The carnivore diet (also called a zero carb diet) is a high-protein fad diet in which only animal products such as meat, eggs, and dairy are consumed. [1] [2] [3] [4] The carnivore diet is associated with pseudoscientific health claims. [1] Such a diet can lead to deficiencies of vitamins and dietary fiber, and increase the risk of chronic diseases. [2] [3] [5] [6] The lion diet is a highly restrictive form of the carnivore diet where only beef is eaten.
The idea of an exclusive meat diet can be traced to the German writer Bernard Moncriff, author of The Philosophy of the Stomach: Or, An Exclusively Animal Diet in 1856, who spent a year living on only beef and milk. [7] In the 1870s, Italian physician Arnaldo Cantani prescribed his diabetic patients an exclusive animal-based diet. [8] [9] In the 1880s, James H. Salisbury advocated a meat diet consisting of 2 to 4 pounds of lean beef and 3 to 5 pints of hot water daily for 4 to 12 weeks. It became known as the meat and hot water diet, or Salisbury diet.
In 2018, the carnivore diet was promoted on social media by former orthopaedic surgeon Shawn Baker, who wrote the book The Carnivore Diet. [10] Jordan Peterson and his daughter Mikhaila Peterson were also vocal adherents of this diet. [2] [11] [12] Peterson and his daughter follow a strict type of carnivore diet termed the lion diet, in which only beef, salt, and water are consumed. [12] [13] [14] The 'Lion diet', which became a viral fad on TikTok, [15] [16] is described by experts as "being potentially very unhealthy, is difficult to follow and unsustainable in the long term". [17]
In April 2023, skeptic and neurologist Steven Novella described the carnivore diet as the latest fad diet to have achieved popularity. [1] Because of its high cost Novella described the diet as one for "select elites", adding what he said was a further unsavory aspect to its harmful and pseudoscientific basis. [1] The carnivore diet advertised by meat influencers on social media platforms has been described as a fringe movement. [18]
People following a carnivore diet consume high-protein animal-based products, such as beef, pork, poultry, and seafood. [2] [4] Some may eat dairy products and eggs. [4] All fruits, legumes, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds are strictly excluded. [4]
The carnivore diet is often confused with Inuit cuisine. Primary differences include a high proportion of organs in the Inuit diet, high seafood content, and consumption of raw meat, all of which are not typical for the fad carnivore diet. [19]
There is no clinical evidence that the carnivore diet provides any health benefits. [2] [13] [14] Dietitians dismiss the carnivore diet as an extreme fad diet, [2] [3] which has attracted criticism from dietitians and physicians as being potentially dangerous to health (see Meat § Health). [11] [13] [14]
It also raises levels of LDL cholesterol, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. [3] While carnivore diets exclude fruits and vegetables which supply micronutrients, they are also low in dietary fiber, possibly causing constipation. [3] [6] [4] A carnivore diet high in red meat increases the risks of colon cancer and gout. [6] [20] [21]
Criticism also derives from concerns about greenhouse gas emissions associated with large-scale livestock farming required to produce meats commercially, and the potential for such emissions to worsen climate change (see environmental impact of meat production). [11] [13] [14]
A carnivore, or meat-eater, is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from the consumption of animal tissues whether through hunting or scavenging.
Meat is animal tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistoric times. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals including chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, and cattle, starting around 11,000 years ago. Since then, selective breeding has enabled farmers to produce meat with the qualities desired by producers and consumers.
Joel Fuhrman is an American celebrity doctor who advocates a plant-based diet termed the "nutritarian" diet which emphasizes nutrient-dense foods. His practice is based on his nutrition-based approach to obesity and chronic disease, as well as promoting his products and books. He has written books promoting his dietary approaches including the bestsellers Eat to Live, Super Immunity, The Eat to Live Cookbook, The End of Dieting (2016) and The End of Heart Disease (2016). He sells a related line of nutrition-related products.
A fad diet is a diet that is popular, generally only for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard scientific dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements; as such it is often considered a type of pseudoscientific diet. Fad diets are usually not supported by clinical research and their health recommendations are not peer-reviewed, thus they often make unsubstantiated statements about health and disease.
The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits and traditional food typical of southern Spain, southern Italy, and Crete, and formulated in the early 1960s. It is distinct from Mediterranean cuisine, which covers the actual cuisines of the Mediterranean countries, and from the Atlantic diet of northwestern Spain and Portugal. While inspired by a specific time and place, the "Mediterranean diet" was later refined based on the results of multiple scientific studies.
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons. Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos. This may be due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy.
A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods. Plant-based diets encompass a wide range of dietary patterns that contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of fiber-rich plant products such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. They do not need to be vegan or vegetarian, but are defined in terms of low frequency of animal food consumption.
A healthy diet is a diet that maintains or improves overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy.
In gastronomy, red meat is commonly red when raw, in contrast to white meat, which is pale in color before cooking. In culinary terms, only flesh from mammals or fowl is classified as red or white. In nutritional science, red meat is defined as any meat that has more of the protein myoglobin than white meat. White meat is defined as non-dark meat from fish or chicken.
Nathan Pritikin was an American inventor, engineer, nutritionist and longevity researcher. He promoted the Pritikin diet, a high-carbohydrate low-fat plant-based diet combined with regular aerobic exercise to prevent cardiovascular disease. The Pritikin diet emphasizes the consumption of legumes, whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables and non-fat dairy products with small amounts of lean meat, fowl and fish.
The Western pattern diet is a modern dietary pattern that is generally characterized by high intakes of pre-packaged foods, refined grains, red meat, processed meat, high-sugar drinks, candy and sweets, fried foods, industrially produced animal products, butter and other high-fat dairy products, eggs, potatoes, corn, and low intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, pasture-raised animal products, fish, nuts, and seeds.
Pescetarianism is a dietary practice based on the consumption of fish and shellfish to the exclusion of land-based meats. The practise incorporates seafood into an otherwise vegetarian diet, and may or may not include other animal products such as eggs and dairy products. Approximately 3% of adults worldwide are pescetarian, according to 2017–2018 research conducted by data and analytics companies.
Vegan nutrition refers to the nutritional and human health aspects of vegan diets. A well-planned vegan diet is suitable to meet all recommendations for nutrients in every stage of human life. Vegan diets tend to be higher in dietary fiber, magnesium, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, and phytochemicals; and lower in calories, saturated fat, iron, cholesterol, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, calcium, zinc, and vitamin B12.
Mark Adam Hyman is an American physician and author. He is the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center and was a columnist for The Huffington Post. Hyman was a regular contributor to the Katie Couric Show until the show's cancellation in 2013. He writes a blog called The Doctor’s Farmacy, which examines many topics related to human health and welfare. He is the author of several books on nutrition and longevity, including Food Fix, Eat Fat, Get Thin, and Young Forever.
Dave Asprey is an American entrepreneur, author and advocate of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet known as the Bulletproof diet, about which he has made claims criticized by dietitians as pseudoscientific. He founded Bulletproof 360, Inc. in 2013, and in 2017, founded Bulletproof Nutrition Inc. Men's Health described Asprey as a "lifestyle guru".
Steven R. Gundry is an American physician and low-carbohydrate diet author. He is a former cardiac surgeon and cardiac surgery researcher who runs an experimental clinic investigating the impact of diet on health. Gundry is the author of The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in "Healthy" Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain, which promotes the controversial lectin-free diet.
A monotrophic diet is a type of diet that involves eating only one food item or one type of food. Monotrophic diets may be followed for food faddism motives, as a form of crash dieting, to initiate an elimination diet or to practice an extreme form of alternative medicine.
Protein Power is a high-protein, low carbohydrate fad diet developed by physician Michael R. Eades and his wife Mary Dan Eades.
The Lectin-free diet is a fad diet promoted with the false claim that avoiding all foods that contain high amounts of lectins will prevent and cure disease. There is no clinical evidence the lectin-free diet is effective to treat any disease and its claims have been criticized as pseudoscientific.
