As I may have mentioned in earlier posts; this January I did the carnivore diet for the whole month. I want to take a moment to reflect on the diet and its results. The month of carnivore did exactly what I knew it would do. I lost 20 lbs. half of that probably being water weight and I felt clear and clean for much of the month. I've done this diet in the past and there are many aspects of it that I like, some that I don't like and some that I both like and dislike. Here I will list just a few.

  1. Clear headedness/stable energy levels - When you eat a carnivore diet you are also eating a semi-ketogenic diet in that you have completely eliminated carbs. So after you acclimate to the change in energy source (ketones over glycogen) a nice benefit is that you have a clean stable energy level that doesn't spike or drop throughout the day and your mind is less distracted and flitting and more directed (unless you go drink a bunch of caffeine which I did most days to help me tackle my morning runs).
  2. A general disinterest in or apathy toward food - This is caused by 2 things I think. The first cause is the same as above, you're in ketosis and so your body isn't really ever without energy because it can just tap into body fat whenever it needs. The only time you feel hunger is when your stomach is empty and your vagus nerve starts complaining. The form of hunger more common in a diet featuring carbs is hormonal hunger caused as a reaction to drops in blood sugar. This kind of hunger is what makes you fantasize about lunch at 10:30 and it doesn't really happen all that often on a ketogenic diet because your blood sugar levels stay pretty even. The second reason is because when you only eat meat your meals become pretty monotonous. If you don't feel hungry the prospect of eating more meat is not very exciting. The brain doesn't crave more fat or protein when it's satisfied because fat alone doesn't trigger an outsized dopamine response. It's sugar that gives you that drug-like hit of dopamine that keeps you reaching for the snacks even though you're quite full. I both like and dislike this aspect of the diet because while it simplifies my interaction with food it also shortens and de-emphasises them which can negatively impact social interactions, particularly with my wife who deeply loves eating and meal times.
  3. A decrease in stamina - Again related the fact that a carnivore diet relies on ketones and not glycogen. So long as you're exerting yourself at a low intensity (aerobically) you can go for a long time because you have all the energy you need in the form of body fat. But if you want to work just a little harder or a lot harder (anaerobically) then you don't have a lot of gas and you get tired quickly and need more rest than normal. This negatively impacts work outs, specifically strength training and high intensity cardio sessions like sprints or fast runs. You can overcome this problem while remaining carnivore with things like milk and honey (though some purists may argue the use of dairy, my thinking is if it comes from a cow then it's carnivore) to give you carbs before and after a hard workout. The only problem being that you will fall out of ketosis and thus experience the unpleasantness of re-entering once the sugar runs out. Viz. you will feel hormonal hunger and all that comes with it to varying degrees (irritability, headaches, etc). I didn't not indulge in honey and only used milk very sparingly this month simply because I wanted to maximize my fat loss and so did not want to exit ketosis if I could help it. This little problem is the main reason I won't continue carnivore as it's pretty limiting to me in terms of workouts. That and I miss fruit and vegetables.
  4. Carnivore isn't really keto - I know this contradicts what I said earlier but not really. I said that carnivore is semi-ketogenic, and so it is. It could be fully ketogenic if you are so inclined but a true keto diet is very difficult to sustain. A true keto diet is any diet that keeps your body in ketosis (generating and using ketones for energy instead of glycogen). To do this on carnivore, particularly if you are a pretty lean person, could be difficult since you may not have a lot of extra body fat to tap in to so you may need to eat lots and lots of external fat to keep your keto engine humming. This is easy if all you eat is 80/20 ground beef and grain finished ribeye, but that's not a good idea for reasons outside the scope of this post. So you may find yourself do things like drinking butter, heavy cream, beef tallow or bacon grease to get the requisite fat to stay keto. This can be unpleasant and difficult to measure.
  5. Great digestion - If you start carnivore today and keep going for a couple days you'll think I'm a liar on day 2 when you have your first bout with the diarrhea and or constipation that comes with transitioning to a high fat zero carb diet. But after the first week or so your body acclimates and your bowels become a total non issue. I mean as low maintenance as you can get. Occasional (every other day maybe) firm healthy movements with no gas. Gas in particular is an issue for me and on carnivore I'm virtually fartless.
  6. Hugely simplified grocery shopping - Most grocery stores in the US are laid out the same. You enter into the produce section one side of the building, the butcher and deli are in the back on the periphery. The center is a sea of dry goods and processed foods. The dairy and beverages are on the opposite side of the building from the produce. The bakery is usually in the back on the same side as the produce. I don't know why they're all so similar but when you eat carnivore and you go to the store you can skip 90% of it and go to the butcher, then the dairy and then leave. Or if you live a place with strong local food business you can skip the store entirely and buy your meat from the local butcher shop. Or if you're in a rural setting like me you can do what I did for much of the month and buy your meat, milk and eggs directly from a local farm. And get your more processed items like bacon from the butcher.
  7. A less wasteful plate - When you eat carnivore you may start out being a bit spoiled and eating only the choice cuts you know you like. But you can't survive on chicken tenders and soon enough you'll start feeling crappy. It's amazing how nourishing the nasty bits on an animal can be. When you start to feel weak and tired and let's face it a little starved from just eating lean muscle and fat all the time. Have a slice of liver fried in butter, or a chunk of braised heart. You'll instantly feel more alive, and it'll probably taste better to you than it ever has before. Even if you "Don't like" the offal. Give it another try on carnivore when your body is starved the nutrients it used to get from fortified processed foods. When you need it your brain will make it taste good. This translates to a less wasteful use of the animal because you end up eating all of it. Even the bones. This is definitely a good thing.

There are probably more aspects of interest regarding a carnivore diet but I think I've enumerated enough for now. All in all I think carnivore is a great short term diet to educate you about how your body processes food, the difference between what it needs and what it wants and the food system that supports you in your everyday life. I'm not convinced it can be followed long term for optimal health but there are definitely proponents with a lot more data, research and experience than me who believe that you can. Specifically Paul Saladino author of the carnivore code presents a emphatic argument for long term carnivore eating. I've also heard of famous internet personalities with auto-immune disorders and problems having good outcomes with carnivore. Assessing those claims is outside my ability and interest as I have no auto-immune disorders and I don't care that much about those famous people.

I like to eat carnivore periodically and for health and educational benefits. Perhaps you might like to try it, I encourage you to do so. If you do, try to source your meat responsibly. That to me means a few things in a specific order from most important to least important:

  1. Humanely raised - Factory farming is evil and wrong. This one is a tough one. The best way to ensure your food is humanely raised is to have a relationship to the food before it's slaughtered. i.e. knowing where and how the animals are raised and cared for by developing a relationship with the farmer. But that's not a viable option for many people. The second best way is to do some research and find a certifying body that you feel you can trust to adequately certify that a given food is humanely cared for and then only shop their label. I will say that if I can't get eggs from the farmer or bacon from the butcher I will buy from the grocery in which case I look for the "Certified Humane" label on eggs and meat. But you should do your own research and figure something out that works for you. Those humane certifications usually come with an increase in price, a powerful statement on the sick state of our society that basic decency can be had but only at a premium and the default is evil and cruelty. If you really cannot afford to get humane meat then you must make a choice for yourself based on what your priorities are and consider all the options. Is eating highly processed soy and cereal grains grown in devastating large scale mono crop agricultures better than factory farming? I don't think so, but that doesn't make factory farming ok, both are wrong but in different ways. You must decide what you can live with and what you cannot. Perhaps you might buy more expensive food and eat less? Maybe such an alteration will change your outlook and drive you to have a more direct relationship with the source and production of the food that sustains you.
  2. Local - I'm talking like in the same town or county. Getting locally raised meat is important as it contributes directly to farmers in your area and allows you have a more direct relationship with the life and death of your food.
  3. Grass fed/finished - Grain fed animals have less nutritious meat and more fat. You are what you eat after all and if your cow or lamb only eats corn then its meat will be less nutritious than one that eats pasture legume grasses it's whole life. Dont be fooled by labels at the grocery that just say "Grass fed", with beef at least this is misleading because almost all beef is grass fed on pasture for the first part of it's life. The difference comes when the cow is approaching it's slaughter weight how it's "finished". A grass finished beef's diet is not changed and the farmer continues to feed the cow grass. A grain finished beef is fed grains (usually corn in the US) to fatten it up and make nice decadent fat-marbled steaks and roasts. This comes at the opportunity cost of all the nutrients the animal would have gotten from the grass, nutrients only the beef and other ruminants can unlock for us since we lack a rumen to digest the grass.
  4. Organic - A last ditch effort to get high quality humanely raised nutritious meat is to just look for the organic label. Yes it's more expensive and while the USDA, despite being bureaucratic authoritarians, make no guarantees about the quality of life offered to an organically raised animal; chances are good that if the farmer is foregoing easier methods of farming to raise organic meat then they might also be inclined to simply care for their animals more. If only because not doing so will make it harder for them down the road without hormones and antibiotics at their infinite disposal.
  5. Skip it - I talk a lot about beef because it's the main animal I eat. But there are a lot of animals you can eat. It doesn't have to be beef. If you can't find grass finished organic humanely raised beef in your area at a price you can afford then look for something else. Maybe you can afford humanely raised organic eggs. You can go a long way just eating eggs and dairy. Be creative and don't limit yourself. Look for less conventional meats like rabbit, mutton or goat. Find a solution that works for you in your area. If the thing you thought you could get turns out to not be viable you can always just skip it and look for something else or eat a more limited diet. Chances are if your reading this then you're not starving and could stand to have a little self imposed limitation to your diet.

I think now that I've rambled long enough so I better wrap this up. Today is the first day of February and so my month of carnivore is over, but it's brought me closer to my food and made me a slightly more thoughtful and appreciative eater of plants and animals. I hope my experience has been valuable to you, it certain was to me.