Meat & The Carnivore Diet - A Shortcut to an Early Grave?

Meat is the Devil! Or is it?

Meat has always had a lot of attention and focus, but for the last 50 years or so it has been for all the wrong reasons. In the 1970’s, a narrative was created that demonized meat, specifically red meat, and saturated animal fats (the demonization of meat can actually be traced back to as far as the 1950's). These foods, which humans and their canine companions have been consuming for thousands of years, were suddenly slammed, slandered, and described as being unhealthy and the root cause for disease, obesity, and more recently, climate change. Looking at this logically, its apparent that there isn’t much merit to these arguments. Instead of meat and other animal products such as eggs and dairy, foods that were promoted and suddenly touted as being healthy were things like sugary drinks, ultra-processed foods, rancid seed oils, nut milks, grains, and synthetic, lab-created meat substitutes. All of these have a few things in common. All of them are highly profitable to produce, they leverage big-agriculture and many, if not all, of the large corporate food industries, they require a significant amount of resources to produce, the farming practices required to produce them depletes the soil, strips, and degrades the land, they are hyperpalatable, nutrient void, and highly addictive, and if consumed with enough frequency (which they are, by design), will eventually lead to obesity and chronic health conditions that require medical intervention.

More recently, there has been a movement occurring that recognizes the detriment that this narrative has caused and there is a growing number of people learning about the health benefits of meat and other animal products. Finally, meat is once again beginning to gain a lot of attention, but this time, for the right reasons. Even still, it is important to ask questions. So, with all the attention meat is getting and all the people promoting it, is meat really the answer, or is this just an outlandish fad? Are all these claims legitimate, or are all these people dooming themselves to an early grave by eating copious amounts of meat every day? I am going to provide my take, and I encourage you to research, experiment, and after some time, form your own conclusions and share your own story.

A Shortcut to An Early Grave

I’ll admit it, when I first heard about the carnivore diet, I balked at the idea that an all-meat diet would be anything more than a shortcut to an early grave. I stumbled across the carnivore diet out of sheer desperation as I was dealing with, and trying to recover from, a laundry list of serious health conditions. My “About Me” post gets into the details so I will not get into those here, but I encourage you to read it if you want to learn more about my journey.

During my quest for recovery and breaking away from the endless matrix that is the modern healthcare system, and through my experimentation with diet, I had inevitably stumbled across a YouTube video by a guy who goes by the name of Dr. Shawn Baker. It was a brief segment that I quickly dismissed, but I remember him confidently spouting off about how all he eats is meat, and for a year or two he had eaten nothing but meat, how healthy he was, and how meat, and only meat, was the key to his success. My face crumpled in disarray from what he was saying and I felt a wave of anger and frustration wash over me. After all, everything I had ever learned had taught me that vegetables were where your vitamins came from, and without them, you would perish. Video stopped, exited, and laptop closed. “What an idiot” I thought. “This guy will die of a heart attack in a year or two, I can’t believe he is promoting this garbage.” Boy, was I naive.

The Power of One

Fast forward several months later and I found myself at a crossroads. After trying numerous diets, I had now been keto for a while and found some relief and recovery from this way of eating, however, all the plants and fiber wrecked my already wrecked gut. It was here that I found carnivore. I had pretty much forgotten about Baker’s video, but the day I decided to go buy a week’s worth of steaks, that video popped back up in the old memory bank. It wasn’t the sole reason I wanted to eat only steaks for a week, that was simply out of sheer desperation and knowing that meat was the only thing that didn’t worsen my health conditions, but that video gave me an inkling of hope that maybe, just maybe, as crazy and as outlandish as it seemed, there was something out there that could fix me. Something healing. Something sustainable. And I was right.

That week, my health improved drastically. It sounds crazy, I know, but I felt strong, empowered, clear-headed, and symptom-free. It was amazing. As I continued and expanded my weeks’ worth of meat into months, I also began to research. It took a bit of searching because at the time his name wasn’t worthy of remembering, but I went back and found Dr. Baker’s video, and by this point I’ve probably watched nearly all of them, read his book, support his business, and follow a plethora of other carnivore advocates. I don’t owe my entire healing journey to him, but I have him to thank because if he weren’t brave enough to speak out about his experience, even though I dismissed his message at first, I don’t know that I would have stuck with it. I would have had no point of reference or indication that something like this was sustainable or could even be healthy long-term, and I probably would have reverted back to eating plants, thinking that they were essential. His message simply made me aware of another avenue for healing and opened my mind up to the idea of trying it. And this is where I learned about the power of one.

4 Years a Carnivore

For reference, I turn 39 this year, and in April 2023 I will have been strict carnivore for 4 years, only deviating to test and experiment with foods one at a time to determine triggers, allergies, and irritants. My sole source of nutrition during this time has been 100% meat and animal products, and I estimate that I have consumed roughly 4,000 pounds of meat, about 1,000 pounds per year, or to put it simply, one whole cow a year. During this time, I have researched and experimented rigorously. I have read books, watched podcasts, read study after study, article after article, listened to, and debated topics and opinions. I have shared information, helped, and coached others, and most importantly, I have learned what works for me, what works for my dog, and have formed my own conclusions from my experiences.

When people talk about the carnivore diet and the power of eating more meat, the focus is generally centered around how nutritious meat is and how bio-available the nutrients in meat are. How it is rich in essential nutrients like protein, iron, zinc, selenium, creatine, niacin, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12, which are important for maintaining overall health and well-being. How it can promote weight loss by increasing satiety and reducing cravings. How it can improve blood sugar control by reducing the intake of refined carbohydrates and increasing the intake of healthy fats and proteins. How it can reduce inflammation by limiting the intake of pro-inflammatory foods like grains and legumes. How it can improve gut health by increasing the intake of nutrients such as collagen and l-glutamine and by reducing the intake of foods that can cause inflammation and gut irritation. How it can improve mental health by increasing the intake of essential nutrients like cholesterol and omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for brain function. How it can increase energy levels by providing the body with a steady supply of nutrients and reducing the intake of foods that can cause fatigue, blood sugar swings, and brain fog. Or how it can improve athletic performance by providing the body with a steady supply of protein and other essential nutrients for muscle repair and growth.

While all these things are true, the benefits I have experienced go far beyond nutrient profiles and statistics. What the carnivore diet has done for me and what I have witnessed it doing for others is seriously profound. Not only has this diet completely reversed and seemingly cured all my health issues and allowed me to effortlessly maintain a healthy weight, it has made me a better person. It has afforded me with an open mind and made me a free thinker. It has made me stronger, mentally, and physically, more so than I have ever been. It has created a deep, burning desire within me that genuinely wants to help people, to change and reform the food industry, and to support local farms and businesses, whom I believe are the solution to many of the health and economic problems we face today. This journey has taught me how healing and nurturing animals can be to the soil, to the environment, and how important they are to the earth’s natural ecosystem. How sustainable and regenerative farming may not be the cause for climate change or the degradation of our land, but might actually be the solution.

This lifestyle has taught me more about livestock, regenerative agriculture, and the importance of community. It has taught me how to become more self-reliant and nutritionally independent. It has taught me the value of the land, animals, and the symbiotic relationships between them all. Most importantly, it has taught me about the power of one. How one person has the power to create a positive impact on so many lives, and in so many ways. I believe that the power of meat has the potential to transform the world around us into a brighter, better place, one teeming and flourishing with life, and it all starts with us.