Practicing a carnivore diet and following a carnivore diet meal plan is of much controversy. Some experts feel as if it is very risky and does harm, while others tout its effectiveness on weight loss and overall health. This article offers all of the information you’ll need to learn about the carnivore diet and offers a free carnivore diet meal plan to try out. Not to mention, 27 delicious carnivore diet recipes!
The carnivore diet allows you to consume a low-calorie diet through an all-meat diet. Initially popularized by Shawn Baker, a former American orthopedic doctor, the diet focuses on grass-fed meat and eliminates carbs.
Although the carnivore diet eliminates the carbs’-loaded diets that have been associated with various adverse health issues, it is controversial. We discuss more about carnivore diet to help you make a better decision.
WHAT IS THE CARNIVORE DIET?
A carnivore diet is a complete opposite of what you know about a vegan diet, where you focus on animal products alone. That means following a carnivore diet meal plan shunning grains, bread, and even fruits, and instead, taking animal foods such as fish, meat, eggs, and particular dairy products. In addition, proponents recommend taking low-lactose foods – this is sugar in dairy products.
The diet originates from the belief that ancestral populations mostly consumed fish and meat diets. The majority of the proponents also believe that most present chronic conditions are from high-carb diets.
While other diets such as Paleo and Keto limit carb intake, they don’t eliminate it like the carnivore diet. The all-meat diet is claimed to aid various health issues such as blood sugar regulation, mood issues, and weight loss.
BENEFITS OF THE CARNIVORE DIET
Weight Loss
There’s very little research on the benefits of an all-meat diet, but we can still use existing science to determine results. The carnivore diet has a high protein content and low carbs and is the most filling. It is the least caloric dish you can eat and filling to sustain caloric restrictions comfortably.
Therefore it is no surprise that carnivore diet eaters experience rapid weight loss, among other advantages.
Typically, the carnivore diet is meat-based and eliminates high-carb foods. That means you cannot take pastries, soda, candy, cookies, and buggers, and there is a benefit to it.
High carb foods and sugars are problematic for people living with specific conditions such as diabetes. But complete elimination of carbohydrates is not necessary for effective diabetes management.
Chronic Diseases
The low carbs and high fats diet force the body into ketosis. Your body uses ketones converted from fat as a source of energy. Typically, Ketosis has various benefits to the body and so is popular with the management of particular chronic illnesses.
Furthermore, entering ketosis has been shown to have neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. The diet enhances insulin sensitivity and is effective in suppressing hunger.
For these reasons, it has found application in managing Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease.
There is enough reason to believe carnivores are primarily in ketosis. Meaning that following a carnivore diet meal plan will put you in ketosis.
Increased Energy
Any diet with high protein and low carbs has been shown to increase energy levels and reduce fatigue. Have you ever wondered why you feel tired after eating chips and burgers? It is because a high-carb diet releases a neurotransmitter associated with tiredness and fatigue.
This does not happen with a carnivore diet.
Some use the carnivore diet for cognitive and athletic performance and weight loss.
FOODS YOU CAN EAT ON THE CARNIVORE DIET
Thinking about creating your own carnivore diet meal plan? Here are some guidelines to follow.
- You should eat turkey, lamb, pork, chicken, beef, salmon, organ meats, white fish, and sardines in a carnivore diet. You can also enjoy some herring, tilapia, lobster, crab, and mackerel.
- Dairy products such as hard cheese and heavy cream in small amounts are allowed. Others include bone marrow, lard, and butter.
- For your everyday energy needs, take fatty cuts of meat. There is no recommended daily portions intake. Eat as much as you desire.
- According to some carnivore diet proponents, seasonings, pepper, and salt are allowed.
- While some of the high-carb content foods such as soft cheese, milk, and yogurt are typically excluded, some choose to take them.
FOODS TO AVOID ON THE CARNIVORE DIET
Carnivore diets exclude all non-animal products and meats. In crafting your own carnivore diet meal plan, avoid these foods:
- Vegetables such as peppers, green beans, potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower
- Bananas, apples, oranges, kiwi, berries, and other fruits are excluded from the diet
- Sugars such as maple syrup, table sugar, and brown sugar
- Alcoholic drinks such as wine, beer, and liquor
- You cannot take legumes such as lentils and beans, and grains such as quinoa, pasta, bread, and wheat
- Nuts and seeds such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and almonds
- Drinks apart from water such as fruit juice, tea, coffee, and energy drinks
CARNIVORE DIET 7-DAY MEAL PLAN
Check out this 7-day carnivore diet meal plan. You can download our downloadable carnivore diet meal plan pdf file below.
CARNIVORE DIET MEAL PLAN RECIPES
The diet plan above is only a start. Here are a few carnivore diet recipes to help add some spice up for carnivore diet meal plans in the future. Enter your email address below to grab 27 delicious carnivore diet recipes.
CARNIVORE BREAKFAST SANDWICH
This breakfast sandwich is full of protein and fats and is the perfect choice for one who is on a carnivore diet and keto and can easily enjoy protein and fat in their diet.
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serving size: 1 carnivore sandwich= one person
Calories: 448 kcal/ sandwich
Ingredients:
- Sausage Patties Beef (2 in quantity)
- One Egg
- Cheddar cheese (1 OUNCE)
- Butter (1 tsp)
Recipe:
- In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat and side by side form sausage into thin patties, only 1/2 inch thick. Cook patties until they brown on one side, flip, and cook for another 2-3 minutes thoroughly.
- Fry an egg simultaneously in the same pan, and if required, use a little more butter in a different pan to avoid sticking and then assemble your carnivore breakfast sandwich. Keep the yolk runny just like a sauce.
- For assembling, place one sausage patty on a plate and then top with fried egg, a slice of cheese, and another sausage patty.
- Enjoy the prepared sandwich!
CARNIVORE WAFFLE
This recipe is also one of the easiest and yummiest carnivore breakfast dishes and includes a few ingredients.
Cooking time: 6-8 minutes
Serving size: 1 waffle= 1 person
Calories: 270 kcal/ waffle
Ingredients:
- Two eggs
- Raw breakfast sausage (¼ cup)
- Coconut Oil Spray
Recipe:
- In a bowl, crack the two eggs, whisk them into the sausage, and eventually break the link into small bits.
- Spray the waffle iron with coconut oil spray to avoid sticking.
- Pour the contents into the hot waffle iron and close the lid. Let them cook for approximately 3-4 minutes. Ready to be served!
RISKS OF THE CARNIVORE DIET
To be transparent, and give you the best information, here are risks of the carnivore diet.
High Cholesterol and Sodium
Complete elimination of the various food groups is not always good. It has a couple of risks.
For example, animal meats may be high in cholesterol and saturated fats. These can raise your bad cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease. Recent studies indicate that cholesterol and saturated fats may not increase the risks of cardiovascular diseases as previously believed.
But the consumption of high cholesterol and fatty foods may still have other risks which are currently unknown.
Furthermore, processed meats may contain excessive amounts of sodium which has been linked to adverse health outcomes such as kidney disease and high blood pressure. High doses of sodium can also cause swelling, headaches, and other conditions.
As such, the diet is not suitable for people with chronic kidney disease and those that need to limit their protein intake. Other populations such as the cholesterol hyper-responders need to be cautious when taking foods with high cholesterol.
Low Vitamin C and Other Essential Compounds
The overconsumption of particular macronutrients and the elimination of others can cause deficiencies. Plant-based foods are rich in antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, fiber, and other plant compounds, which lower various health risk factors. On the other hand, meat-based diets do not contain these compounds.
The only way to get vitamin C is supplementation, eggs, and organ meats. Your body needs vitamin C for body repair and to reduce the risks of chronic illnesses.
Lack of Fiber
Good gut bacteria and healthy bowel movements that come from plant fiber are necessary for health. A diet without fiber can increase your risk of colon cancer and cause constipation and a weakened immune system. Eliminating good bacteria from the gut can also cause various digestion issues as well.
CARNIVORE DIET AND MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS
Those practicing the carnivore diet and following a carnivore diet meal plan have reported mental clarity and focus. There is actual research to back this claim.
A sugar-heavy diet or a high-carb diet increases depression through inflammation. There is a study linking inflammation in the brain to depression.
A carnivore diet has zero glucose or sugar in it and is therefore beneficial. This improves your mental health through the reduction of inflammation.
Typically, the body begins running on ketones or fats for energy due to the restriction of carbs. The human brain prefers ketones over carbs as a source of energy. Besides, ketone bodies formed from the fat have neuroprotective properties. They are a more efficient brain fuel than glucose.
CARNIVORE DIET INCREASE BRAIN ENERGY
According to studies, ketone bodies increase energy levels in your brain cells through energy factories. But how does this happen? It is through GABA.
Ketosis increases gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA neurotransmitters in the brain. On its part, GABA attaches to the protein in the brain to produce a calming and soothing effect. This helps reduce feelings of fear, stress, and anxiety.
GABA receptors also reduce the risk of seizures. A few studies suggest that a meat-only diet has been shown to help with a seizure disorder. The researchers observed that the right GABA balance helped achieve a mental focus, reducing depression and stress. They also believe that the diet increases the antioxidant levels, such as Glutathione which treats seizures.
Carnivore diets and keto diets have been shown to reduce seizures. But these benefits are significantly more in children. The carnivore diet reduces inflammation and oxidative stress. According to the studies, reduced inflammation is from the energy that comes from ketone bodies. The diet also helps with weight loss, a process that provides the essential nutrients for reduced oxidative stress.
WHAT ADVOCATES OF THE CARNIVORE DIET SAY
Shawn Baker is the most well-known proponent of the carnivore diet. He is the founder MeatRX, a community of meat-eaters. He sees himself as a skeptic. However, he believes that the carnivore diet provides relief from chronic illnesses. He also believes improves the mind, and following a carnivore diet meal plan leads to weight loss.
Other advocates include Jordan Peterson. Together with his daughter, the famous intellectual has been telling people about the benefits of the carnivore diet.
MeatRX states that thousands of people have reduced symptoms of mental disorders, depression, digestive issues, diabetes, hormonal imbalances, and skin conditions, among others. The diet achieves all this without the need to count calories and timing the food intake. Your only task is to eat meat.
In the medical field, proponents argue that most studies linking meat with chronic conditions are from epidemiological studies. The studies are not done in controlled environments but through questionnaires about food. The method can only generate guesses about the links, and this is not sufficient.
WHAT CRITICS OF THE CARNIVORE DIET SAY
A carnivore diet meal plan is an all-meat highly restrictive diet. It has been criticized by dieticians and nutritionists. Eliminating the various sources of inflammation, such as sugars, is good for you. But without supplementation, the diet is not sustainable.
The carnivores point to the ancient meat-eating cultures to drive the point home. However, these ancient communities ate fresh, sometimes raw meat and organs that were nutritious. The critics also argue that the hunter-gatherer ancestors would mostly take a protein-dense dish after a period of deprivation and exertion.
In the majority of the time, these communities picked nuts and plants.
Critics also say that there are no studies to back up the claims about the benefits of the carnivore diet. Therefore, it is based on belief.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CARNIVORE DIET
Q: Is the carnivore diet dangerous?
The carnivore diet is disruptive to the digestive system as it does not contain fiber that adds water and mass to the stool. It can also cause diarrhea because the body is unable to handle an excessively fatty diet.
In addition, the lack of plant foods starves good bacteria, which opens the door for invaders in the gut. The diet can also cause fatty liver disease or abnormally low protein and life-threatening blood protein levels.
There can also be cases of painful kidney stones forming in the urinary tract or nutrient deficiencies.
However, a carnivore diet meal plan and a meat-only diet may not cause early death unless combined with at least one of the risk factors mentioned by JAMA. These risk factors are smoking cigarettes, alcohol abuse, obesity, and physical inactivity.
Q: Is the carnivore diet safe for people with diabetes or high cholesterol?
An all-meat diet is high in saturated fats, and so people with diabetes are at a much higher risk of heart disease. The risk is still high even when you choose lean meats.
From the review of over two decades of data, Harvard researchers found that high intake of saturated fats increased the risk of heart disease by 18%. Another 2018 study links the increased consumption of processed red meat to insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. This is something that should worry people with diabetes.
Q: Is the carnivore diet Keto?
Both carnivore and ketogenic diets allow protein and fat, while also eliminating carbs. But carnivore diets take it a step further. The all-meat diet eliminates plant foods.
You can take leafy low-carb veggies and plant-based fat sources such as avocado, coconut oils, and nuts in a ketogenic diet. But you must get the correct ratio of carbs to proteins by calculating macros. In Keto, protein is limited to prevent going out of ketosis.
In contrast, there is no calculation to do or ratio preferences in a carnivore diet. You are encouraged to eat any amount of meat and fats.
On the other hand, some foods containing sugar, such as yogurt and milk, may be included in the all-meat diet, but not in Keto.
Q: Is the carnivore diet good for reducing depression?
The all-meat diet has been gaining steam in recent times. Mikhaila, the daughter of Jordan Peterson, said how her water, salt, and beef diet relieved her of depression. Mikhaila’s experience inspired her father to try the diet to alleviate depression, gastric reflux, and psoriasis, and was successful, as reported by The Atlantic.
Brett Lloyd is among the proponents of the carnivore diet, who in 2008 reversed symptoms of migraines, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia. According to the psychiatrist, his mood, concentration, sleep, and energy improved significantly.
Q: Can I eat processed meats?
You are free to eat processed meat products such as sausage and bacon in a carnivore diet.
Q: How long does it take your body to adapt to the carnivore diet?
The transition to the protein and fat-based diet from the carbohydrates-based diet will involve some physical changes. The microbiome of the gut bacteria will have to adjust, which could take around a week or two.
Q: How many calories per day should I eat on a carnivore diet?
The carnivore diet is different from the other diets in various ways. For example, you don’t have to worry about meal timing and calorie count. Sometimes, the low-calorie count can cause lethargy, and so it may be necessary to keep track.
If you are low on calories, red meat is calorie-dense. Use a calorie tracking app when necessary.
Q: Will the carnivore diet put you in ketosis?
Yes. Eating a carnivore diet will restrict your carb intake, and this will force some changes in your body. Instead of carbs, your body will turn to fats as a source of fuel, and hence put you in ketosis.
But it is never a guarantee. Overeating meat can increase insulin and blood sugar levels, which remove you from ketosis. Opt for fattier choices of meat such as cheese, butter, and eggs.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ON THE CARNIVORE DIET
While the proponents of the carnivore diet say that it has several health benefits, it is restrictive. There’s also no sufficient research supporting the claims about the benefits of a carnivore diet meal plan. But the metabolic needs of everyone are different. Some can be more fat, or carb, or protein-adapted than others.
The carnivore diet is high in sodium and fats and does not contain the beneficial antioxidants and compounds you find in plants. If you are looking to improve your health outcomes, first seek professional help before taking drastic actions, such as eliminating particular food groups from your diet.
