The carnivore diet is certainly on trend right now. So I thought it was worth explaining how and why it works.
Firstly, what is the carnivore diet? In its simplest form, it is a meat/fish only diet. No fruit, vegetables, or grains, nothing but meat.
Some proponents of this diet would also say it should be a meat diet that focuses on eating nose to tail, e.g. organ meats as these are rich in a variety of vitamins and minerals not found in muscle meat, some suggest it can also contain eggs, dairy and maybe fruit.
The purest form so to speak though, is a meat only diet.
To many people’s surprise, this diet has become quite popular and seems to get some incredible results.
Initially, instead of telling you how good or bad this diet is, I wanted to be a little more nuanced and explain why it works. My hope is by teaching you more about how it works, you can use that understanding to adjust your diet, whether that is to a more or less carnivorous diet.
So, why does this radical diet work surprisingly well for some people?
Probably for two reasons.
1. It works as an elimination diet by removing any foods that may be causing allergies
2. It removes processed foods and helps people spontaneously eat fewer calories, causing them to lose weight
I know that sounds extremely boring and you probably wanted a more exciting explanation like meat is the ultimate superfood and turns on dormant genes in your DNA that create wolverine-like healing and primal strength, but it’s probably just reasons 1 and 2.
Reason 1.
Over the last few hundred years and last 50 years our diet has changed dramatically and many of us simply can’t stomach this new change. Pun intended.
For example, at least 1% of the population is likely celiac (unable to digest foods containing gluten such as wheat). (1) Possibly around 60-70% of people are somewhat lactose intolerant. (2) There are other food allergies such as histamine, found in cheese and wine, sulphites found in cider, beer and wine, salicylates – found in some fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, also monosodium glutamate (MSG) – found in ripened fruits, cured meats, savory foods and many processed foods.
If you eat these foods without knowing you have an allergy, you could feel pretty rubbish or absolutely terrible a lot of the time, depending on your level of reaction. In fact, if left untreated you could develop a whole host of issues from headaches and joint pain to eczema, type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease.
So, imagine you have an undiagnosed food allergy and although you have tried many diets, you’ve never found the culprit that keeps causing your illness. Then you decide to go carnivore, which cuts out pretty much every possible food allergy or intolerance you have.
What is the chance you are going to feel better? Probably pretty damn high.
That is because you are doing the strictest elimination diet possible, unless you have been bitten by a lone star tick that makes you allergic to red meat. (Luckily not found in the UK!).
The point is, if you remove foods that your body can’t tolerate, you’ll feel better, whether you just remove that one food or lots of others at the same time.
Don’t get me wrong, if you also start eating more meat or organ meat and this clears up some nutrient deficiencies that would also make you feel better, but that can be done without removing everything else.
Reason 2.
The second reason I think the carnivore diet works is it removes a lot of junk food and makes you eat more protein, helping you feel fuller and eat fewer calories.
We’ve known for many years, if you give people unlimited access to junk food, they tend to overeat and gain weight. Our brains are hard-wired to seek out calorie-dense foods, because thousands of years ago, calorie-dense high fat, high carbohydrate foods were hard-earned, and finding them meant the difference between life and death.
This prehistoric drive to search out and consume as much high-calorie food as possible has now become a curse as we’re constantly surrounded by those foods.
Not only are we surrounded by high-calorie foods, but they are also hyper-palatable, which means they have been engineered to taste great, the side effect is they are even less filling and more rewarding to our brains than ever, so we eat even more of them.
There is now ample evidence that highly palatable foods can cause weight gain and that weight gain causes type 2 diabetes amongst other issues.
So if you suddenly cut all processed food out and eat nothing but meat, chances are you’ll find it almost impossible to overeat and you’ll lose weight.
Once again this isn’t because meat is a magical food, it’s simply because once you simplify your diet and eat less processed foods, you almost spontaneously find yourself eating fewer calories. An example of this is, when Chris Voight ate nothing but potatoes, averaging 20 potatoes a day, he lost 21lb over 60 days, even though potatoes are full of carbohydrates because as he found out, you can only eat so many potatoes. (3)
The key point is, once you remove modern processing and eat a simple unrefined diet, you will find it almost impossible to overeat. Whether that diet is carbohydrate-based such as potatoes or meat-based.
The principle is that a diet of unprocessed food, not pure meat, could also cause weightloss. This often brings other health benefits, as when you lose weight, many other markers of health improve.
Now you know the reason why some people can get good results on a carnivore diet.
They remove foods that might cause food allergies and they spontaneously eat fewer calories and lose weight.
If you are thinking, does this mean I could try eliminating certain foods and eating a less processed diet (without going carnivore) I might feel better and lose weight?
The answer is yes.
In part two we will look into if a carnivore diet is healthy…