Carnivore diet has been getting a lot of attention and many people have already experienced significant benefits of incorporating all-meat diet plan in their life. This diet is very closely related to popular keto diet, but instead of including very low carb, carnivore diet includes zero diet and contains only high fat animal products, such as fish, meat, eggs and dairy products, such as butter, cheese, milk, tea or coffee. It doesn’t include bread, vegetables or anything else.
In simple words, carnivore diet focuses on eating only animal foods and eliminating all plant foods. Which means you will get energy primarily from fat and protein, and consume nearly zero carbs. In this post, we will discuss some pros and cons of going complete carnivore.
Pros of Carnivore Diet
It restricts calorie intake and aids in weight loss
Protein is very satiating in nature. Meaning, it makes you feel stuffed and it sends signals to your brain that you have eaten enough food. Many people report that they don’t feel much hungry and start consuming less food when they follow all-meat diet. When you consume less food, you are ultimately restricting calories to enter your body. Drop on calorie intake triggers a number of benefits, and weight loss is one of them.
It is a low residue diet
Residue is the undigested food in our body that makes up the stool. Since carnivore diet contains all-meat that is primarily made of fat and protein, they are absorbed to a great extent in the gastrointestinal tract, leaving very little residue. This helps in alleviating issues like bloating, diarrhea, gas and other gastric problems.
Cons of Carnivore Diet
It lacks significant nutrients
People following strict carnivore diet may suffer from several nutritional deficiencies, such as Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K2, Sodium, Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium as it is hard to obtain these nutrients in only meat based diet. The number of nutritional deficiencies increases further if you don’t eat organ meats. Leading health organizations like World Cancer Research Fund and World Health Organization has also warned that consuming high amounts of red meat may put a person at the risk of colorectal cancer.
It lacks Phytonutrients which supports our health
Some common phytonutrients such as beta-carotene, curcumin, quercetin and resveratol can offer major benefits to our health. They are the type of chemical that are produced by plants to protect human body from environmental threats, such as bacteria, viruses and insect attacks. However, some all-meat dieters report that phytonutrients are harmful to humans, and they prefer to exclude them completely from their diet. Consuming phytonutrients triggers several areas of our body and improves immunity, decreases inflammation, treats potential carcinogens and enhances cellular communication.
Is Carnivore Diet an Ideal Diet?
Due to lack of substantial data, it is still difficult to determine whether an all-meat diet helps or cause more harm. There are very few reports and studies that show how many people experienced health benefits and how many experienced adverse effects. However, you may go for a complete carnivorous or vegetarian diet for a short-term, but the studies say that an ideal human diet should include both plant and animal foods.
