Seeker in the Dark
Member
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2024
- Messages
- 396
I want to start this post by first saying this is mainly my opinion/view on why I believe the carnivore diet is optimal for humans. As this is one of those topics that some people get mad about for some reason, I'd like to say that it's best for SS to remain objective and emotionless when studying such topics. What you eat is not your religion, there's no need to be emotionally attached to it. Rather than attacking me, I would prefer to see coherent rebuttals to what I have to say, I have no steak in this other than helping fellow SS as well as myself be as healthy as possible and I'll change my mind freely on this if shown to be wrong. If you believe the diet you're doing right now is perfect for you, then by all means, stick to it.
While I'm not the best person to present this, I'll do my best. I'll make my case by addressing(A) common objections(O) to Carnivore.
O1: The diet is extreme and restrictive
A1: Extreme is a very relative term, usually used by people to discredit whatever they're calling "extreme". Pretty much all of the views the JOS holds would be considered "extreme" by mainstream society. The term restrictive sounds better on the surface as the diet seems very restrictive compared to what an average diet consists of, but is restriction itself bad? It's good to restrict things that aren't good for you, like drugs, alcohol and so on, even if they make you feel good. I'll later argue why I think pretty much all plants aren't good for human consumption(unless for medicinal purposes).
O2: It's unhealthy (meat is claimed to cause this or that disease)
A2: I'll keep this brief as I don't want to turn this into an essay. The blame red meat and saturated fat get for certain diseases comes from associative, epidemiological studies that lump red meat consumption with smoking, unhealthy habits, sugar and so on. The data is then adjusted and sorted by the researchers. I recommend you research this further rather than simply looking at mainstream-approved surface points. These are the same people who told us C19 vaccines were good for us, I'd take anything they have to say with a grain of salt. A good YouTube channel for this that I'd recommend is Bart Kay, he goes into the biochemistry behind these diseases and has 20 years behind studying human biology. He is abrasive though, which he admits is just part of his shtick to get more views, but look past the attitude and focus on the claims, then verify for yourself what he says by looking at academic, scientific papers, avoid using blogs or promotional websites for these kinds of things.
O3: We need glucose
A3: Yes, but the body can produce all the glucose it needs for the parts of it that need glucose, the process is called gluconeogenesis:
O4: Glucose is the optimal fuel
A4: While there might be an argument for this if you're doing extreme sports and need a lot of fast energy, I do not believe glucose is the best fuel for overall energy. The two main fuels the body uses from food are glucose and fat. Glucose ages the body, attaches to and corrupts DNA, proteins and just causes damage. Dietary animal fat does none of those things. The process is called glycation, it's biochemically proven:
The body also adapts to fuel usage and will optimise itself to using glucose if you've been consuming a diet primarily consisting of that for a long time. The microbiome also will optimise itself to glucose consumption with the bacteria there eating the glucose you feed them. This is why it's advised to gradually switch to carnivore over several weeks/months rather than cold turkey, as switching cold turkey will lead to issues such as low energy, mood swings, stool issues and so on. This is the main reason people report problems with carnivore. A gradual switch will allow your body and the microbiome to slowly optimise themselves to fat consumption.
O5: We need fiber for optimal digestion
A5: Hundreds of thousands of people who do carnivore do just fine without fiber. The issues people get with their stools when doing carnivore is because they switched cold turkey, which shocks the microbiome which has adapted to fiber in the same manner as glucose, causing these issues. I do not think we need fiber, and there has been some research that suggests removing fibre actually can improve constipation issues:
O6: We need plants for certain vitamins/minerals we can't get from meat
A6: The most common Vitamin mentioned is Vitamin C. There is in fact Vitamin C in beef, even after it's cooked, not as abundant as in fruit but enough for humans. Again I'd refer to the hundreds of thousands of carnivores who do just fine on the diet without getting scurvy. The daily recommended amount for Vitamin C has been argued by some to be far higher than it's needed to be because glucose is chemically almost the same structure as Vitamin C, which then leads it to compete with the Vitamin for absorption in the body:
This isn't usually a problem for the average person as Vitamin C is easy to get if you eat a lot of fruit. With glucose out of the picture, however, Vitamin C is now free to be absorbed in the body without competition.
As for other vitamins/minerals, red meat and especially beef pretty much contains all of them in their optimal amounts.
Another issue with plants is the antinutrients they have, which then impede the absorption of several vitamins/minerals. Do research antinutrients for yourself. Thoroughly sprouting and cooking the plants will remove most anti-nutrients in them though, but why go through all that effort when you can just fry some meat for a couple of minutes and get all you need? Meat also easily meets our protein requirements, good luck getting 100g of protein from any plant food alone in one setting.
This was a summary of why I personally believe the carnivore diet is optimal. There is a lot of detail left out here which I recommend you research for yourself and come to your own conclusions regarding the claims. I may be wrong on this and I'll change my mind if I believe a good rebuttal was made.
While I'm not the best person to present this, I'll do my best. I'll make my case by addressing(A) common objections(O) to Carnivore.
O1: The diet is extreme and restrictive
A1: Extreme is a very relative term, usually used by people to discredit whatever they're calling "extreme". Pretty much all of the views the JOS holds would be considered "extreme" by mainstream society. The term restrictive sounds better on the surface as the diet seems very restrictive compared to what an average diet consists of, but is restriction itself bad? It's good to restrict things that aren't good for you, like drugs, alcohol and so on, even if they make you feel good. I'll later argue why I think pretty much all plants aren't good for human consumption(unless for medicinal purposes).
O2: It's unhealthy (meat is claimed to cause this or that disease)
A2: I'll keep this brief as I don't want to turn this into an essay. The blame red meat and saturated fat get for certain diseases comes from associative, epidemiological studies that lump red meat consumption with smoking, unhealthy habits, sugar and so on. The data is then adjusted and sorted by the researchers. I recommend you research this further rather than simply looking at mainstream-approved surface points. These are the same people who told us C19 vaccines were good for us, I'd take anything they have to say with a grain of salt. A good YouTube channel for this that I'd recommend is Bart Kay, he goes into the biochemistry behind these diseases and has 20 years behind studying human biology. He is abrasive though, which he admits is just part of his shtick to get more views, but look past the attitude and focus on the claims, then verify for yourself what he says by looking at academic, scientific papers, avoid using blogs or promotional websites for these kinds of things.
O3: We need glucose
A3: Yes, but the body can produce all the glucose it needs for the parts of it that need glucose, the process is called gluconeogenesis:
O4: Glucose is the optimal fuel
A4: While there might be an argument for this if you're doing extreme sports and need a lot of fast energy, I do not believe glucose is the best fuel for overall energy. The two main fuels the body uses from food are glucose and fat. Glucose ages the body, attaches to and corrupts DNA, proteins and just causes damage. Dietary animal fat does none of those things. The process is called glycation, it's biochemically proven:
The role of glycation in the pathogenesis of aging and its prevention through herbal products and physical exercise - PMC
Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are non-enzymatic modifications of proteins or lipids after exposure to sugars. In this review, the glycation process and AGEs are introduced, and the harmful effects of AGEs in the aging process are discussed. ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The body also adapts to fuel usage and will optimise itself to using glucose if you've been consuming a diet primarily consisting of that for a long time. The microbiome also will optimise itself to glucose consumption with the bacteria there eating the glucose you feed them. This is why it's advised to gradually switch to carnivore over several weeks/months rather than cold turkey, as switching cold turkey will lead to issues such as low energy, mood swings, stool issues and so on. This is the main reason people report problems with carnivore. A gradual switch will allow your body and the microbiome to slowly optimise themselves to fat consumption.
O5: We need fiber for optimal digestion
A5: Hundreds of thousands of people who do carnivore do just fine without fiber. The issues people get with their stools when doing carnivore is because they switched cold turkey, which shocks the microbiome which has adapted to fiber in the same manner as glucose, causing these issues. I do not think we need fiber, and there has been some research that suggests removing fibre actually can improve constipation issues:
Stopping or reducing dietary fiber intake reduces constipation and its associated symptoms - PMC
AIM: To investigate the effect of reducing dietary fiber on patients with idiopathic constipation. METHODS: Sixty-three cases of idiopathic constipation presenting between May 2008 and May 2010 were enrolled into the study after colonoscopy excluded ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
O6: We need plants for certain vitamins/minerals we can't get from meat
A6: The most common Vitamin mentioned is Vitamin C. There is in fact Vitamin C in beef, even after it's cooked, not as abundant as in fruit but enough for humans. Again I'd refer to the hundreds of thousands of carnivores who do just fine on the diet without getting scurvy. The daily recommended amount for Vitamin C has been argued by some to be far higher than it's needed to be because glucose is chemically almost the same structure as Vitamin C, which then leads it to compete with the Vitamin for absorption in the body:
This isn't usually a problem for the average person as Vitamin C is easy to get if you eat a lot of fruit. With glucose out of the picture, however, Vitamin C is now free to be absorbed in the body without competition.
As for other vitamins/minerals, red meat and especially beef pretty much contains all of them in their optimal amounts.
Another issue with plants is the antinutrients they have, which then impede the absorption of several vitamins/minerals. Do research antinutrients for yourself. Thoroughly sprouting and cooking the plants will remove most anti-nutrients in them though, but why go through all that effort when you can just fry some meat for a couple of minutes and get all you need? Meat also easily meets our protein requirements, good luck getting 100g of protein from any plant food alone in one setting.
This was a summary of why I personally believe the carnivore diet is optimal. There is a lot of detail left out here which I recommend you research for yourself and come to your own conclusions regarding the claims. I may be wrong on this and I'll change my mind if I believe a good rebuttal was made.