Excluding all plants from your diet is a terrible idea
The carnivore diet is pretty much what it sounds like – a diet based on eating meat. The carnivore diet encourages you to eat meat or animal products for every meal. It’s been described by some as ‘the ketogenic diet on steroids’. However, unlike keto, which restricts carbs and plants, the carnivore diet excludes all plant foods including vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.
But is it healthy? Well, before you toss out your leafy greens and stock your fridge with cuts of meat, there are a few things you should know....
What is the carnivore diet?
As mentioned, people on the carnivore diet eat only meat and animal products, and avoid all plant foods.
‘I call this a mono diet, which means you’re basically eating one food,’ says Abby Langer, a Toronto-based dietitian and writer. ‘It’s meat, eggs and coffee. Some people will eat dairy, but most believe that the lactose in milk makes it off-limits, because that’s sugar. No plant foods are allowed, which means you can’t eat any grains, nuts, seeds, beans, fruits or vegetables.’
Although there don’t seem to be any official guidelines in terms of macronutrients, most proponents of the diet seem to recommend getting the majority of calories from fat, not protein, which means choosing fattier cuts of meat.
What can you eat on the carnivore diet?
Red meats, including beef, lamb, pork and venison
Offal, such as liver and kidney
Poultry
Fish
Eggs
Bone marrow
Lard, dripping, butter and ghee
Some followers also choose to include milk, yoghurt and cheese (low lactose)
Are there any health benefits to the carnivore diet?
Those who follow the carnivore diet claim it improves mental clarity, raises energy levels, improves gut health and also boosts the treatment of auto-immune and chronic diseases.
Scientists believe its recent rise to fame can be credited (to a certain degree) to an orthopaedic surgeon named Shawn Baker, who released the book The Carnivore Diet in 2018.
But excluding all plants from your diet – and eating an abundance of red meat and saturated fat – is never a good idea when it comes to health.
‘There’s a reason [health experts] say to eat the rainbow,’ says Amy Gorin, R.D.N., owner of Amy Gorin Nutrition in the New York City area. ‘You need a variety of foods for optimal health. These include fruits and vegetables, healthy fats like avocado and olives, and whole grains like quinoa and brown rice. You get so many important nutrients from these foods — from vitamins and minerals to antioxidants — that are important for good health.’
Langer agrees, as does, well, science. ‘You’re essentially cutting out foods that have been proven to be good for you, and that have never proven to be harmful.’
She also points out that, in addition to important vitamins and minerals, plant food contains fibre, which has been proven to promote weight loss, weight maintenance, improved cholesterol, and a lower risk of heart disease and stroke.
Plus, ‘fibre from plant foods are digested in the bowel by good bacteria... It improves gut health,’ says Langer. On the carnivore diet, you’re missing out on all of these potential health benefits — and not only that, but you might start feeling pretty damn constipated from that lack of fibre.
So what does science say about the carnivore diet?
Evidence from over 171 research studies found that consuming more than 50g of red meat per day increases your risk of colon cancer by 21 per cent.
Yet, the amount of red meat you'd consume on a carnivore diet would far surpass this threshold – so the true increase in cancer risk is currently unknown.
It's also worth pointing out that NHS guidelines and the British Heart Foundation say the best diets are composed of mostly plant foods and limited amounts of saturated fat — a.k.a. the opposite of the carnivore diet.
‘Dietary Guidelines advise limiting saturated fat to no more than 10 per cent of total daily calories,’ explains Gorin. ‘Too much saturated fat can increase your cholesterol levels [and direct risk of cardiovascular disease]. So for a 2,000-calorie daily diet, you should get no more than 200 calories, or about 22 grams, of saturated fat.’
Gorin also points out that, if you were following the carnivore diet — say, by having a few eggs and a few slices of bacon — you'd get more than half of that amount for breakfast alone.
Technically, it’s possible to eat meats lower in saturated fat, like skinless poultry, lean cuts of pork and fish. But the carnivore diet recommends fattier cuts of meat high in saturated fat, because most of your calories on the diet should come from fat.
‘The claims of this diet are just so crazy,’ Langer says. ‘Its supporters are saying that vegetables are horrible and that carbohydrates are toxic. None of this has ever been proven by science, and any studies they’re citing are not credible.’
Does the carnivore diet help with weight loss?
Here’s the deal: Any time you eliminate major food groups from your diet (or in this case, pretty much all foods except meat), you’re likely going to be eating less. Less food equals fewer calories consumed, and eating fewer calories than you need is how weight loss happens. Period.
So, sure, you’ll probably lose weight on the carnivore diet in the short term. You’ll have to say no to office snacks, birthday cake, and convenient on-the-go options like granola bars and trail mix.
That said, the diet is pretty unsustainable, and any weight you lose will probably come back as soon as you start eating a variety of foods again. ‘There are much healthier ways to lose weight that include making lasting lifestyle changes,’ says Gorin. ‘It would be very difficult—and wouldn't be healthy—to maintain an all-meat diet.’
What about all of these claims that the carnivore diet cures chronic health problems?
Bloggers and Instagrammers claim that, in addition to weight loss, the carnivore diet can cure a variety of ailments, from sinus and skin issues to arthritis and depression (there are even #meatheals and #meatismedicine hashtags on Instagram).
But again, those are all anecdotal claims — there are no actual studies on the carnivore diet, so it’s impossible to say for sure what the health effects are, good or bad.
‘It could be the placebo effect, but it also could just be the result of weight loss,’ says Langer. ‘It literally has no logical explanation — it’s not based in science at all.’
Langer also stresses that just because one person goes on the carnivore diet and has healthy blood vitals and reduced symptoms of a chronic condition, doesn’t mean that this will be true for everyone.
‘Some people can eat more saturated fats and be okay, so that could be a reason their blood pressure and cholesterol are within the healthy range,’ she says. ‘They also may have neglected to mention that they’ve lost weight, which in itself will make your pressure and cholesterol go down. They also may just be lying.’
So all of this means the carnivore diet is extremely restrictive?
Correct. ‘Humans cannot subsist off of only meat and experience optimal health,’ says Gorin.
Langer also emphasises the fact that the carnivore diet could really take a toll on your mental and emotional health, too.
‘You’re going to be isolating yourself from social situations and that’s just not okay,’ she says. ‘Mental and physical health go hand-in-hand in terms of their impact on your health and your life.’
The bottom line: If you’re looking to lose weight or improve your health, it’s best to do it through sustainable lifestyle changes — not going HAM (literally) on meat or animal products. The carnivore diet is even more restrictive than Keto, and it's best to give this diet a big swerve.
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