What is the Carnivore Diet Plan: And Why Is It So Popular?

Depending on how long you have been around in the current Ketogenic diet explosion you may or may not know what the Carnivore diet is and what it is about. Unlike Keto which aims to have you consume quality vegetables with high fiber values the carnivorous diet is centered around a meat-based diet. Grab the detailed book from Amazon here, it will open in a new tab.

What is the Carnivore Diet Plan? The Carnivore Diet has become popular over the last 2 years due to people like Dr Shawn Baker and Mikhaila Peterson helping repair issues with their minds and bodies. It has the ability to help combat issues with depression, physical ailments like arthritis and lessening of body fat while increasing lean body mass.

We will go into more details in the sections below to explain in laymen terms what a carnivore diet is and how it has become such a popular topic so fast.

The book listed over to the side was just published by the above listed Dr Shawn Baker and can teach you in much more detail from a doctors perspective if you would like to go more in depth.

Make sure you are listening and reading from the most knowledgeable sources on the topic as this is fast adapting and changing. Currently they are experiencing strife internally due to everyone having factions and there is no one unifying voice.

When I started listening to Dr Baker on YouTube I found it difficult to wrap my head around the very idea that a carnivore diet could not possibly cause harm, but actually improve health.

After reading and seeing people share positive results they achieved with it, I am preparing to run my own N=1 experiment to see what I can get for results. I also enjoy steak, chicken, pork and basically enjoy the experiences of eating meat, so I feel it should be sustainable.

What Is A Carnivorous Diet?

This diet can go by many names, zero carb, all meat, carnivery, carnivore diet or the carnivorous diet. All of these different names all entail an eating plan centered around almost nothing but meats for each and every meal, every day.

That means a lot of protein, a lot of fat, and almost zero carbs. This diet pairs well with ButcherBox to help keep you in stock of grass fed beef and quality heritage pork and chicken.

This runs contrary to conventional medical and nutritional knowledge and wisdom, things like “you need to eat a lot of vegetables, fiber, and grains, to thrive”. This thought process has contributed to the large impact in social justice warriors promoting vegan and vegetarian diets.

The carnivore diet consists of:

• Meat (mostly steak)
• Eggs
• Butter (grass fed)
• Cheese

Based on the contemporary knowledge you would believe at the carnivore diet would lead to or cause cause high cholesterol, digestive problems, weight gain, and other problems.

Over time and many N=1 (self driven) studies, this hasn’t bared fruit and more interesting the opposite has occurred for most people.

What Are Some Benefits To A Carnivorous Diet?

I want to begin this with some caveats:

• First and foremost, I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist and this is not medical advice
• Each person is unique and a little bit different and hence will respond differently to different foods
• I believe all diet research has been fundamentally flawed overall, I have very little belief or faith in the quality of research and data we have on any diet, including the carnivore diet.

Now we can speak on my perceived benefits:

• Meat is amazingly tasty and easy to prepare without a lot of foresight and “meal planning”. I haven’t had a care for sweets in forever so cutting them out isn’t difficult, though this will vary per person.
• This is effectively zero carb, meaning you will enter ketosis fast and stay there with relative ease. This should help accelerate fat loss while maintaining muscle mass since you will be taking in adequate proteins.
• Helps to limit “indulgences”, since you won’t be eating anything with even artificial sweeteners in it you will find that your WANT or NEED to cheat or indulge will slow down and help you manage your eating issues.

Why Would You Remove Plant Foods?

Despite what your family and friends told you while growing up, vegetables are not be as important as we were told. They do contain many different vitamins and nutrients, but the more I read they might not be the best source, nor the most bio-available to your body.

Plants are also a huge source of anti-nutrients which cause our body to have immune responses to eating them.

What Are Anti-Nutrients?

Plants come with plenty of anti-nutrients which are a defense system intended to stop animals, including humans, from consuming them. They tend to bind to the same receptors and reduce uptake by the body, or are destroyed by cooking or are unavailable without certain fats.

Why Has Carnivore Diet Become So Popular?

It has grown as the community has become vocal online and has stopped being a shuttered group. This coupled with the massive benefits that the people actively doing the diet report has led more people to want to learn and explore how it can lead to benefits to their life and lifestyle.

This popularity has led to an increase in searches in Google and YouTube, many YouTube personalities started to open up about their diets including the 2 big ones below and others like Frank Tufano and Sverige.

YouTube Personalities Switching Or Publicly Discussing The Diet

Dr Shawn Baker

He is a medical doctor who was stripped of his license because he wanted to treat people through diet and exercise instead of hack and slash. He fought and got his medical license back as they were found to have removed it in bad faith. He is a world class athlete and is quite interesting to listen to and learn from.

Mikhaila Peterson

She is the child of Dr Jordan Peterson who has in his own way shot to popularity over the last couple of years. Mikhaila has fought numerous autoimmune diseases by switching her diet and if you are interested she is someone you should follow on YouTube. I could try to explain her whole life to you but I’ll let her explain in her video below.

How Long Is It Safe To Be On A Carnivore Diet?

From reading around and poking at people online it appears that side effects are not usually on the list of reasons for people stopping the diet.

Typically it sounds like they start to miss other foods, or feel restricted socially.

This can frequently be seen by people who quit though trying the “missed” food. They then realize that it is no longer as delicious as they remember, which leads them to return to a carnivore diet.

For people who quit within the first few weeks, it’s usually because they’re struggling with fat adaption side effects or because they’re having lingering cravings for off-limits foods. That’s not enough time to develop a major nutrient deficiency (if you’re coming from a non-deficient starting point).

There are people who have been on this for 10+ years and one who came in at 50 years in my research online which means you shouldn’t hit a 6 year ceiling like many vegans, it appears outwardly from N=1 and similar topics that this should have a very good longevity for a lifelong way of eating.

No Long Term Studies Currently

There isn’t currently many studies outside of independent N=1 self reporting studies. Within the N=1 community though there is a tremendous amount of valuable information about the diet and the long term ability.

When I hear about studies I will send out more information to subscribers and publish the studies and appropriate breakdowns.

Depression On A Carnivore Diet

I have heard from many people on Facebook, YouTube, and other sources that switching away from vegetables dramatically increased their happiness and removed depression that in many cases has been with them for YEARS and DECADES.

This alone should have the medical community more open to the diet as we spend billions on mood altering drugs yearly and we should move away from this.

Please don’t watch the below if you are hurt by bad words and language. Scott doesn’t hold his tongue but is a very interesting person to watch as he isn’t trying to be everyone’s friend or make a billion dollars being personable on YouTube.

Final Thoughts on What is the Carnivore Diet Plan

I find the Carnivore Diet to be an interesting philosophical change for our country that is in many cases probably the same as the Vegan movement.

It goes too far in one direction saying the other is wholly bad for you and causes all the health issues you encounter.

I wonder if in 6 years carnivore dieters will start having issues similar to vegans where they lack specific nutrients and start to have other health issues.

Dr Ede said the following and I think it should stay in the forefront of your mind:

To the best of my knowledge, the world has yet to produce a civilization which has eaten a vegan diet from childhood through death, whereas there are numerous examples throughout recorded history of people from a variety of cultural, ethnic and geographical backgrounds who have lived on mainly-meat diets for decades, lifetimes, generations.”

George Ede MD

Please check out CarnivoreRX for more details on the Carnivore Diet and share if it was of interest to you or may help others you know who are starting or are actively doing the carnivore diet.