Move over keto, there’s a new diet in town: carnivore. For the uninformed, the latest dietary trend to be making waves is the controversial carnivore diet which, as its name suggests, is a 100% animal-based diet with 0% plant-based foods. While some followers may cheat with various seasonings like herbs, spices, salt, and citrus to add a bit of flavor, the diet is entirely made up of animal foods. This include all types of seafood, poultry, beef, goat, lamb, pork, eggs, organ meats (or glands), and the dairy. If you’re curious as to whether or not you should commit to carnivore, as well as my thoughts on it, then read on!

This is going to be another two-part series, since there’s a lot to cover. For today’s post, I’ll be going over the pros and grey areas of the diet, with the next one focusing on the cons and my final thoughts.

How Did We Get Here?

It’s a bit tricky to be able to explain how or even when the carnivore trend started. Today, more and more people are coming out of the woodworks claiming that they’ve been eating it for years. (Some also claim to have done it as a variation of the Atkins diet.) While we may never get the timeline right, we do know that carnivore became popular largely thanks to social media and people like Dr. Shawn Baker and Mikhaila Peterson; both had made a splash on the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast. [1] As a result, numerous carnivore dieters have turned into ambassadors for the diet, promoting it on social media. These include medical professionals, athletes, and everyday people looking to improve their health.

Here’s what can be said as far as the history of the carnivore diet. A small number of populations have eaten it, which include certain tribes from Africa (Masai, Samburu, Rendille), Brazilian Gauchos, Canadian Inuit, South Dakotan Sioux, Russian Arctic Chukotka, and the nomads of Mongolia. [2] However, it should be pointed out that despite these groups all living off of mostly animal foods (ranging from cooked and raw meat to blood and whale blubber) they still included varying amounts of plant-based foods into their diets. For instance, the Inuit would collect wild berries when in season, and ferment other plants in order to preserve them for times of famine. [3] In spite of a very bloody and meat-centric diet, the Samburu ate a small number of roots, tubers, and vegetables. [4]

Whether or not we were ment to eat only animals is up for debate. Just as vegan cultures are few and far in-between (some of which were shown to be vegetarians, with their diets including small bits of dairy, fish, and eggs), the same can be said about the carnivore diet. Herbal teas, starchy porridges, and seasonal fruit and vegetables all seem to pop into the diets of these groups, who are simply trying to survive. Which is a far cry from our modern lifestyle where hunting for the next meal is but a grocery store away.

Pros:

Let’s cover the pros of the carnivore diet:

• Elimination Diet: The carnivore diet is an extreme type of elimination diet, cutting out foods that may be triggering a variety of reactions in the body. For people that are at the extreme end of the spectrum where they can’t tolerate almost any food at all, carnivore MIGHT be a viable last-ditch effort. (Should this be the case, please adhere to it under medical supervision.)
• IBS: In some extreme instances of Irritable Bowel Syndrome or poor digestion, the carnivore diet might be a good option, with many people following it as means to fix their gut.
• Autoimmune Disease: Many individuals suffering from autoimmune conditions gravitate towards carnivore, mostly due to a combination of the first two pros I’ve listed.
• Hunger and Cravings: Because the carnivore diet is high in protein, which is highly satiating, it helps to manage cravings, food addictions, and hunger. If it includes a lot of fatty meats, fish, and eggs, then staying full will be even easier. Removing sugar out of the picture also helps eliminate cravings for sweets and high-calorie foods that contributing to weight gain.
• Simplicity: For some people, simplicity is all it takes to keep them on track with their diet. A basic menu removes the guesswork, which is a major relief for some people. Not only that, it’s easy to order animal foods wherever you go (unless of course, you happen to wind up in an ice cream shop or vegan café).

Grey Areas:

Before I get into the cons, I want to cover a couple of grey areas with the carnivore diet that can either be a pro or a con depending on how you interpret them:

• Symptom Relief: While the carnivore diet can relieve IBS (and other health complaints), it’s not actually getting to the root of the problem. There could be an underlying causes such as genetics, infections (i.e., parasites, yeast, bacteria) or autoimmune disease that have yet to be identified while you’re simply managing the symptoms.
• Gut Health: What about the beneficial bacteria in our gut? The effects of a carnivore over the gut are debatable. On the one hand, the zero  fiber can starve good bacteria and set up the right environment for opportunistic, not-so-friendly bacteria to take over. But the other hand, a number of anecdotal claims from long-term carnivore dieters show that the diet actually improved their bacteria. Who’s right? Well, what the research does confirm is that our gut bacteria are highly adaptable and can respond to either extremes of high fiber or zero fiber in a matter of days. [5] Time will tell when it comes to the long-term implications of a carnivore diet on the microbiome.
• Antioxidants: Many “experts” on the carnivore diet claim that plant-based antioxidants (resveratrol, curcumin, etc.) are harmful to the body, ironically creating more stress and inflammation in the body. But the thing is, antioxidants and phytonutrients act as “positive” stressors that help the body to grow stronger and more resilient. (They do this by triggering a process known as hormesis.) Think of lifting weights in order to build muscle. You need to break down those tiny little fibers in order to build newer, stronger muscles. Personally, I have yet to be convinced that antioxidants are a bad thing. Overdosing them from supplements is another matter, but I don’t think that ginger is as lethal as some carnivore experts lead people to believe. [6]
• Weight Loss: You’d think that I’d list weight loss as a pro. But hear me out. Even though it’s a nice side effect, I do want to point out the logic behind it. A lot of people wind up losing weight on the carnivore diet because it removes so many foods from their diet. It’s also difficult to overeat on it due to the high satiety component of protein-heavy meat. The diet may also put you into nutritional ketosis, which also has its effects on weight. (Unless you consume a ton of dairy, there’s a high chance you’ll be using fat and ketones as your primary sources of energy rather than glucose from carbs.) However, I do want to point out that some people struggle to get enough calories on the diet and unintentionally lose a ton of weight. Thus, the diet may be a little too restrictive in this sense. You’ll have to be creative when it comes to avoiding this issue.

Whew! This was a lot to unpack. Which is why I’ll be concluding things in part two, so don’t go away! Keep an eye out for the exciting conclusion to my take on the carnivore diet.

Sources:

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj_Bc9hdHa0
[2] https://chriskresser.com/the-carnivore-diet-is-it-really-healthy/
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/088915759290026G
[4] http://www.siyabona.com/samburu-tribe-kenya-culture.html
[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12820
[6] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/hormesis