Is the carnivore diet healthy?
Since the carnivore diet’s popularity has exploded over the past couple of years, there’s a lot of conflicting information online that does little more than confuse us.
Part of the reason for that confusion is widespread trust in the authorities when they tell us what makes food healthy and unhealthy.
Let’s take a look at the facts.
What is the carnivore diet?
The carnivore diet refers to a way of eating that prioritizes animal proteins. Within this, people generally fall into one of two groups:
- A strict carnivore diet, where you only eat animal products e.g. meat, dairy.
- A carnivore-based diet, where animal products make up the majority of what you’re eating, but you include non-animal products as well (only whole, real foods, of course).
Is the carnivore diet just about eating meat?
A true carnivore diet focuses primarily on animal proteins, eggs, dairy, and organ meat. However, this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule. The goal of the carnivore diet is to eliminate processed food and focus on whole real foods above all else. Most parts of the Standard American Diet are avoided entirely, including breads, chips, candies, and refined grains.
What kind of meat should I eat on the carnivore diet?
Ruminant animals produce some of the healthiest meat you can eat. Ruminant animals are the only animals to ‘chew the cud’ — a process whereby partly digested food is regurgitated from the stomach, back to the mouth to be chewed for a second time. This enables the animals to extract more nutritional value from food.
Common ruminants include beef, bison, sheep, and game animals like deer.
The unique digestive style of ruminants adds nutritional components that can’t be replicated by other animals. There are two reasons why:
- Ruminant animals are primarily herbivores that eat vegetables, grasses, wheat, and corn. They ferment this food in their digestive tract to detoxify, break down, and extract nutrients. Consuming ruminant animals lets us take advantage of densely-packed nutritious meat without needing to ferment plant matter ourselves.
- Ruminant animals convert polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) into saturated fatty acids. When cows are fed corn, soy, or similar content, they synthesize the PUFAs into healthier fats that are easier for humans to digest. There is lots of evidence that PUFAs can damage the human heart and lead to chronic disease. But with ruminant animals, this isn’t an issue. PUFAs go in, and saturated fats come out.
With this in mind, a carnivore diet without ruminant animal meat is less than ideal. If your meat consumption is primarily chicken, fish, and pork, try to incorporate more lamb, bison, and beef.
That said, it’s always best to start with an animal protein that works best for you. You should choose animal products you can afford comfortably and consume regularly.
Are there potential side effects when first starting the carnivore diet?
Any diet that changes your eating habits may require an adaptation period. Since the carnivore diet is very different from the carb-heavy, sugar-laden diets of today, you may experience certain elements of ‘Keto flu’: headaches, fatigue, and brain fog.
However, these typically go away within two weeks as the body adapts to your new eating pattern, and you may find electrolytes helpful.
If you haven’t eaten meat in a long time, you may have to consider some additional side effects. The body only makes what it needs to digest food, so if it hasn’t broken down meats and animal proteins in a while, it might take some time to ramp up. As such, vegans or vegetarians may have low digestive enzyme counts, making it more difficult to break down meat.
If you have a low digestive enzyme count and decide to start the carnivore diet, you may experience temporary issues like:
- Nausea
- Upset stomach
- Cramping
Like the Keto flu, these symptoms will abate as your body adjusts but you can also supplement with digestive enzymes to help your body normalize more quickly.
How fast can I start the carnivore diet?
You can start the carnivore diet at any time. The speed at which you adopt the diet comes down to who you are, what your diet looks like, and what you want. You can:
- Make the switch to full carnivore straight away
- Ease into it by introducing more animal products and eliminating other foods gradually
Either option is viable, although it’s important to choose the most sustainable option for you. Going cold turkey may be effective for some, while a gradual process works better for others.
If you’re skittish about jumping into the carnivore diet right away, you can always begin with a less restrictive diet like Keto. As you get more comfortable with a low-carb diet, you can start exploring new meats and switching out other elements of your diet.
Do I need to take supplements on the carnivore diet?
There’s very little need for supplement on the carnivore diet. In actuality, many people end up getting off the vitamins they’ve been taking because their food is now so nutritious. You don’t have to rely on extra supplementation like you would with other diets, including veganism or pescatarian diets.
That said, some supplementation may be helpful in the first few weeks of your switch. Electrolytes are a big one, especially if you’re coming off a high carbohydrate diet. You can primarily do this with salt and magnesium added to water or tea.
As mentioned previously, digestive enzymes may be useful for people who haven’t been eating meat or previously ate a low fat diet. If you’ve had your gallbladder removed, you may also want to look into bile salts to assist the digestive process.
Why should I go on the carnivore diet?
Most people turn to the carnivore diet to improve their health and the list of conditions that the carnivore diet can improve is extensive. The most obvious one includes the control of autoimmune conditions and metabolic syndrome, along with all their manifestations — obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and more.
Weight loss is another side effect of the carnivore diet. Since a low-carb diet has a measurable impact on blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity, your body has a chance to focus on shedding excess weight.
The carnivore diet also happens to be the best elimination diet on the planet. Meat and water alone are the most basic foods humans need to survive, and work together to reduce inflammation and insulin resistance. If you have autoimmune issues that are triggered by certain foods, the carnivore diet can be a powerful method of identifying and removing those triggers.
How long should I stay on the carnivore diet? Is the carnivore diet sustainable?
There is a misconception that a ‘diet‘ is something you do for the short term. However, the carnivore diet is a long-term lifestyle choice — not a fad. There are many examples of modern carnivores who have been eating this way for over 20 years without ill effects.
There have been humans that were carnivorous for nearly their entire existence. The Inuits, for example, live in climates where plants cannot be grown for most of the year.
How strict you are is entirely up to you; as noted above, plenty of people follow the carnivore principle but choose to eat plant-based food alongside the animal products.
Can I eat vegetables, fruits, and nuts on the carnivore diet?
The carnivore diet is a framework to work within and build upon — it’s not a rule book that requires strict adherence.
There’s no issue with introducing other whole, real foods into your carnivore diet. Just check to see whether this food helps, hurts, or is neutral to your body.
There are certain people who choose to be very strict. However, this primarily comes back to people with autoimmune conditions who follow an elimination diet to identify the foods that trigger symptoms.
In other words, you may not need to be 100% carnivore all the time, but you may want to if that’s how you feel best.
Is the carnivore diet bad for your heart?
There is no evidence to suggest the carnivore diet is bad for your heart. On the contrary, there is every indication the carnivore diet is one of the healthiest and most sustainable eating patterns out there.
Some critics and food companies claim the carnivore diet can hurt your heart and lead to heart attacks. However, there is no hard evidence to corroborate this. In fact, Americans are eating almost 20% less red meat than they did in the early 2000s, but incidents of heart disease have continued to rise.
Other concerns about the carnivore diet are largely based on misconceptions. For example:
- Eating too much cholesterol won’t hurt your heart. Cholesterol is produced almost entirely inside the body, and only 20% comes from the food you eat.
- Unprocessed red meats do not carry the same threats as processed meats. Processed foods carry four times the salt of unprocessed meats and may be packaged with harmful nitrates. Unprocessed meats are low in salt, free from high levels of nitrates, and easier to digest.
- Saturated fat does not lead to heart disease. This is an outdated concept that has since been addressed by many scientific studies and reviews. Limitations on saturated fat have been recommended to increase over the past few years.
To summarize: there is no evidence to support the claim that red meat is harmful to your heart.
Where can I learn more about the carnivore diet?
The carnivore diet isn’t hard to understand, but it can be tough to get around the clutter and noise of less reliable publications. One of the best things you could do is invest in a solid education and learn as much as you can about the carnivore diet and how it can help your heart.
You have a few different options:
- Use my free blogs as a resource to kick-start your metabolic health journey.
- Purchase my book ‘Stay Off My Operating Table®‘ for a full breakdown of what you need to know.
- Get started with self-paced online courses so you can see the bigger picture.
If you think you’re ready to try the carnivore diet, sign up for my Gold Metabolic Health Coaching plan so you can join monthly Q&As and clear up questions before you start.