Going on carnivore is unhealthy and just a stupid fitness trend

[u/Ok_Love347]

I've seen the eggs with steak and (sometimes) avocados trend all over every social media platform, with captions like "this is what you should be eating every day," "Who cares about cholesterol," and "no plant diet."

I understand: that shit is good for your testosterone levels, it can be a good source of fats but it's not a balanced diet. Where are the fibers? Where are the other essential nutrients? If you ask any nutritionist about going 100% on a carnivore diet, they will say it's bullshit. Humans are omnivorous.

Cutting on carbs and getting in more protein is a good thing, but I don't want to struggle to take a shit when I can eat fruits & veggies which contain fibers and minerals.

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[u/fredean01]

I don't think this is 10th Dentist material given that everyone I speak to thinks carnivore diet is bad..

It's good for certain people to identify what is causing them issues, but it's very rare that people would advocate for 100% carnivore diet forever. Usually they would incorporate fruit after a bit.

[u/Prezimek]

Not a 10th dentist. Unless you have a specific condition that does not allow more balanced diet, carnivore is idiotic. 

Lots of diet fads run rounds over internet without any solid evidence to back them up. 

[u/Lewis-ly]

All dietary trends ever are ludicrous yes. Literally all of them. There are only two sensible ways to decide what goes in your body imo: taste and evidence. If science plus lots of experiences says these foods make you healthy and love long, then yes. If it is delicious, then yes. 

Otherwise your motivation is not food, it's some superficial or cultural shit. 

[u/TimeSpiralNemesis]

The worst part of it is the pure carnivores are super vocal in the IBS issues and adjacent subreddits. They tell newcomers it's the only thing that will ever cure their problems and get super angsty if anyone disagrees with them.

Best part is you stalk their account and they've only been doing it for a couple of months. Like yeah it can be a positive thing for short term treatment of issues like candida overgrowth but you try to go long term without any fiber or veggies and your body is going to suffer lol

[u/Narwhals4Lyf]

It’s funny cause avocados are plants soooo

[u/Educational-Fox-9040]

Downvoted because I agree. Been a vegetarian all my life (against my will, just a result of religious conditioning causing an aversion to meat) and can’t imagine a life without plant based foods.

[u/Fr1llh0use]

Fully agree hence the downvote

[u/Weekly_Cantaloupe175]

my whole issue with a carnivore diet is that humans aren't carnivores

[u/wiltedrosess]

Anyone on that diet always looks like two times older than they are. It is not a healthy or sustainable diet for most people.

[u/Inside-Homework6544]

OK, I am going to the carnivore perspective answers to your questions. Now I don't have any background in nutrition, or biology and am not presenting myself as an expert. However I am somewhat versed on 'carnivore theory', and am presently on a carnivore diet (week 2 or 3). I ate a carnivore diet in 2015-2016 for like 7 months, with excellent results. Specifically lost like 30 lbs and felt great.

I don't present the following as the absolute truth, and I have no background in biology or nutrition. This is just 'carnivore theory' basically. Obviously you guys will all disagree, but OP asked a bunch of questions so I'm just here to fill in that point of view.

CARNIVORE PERSPECTIVE:

Ok, so carnivore theory is first of all that fiber isn't necessary or really good for you. Certainly in my experience the carnivore diet doesn't really need it. Unless you eat a ton of cheese you tend to have no problem with bowel movements.

As for essential nutrients, beef is a super food very high in micronutrients. Indeed beef is also a 'complete food'. You don't need anything else, this has been determined through n1 experiments, i.e. people eating just beef and doing fine.

"If you ask any nutritionist about going 100% on a carnivore diet, they will say it's bullshit. "

So the nutritionist will probably echo the common advice that you need to eat a balanced, whole foods diet. That's the prevailing wisdom. But the prevailing wisdom isn't necessarily correct. As Kuhn demonstrated in 'Structure of Scientific Revolutions', the way that scientific knowledge works is that it is not simply a steady progression onwards and upwards into the light. Instead, scientists have biases just like anyone else. They never really examine their fundamental axioms, they get locked into their paradigms and operate on the basis of their fundamental beliefs. Then what happens is that errors start popping up. Initially they can be ignored, fudged out, but eventually the errors are so glaring that the original paradigm has to be abandoned and they search around for a new that explains the errors. The classic example of this is the guy who discovered oxygen, he never realized the importance of his discovery because he was still locked into the Phlogiston theory and so he thought he had discovered de-Phlogistonated air.

So you have a lot of scientists who believe that a mostly plant based diet is healthy, and they come up with a bunch of research that "proves" that is healthy. But the reality is that nutrition is such a soft science, that you can "prove" anything if you try hard enough, even if it isn't true.