Veganism seems to be on the rise wherever you look, but it’s pretty rare that you meet somebody who has taken up the lifestyle and then renounced it in favour of eating meat in every meal – Sylwia Tabor is one of those people though (despite the fact she has one of the most vegan sounding names ever as well.

Image VIA 

32 year old Tabor decided to start eating meat again after a spider bite left her on death’s door and she decided that her vegan diet wasn’t providing her with the nutrients she needed during her recovery and a carnivorous one would help her much more. She instantly felt better after she started eating meat again and hasn’t looked back since.

Here’s what she had to say about her change:

I didn’t think much of it at first. It was only a small bite on my ankle.

But in late August, I developed this pimple in my groin area, which over the next days grew and grew until it was about the size of my hand.

I needed a three hour operation to cut it out of me and then a skin graft to replace the lost flesh, but during my recovery my digestive system stopped absorbing anything I ate and I experienced a lot of vomiting and diarrhoea.

Because I was on lots of antibiotics, which kills all of the good bacteria in your gut that you need to digest things, my stomach was in a mess again and I was feeling terrible, like I was during the worst times of my veganism.

The more I looked into it, the more I discovered that meat eating is the most efficient way of absorbing nutrients, far more so than when you add carbohydrates and vegetables into the mix.

I went full throttle into a carnivore diet and only ate rare steak and offal. My sister is a personal trainer and thought I was mad to abandon other forms of nutrients but she can see how much healthier I am now than I was when I used to be a vegan.

I just feel so much better than I ever have done, even when I was eating a normal diet.

‘For the people who think it might be unusual, I would say just give it a try because it may really help you feel better in yourself.

I source my own meat from a local farmer.

I know that it is coming from a good place, so the ethical concerns that I had before don’t worry me anymore.

Vegetables and seeds – which were for a long time my only food source, are actually anti-nutrients, compounds which if eaten excessively interfere with your gut absorbing what it needs.

And that definitely affected me in the long-run.

Well there you have it – a scientific rebuttal of the vegan lifestyle by someone who has experienced pretty much every extreme of a meat eating/non meat eating diet. Can’t say that I’m tempted by her 100% meat diet either, but it’s nice to see someone who embraced the vegan lifestyle once realise that it’s not as great as everyone who preaches about it thinks.

Not sure if the fact that Sylwia sources the meat from a local farmer really satisfies her ethical concerns as she’s stilling killing animals and eating them, but I suppose at least she might think that they didn’t suffer that much before she chows down on them. Guess it’s better than nothing.

For more of the same, check out the Greggs vegan sausage roll. It’s out tomorrow.