Dr Debra Torosian

12/02/2025

Food either fuels you or poisons you.

I've been 99% carnivore for 6 months. Recently I tried adding other foods to see how my gut would react.

What is a carnivore diet?

Animal products. Minimally processed.

Meat, as rare as tolerated
Raw milk, full fat
Farm eggs, also undercooked
Butter
Greek yogurt, full fat
Cottage cheese, full fat

Doesn't the body need carbs?

It doesn't "need" carbs, carbs are quickly broken down to provide fast energy.

Fast energy = fast crash = insulin spikes = overeating

Fast energy also underworks the gut. The gut gets to be lazy. The gut slows down. The gut turns more into a grazing, fermented gut, instead of the purifying, powerful acid-containing organ it is.

So where does the body get energy from?

Fat

The body can safely use fat for fuel. Fat is digested more slowly BUT keeps the gut moving properly. Fat keeps the chronicity of the gut intact. The gut doesn't stall - aka bloat - on fat like it does with carbs.

The fat lubricates the gut, leading to less build up of fermenting food stuck in the colon.

Wasn't Arnold hospitalized for eating this way?

He ate high protein. Little fat. No carbs. It destroyed his kidneys.

Fat is needed for fuel. The body "can" use protein if there is nothing else available.

But it's a process in which the byproducts of the breakdown are toxic. The breakdown of protein as a fuel source creates an aldehyde mess in the blood, the liver, and the brain. And then the kidneys try to rid the body of the byproducts and get physically damaged.

It's vital to get enough fat to prevent this. And I'll say this now because it needs to be said...

Fat does not make you fat

Inflammation makes you fat.

40% of calories from fat is a good start.

How do you know you're getting all you need from carnivore?

I feel better

My lab work is better

My visceral fat deceased

My muscle increased

Is it expensive?

After a few weeks of transitioning into carnivore, insulin regulation becomes tight.

You don't feel "starving." Ever. So don't forget to eat, even if you don't feel hungry.

Once you begin to eat you'll likely keep eating and surprise yourself with how much you can eat.

You won't feel stuffed and bloated.

Listen to your body. Eat until you feel satiated. It's very difficult to overeat on carnivore. It's much easier to undereat.

That being said, after a few weeks you will naturally shift to less meals during the day.

After about a month I was eating one meal at day.

During that meal I may eat 2200 calories.

If I am feeling that I need that much, I eat it. It is not uncommon to have days of "refeeding" where I'm eating more than normal. That's OK. It's my body telling me that I need more fuel.

So, long story is... I spend a lot less on food.

No chips
No sauces
No condiments (other than salt)
No veggies
No fruits

Look at your cart in the store next time and look how much you spend on all but meat, eggs, and dairy.

Is it a lifelong diet?

I'm not sure. But I do think there should be times in the year for fasting, followed by no meat, dairy, or fat.

Keeping carbs and meat/fat separate keeps the gut happiest.

After a fast it is reasonable to eat only fruits and vegetables, but only in the summer with many hours of daylight to help process these.

Some fruits and veggies are better for the gut than others.

Those with anti nutrients should be avoided, such as spinach, kale, etc.

Sauerkraut is great at this time.

After that I would fast again. My refeed would be bone broth for two days to move all the fermented stuff out before I switch back to things that don't do well fermenting in the gut, aka carnivore food.

And the 1% food I ate to test my gut? Pizza.

I did not suffer the next few days like i usually do.

My gut didn't hurt

My gut slowed a little but recovered by the next afternoon.

Everyone has a different path with food, physically, emotionally, spiritually...

This isn't medical advice.

11/21/2025

On trauma...

A child experiences the world through their physical body, and especially through movement. The more consciousness there is in the physical body, the more "accurate" the experience. In a healthy system, the child should actually be completely unaware of this consciousness in his movement.

Later in childhood, the feeling life drapes over the physical body. Feelings are experienced after they go through the physical body, and can be seen in the child’s movement. During this stage, there is a dream-like awareness of feelings. And again the more consciously permeated the feeling is, the "clearer" the picture.

Even later in childhood, thinking is layered upon what has already been created. The thinking weaves through the layer of feeling, and then through the body. Thinking is formed, it is able to be seen by the thinker.

The proper layering is the basis for morality. The ability to think “clearly." My brother, a DEA agent, trains his agents to be able to tell if someone is telling their truth by looking at the body language. He is using these same principles.

Through karmic influences, and/or trauma, consciousness is missing or leaves, respectively. This can happen during any of the three periods of childhood: willing, feeling, thinking. I use these principles to help get children into their body so they can grow up and have a clear sense of what is right and what is wrong. Each layer is like a lens, and if one lens is blurry, the next lens placed over them will also reveal a blurry picture, regardless of the quality of the layered lenses.

Substances like retained viral particles (from a suppressed fever), or leftover food antigens (from poor quality food or poor digestion), or metals (which causes a type of house of mirrors in the physical body) all serve to blur the physical lens in the child.

In order to fully heal, one must be like a child, removing thought and feeling in order to access that original physical blueprint. At that point, one can clear up their physical lens so their feelings and thought can then become clear.

07/28/2025

So honored and excited to be able to share my work on Managing Anxiety for a BETTER Surgical Outcome in the pediatric population.

August 23rd in Fresno.

07/20/2025

CARNIVORE

As a 6 month gut reset, the carnivore diet can be deeply healing.

Why?

Foods made of protein and fat are digested earlier in the gut, giving the hindgut a vacation.

How does the body get fuel?

From FAT. It's imperative to eat a lot of fat, nearly half of the calories consumed need to be from fat. This provides energy that previously came from sugar. It also provides lubricant to keep the gut moving.

It's vital that the fat does not contain toxins. Fat is where animals store toxins to keep them away from organs.

Fatty cuts of meat like rib-eye, chicken thighs, duck, ox tail, cold water fish, eggs and oysters are good sources of fuel.

If you still feel hungry after 50 grams of protein, which happened to me at 135 pounds, means more fat is needed.

Add butter to the meat after it's cooked. Add ricotta cheese. Add walnut butter, etc.

Exercise?

Carnivore and weight training go hand in hand. For me, getting 80-100 grams of protein a day provides the substrate to optimize hormone function to put on muscle.

It's not the protein intake that adds muscle, just like it's not the milk a new mom drinks that allows her to make milk.

It's about giving the body what it needs to create something new.

The protein provides the substrate for optimal physiology. The exercise provides the stress to grow. TRT is the engine oil but I'll address that in a different post.

Something to note... putting on muscle is heavily energy-dependent. The body does not naturally want to put on muscle. Adding and keeping muscle on the body is expensive, energetically speaking.

So you must fuel, fuel, fuel for gains, gains, gains.

Bloating, belly pain, brain fog...

They can all decrease if the cause of these are inflammation in the gut.

It's easier to digest carnivore, assuming your gallbladder works, than to digest plants.

And of course sugar leads to inflammation independently.

Cravings and progression...

Cravings for sugar and carbs go away after about a week.

Sleep gets deeper and more restful.

Dreams become more vivid.

Hunger goes away as insulin becomes regulated.

Massive amounts of food can be consumed without feeling overly full. The limitations aren't caloric, but physical. It takes me 30 minutes of straight eating at least once a day to get my fuel in.

I supplement with creatine, BCAAs, biotin, probiotics, zinc, and nose to tail bovine powder in raw milk.

Results...

One month in. I'm down one size in clothing. My body is firmer. My skin is glowing. My nails are growing. My hair is thicker. I feel more alive and rested.

This isn't medical advice but just my personal experience.

07/08/2025

Is your child on the spectrum and having surgery? Do you know your child's methylation status? Many places like UCSF are taking MTHFR variants into consideration.

If a child can not methylate properly, enzymes like methionine synthase are burned up very quickly. In a "normal" patient, 44 minutes of a nitrous oxide anesthetic depletes 100% of methionine synthase.

Methylation is a major pathway to detox after anesthesia. If detox is impaired, there is a risk of oxidative stress, microglial activation, and neurologic regression/emergence agitation.

As well, if this child is given Tylenol, their glutathione is depleted, which is the methylation back-up. A great alternative for pain and swelling is topical arnica.

Ask your anesthesiologist about methylation and how it will affect your child's anesthetic.

http://anesthesiology.pubs.asahq.org/article.aspx?articleid=1922603

07/08/2025

Learning to know where you are in space develops during childhood in unique ways during the different stages.

BIRTH TO AGE 7

From birth to about age 7, when the change of teeth occurs, the child is learning how to move through space.

The young baby seemingly makes random uncoordinated movements and may be surprised when their hands bumps up against something.

These movements are not random. Each movement causes a neurologic imprint within the child's inner map of what they sense the outer world to be.

When the baby and young child is given a physical boundary (massages, a blanket fort, warm bath, etc) they start to learn what is them, and what is beyond their physical body.

This is quite dramatic. In fact by about age 3 baby will begin saying "I" as a recognition that they are something different from the world around them.

AGE 7 TO 14

During middle childhood, the work centers around likes and dislikes. Sympathy and Antipathy. The child is learning how to navigate the feeling life.

The child is learning what to lean into, and what to back away from.

They work with emotions, bringing them to the surface, and then trying to modulate them.

We see the fits and starts of this with the unexpected emotional outbursts of the pr***en.

As a caregiver we can model emotional expression and regulation for these children.

AGE 14 TO 21

The later stage of childhood deals with how to use the mind to make executive level decisions.

"What is the best way to accomplish x, y, z"

"What are the factors and consequences of my actions?"

In short the child is asking...

Birth to Age 7: "Is the world GOOD?"

Age 7-14::"Is the world BEAUTIFUL?"

Age 14-21: "Is the world TRUE?"

The next 7 years, from AGE 21 TO 28, are when the child integrates the will, the heart, and the mind, into a driving force that allows one to find a higher purpose.

07/04/2025

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06/20/2025

Why are children dying under anesthesia for dental care, and what can be done to reduce this risk?

Dental disease has become an epidemic. Some say dental disease is genetic, but as we have learned from other current epidemics, there is no genetic epidemic.

This leaves us with environment exposures as the cause. We have had a few generations of increasing toxicity in our lives. Poor quality food, fake additives, less rhythm in the day, more electrical pollution, the idea that kids need to graze all day long on goldfish and pretzels and drink milk for strong bones all lead to increased dental disease.

Children are also chronically stressed from always being on the go, they are not getting enough sleep, are chronically dehydrated, and have daily belly pain from poor digestive function. All of these lead to a poor ability to detox, so toxins accumulate in the body, leading to dysbiosis, even in the mouth, which leads to cavities.

In addition, poor food with fake additives, processed dairy, and pro-inflammatory foods with refined sugars and HFCS, lead to chronically enlarged adenoids and tonsils. The airway becomes narrowed leading to mouth breathing, which dries out the mouth at night, and increases the number of cavities.

The dramatic increase in cavities turns a simple drill and fill into a major dental restoration procedure. Children are having dental procedures that used to be part of dental care in adults, but until the last 15 or so years, was relatively unheard of in children. We are now seeing massive amounts of root canals, placement of crowns, and extraction of permanent teeth only one year after they erupt. It's a tragedy.

Dentists have been using nitrous oxide in children through a "elephant nose" device that is well tolerated by children, and that worked in many cases. Now with the epidemic of autistic children and other non-neurotypical children (again there are no genetic epidemics), nitrous oxide is stressing an already methyl-depleted child, via inhibition of an enzyme called methionine synthase. We know that around 95% of autistic children have a genetic variant in their MTHFR gene, which leads to a decrease supply of methyl donors to drive the liver's second stage detoxification pathway. This leaves the autistic child at risk for oxidative damage from microglial activation. As a comparative, a "neurotypically normal" child is fully depleted of their methionine synthase after 44 mins of nitrous oxide. This brings up the question of using Tylenol after a nitrous-based anesthetic. Tylenol depletes glutathione in the liver, which is the back-up after methylation in this detoxification pathway. Other than in a child with neurodevelopmental issues, a solely nitrous oxide-based sedation is a practical solution to provide sedation for mild to moderate dental restoration procedures. Nitrous alone is not enough to handle what is becoming a larger part of dental care, which are children with extensive dental disease requiring almost full-mouth restoration.

For the more extensive procedures, dentists are able to obtain a sedation permit through a weekend long course in how to give anesthesia to children. I completed a pediatric anesthesia fellowship and can tell you, a few hours is not anywhere near enough to take care of a child under anesthesia - and in addition to performing the anesthesia, the dentist is doing dentistry. There is another way that dentist are able to give anesthesia, and that is through completing a three year residency AFTER their dental training to become a "dental anesthesiologist." This program is a rigorous three year residency with in-depth anesthetic experience in many areas both within and outside of dentistry.

In some dental facilities, the dentist directs the anesthesia directly, using a "standing order" for anesthesia doses based on the weight of the child. This amount of medicine either provides the right amount of sedation, or it doesn't. If this predetermined amount of drug is not enough, the procedure is canceled and the child is then sent on to a facility that offers dental restorations under a full general anesthesia. If the amount of drug is too much, the dentist supports the airway until the child recovers and is able to again breathe on his own.

In other facilities there is a separate (non physician) anesthesia provider (usually a "dental anesthesiologist" but could also be a "certified registered nurse anesthetist," also called a CRNA) who gives anesthesia through an intravenous line. This is done in many cases without a secured airway. In order for the dentist to get access to the mouth and complete the procedure, the child receives a general anesthesia amount of medicine to prevent movement or recall, but again there is no secured airway. This is often when we hear about these tragedies of a child dying during dental care. The child is deep under anesthesia, and they become "light" for a moment, cough, and go into a life-threatening airway spasm.

In order to most safely handle anesthesia for these increasingly more complex restorations, the best thing to do from my experience working intimately within the world of dental anesthesia for years is:

1. Have the procedure done with an anesthesiologist (preferably a pediatric anesthesiologist) present for the entire case and personally managing it. Some facilities use one doctor and a bunch of mid level providers (CRNAs), which has been successfully done at major children's hospitals, but I would not recommend this in a small center. Also, make sure the facility is certified by an agency called AAAHC.

2. Exercise caution with what is called "oral conscious sedation." This is a general anesthetic without a breathing tube. If anyone tells you oral conscious sedation is "twilight" anesthesia in children, it's not. (Twilight is analogous to flying at 10,000 feet. It is more dangerous than flying at full altitude, but does have it's place in anesthesia for adults.) THERE IS NO TWILIGHT ANESTHESIA IN CHILDREN. It doesn't exist. Based on the way physiology works in a child, twilight is not possible. To clarify, there is either awake or asleep in a child under anesthesia. Many complications arise when a provider tries to fly in that impossibly small and unstable "sweet spot" of sedation.

3. The number one way to decrease anesthesia complications in children is to focus of overall health of the child. By focusing on the overall health of the child, this will result in less cavities, and thus decrease the need for general anesthesia to restore the teeth. Eat whole, organic foods, have a regular eating rhythm, get plenty of exercise, avoid screens all together, have regular periods of rest, and use all the usual ways of staying healthy. Of special note, good fats are vital. Avocados, olive oil, ghee, and coconut oil are food sources. (Don't get me started on the latest recommendation from the AHA. They recommend corn oil as a substitute - and anything that inflames the body WILL inflame the oral mucosa, leading to cavities.) Remember to include fat soluble vitamins, A, D, E, K, plus the essential minerals and fatty acids that we need every day. Avoid processed foods, sugars, cookies, cakes, candies, especially sticky ones like fruit roll ups. Avoid "gummy" vitamins, raisins, Cheerios to snack on, or any other foods that tend to stay in the grooves of the tooth surface.

4. Good dental hygiene: brush twice a day, I keep toothbrushes in my truck so my kids can brush quickly if they go to a birthday party, etc. Regular flossing, and probiotics (and/or fermented foods) that support the oral flora are also very helpful. I even sprinkle a bit of bentonite clay (know your source!) on top of the toothpaste at night to alkalinize the mouth before bed. Dental care has not significantly fallen off in the past fifteen years, so poor dental hygiene alone is not leading to this epidemic.

5. Treat any seasonal or food allergies (with avoidance and immunotherapy if needed) to manage enlarged lymphatic tissue in the airway (ie enlarged adenoids and tonsils) so the child returns to a normal physiologic nose breathing pattern at night.