You know, I love steak. It's like a great carnivore option. You know, it's so much better than a diet that's full of breads, pastas, grain products because they are so full of carbs. And if it's that healthy, why would the USDA and the US FDA say to us, don't eat too much meats, we want you to fill your plate with grain products? Well, We're going to talk today about that in this video.
We're going to talk about seven things that are evidence-based, proven, that show that a carnivore diet is healthy. You'd only know it if you're a carnivore. First, let's define the carnivore diet. Let's hear from some of the experts in that space.
I think that the definition of a carnivore diet is loose. Technically speaking, it's no plant matter. So a carnivore diet is basically animal products.
Anything that comes from an animal product is basically fair game on a carnivore diet. So that's obviously meat. It can be fish. It can be dairy products.
It can be eggs. That's basically a carnivore diet. Now, this is not to be confused with proper human diet, a term that's been popularized by Ken Berry. As you can see in the guide from Dr. Berry, a proper human diet is defined by 11 concepts, going from nutrient density...
to quality foods. It also indicates that it must contain less than 30 grams or less than 20 grams of carbohydrates and at least 90 to 140 grams of fat. But take a closer look here. A proper human diet is actually a spectrum. It goes from the paleo diet on the left side to the low-carb diet, keto, ketovor, carnivore, and even the lion diet.
This means there is a place for vegetables, not in the carnivore diet, but certainly in a proper human diet. So, considering this, the carnivore diet includes meat products, but is a type of diet still within this PhD spectrum, at least according to Dr. Berry. There's still debate about things like coffee, honey, and fruits in their place on a carnivore diet. But there are bigger controversies regarding the carnivore diet.
Let me list seven, quote, dangers for you that you'll hear about, and let's address them. Now again, I'm going to go through my reaction, and these are debates. I'm not saying these are real dangers. In fact, you'll see my reactions after we list them.
Number one, animal fat is the unhealthiest type of fat because it raises LDL, therefore increasing the risk of heart attacks. So that's the concern. Here's the second big...
danger. Increases risk of kidney stones. Number three, it increases gout. Number four, it increases the risk of osteoporosis.
Number five, it decreases kidney function. Number six, it causes cancer. Number seven, it causes insulin resistance, prediabetes, diabetes in the long run.
Now, these are controversies. They're debates. You'll be getting evidence in favor and against each and every one of them. And then I'll give you my perspective on what I see. as I review that evidence.
I used to teach preventive medicine at Johns Hopkins. I dug deep into the data. I was what they call an epidemiologist.
I'm a physician. I taught other physicians in that space. So I'm going to give you my perspective on these debates, these concerns about the carnivore diet.
Let me show you the most recent unbiased evidence and, again, my position on what that actually means. Number one, is animal fat unhealthy? Does it raise LDL cholesterol?
Well, the most recent meta-analysis, which is a study of studies, it doesn't conclude that saturated fats, called unhealthy fats, or again, animal fats, it doesn't conclude that it increases LDL. But another meta-analysis published last September does show that eating low amounts of saturated fats actually can increase LP little a. Now, a genetic variation of LDL that's, again, at this point a well-known risk factor for heart disease.
How do we interpret all this? I can tell you, in my opinion, saturated fat is just not as dangerous as you've been told. I don't think it's the main driver of heart attacks and strokes.
And in fact, I really don't think it's a significant driver. Unless it's part of SAD, the Standard American Diet. In other words, mixed with... ultra-processed carbs.
Here's the problem with eating fats and ultra-processed carbs at the same time. Ultra-processed carbs stimulates your insulin, and high insulin makes it difficult for your body. to metabolize and burn fat.
Here's controversy number two. Eating meat increases the risk of kidney stones. The most recent meta-analysis on this topic shows that there might be an increased risk of kidney stones when consuming processed red meat, but not dairy, fish, poultry, or milk. Most of the studies were low quality and had significant bias risk. You'll see a lot of them In the research involving meat products, a lot of that poor quality bias risk.
Most of the risk comes from the assumption that red meat increases uric acid. And so I actually think the risk is lower than popular perception. But unfortunately, the evidence is just still inconclusive.
I'm still keeping an eye on it. Number three. Eating red meat causes gout.
A meta-analysis published in September of this year suggests that red meat could increase the risk of gout, that is, high uric acid in the blood and uric acid crystals in joints, by up to 27 percent. However, other risk factors increase the risk even more. Fructose by 29 percent and seafood by 40 percent. and alcohol by 41%. The problem is that these studies and this meta-analysis are observational, meaning they're not the greatest evidence.
Now, again, what do I think? Most carnivore advocates will say meat products don't cause gout. I think they have a good point. It's hard to find a study, though, that looks only at red meat without the influence of other factors, like alcohol and or fructose.
I do think these are far bigger problems, though, than red meat. So, again, I'm not so concerned about red meat for my gout patients. I am concerned about fructose, especially, and even alcohol.
Number four, red meat increases the risk of osteoporosis. A paper published in June of this year involving 17,000 participants showed that a diet rich in protein actually increases bone density. and reduces the risk of hip fractures.
That's another example of how recent research is breaking paradigms and beliefs behind eating a meat-based diet. In other words, again, it appears to be the opposite of what people are concerned about. It can protect you.
Number five, eating red meat causes kidney disease. Even though it's true that eating a lot of animal protein might increase serum creatinine, a substance used to calculate kidney function, until now it's been unclear whether we can establish kidney disease and the risk of kidney failure based on that. Another reality that might have led to this concern was that people in full kidney failure have problems digesting or metabolizing Proteins.
The most recent evidence, published back in August in the Journal of the AMA, American Medical Association, shows that eating a lot of animal protein is actually associated with a 20% decreased risk of death by kidney disease. So again, we have another example where the fear is actually a myth and more of the opposite of the truth. In my opinion, animal proteins not dangerous for most people's kidneys. And it's not as dangerous as prediabetes and diabetes.
These are the leading causes of kidney disease, which are caused by overeating carbs and not protein. Number six, meat causes cancer. Let me share the latest evidence in this space with you as well.
A meta-analysis published in June 2024, which included 90% of the population of the United five studies involving over 5 million participants. It shows an increase in GI cancer, mostly colon cancer, in people eating significant amounts of processed meat. On the other hand, a high amount of fish intake seemed to decrease the risk of colon cancer and other GI cancers. This research has the same flaws as most of the studies regarding red meat and cancer. It's based on observational studies.
On the other hand, not so strong of evidence. The authors themselves acknowledge there's just not enough evidence to say red meat causes cancer. A similar low-level evidence is what the IARC said. IARC is I-A-R-C.
It's the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization. It used to categorize processed meat as a carcinogen, something that causes cancer. And it said that processed meat causes colon cancer.
The evidence is just not strong enough to say that unprocessed meat, fresh meat, causes cancer. So what should we do with all this information? How would I interpret it? First, let's make a distinction.
What's the difference between processed meat and unprocessed meat? We kept referring to that just a minute ago. Unprocessed meat refers to red meat and muscle.
including that which can be minced or frozen. Processed meat is a little bit different. It refers to meat that's been transformed through combinations of salting, curing, fermenting, smoking, and adding a bunch of other preservative types of chemicals.
So it might be the preservative chemicals that are the problem. Recent evidence shows that both types of meat might be associated with arterial plaque. but not death by heart attacks or strokes. And again, weak evidence here.
I personally think fish, unprocessed meat, are safer options for somebody who wants to be a carnivore. They're far safer than other alternatives like grain products. I occasionally eat deli meats.
And when I say occasionally, I mean once or twice a quarter. In other words, four or five times, four to six times a year. and I don't eat much.
So not all processed meat is made the same. I just try getting meat that comes as close to the source as possible, trying to avoid preservatives, or meat that comes in packages with a label showing a lot of ingredients. One popular study within the carnivore community is that it's not as recent, but it's very enlightening.
And the carnivore community uses this and refers to it a lot. It's called a NutraRex study. It reviewed the evidence available at the time and concluded it's not necessary to decrease unprocessed or processed meat on people's diet.
But, coincidentally, it had the same challenges as most research in the carnivore space. Again, the evidence was pretty low quality. So, let's go to number seven. Red meat causes insulin resistance, diabetes, and prediabetes.
Well, this one really got my eye twitching. Let's see what the evidence says. Last year, the Harvard website highlighted a National Health Institute-funded study.
The study used information from the Nurses'Health Study. Now, the Nurses'Health Study is a big study. They saved the data from it, and it has become a database for many other analyses, just like this one.
This analysis showed that processed and unprocessed red meat increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by about 62 percent. Another meta-analysis published in 2023 showed the same results, but the devil's in the details. In this study, the author said that the diabetes risk from red meat consumption was observed more in, quote, western settings. Now, what does that mean?
That means there was influence from other factors, like more calories coming from other foods, more carbs, more meat, more everything, as well as sedentary lifestyle. The risk was coming from the SAD, the Standard American Diet, not a low-carber that's eating red meat. These studies were not studying a population doing a low-carb diet.
Rich in fat and protein, they were just people eating more meat and more of everything else. Again, more of the standard American diet. That's been one of the biggest problems with all of this previous, quote, evidence that we see about red meat.
It's really been more of a marker for the standard American diet. Very few studies have been done with low-carb communities eating red meat. So even though the animal protein can at least theoretically raised blood sugar in the long run. I just don't think the evidence available can prove that at all. In fact, I think the preponderance of the evidence is that it does not.
Eating processed grain products and other high-carb foods is clearly, unequivocably, pardon that term, a major problem. There's no question about that. So you can see the main problem behind the carnivore diet. There's just very little quality evidence. The evidence is all contaminated with populations where eating red meat was really more of a marker for the standard American diet.
This is one of the reasons why dietary guidelines committees like the new MyPlate committee members are saying, hey, let's just eat less red meat. It's not healthy. That translates into the carnivore diet is unhealthy and dangerous.
But there's one more reason. an even darker reason behind the recommendation or at least by appearances conflict of interest of the nineteen committee members deciding what's healthy to eat in the u s and what goes on to my plate not my personal plate because i don't eat that way but the my plate that that's the government recommendation it used to be called the food pyramid and it has a base, most common product of grain products, quote, healthy grains, the new version of the food pyramid. Some people haven't followed the U.S. government's impact and their activities in terms of recommending food.
This first happened in 1992. The U.S. Department of Agriculture took something that had been developed a few years ago, or a few years prior, in Scandinavia. to educate people about food. It just adopted it.
Then later on, the U.S. FDA got involved a few years later. And right from the beginning, you sort of don't trust it because it was the guys making food trying to tell you what to eat instead of the people that are protecting your health.
Then a few years later, they changed it. Walter Willett's group at Harvard developed in 2001 a thing called the Healthy Eating Pyramid. It was the food pyramid originally in 1992 by the USDA.
Then there were changes to it. 2001 Healthy Eating Pyramid, My Food Pyramid, and now most recently, it's My Plate. Besides just the comment that I made earlier, there have been tons of debates.
and criticisms of this whole process. 19 of those 20 people have a conflict of interest. Do the math.
That means 95% of the committee members receive money or other benefits from Big Food and Big Pharma. Companies like Nestle through Gerber, McCormick, Nova Nordisk. Now, you may not know who that is.
That's the group that makes Ozempic. The blockbuster weight loss drug. Why would a weight loss drug company be making contributions, paying people that are on the U.S.
Food Recommendation Committee? And oh, guess who else? Eli Lilly. You may not know who they are, but they're the makers of the successor to a Zympic, Mongero.
The two biggest blockbuster weight... loss drug makers. There's more to this than meets the eye.
Dr. Sarah Booth, the chair of the committee, has affiliations with Tufts University. Now, why did I bring that up? Well, back in 2021, Tufts University sponsored the creation of the Food Compass. It's a tool that was supposed to be used to assess and figure out what foods are healthy.
That sounds good, right? It's... It is good.
I mean, we have more than one person per month come to us in our patient population saying, hey, I'm coming to you because I don't know what's healthy. I hear all of this conflicting information about what to eat. Can you help me decide what to eat?
So something like a food compass sounds like a great idea. But here's the problem. According to Dr. Anna Mullins and Dr. Brett Scher, authors of an article in the Diet Doctor website, the Food Compass from Tufts University rates Cheerios as 95. A hundred's the healthiest. Cheerios are 95 out of a hundred.
They even gave Lucky Charms a healthy score of 60. Guess what fresh eggs and ground beef were? Very low scores. 29 and 26. So, Lucky Charms is 60, Cheerios is 95, fresh eggs are 29, and beef is 26. So, now you tell me, are processed cereals really healthier than eggs and beef?
That's what the Food Compass said. Now, I'm not saying the chair of the Dietary Guidelines Committee was involved in that project. I'm not saying she wasn't. It's interesting to see the whole picture, though.
To their credit, this year they published a new version, the Food Compass 2.0. It now considers added sugar and fiber, and it also improved the negative score for dairy and meat. But even in the new Compass, cold cereal still scores higher than beef and eggs.
What can we do now? The decision is yours, of course. But I think the carnivore diet is a great option for a lot of people.
I recommend it for patients who want to just cut carbs and want something really, really simple to eat. The carnivore diet is restrictive, but it's actually very easy to do. The rules are very easy to remember. Just eat animal products. But if you don't want to eat meat only, as we saw in the beginning, a proper human diet can also include vegetables.
I've seen plenty of patients losing weight, improving their metabolic biomarkers like glucose, insulin, triglycerides, HDL, all of those things. I've seen plenty of people with LDL levels elevating, but very few of them are concerned given what's happening with the rest of their bioindicators and given the new evidence on a thing called lean mass hyperresponders. Actually, we know A lot of people might be within the classification of lean mass hyper-responders. We've got tons of those in our patient population. It's people that are doing a ketogenic diet, low-carb, high-fat protein, and they see all of their biomarkers improve, except for one, their LDL level.
And it begins, it goes up, and it can go up very high. The KETO trial, published by our friend Dave Feldman, is the first piece of evidence that shows these people, these lean mass hyper-responders, are not building more arterial plaque. They are, as their bioindicators would indicate, getting healthier. They are very healthy. Showing that LDL might be the driver of heart attacks and strokes, everybody thinks it is?
No. It's showing that it might not be. And it's showing that it probably isn't. So, additionally...
This year, we're getting more new evidence of the benefits of the carnivore diet. Just recently, two of our other friends, Nick Norwitz and Adrian Sotomota, they presented research showing the beneficial effects of the carnivore diet on inflammatory bowel disease. So again, not only is it good for your heart and your arteries, it's good for inflammatory bowel disease, your gut.
There's also new evidence showing that it benefits migraines. That's also not a surprise. If it's good for your arteries and your gut, it's likely good for your brain too. With a lower level of evidence, you have a lot of popular opinions out there too.
And people love popular opinions. Here are two of the biggest ones out there right now. Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson.
Depression is gone. I'm stronger. I can swim better.
And my gum disease is gone. It's like, what the hell? My energy levels were amazing.
Really? How quickly? How quickly? Two weeks in.
Two weeks in. Two weeks in, I noticed I felt amazing. Really?
And I was shedding weight. I was shedding a lot of weight. I think I was like seven pounds down two weeks in.
Now, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't think the carnivore diet is for everyone. I just want you to have a better perspective of what the diet is about and...
These debates about risk and the real evidence behind those debates. I've tried the carnivore diet. I loved it.
It worked for me. But I also want to be able to eat other things. I have people that are close to me that are vegetarian and even vegan. I like to be able to eat their kind of food as well.
And so there are a lot of times when I eat low-carb and even keto vegan. Most of the time, I eat carnivores. So I switch it back and forth, depending on where I am during the week. I remain ketotic. I am blowing ketones five to six days a week.
I do treat myself with some allulose ice cream from time to time. And even occasionally, standard ice cream. But not very often. About once a week.
And it goes on and on. The carnivore diet is very popular. It's a healthy diet and it really helps people simplify their life. So many people are very concerned about trying to figure out what to eat. It's a great solution for that.
I tried it and enjoyed it. My LDL went up to 182, but I wasn't worried about that. That's another story for another time. Here's what happened with me. I love things like avocados.
And I love leafy green salads. I make the dressing out of apple cider vinegar, lime juice, and olive oil. And those are not carnivore diet ingredients. So, it's not for everybody, but some people like it.
We wanted to make sure that you understood a little bit more about it, because we get so many questions. If you'd like to find out how I reversed my own plaque, take a look at... This video right here