Carnivore Diet - Is It Healthy

8/29/24, 7:28 PM Carnivore diet: is it healthy?
Institute for Optimum Nutrition
Carnivore diet: what if we only ate meat?
Carnivores only eat meat and animal

products – some eat only beef, salt and
water. They say the diet mimics what our Related
ancestors ate – but does it? Hatty Willmoth
writes.
The basics of an
This article was originally published in print anti-inflammatory
in the Autumn 2022 issue of Optimum diet
Nutrition magazine.
Mediterranean rice
and lentil bowl
How many portions of fruit and veg should
we eat? The government says five a day, How to eat cabbage
and many nutritional experts say 30 – and actually enjoy
different plant foods per week. it!
https://www.ion.ac.uk/news/carnivore-diet 1/15
But how about none? What if you never

ate any vegetables, or fruit, or pulses, or Latest
grains, or nuts, or seeds, or even herbs –
at all, ever? Well, then you could call Live CPD | Enzyme
yourself a carnivore. Therapeutics in
Clinical Practice
Carnivores only eat animal products.
Some eat meat, fish, seafood, eggs and Live CPD |
dairy, and may make allowances for Supporting
seasoning, tea and coffee. Others say they Adolescent Mental
stick to beef, salt and water. Health
It’s called a ‘zero-carb’ ketogenic diet, Take the first step

which means it relies on fats – not to becoming a
carbohydrates – for energy. It’s also high in nutritional therapist
saturated fat and devoid of fibre.
Not a single long-term clinical trial appears

to have been conducted on the carnivore
diet, so there’s no conclusive evidence it’s
safe; in fact, many have proclaimed it
decidedly unsafe.
In a Guardian article, one Stanford

professor of medicine proclaimed it
“disastrous”; Healthline rates it a 1.17 out
of five on its diet review scorecard; and
one US clinic website says it is “extremely
restrictive” and potentially dangerous.
Is anyone actually on the

carnivore diet?
But it has recently gained some traction.
Thousands of people say they’ve tried it
out with great success, including a few big
names.
Canadian clinical psychologist and

controversial public speaker Jordan
Peterson went carnivore after it
purportedly healed his daughter Mikhaila
of chronic arthritis and depression.
He famously explained its transformative

effect on The Joe Rogan Experience,
perhaps the biggest podcast in the world.
There’s even a doctor in the US who

recommends it to his patients.
Philip Ovadia: the carnivore

doctor
Stay Off My Operating Table by Florida-
based heart surgeon Dr Philip Ovadia
describes five different diets as pathways

towards metabolic health: vegetarian or
vegan, Mediterranean, low-carb,
ketogenic, or carnivore – Ovadia’s own
diet.
Ovadia came to the carnivore life

gradually. Overweight as a child, he
became obese while training to be a heart
surgeon.
Seven years ago, he was morbidly obese,

pre-diabetic and, he says, “headed down
the same path as the patients that
ultimately end up on my table”.
To avoid continuing down that path,

Ovadia gradually cut out sugar, carbs,
vegetable and seed oils, and processed
foods from his diet, until he was ketogenic.
Three years ago, he made the switch to

carnivore, eating only red meat, seafood,
eggs and dairy, and he says he sticks with
it “because it works”.
Carnivore diet for inflammation

Ovadia, much like the Petersons, says the
diet is great for reducing inflammation.
“It’s clearly anti-inflammatory,” he says.

“We now have, in large experience, many,
many people who have had inflammatory
conditions, autoimmune conditions that
healed themselves with a carnivore diet…
“Many of the triggers for autoimmune

conditions, it turns out, are plant products.”
Lectins, saponins, oxalates and goitrogens

are examples of natural pesticides that
plants produce in varying quantities to
protect themselves against being eaten.
Generally considered to be pro-

inflammatory, they affect individuals
differently.
Ovadia continues: “The carnivore diet

ended up being a good anti-inflammatory
elimination diet that I will oftentimes use to
help reset the system – and go from there.
“Some people need to continue with that

strict carnivore diet. Other people don’t.”
Are carnivore diets healthy?

Kirstie Lawton, PhD, an AfN-registered
nutritionist and registered nutritional
therapy practitioner, says that “a temporary
auto-immune paleo or ketogenic diet” may
benefit those who can’t tolerate

substances such as oxalate, salicylate, or
histamine (found in plant foods), or “who
have severe SIBO [small intestinal
bacterial overgrowth] and react to most
high FODMAP foods”.
However, the carnivore diet seems to fly in

the face of swathes of nutritional (and
environmental) advice.
Diets that are rich in plant-based foods

have long been associated with lower risk
of various chronic conditions like heart
disease, certain cancers, Alzheimer's, and
type 2 diabetes, because they provide
micronutrients, fibre and antioxidants.
Meanwhile, red meat has been linked to

increased risk of various diseases,
including heart disease and certain
cancers, particularly colon and rectal
cancer.
Many of the health risks associated with

red meat are linked to the quantity of
saturated fat it contains, and research and
opinion on saturated fat continues to be
divided.
Are carnivore diets safe?

Lawton adds that a carnivore may miss out
on fibre, plant-based polyphenols and
phytonutrients, and certain vitamins, for
example vitamin C.
However, Ovadia says: “Animal products

have in them all the nutrients that we
need,”
Advocates, unsurprisingly, agree with

Ovadia. Amber O’Hearn, a computer
scientist and blogger who says she has
been a carnivore for over a decade and is
often cited within carnivore circles, wrote a
paper stating that the diet can meet all
micronutrient requirements, including
vitamin C.
Yet many experts dispute this, pointing to

research indicating that a carnivore diet
may lead to deficiencies in some nutrients
and overconsumption of others.
Do we need to eat fibre?

Fibre – only found in plants – is also highly
contested. Studies suggest it is important
for gut health: promoting healthy bowel
movements and nourishing gut bacteria.
Lawton says: “Fibre provides prebiotic

fibres that feed our gut microbiome,
allowing it to be diverse and healthy.
“There are a number of evidenced benefits

to a healthy gut microbiome, including links
to immune health, cardiovascular health
and brain health.”
Yet, Ovadia says, “it’s clear that you don’t

need [fibre]”, arguing that “the benefits
from fibre all seem to be what the fibre
replaces in the diet”. Ovadia dismisses the
idea that “fibre in and of itself is beneficial”.
He says: “I’ve been doing this for three

years with minimal to zero fibre and do just
fine and have normal gut health. I know
thousands and thousands of other people
who do the same.”
Carnivore: an ancestral diet?

Meat, he says, is “the most basic food
group that humans can exist on”. He adds:
“When you go back to our evolutionary
history, there was clearly a large period of
time that we were mostly carnivore, if not
totally carnivore.”
It’s an idea that is commonly touted; that

the diet is best because it most closely
resembles what our ancestors ate.
But that’s inaccurate, according to

archaeologists. Dr Louise Humphrey,
research leader in human origins at the
Natural History Museum, says: “The non-
agricultural diet would have varied through
time and in different parts of the world.”
In fact, an imbalance of archaeological

evidence may have led to an over-
emphasis of hunter-gatherer meat
consumption.
Professor Dorian Fuller, an

archaeobotanist at University College
London, says: “In a way, it’s a simple
observation that animal bones survive in
the archaeological record relatively easily.”
Humphrey adds: “Cut marks and

percussion marks on animal bones are
persuasive evidence that people were
butchering animal carcases and very likely
consuming parts of the animal including
muscle, fat and bone marrow.”
Plants, says Humphrey, do not preserve as

well, while Fuller explains that the
technology needed to recover and analyse
plant remains is much more recent,
developed more than a century after
archaeologists started collecting animal
bones.
Relatively little research has been done on

plants from the Palaeolithic era, so there is
much less evidence of pre-agricultural
plant consumption.
Starchy carbs in the

Palaeolithic
However, in recent years, archaeologists
have found evidence that hunter-gatherers
ate plants, including high-carbohydrate
plants such as starch-rich tubers
(potatoes, yams, etc.) and grains.
Humphreys says: “Traces of plant residues

on stone grinding tools and charred plant
remains at archaeological sites reveal that
humans in many parts of the world were
eating wild grains and other wild plant
foods rich in carbohydrates thousands of
years before plant foods were cultivated.”
There is also evidence of plant foods in an

Australian cave dated around 60,000 years
ago, and cooked plant carbohydrates in
Africa from at least 170,000 years ago.
Plus, humans have more copies of

amylase genes than other primates, an
adaptation that enables us to digest
starch-rich foods efficiently.
It’s proposed that this adaptation occurred,

up to 80,000 years ago, as result of
carbohydrate-rich diets.
What did cavemen eat?

That’s not to say that all Palaeolithic
people ate high-starch, plant-centric diets,
because evidence does suggest
otherwise.
Fuller explains that there was “a wide

range of hunter-gatherer diets” depending
on resources available.
And we have continued to adapt.

Humphrey says: “Many people today have
relatively recent genetic adaptions that
allow us to consume foods that would have
been less well tolerated by our
predecessors.
“Lactase persistence [the ability to digest

lactose in milk] throughout childhood and
even into adulthood is one of the best-
known examples.
“There are also differences in the modern

human gut microbiome that may allow us
to digest some foods more easily.”
This could imply that some of us do better

on certain diets due to what our own
ancestors ate. Thus, descendants of
predominantly hunting groups may do well
on something like a carnivore diet — as
Ovadia says he does.
Fuller says: “That’s almost certainly true…

Clearly, [eating only animal products] suits
the people with Inuit ancestry, right?
“They may have certain genetic

adaptations to that diet that make them
different from, say, someone of South
Asian or African descent.
“You would have some groups that are

very heavily meat and fish reliant
traditionally, and they might have genetic
predispositions to that. But that’s going to
be very rare, I think.
“The real general issue is that our hunter-

gatherer ancestors were diverse in their
diets, so there’s no one ancestral diet.
That’s just a false assumption. There’s no
one answer.”
Should I try the carnivore diet?

Today, we live in a different world. Many
object to carnivores’ choices on
environmental grounds – although Ovadia
does not believe reducing meat
consumption would impact the
environment “in any way”.
But also, modern humans “have access to

an unparalleled diversity of food choices” –
in the words of Humphrey.
She says: “It’s worth remembering that our

ancestors would not have had access to
highly processed foods and would have
eaten fewer, if any, refined carbohydrates.”
A key benefit of the carnivore diet, says

Ovadia, is cutting out those processed
foods and refined carbohydrates.
He says: “A central part of my message is:

eat real food. So I think the elimination of
processed food would certainly go a long
way towards improving everyone’s health,
and carnivore is one of the ways to do
that.”
Yet when working with patient individually,

he has found that “some people don’t
thrive on [the carnivore diet] as much as
someone like myself”.
His final advice is to “be more curious” and

“run the experiment for yourself”. That
doesn’t have to be carnivore, he says, but
“if you’re not happy with your current state
of health…try something different, and
keep trying something different until you
find what works for you.”
Lawton says: “Any dietary intervention that

is restrictive should be seen as a short-
term measure and have a clear purpose.”
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8/29/24, 7:28 PM Carnivore diet: is it healthy?

Institute for Optimum Nutrition

Carnivore diet: what if we only ate meat?

Carnivores only eat meat and animal

But how about none? What if you never

It’s called a ‘zero-carb’ ketogenic diet, Take the first step

Not a single long-term clinical trial appears

In a Guardian article, one Stanford

Is anyone actually on the

Canadian clinical psychologist and

He famously explained its transformative

There’s even a doctor in the US who

Philip Ovadia: the carnivore

describes five different diets as pathways

Ovadia came to the carnivore life

Seven years ago, he was morbidly obese,

To avoid continuing down that path,

Three years ago, he made the switch to

Carnivore diet for inflammation

“It’s clearly anti-inflammatory,” he says.

“Many of the triggers for autoimmune

Lectins, saponins, oxalates and goitrogens

Generally considered to be pro-

Ovadia continues: “The carnivore diet

“Some people need to continue with that

Are carnivore diets healthy?

benefit those who can’t tolerate

However, the carnivore diet seems to fly in

Diets that are rich in plant-based foods

Meanwhile, red meat has been linked to

Many of the health risks associated with

Are carnivore diets safe?

However, Ovadia says: “Animal products

Advocates, unsurprisingly, agree with

Yet many experts dispute this, pointing to

Do we need to eat fibre?

Lawton says: “Fibre provides prebiotic

“There are a number of evidenced benefits

Yet, Ovadia says, “it’s clear that you don’t

He says: “I’ve been doing this for three

Carnivore: an ancestral diet?

It’s an idea that is commonly touted; that

But that’s inaccurate, according to

In fact, an imbalance of archaeological

Professor Dorian Fuller, an

Humphrey adds: “Cut marks and

Plants, says Humphrey, do not preserve as

Relatively little research has been done on

Starchy carbs in the

Humphreys says: “Traces of plant residues

There is also evidence of plant foods in an

Plus, humans have more copies of

It’s proposed that this adaptation occurred,

What did cavemen eat?

Fuller explains that there was “a wide

And we have continued to adapt.

“Lactase persistence [the ability to digest

“There are also differences in the modern

This could imply that some of us do better