The Carnivore Diet
The fitness and nutrition industries have both experienced quite the surge of popularity and growth in the past few decades and only seems to be accelerating in this growth. This is a great thing, as more and more people are participating in healthier and more health-conscious lifestyles. However, this growth has led to an abundance of different perspectives on how and what people should be eating in order to live their best lives and, unfortunately, these perspectives often come from individuals that are not qualified to give such advice.
From a nutritional perspective, this manifests in an over-saturation of "diets" in the industry. Some of these "diets" that spring immediately to mind include the keto-diet, paleo, macro-counting, etc. However, one such diet that is gaining popularity, especially in the fitness world, is known as the carnivore diet.
If I were to ask what food groups are not consumed enough in the typical Western diet, it's likely that many of the answers I would receive would include vegetables, fruits, and other plant-based products. A typical Western diet includes an abundance of animal products and refined grains, leading to an over-consumption of calories, fats, and a lack of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
Many fad diets do have one saving grace in that several of them encourage eating more fruits and vegetables (often including and excluding specific varieties - a glaring weakness). What makes the carnivore diet so unique is that it does the exact opposite of this - instead opting to consume ONLY animal products.
No, that isn't a typo. No, you didn't read it wrong. The carnivore diet's one and only rule is that anything that isn't an animal product is excluded and should not be eaten, putting the majority of the focus on consuming meats, fish, eggs, and other animal products.
Where does this meat-only concept come from? Well, while there is little scientific proof for this, the carnivore diet stems from the idea that our ancestors consumed very high amounts of meat and little carbohydrate intake (this all occurring before humans began to plant/harvest grains). This diet aims to eliminate carbohydrate intake. Not reduce like other low-carb diets-eliminate. Zero carbohydrates! Completely eliminating an entire macronutrient, let alone the vitamins/minerals neglected.
It was revoke in 2017 by the New Mexico Health Board based on concerns of competency.
So why is it growing in popularity? Simply put, this is another diet that has fallen prey to social media influencer-popularity.
Social media is a powerful tool. Anybody can post practically anything that they want, and this is most obvious in the health and wellness industry which includes fitness and nutrition. It is easy to be fooled by an influencer who has the right look (i.e. he/she looks like you want to look, so you do whatever he/she says), but there are a few things that you can consider to help avoid being fooled into a poor diet:
- If a diet eliminates any food groups completely, it probably isn't healthy
- If a diet restricts when/what you eat, it probably isn't sustainable
- If there isn't any real scientific data backing the diet, or the diet relies only on personal experiences, you should be skeptical of trying this diet
I found your article intriguing as I am someone who doesn't like to eat meat very often. I actually am surprised that people are even considering doing the carnivore diet after all the information that has come out about how bad the keto diet is because of the high amounts of protein. It comes to show how many people fall into these fad diets. -AV
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