Ashley Hanson

Don’t Try to Survive Eating Only the All Meat Diet If your love for steak and meat knows no bounds, maybe you’ve checked into the all meat or carnivore diet. The rules for this diet are very simple; you only eat meat and cut everything else out. Purported benefits include things like less body fat and more energy. You can supposedly cure your depression, Lyme disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. Shawn Baker​ has been one of the biggest advocates for this diet is a former orthopedic surgeon. There are other high-profile supporters of this diet, including​ ​Jordan Peterson​, a Canadian psychologist, and his daughter. You can read about the benefits that really are too good to be true by visiting a number of pro-meat websites. It’s slowly spreading to other areas of the web too, including Facebook and Instagram. Many of the posts you find claim that they have a scientific base for their findings. But, what does the evidence say? Shawn Baker​ ​lost his medical license​ in 2017, and he has no nutrition training. His daughter has no medical or scientific qualifications. What makes these two so compelling for people isn’t their qualifications or lack thereof, it’s their conviction. They’re so earnest in their beliefs, and they say over and over that making the switch improved their lives. Shawn claims it cured his tendinitis. Both claim they feel better, have more energy, and improved their workout results. They claim carbs are bad and meat has all of the nutrients you need. But, is there truth in this? Meat Doesn’t Have All of The Required Nutrients To live and be healthy, you need​ ​13 essential vitamins​, including: ● ● ● ● Vitamin A, C, D, E, K, B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B6, B12 (cyanocobalamin) Pantothenic acid (B5) Biotin (B7) Folate (B9 and folic acid) You ​can​ actually get the large majority of these vitamins from eating meat. But, you’re going to miss out if you don’t include vegetables and fruits like Vitamins C and E, and folate. They are almost exclusive to citrus and leafy green vegetables. Sailors got scurvy from eating a largely fish diet with little vitamin C. Also, if you don’t get enough vitamin E in your diet, your body has difficulty using vitamin K. This means that even if you’re getting enough of this vitamin from beef, liver, or fish, your body won’t use it. Fiber is a second problem because meat has none. Fiber promotes a robust, diverse, microbiome in your digestive tract. This microbiome has an impact on your immune system, mood, and digestion. Fiber is essential in your diet, and you can’t get it from eating meat alone. A lot of supporters of this diet frequently point out cultures that have historically eaten entirely or mostly meat. If these cultures are healthy, why doesn’t it work for us? Consider the Inuits. They live on almost exclusively fatty meats with berries in the summer months. They’re healthy eating, mostly liver and blubber. However, the truth is, most Inuits stay healthy on this diet because they incorporate a huge range of meat into their diet. Most of which today’s all-meat diet supports are not. They eat vitamin C dense, collagen-rich​ ​whale skin​, and other uncooked, fresh meat. The skin they eat isn’t mostly protein either. It’s like 50% fat, and this fat is the unsaturated, healthy variety. The meat you get in your local grocery store is mostly saturated fat. Saturated fat is the type that develops when animals get a largely corn diet and little exercise. Supplements are a potential solution to help fill the vitamin gap you get by eating a meat diet. However, many of the diet’s supporters do not promote doing this because it takes away from the illusion that meat is complete nutritionally. But, if you wanted to be smart about it, you’d add fiber powder and vitamins pills. While neither of these things is as good as getting these things from whole, real foods, it’s better than not getting it at all. Red Meat Can Cause Problems for Your Heart and Colon Consuming large amounts of red meat has​ ​links​ to colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and pancreatic cancer in some degree. The​ ​World Health Organization​ put out a report about red meat that showed evidence that when you cook flesh at 300 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, it produces chemicals. These chemicals are carcinogenic​. Animal meats also have an impact on our HDL and LDL (good and bad) cholesterol levels. Ideally, you want more HDL cholesterol and less LDL cholesterol combined with low triglyceride levels. Eating fatty red meat does the exact opposite. It lowers your HDL levels while increasing your triglycerides and LDL. This can cause your blood cholesterol levels to skyrocket, but cardiovascular risks are slower. They build up over a long time, and they can be really bad if you start at an unhealthy baseline. A solution would be to eat healthier meats like fish and lean poultry while decreasing your overall red meat intake. Organ meat comes packed with vitamins, and you can use this in your diet in small amounts. But, if all you eat is meat, day in and day out, eating just chick and fish could get boring. Meat and Calories If you give someone rules that change their normal eating habits or restrict what they can snack on during the day, you’ll eat less overall. In turn, you lose weight. Protein is, as a general rule, something that makes you feel full for longer. You eat less at mealtimes, and the calorie amounts you eat at every meal will be a lot lower than consuming say, carbs for a meal. If you want to lose a few pounds, cutting calories can be good. However, sustainability is key.​ ​Research shows that most people lose between 5 and 10 pounds each year when they start a new diet, regardless of the diet’s nutritional composition. However, they also gain it back. Instead, you should pick a diet that you can use to maintain your life. Don’t Go 100% Vegetables Either Any extreme diet you try is going to cause problems. Fruit might be great for you. But, a diet of 100% fruit is going to leave you with deficiencies. Even vegans who have a fairly diverse diet can have trouble getting vitamin B12. Our bodies don’t absorb it well if it comes from plant sources. It’s simple, but experts recommend over and over that you should eat a broad range of food in moderation. Yes. This includes meat. But, you should sneak in a few fruits and vegetables in from time to time.