Why Expectations Shape Our Healing Journey

In a recent video¹, Mikhaila Peterson announced that after eight years of eating only beef or only lamb, she has healed her gut enough to reintroduce some plant foods.

Before she adopted the carnivore diet, she struggled with severe mental health and autoimmune symptoms. By eliminating all foods other than beef and lamb, she was finally able to live symptom-free — which is why she committed to that approach. At one point, she switched entirely to lamb because she began reacting to beef.

Photo by steven lim on Unsplash

In this video, she also talks about the many other diets she tried, including paleo, keto, and GAPS (also known as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet). None of these worked for her — otherwise, she would have stayed with one of them. She truly wanted results.

She also tried taking probiotics, but they didn’t help.

Eventually, she consulted a specialist — an expensive one, by her account — because she was still experiencing flare-ups. She realized that many of her health problems might have been linked to living in moldy spaces, including a childhood home in downtown Toronto.

Photo by Bruno Figueiredo on Unsplash

The specialist conducted testing and found that she had Candida, H. pylori, and a parasite. Mikhaila followed a protocol involving four antibiotics (commonly used to eradicate H. pylori) as well as antiparasitic drugs. After completing this treatment, she began experimenting with plant foods. While she still can’t tolerate all of them — or sometimes just doesn’t like how they make her feel — she can now eat some plants. This is a major milestone for her, and she seems genuinely excited to share this update.

I found the video very interesting, especially her comments about how conventional medical testing had previously found nothing. She said the standard Western testing relies primarily on PCR, which she believes is less accurate than older, culture-based methods.

Another detail that stood out was her comment that probiotics didn’t work for her. I don’t know all the details, but I have some theories about why her recovery took so long. Though I’m just a layperson, here are my thoughts:

Perhaps she expected a more comfortable, side-effect-free experience with natural approaches like probiotics. In contrast, when using pharmaceutical drugs, side effects are expected — which may have made her more willing to endure the discomfort to reach results. Regarding the antibiotic regimen, she said, “The antibiotics weren’t really a big deal for me. I thought I was going to feel terrible on them. I didn’t feel good on them, but I felt a lot better getting rid of H. pylori.”

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She also expressed surprise that she still had Candida even after so many years of avoiding carbohydrates, starches, and sugar — essentially the carnivore diet. However, it’s known that when people restrict carbohydrates while battling bacterial or fungal overgrowth, a process called sporulation can occur. This is when microbes form protective spores or biofilms and remain dormant until conditions become favorable again. A vulnerable period, for example, might be when living in a moldy apartment — something Mikhaila says happened several times

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This made me think about how the “Super Gut” protocol could be effective in such cases. As described in the book, the duration of the protocol depends on the level of microbial overgrowth. It focuses on combining probiotics, natural antimicrobials (or prescription antibiotics if you’re working with a supportive doctor), and fermented foods with a drastic reduction in carbohydrates, starches, and sugar, along with as much prebiotic fiber as can be tolerated. Prebiotic fiber nourishes beneficial bacteria and may also help prevent sporulation.

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