Carnivore diet

A carnivore diet, also known as a zero-carb diet or an all-meat diet, is a dietary pattern that consists of only animal food sources such as meat, fish, eggs, and certain dairy products.

The main goal of a carnivore diet is to achieve optimal health by limiting carbs and increasing the proportion of healthy fats and proteins in the diet or in other words go back to a proper human species specific diet.

Key concepts

A Carnivore Diet is a type of dietary lifestyle that focuses on consuming only animal products such as poultry, beef, fish, eggs, and other forms of animal-based foods. This type of diet excludes all plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables. There are several variations of the Carnivore Diet, including the strict, relaxed and lion diets.

The Strict Carnivore Diet consists solely of animal products, including organs and bone broth. This type of diet mostly includes red meat such as beef or venison and organ meats such as liver or kidney. However, it does not include any processed or pre-packaged foods. It also does not allow for any dairy products or supplements.

The Relaxed Carnivore Diet includes some plant-based products in addition to the animal-based ones. Low carb fruits, fermented vegetables or mushrooms are consumed occasionally. This version also allows for some dairy products.

The Lion Diet is a very restrictive form of the carnivore diet that consists only of red meat mainly beef, with no room for single veggie, berry or cream, some believe also only raw meat should be consumed.

Overall, all variants of the carnivore diet focus on supplying the body with essential nutrients from animal sources of proteins and fats. While avoiding unnecessary carbohydrates from plants which can cause inflammation and in long term leads to metabolic disease in many individuals.

Health benefit

Carnivore Diet can help reduce inflammation, improve gut health, minimise allergies, and even treat psoriasis.

Carnivore diet is beneficial in reduction or elimination of IBS - Irritable bowel syndrome symptoms since it eliminates many potential iritation triggers like sources of fibre.

Similarly, following this type of diet also helps address any issues with overgrown gut bacteria by eliminating food sources that can contribute to dysbiosis. Furthermore, by reducing carbohydrate intake and increasing fat intake on a carnivore diet it can create an environment within the gut that is more suitable for beneficial bacteria while reducing pathogenic species.

In addition to its ability to reduce inflammation and promote healthy gut bacteria populations, studies have also shown that a carnivore diet can be effective in treating allergies.

By removing common allergens such as dairy, eggs and nuts from the meals you’re eating as part of your carnivore diet plan your risk for reactions is minimised significantly.

In many reports we can find that following a carnivore diet can help alleviate symptoms associated with psoriasis due to its anti-inflammatory effects. The decrease in carbohydrates combined with the increase in healthy fats has been linked to a reduction in redness and scaling often associated with psoriasis flare-ups.

While further studies are still needed to confirm these findings there are plenty of self reported stories about health improvements by many individuals.

Why can be difficult

Carnivore diet can be very difficult to maintain due to its limited range of products and sometimes even the lack of sources for animal-based products depending on the geographical region.

When a strict Carnivore Diet needs to be applied, eating out is almost impossible as there is no way to guarantee that the food prepared meets these dietary restrictions.

This also means that grocery shopping can be difficult and time consuming, as every product needs to be carefully checked for animal ingredients or any other forbidden items.

Very wide lobby of highly processed vegetarian food manufacturers not helping with growing prices of red meat especially.

Finally, maintaining social relationships while being on a carnivore diet can be challenging as well because not many people understand this way of eating.

Convincing them otherwise requires knowledge about science and nutrition in order to demonstrate how this diet is beneficial for health.