like certain foods better than others, regardless of if one might be healthier than the other, especially within the plant world. I might have cherry tomatoes instead of cucumbers, even though cucumbers, if deseeded and peeled, are arguably the less toxic food in comparison to tomatoes. But those certainly play a role. And seasonality. There are certain times of the year where I don't... really want to eat certain things like, you know, let's say a roast or, you know, soups. For me, those are winter foods. I prefer them eating them. I prefer eating them in winter, whereas in summer, you know, I'm more likely to, you know, gravitate towards maybe seasonal fruits or to something that's, you know, more associated with, you know, with hotter temperatures, with, you know, with sun, etc. So there are certain, you know, seasonality aspects and I think that's a good thing because if you think about it our ancestors, you know, obviously ate based on Seasonality, you know that didn't eat strawberries in winter in a cold climate, you know If there were no strawberries growing so I try to keep that into or take that into account as well And you know, we try to shop based on what's available in a given season and then travel is another Factor that impacts how I eat in particular Michael Kummer (07:19.318) You know, I'm more prone to fasting when we travel because I just, I usually when you travel, you know, food choices are limited. They're often not the best ones, especially if you travel by plane. So we just fast and don't eat at all. But on the flip side, you know, when we go on vacation and, you know, we don't go on vacation, you know, every month. So we might, you know, go on a family vacation or my wife and I, you know, we're actually going to Spain, just the two of us for the first time next month. Well, depending on when you hear this, it might already have happened. But if we go to certain locations, we often eat the food that's local there. Obviously, we're not going to go to McDonald's just because we're in Spain or we're in Italy, but we eat whatever food is available there and is traditional there. Even if it sometimes means that it goes outside our animal-based framework. Let's say if I go to Italy, I'm sure I might have a pasta or a pizza or whatever. just based on the different circumstances, maybe based on the ingredient quality, they are better in Europe than they are here in the United States. And maybe based on the different stress factors, like you're on vacation, you're way less stressed, you feel better. Usually those foods have way less of an impact than they would have over here. And so we just go with the flow, we try to enjoy it as much as possible without stressing too much out. And even if we know that, you know, a pizza in Italy... might be better than a pizza in the US, but it's certainly not optimal food. Guess what? We are robust enough. We are metabolically healthy enough to be able to handle that without any long term consequences. And so we often just go with the flow, you know, that one time a year when we travel. Foods that I consume a lot. And this is in no particular order. Well, in fact, it's alphabetic. I decided to sort it alphabetically, but not based on priority or based on the amount. but we do eat and I eat a lot of avocados and guacamole especially when they are available and when they are you know good. We eat quite a bit of bacon not outrageously outrageous amounts but we do eat quite a bit of bacon you know pasteurized bacon from local farms at some point we'll be raising our own pigs so we then know exactly you know what those pigs were fed and how good that meat is even if it's a little bit higher in omega-6. Michael Kummer (09:36.882) We eat a lot of beef for obvious reasons. You know, we buy an entire cow every year and we'll soon be raising our own beef cattle because we've realized that the cow we actually bought early in 2023, I think we got the cow almost 500 pounds worth of meat and bones in March and we're almost out and it's October as you know of this recording. So we in reality, we go through one and a half cows a year because now we have to just buy some extra. our dog eats, you know, two cows a year or the meat of two cows a year. So, you know, that's really our staple protein, if you will. We do eat berries a lot. We grow quite a bit ourselves, including raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries, but we also buy some from the store. We do both my wife and I, we drink coffee, usually one or two cups of lab tested, non-toxic, no pesticides, organic coffee. Coffee is not great, but it's one of the things that we accept the risk, considering our metabolic health and we enjoy the taste. Not the caffeine doesn't really do much for us in terms of energy, but the taste we both really like, at least in summer. In winter, we switch to tea, funny enough. So we prefer the tea in the morning better. Cold meats, I mentioned it already. That's really one of the things that I do eat a lot. I really love salamis and, you know, brusciutto and hams. You know, it's just one thing that I grew up with and I just absolutely love it and I could eat it every single day. I don't eat it every single day, but I certainly could. And I'm looking forward to raising our own pig so we can make our own salami. And I know exactly what's in the meat, which is, you know, obviously done better than anything you can buy in the store. Eggs. It's a staple in our household, especially for breakfast. We do consume a boatload of eggs and we have, you know, chickens in the backyard, part of the Kummer homestead. And so... Right now actually we have to buy eggs because we kind of missed the boat on this. We, you know, chickens, you know, stop laying every year. They lay a little less hours and now in the third year. And so we were a little bit late on adding new chickens. We now we added 50 more. So hopefully starting November, December, they're going to start laying and we'll have plenty of eggs for the next year at least. And then we'll have to add more chickens. Michael Kummer (11:54.658) Honey we do eat quite a bit because we have beehives in the backyard and so we make our own raw honey You know without any medication whatsoever. It's arguably I would say the best highest quality honey you can find Much better than anything you can buy in the store. Jelly we do eat quite a bit too, you know, obviously Jelly that's and doesn't have any high fructose corn syrup. It's only sweetened with fruit juices It's still relatively high in carbs, but it's also something that we are looking forward to once we move to our own property to make ourselves once we have more fruit trees and berry bushes etc. Rabbit meat we eat quite a bit too, also because we raise our own rabbits for meat. So we butcher somewhere between 7 to 14 rabbits a month approximately, some of which goes to our dog, some of which we eat. We really like rabbit meat, it's a little on the leaner side unfortunately, so we add extra butter or ghee or Nutella when we make it, but when we cook it, but it's really good and we eat that quite a bit. Raw and pasteurized dairy in particular cream. Well, I should say raw and pasteurized cream and raw Dairy everything else and the reason why we sometimes buy pasteurized cream is because the farm that we get our raw milk from Doesn't have cream all the time. And so obviously, you know, there's only so much cream in a gallon of milk And if you buy the whole milk, then the cream is in there and I want to drink, you know The full fat milk so taking the cream from there doesn't always make sense, it doesn't always work. Again it's a temporary problem because we'll be raising our own dairy cows very soon and so we hopefully have plenty of cream then but for now we take raw if we can and whenever we can't we just use you know A2A2 grass-fed but pasteurized cream mostly to put it in a coffee in the morning. Raw dairy you know milk cheese, kefir, we make the kefir ourselves not all the time but every so often and I'm Absolutely a fan of cheese. I love cheese and both my son and I we drink milk raw milk every single day Love it sausages, you know, usually either beef or pork again You know as clean as possible without any funky ingredients and sweet plantains That's really something also a staple on the plant side of the house that we love plantains I like look like a banana, but they are a little bit different They're bigger and when they are really ripe when the peel is already getting dark, you know Michael Kummer (14:22.262) That's when if you pan fry them in a boatload of fat, they taste absolutely delicious. And it's something that my wife grew up with in Costa Rica. And so we have that quite a bit as well. Everyone loves it. That's our staple, I guess, carp, if you will, beyond or besides the honey. Some of the foods that I consume in moderation, seasonal fruits like apples, bananas, figs, grapes, pears. Tomatoes, I mean, technically a fruit. We grow our own cherry tomatoes and I like them too. We just remove the seeds. I mean, the skin is also not ideal, but if you remove the skin and the seeds of a tomato, there is actually nothing left. Tried that, doesn't really work. So we just remove the seeds and we eat the rest. Seem to be doing well with it. I don't have any digestive issues or whatever. You know, we have our own apple trees and pear trees that we get some of the fruit from and a fig tree that's producing very well. So we like that too. grapes we buy obviously we don't have grape vines here. And as far as meat is concerned, pork, you know, besides the bacon just in a regular pork meat, pork roast or whatever, we don't eat a whole lot just occasionally. I really like ribs and so we have that maybe, I don't know, five times a year or so we have pork and chicken. We have a bit more than pork but also not extensively because as you might have heard in the previous episode All the chicken they can buy in the store is just not great. Even the pasteurized, you know, it's there is still, it's all Cornish cross, overbred, fat babies, you know, that they butcher for meat. And we will be raising our own non-Cornish cross meat birds next year here in our backyard. And so we'll probably increase our chicken consumption using meat that's not from Cornish cross hands. So that's in the works. In terms of processed foods or snacks, plantain chips, so I mentioned before the plantains, when you fry them, you can also get plantain chips from either the green plantains or from the sweet plantains. And I can handle it in moderation if I eat too much, you know, I get bloated, but we like that kind of a snack, the kids like it too when we're on the road. White rice, we also consume occasionally, we soak it overnight, remove the water to get most of the toxins or a lot of the toxins out. And then, you know, Michael Kummer (16:43.234) just steam it. We all seem to be doing fairly well with white rice, much, much better than with fermented potatoes. So we have that every so often. And wild-caught seafood, you know. Not that there is anything wrong with wild-caught seafood, but we just prefer beef and that's why we don't have seafood very often. Now in terms of foods that we consume occasionally, beef tongue. And that's not because we don't like it. Everyone loves the taste of beef tongue, but just because, you know, there's only one tongue in the cattle. And so... Supply is probably more of an issue. But whenever we have the chance, whenever we get beef tongue, everyone absolutely loves it. I know it kind of sounds disgusting, but if you've never had it, it's one of the best meats, one of the most tender meats you can ever have if you cook it right, absolutely great. Sometimes canned tuna and sardines, again, not very often, but every so often we do have that from wild caught obviously. Cucumbers. We grow them in our backyard as well. There, I mean, the kids really like it, but it's something, you know, it's basically just water. So there is nothing in there really that you, there are no micronutrients that I need from cucumbers. It's mostly water. So we have it like on the side occasionally. Dates, we all like to, fermented potatoes, I've mentioned before, we, you know, slice potatoes, ferment them for a couple of days in a salt brine to make them at least less toxic and reduce the glycemic index. But still I respond differently to potatoes than to white rice. And that's why we switched over to having white rice instead of potatoes every so often. Fresh bone marrow. Everyone loves it. It's again just a sourcing issue. We don't have access to a whole lot of bone marrow and it's fairly expensive. So we're looking forward to raising our own cattle and have, you know, more and more steady supply of bone marrow because it's great, obviously, from a nutritional perspective. And it tastes really, really good. Raw organs is the same, you know, I have raw liver, raw whatever whenever I have access to it. But it, you know, we usually stick to free stride and I'll talk about that in a little bit when I, when we cover the supplements. Smoked salmon is also something I like every so often. I grew up with it, you know, especially for New Year celebrations and stuff. We always had smoked salmon. So I have a special place in my heart for smoked salmon. We have that every so often. Wild caught, of course. Michael Kummer (19:07.67) but it's not a staple in our household. Sourdough bread and you know, any well sourdough goods, I wanna say like pancakes, et cetera. My wife started doing sourdough a couple of months ago and you know, I mean, she feeds her mother or whatever it's called, you know, every day or every other day or whatever that the cadence is, I don't know. And then whenever we have a bunch, you know, occasionally she baked something, either bread or pancakes, maybe, you know, every other weekend. you know, pancakes for breakfast or maybe once a month we have sourdough bread and when we have guests over especially from Europe and they are used to eating bread we make sourdough bread or we bake it and so we have that every so often. We can handle it in moderation, not too often. Squashes we like too. Turkey, water kefir and yogurt. The problem is with yogurt we haven't really figured out a good recipe for raw milk yogurt. and you almost have to pasteurize it and with pasteurization you know you denature the protein so both my wife and I don't respond well to pasteurized dairy and so we kind of stopped buying and making yogurt but we are still on the lookout to see if we can find recipes that don't require pasteurization and if we figure it out we'll probably consume our yogurt because I really like it, everyone really likes it. Some of the supplements that I consume frequently I mean, ideally, you don't want to take any supplements. You want to get everything from real food, whole food sources. But, you know, there are certain limitations that I'll address here just briefly. One is freeze-dried beef organs. You know, you probably know by now that I consider organ meats the most nutrient dense source of foods you can have. Very rich in vitamins, minerals, peptides, coenzymes, cofactors and everything in between. And so instead of having to worry about the logistics of sourcing, cooking, preparing organs and then you know the taste and texture especially with the kids. I don't mind as much but the kids obviously if you give them raw liver then maybe try it once and never again. So we stick to free-stripe beef organs you know that's why I founded MK supplements where my wife and I did to have a convenient way of getting organs into your diet without the you know taste, texture or hassle and so free-stripe beef organs we take every single day. Michael Kummer (21:25.542) Usually, you know, a combination of different organs, so we kind of can mimic a nose to tail eating approach. Electrolytes we also consume quite a bit. My favorite brand, our favorite brand is Element. I'm going to link it down below in the show notes. It's spelled L-M-N-T. It just tastes very good. I mean, we make our own electrolytes too using the same ratios as an Element, but arguably Element has figured out the flavoring better than we have and it just tastes very good. They have different flavors. All of them taste good. And so we consume them quite a bit after workout, sauna, bathing, etc. Magnesium before going to bed, you know, there's a brand called Natural Vitality or CALM, I think is the product name you can find on Amazon. I'm going to link it down below. That's one thing we consume before going to bed, my wife and I every day really. And then colostrum from Equip Foods. It's something we don't take all the time, but whenever someone appears to be getting like fighting something or when we get into the cold or time of the year or when there is, you know, we increase our exercise or workout regimen, you know, we supplement with bovine colostrum. A lot of beneficial, you know, growth factors and immune factors that really help you, you know, maintain a robust immune system, you know, fix any gut issues there might be like leaky gut, etc. And so we take that typically in fall and then throughout winter and then we stop it in spring and don't take it in summer. That's in a nutshell how I eat. I mean, typically meals, you know, how they look like. For me, they typically look big. I do consume a lot of food, especially because I only eat twice a day. Well, my wife and I, we all, all of us really, we only eat twice a day. So the meals are always bigger. You know, I might have two steaks, you know, in whatever sides there are sometimes. And especially in the evening, I really like that. You know, I platter with cheese, with raw cheeses, with salami, with prosciutto, with jelly or raw honey, and maybe olives, pate. maybe a couple of cherry tomatoes, you know, that's really, or sliced cucumbers, that's really something I like. I include a couple of pictures in the video version of this. I also have a reel that I'm going to link where I show some of the foods that I've eaten throughout the week, because people asked me before so you can kind of get an idea of how my meals looked like. I'm going to make sure to link this so you can watch it. And with that, we're going to wrap it up. If you like this episode, if it helped. Michael Kummer (23:45.794) Do you kind of figure out how you could potentially eat, what to eat, what not to eat? Give it a thumbs up, like, share, subscribe. It really helps make, help other people find this podcast, helps me make more of those episodes. And I hope I'll see you in the next, and hear you in the next episode.