Positive experience with the carnivore diet

Recently, while zapping, I came across a broadcast of RTL Tonight and there I saw an item about the carnivore diet and/or 'lion diet'.
Among others, there was an expert by experience (Meriam Hill) and a nutritionist and science journalist (Anna Gimbrère) engaging in conversation. And it turned out very differently from what I expected.

Normally, someone who follows a more 'extreme' diet is invited to then have a scientist debunk what he or she thinks or does all and bring the viewer back to general mainstream advice and sacred cows. But in this case, the scientist began her talk by expressing that her curiosity was piqued above all, but that not that much is actually known scientifically yet about the long-term effects. Wow, that was really innovative to me!

Positive experience with the carnivore diet

Then the experiencer was given all the space or to tell how she ate and all the benefits she had experienced after a year carnivorous diet to follow. She eats mainly fatty meat (about a kilo a day), fish, butter, eggs and drinks water. However, what she does not eat are sources of starch, seeds, nuts, vegetables and fruits. So it is also a ketogenic diet.

She has lost 37 kilos over that period, become fitter and says she no longer suffers from cold sores (unlike before).

She said she had been inspired by Michaela Peterson (daughter of the well-known Jordan Peterson) as she came into remission from an autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis) by eating only ruminant meat (lion diet). The carnivore diet is slightly less restrictive than the lion diet.

Nutritionist's opinion

The nutritionist's response was that within man's 'omnivorous diets', there is a lot of research where diets where a bit more plants are eaten and less meat come out healthier. Of course, that includes eating a lot of highly processed meat. But really a carnivorous diet there is very little research on that in modern mainstream humans. So in the short term there are no clear signs that it is unhealthy, but what it does in the long term there is simply little known about that. I really liked this response, my compliments!

Then she started to shift the discussion towards sustainability, but I think that in relation to the carnivorous diet is a nonsensical thing. The chances of large groups of people embracing this diet are nil in my opinion.

Interesting for...

Perhaps carnivorous diet interesting for a small group of people with specific characteristics and physical complaints. Personally, I think most of the benefits people experience by switching to a carnivorous diet are not caused by eating mostly meat, but rather by what they all DO NOT EAT MORE.

Thus, many people do not respond well to certain plant-based food sources where components such as gluten, fodmaps, 'anti-nutrients' and possible allergens in them.

If this is the case for you, you can relieve your body tremendously with the carnivorous diet by your immune system what settles down, the inflammatory activity in your body goes down and therefore there more energy remains. Practical experience also tells us that all kinds of inflammation-related complaints can be reduced such as skin- and respiratory problems, joint pain and even flare-ups of all kinds of autoimmune diseases. Also intestinal complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome may disappear.

Doubts about...

Where I have doubts, however, are the long-term effects. The less varied you eat, the more risk of deficiencies in the long term. Before real deficiencies of vitamins and minerals occur, it can sometimes take years. In addition, the question is whether we Westerners adapt sufficiently to this severe dietary change. And what does a sharp change in gut flora mean for us? And what if you might make your immune system lazy by never challenging it with plant substances? Indeed, there are no answers to many questions.

My vision

Therefore, as a precaution, I would advocate seeing carnivore diet more as a kind of start-up diet with elimination of all plant-based food sources. Then, step by step, you can start adding vegetable sources again and see how you react to that. This way, you can still work towards a more varied diet in order to run less risk of nutrient deficiencies in the long run, but also to limit possible bad substances that can always be found in animal sources as well (i.e. more risk spreading).

All in all, I welcome the attention to this form of dieting that can be useful for a specific group of people under proper guidance. RTL Tonight let the expert by experience speak out well, received her in a respectful manner and showed multiple sides of the story. I hope other programmes learn from this so that we can enjoy more of these great discussions this year.

You can read my extensive blog on the carnivore diet here: https://ralphmoorman.nl/nl/carnivoor-dieet/

Disclaimer: You may be wondering why I do not mention animal friendliness and sustainability in my speech. I will explain that to you. This is because I stay pure in my writing about nutrition and health. Readers know that my spearhead is giving honest views on effects of food on the eater himself and not intertwining with themes such as sustainability and animal-friendliness. If carnivorous can be an interesting stepping stone for certain people, I am not going to gloss over it because it would be animal-unfriendly or unsustainable. Nor am I going to promote plant-based as healthy for everyone because plant-based would be better because of sustainability and animal-friendliness. For then I would be impure in my statements from a double agenda. This hard separation of themes ensures precisely that I can be reliable in my profession.