health

When Tim Shieff abandoned his vegan diet, he says he ejaculated for the first time in months.

 

Tim Shieff, 30, ate salmon for the first time in more than six years.

And then he ejaculated.

The vegan campaigner, with more than 175,000 YouTube subscribers, once said: “Nothing has benefitted me more physically, mentally and most important spiritually, than adapting to a vegan diet. It’s the best decision I have made as a human for me and the planet.”

He built a following on preaching the wonders of veganism, telling his audience that it cured his tendinitis, and before cutting out animal products, he “didn’t understand what it meant to be an athlete”.

“I was big, muscularly, but I was swollen; it wasn’t ‘healthy big’. Now I’m leaner, sharper, quicker, and my mind’s sharper too’,” he said.

The Quick talk about why the world of vegan YouTubers is imploding. Post continues below. 

But in February, 2019, Shieff uploaded a video to his YouTube account announcing to his audience that he was no longer a vegan.

In the 16 minute video, he explained he’d been struggling with “fatigue, brain fog, depression, a lack of recovery, lack of energy, yawning all the time, waking up stuff and muscles becoming really fragile”.

He added, “I was getting injured doing yoga”.

Shieff said he began to question whether veganism was “limiting” and so made a decision to reintroduce animal products.

“The first night I had salmon I had a wet dream,” he told viewers.

“I hadn’t ejaculated in months. That turned something on within my body.”

Dr Brad McKay told Mamamia he had never heard of a case like Shieff’s and salmon certainly isn’t know for causing wet dreams.

“Veganism wouldn’t be as popular if it stopped you from having orgasms,” he said.

“It’s healthy and admirable to have a vegan diet, however you need to carefully include food that contains enough iron, Vitamin B12, and calcium. You can be guided by your doctor or dietitian.”

Dr Graham Lyons, a Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide specialising in human and plant nutrition, echoed Dr McKay’s sentiment.

“I’ve never heard of anything like it…” he told Mamamia. Though salmon has omega three and fatty acids in it, Dr Lyons said, “I can’t see how one meal would have such a result. If it did, I’ll tell you what, it could start a whole new industry.”

In terms of veganism more broadly, Dr Lyons likes the idea of a “balanced diet” and from his work thinks we probably evolved to be omnivorous.

“The way out teeth are arranged and shaped, it would suggest that human evolved to eat meat. I’m not sure it’s a solution to exclude any animal or fish or dairy products.”

With that said, Dr Lyons believes there is no inherent problem with adhering to a vegan diet, as long as you get enough B12 and iron.

Simply, he explained, “The problem is people eat too much of certain things. That’s our problem in Western society. Too much rubbish…”

It was probably a coincidence that Shieff had a wet dream after consuming salmon for the first time in months.

But if eating meat made the 30-year-old feel better, then all power to him.