Healing Eczema with Animal-Based Nutrition
Tanel-Enn uses a animal-based nutrition to heal from severe atopic eczema, increase energy, and reduce brain fog.
After being vegan for 3 years, he is now confident that animal foods have an essential and fundamental place in the human diet.
Now, Tanel-Enn shares his experience on his youtube channel and encourages others to embrace animal-based nutrition for themselves.
I hope you as inspired as I am after reading Tanel-Enn’s story!
Please introduce yourself briefly with your name, general location, age, height, and current weight.
My name is Tanel-Enn, I’m 24 years old and live in Estonia. I’m about 178 cm tall and I now weigh about 74 kg.
How long were you vegan?
I was vegan for 3 years. It started off with a year of
semi-vegetarianism and after that, developed into full-on veganism for 3 years.
What made you decide to introduce animal foods again?
As a vegan, I developed a serious skin disease – atopic eczema. It was an uncontrollable, “uncurable” hellish ailment that only got healed after I went animal food-based. It is an allergy, hypersensitivity, and an autoimmune response sort of thing caused by an injured gut, dysbiosis, and other imbalances in the body.
Added to this were my emaciated body, pale skin, a weakened voice, brain fog, and sunken eyes. My interests in a more natural and autonomous life also played a part in the decision because I don’t want to be dependent on global culture and exports, fake supplements, etc.
What resources (books, youtube channels, podcasts, etc) gave you the inspiration to question if veganism was right for you?
At some point during the suffering, I broke down and had to make a decision, basically a life or death moment. Choosing life meant choosing to kill animals, I decided to
accept being seen as selfish by others and made healing my skin my only priority in life for that period.
My first inspiration and guide was Rob Stuart, a skin health
expert on youtube. I bought his workbook and devoted
myself to it for half a year. It worked wonders and I kept
educating myself on ancestral knowledge of nourishment. This is where Tristan’s streams on the Primal Edge Health youtube channel came in the picture and a lot of aspects about veganism and global culture clicked together, it was a powerful period of realization and discovery, in a way a reminder of truth as well.
After all, deep down, I was aware of these things, the pieces were simply scattered and the vegan propaganda was a convincing illusion at the time.
On Instagram, @ancestralhealthguy and @healthcoahckait gave me a clear, unshakable understanding of real nutrition and health.
Weston A Price’s books were also very insightful and influential. (Editor’s note: We recommend Nutrition and Physical Degeneration in our recommended reading list).
Later on I dived into the more extreme videos from sv3rige (Goatis), which I still enjoy sometimes, although I know you have your differences. YouTubers like Vegan Phobic, Vegan Deterioration, and Bobby’s Perspective were also there for me when I needed the sharp discernment to break
out of the vegan cult.
Was it hard to leave veganism?
It was not hard to be vegan or to leave veganism for me.
Luckily I wasn’t too wrapped up in the activism and wasn’t overly vocal or preachy about my dietary choices.
I have a strong connection to the physical realm and to my body so devotion to healing my skin through natural eating was just a matter of being willing to be seen as selfish by others.
The real reactions came after I posted my video about not being vegan anymore, after a year of not being vegan. I’m still dealing with angry vegans in my direct messages – it is both entertaining and sad to observe.
Luckily my girlfriend (who was also vegan at the time) was also not militant – she didn’t even want to be called a vegan or be associated with them, although she was eating vegan for 6 years.
She understood my transition and supported me. She also recovered from damages of veganism together with me – sensitive teeth, pale skin, no satiation, slow speech etc got fixed after we switched our diets to animal food based eating.
After all, what matters to me is not to belong to a movement but to embody my values for real.
I learned that veganism is not the way to do that, pretty much the opposite of veganism is the way to effectively do that and be happy and healthy at the same time.
Were you involved in vegan activism?
I was not involved in vegan activism, my girlfriend and I saw how obnoxious it was but we felt like we could do it the right way, through our personal devotion to it.
The closest I came to activism was playing my song at a Friday For Future protest, my song was about protecting Estonian forests. The vegans saw that as a vegan protest moment from me. They are still saying I betrayed them. Funny!
What was the first animal food you ate after decided to quit being vegan? What was that experience it like?
The first animal food I ate raw was salmon. This will sound strange to some and might trigger vegans who like to call meat eaters “meat fetishists” but it honestly felt almost erotic because the only time I felt an organism against my mouth as a vegan was during intercourse.
That strange initial feeling only lasted for a minute. After that, the fat just tasted sweet! I started remembering how I used to like fat before I went vegan and always looked for avocados and nuts to get some fat.
It felt like liberation.
Were your family and friends supportive of your choices?
My family was not supportive of my choices, they are part Slavic so traditions and nourishment are important to them. My mom talked to me in a similar way that Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride speaks at her presentations.
Although in a much less scientific way of course.
They are very happy now that I regained myself and my little brothers look up to me as someone who tried out something stupid and can now guide them to avoid making the same mistakes. Overcoming veganism is much more than just a change of diet. Independent thinking, discernment, and respect for ancestors are lessons learned that bring clarity into other aspects of life as well.
My friends were simply interested in what I was doing, not supporting or fighting it.
The vegans I met would just brag about having been vegan for a longer time than me, haha!
What did you use to eat before turning to animal-based nutrition?
Before going vegan I ate home-cooked omnivore meals because I was still a teenager living at my mother’s house.
It was not a standard American diet but it still had sugar and modern processed foods in addition to the home-cooked meals. My health was great.
What do you eat now?
Yesterday I ate raw salmon, 3 fried eggs (yolks raw), half a boiled heart, some raw beef liver, some raw cows milk, and a can of cod liver. I tried some boiled potatoes but they had a weird cake-like consistency that I didn’t like.
I had to write a 2-hour test so I used mate tea with honey and high-quality chocolate to supercharge my energy.
These things are like occasional tools for me. After using these I exercise for an hour to get rid of excess sugar. Raw and rare meats are enjoyable for me.
My diet at the moment is 80% nose-to-tail high-quality grass-fed animal foods and 20% experimentations with fruit, tubers, sour bread, etc.
I still see humans as omnivores but the difference is that I see humans as creatures who eat animals and can also handle some plants, not the other way around like most people tend to see omnivory.
What are your current health goals and how will animal foods support you?
I am currently building up my recovered skin, at this point, it is 95% healed. I’m focusing on gaining weight and I’m experimenting with both plants and raw organ meats. Tomorrow I will most likely taste fermented high liver the first time! Soon we will have fruits and berries ripening up in our garden, it’s going to be interesting to try them out.
Animal foods will always be there for me as my safe, essential, necessary base.
Are you interested in trying a keto or carnivore diet?
The keto diet and carnivore diet had their moments in my experimentation but my goal is to gain weight so I’m adding easy to digest carbs to my animal food-based diet to avoid ketosis instead.
Do you track macros or calories?
I don’t track calories or macros, I simply eat until
I’m satiated. This might change at some point but so far
it works well for me.
Do you supplement with anything?
Occasional foods like oysters are supplements in my view,
they are not a staple food but they offer a lot of extra nutrition.
All synthetic supplements like pills and shots are off the list of possibilities for me, they are nothing but a sign of unnatural and inefficient living and eating.
What is your current view of vegetables and plant foods?
Vegetables and plants are seasonal produce and therefore
I aim to eat them seasonally. Vegetable oils are not
fitting for me and when I do eat vegetables, I make
sure they are well prepared through boiling, mashing, and mixed with butter or cream.
Fruits are great little energy boosters! I peel them to avoid poison residues though.
Do you practice fasting or OMAD?
Fasting has proven to be a great tool for healing eczema. I used to do 1-3 day long water fasts but now I simply skip breakfast and limit my evening food intake to create a semi-intermittent-fasting effect.
Some days have only 1 meal but usually, I eat twice.
Would you recommend a vegan diet to anyone else and why?
I do not recommend the vegan diet unless the person is
so blindly convinced by the movement that they need to get a spanking from their own experience.
An example of that kind of guy was me when I went vegan! If I had had a friend at the time explain to me what I am now explaining to my friends after my experience, I probably wouldn’t have been so easily misled by veganism.
What would you say to someone struggling on a vegan diet?
I would recommend them to reevaluate their core
values and motivations, write them down and see if
veganism answers their questions or simply creates more
questions and problems instead of providing great solutions.
If the person is overly suggestible like vegans who
went vegan just because of the propaganda documentaries, watching some Vegan Phobic videos can quickly provide a first wave of untangling into their brainwashed made up mindset.
I would also send them my video explaining my reasons for not being vegan anymore as I gave it an inclusive and balanced mood while also being confident about my stances.
If someone wants to learn more about your health journey or contact you, where is the best place for them to go?
The best start would be to watch 2 of my videos:
I am also on Instagram as @tanelennreiman, open for meeting good people!
Read more Carnivore Diet results.
Are you ready to try animal-based nutrition for yourself?