Carnivore Keto or Keto Carnivore… no matter how you say it, it means only one thing: a carnivore version of the ketogenic diet. However, the carnivore keto diet is not a Meat-Only diet.
Carnivore keto is not just steak and water…
…it’s an Animal-Kingdom-Only diet (easily adjusted for keto macros in carnivore keto plans). It allows all animal kingdom foods, including dairy, organ meats, and for some reason, even salt and pepper.
If you’re already doing the keto diet, and you’re still dealing with inflammation or weight loss issues, this carnivore keto diet or way of eating may be one you want to consider looking into.
You can interact with and get great information from people on this carnivore diet on this Reddit’s Zerocarb subreddit.
This can lead you towards accidentally doing intermittent fasting because eating from the animal kingdom until you’re full will keep you satiated longer after each meal than any glucose filled meal could ever possibly do. The deciding factor would have to be does it make you nutrient deficient or not, and how your body takes to it (ancestry can play a role in how well it works for you).
Table Of Contents:
Carnivore Keto Diet
Where a traditional ketogenic diet allows for carbs (as much as you can tolerate to maintain ketosis), and lets you get in plant based fats like coconut and avocado, carnivore is zero carb with no vegetables. Only meat and animal products, like dairy and eggs.
Any carbs from animal products, like in raw goat milk for example, are allowed and not counted. Carnivore keto is a simple diet:
- Eat until you’re full
- And no plants, stick to the animal kingdom
In a day when our tried and true Standard American Diet has proven to be tried and false. Bad diets create chronic disease over time, and so while we battle out Alzheimer’s (Type 3 Diabetes), Pre diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, Thyroid conditions, inflammation, autoimmune diseases, skin problems, and more, it’s good we have new movements of eating ways like the Paleo diet and now the ketogenic diet.
At the end of the day, the current conventional [indoctrinating] ways of eating taught have already been proven wrong. The food pyramid has been tipped over, and now we’re talking about a viable way of eating for certain people, called the carnivore diet and more specifically, the carnivore keto diet. For keto dieters, a keto carnivore diet is a small transition over.
Carnivore + Intermittent Fasting
Many people do intermittent fasting and carnivore together. This is because eating a lot of meat is satiating. There is not any particular amount you are supposed to it. You eat until you’re full.
We’re all different. Our levels of ketosis may change, but just because you eat carnivorous doesn’t mean you stop eating fats. Carnivorous can be high fat, moderate protein and low carb. Animal kingdom has plenty of high-fat animal choices, from eggs to salmon, to fatty steak cuts. Carnivore can definitely be suited to the ketogenic diet, especially with intermittent fasting added in.
Foods Allowed: Animal Kingdom
just the salmon!
Eat ONLY from the animal kingdom to follow this diet right. So that means no coconut oil or MCT oil, but butter or heavy cream is fine.
- Dairy: Some do eat dairy, some don’t. If you react poorly to dairy, they say to consume in small amounts.
- Fish: wild caught fish naturally high in fat
- Meat: sustainably, preferably pasture raised meats high in fat like steaks
- Organ meats & Bone marrow: Nutrient dense. Ancient tribes like Masai or Intuit on Carnivore diets consumed the WHOLE animal including organ meats and bone marrow
- Condiments: salt, pepper, herbs, spices, some do mustard too (not sure why these are allowed but maybe technically they’re not, for the purists)
Health Benefits Of Carnivore Keto
People have experienced many of the same benefits of keto:
- better moods,
- regulated blood sugar
- mental clarity, alertness
- weight loss
- inflammation
Inflammation can be influenced by what you eat. If you have joint problems, the carnivore diet has helped many people with this. Some do meats and greens, but a true carnivore diet is animal kingdom only. It comes down to how you feel, and your blood work. Maybe this is the way you’re meant to eat, or maybe it’s not.
They say an elimination diet is good to try if you’re suffering from inflammation, arthritis or other autoimmune issues. I think the carnivore diet is like the ultimate elimination diet. This carnivore keto diet may be great for dealing with these things too. If you can find the stuff that makes you react, whether by getting inflamed, or feeling the effects mentally, then an elimination diet is a good thing to look into, and so may this carnivore diet.
Most inflammation foods are plant based. But some people handle certain proteins better than others, so this will be good to test if doing a carnivore keto diet. In the video below, Dr. Ken D. Berry gives a quick and easy overview explaining the carnivore diet and its potential.
What About Nutrient Deficiencies?
No Vegetables? Blasphemy? Most our allergens come from plant foods. When you realize that it’s the plants that have anti-nutrients and cause you to have allergic reactions, the carnivore diet starts to make more sense. Animal-kingdom-only means less foods that can potentially mess with you when looking at it this way. As long as you’re not depriving yourself of necessary prebiotic fibers, or vitamin C for example.
What about vitamin C?
The carnivore argument is that the need for vitamin C is negated by the fact that you don’t consume glucose. They say you don’t need any vitamin C if you’re not eating carbohydrates. Meat is rich in nutrients and people on carnivore diets are reporting no problems with their blood work and tests. This is because of the lack of glucose from their diet.
Nutritional Supplements
If you join a few facebook groups or read the comments sections of popular nutrition websites on this subject of keto carnivore, people on these zero carb diets usually report having no problems with their tests. That everything looks great. Is this from completely eliminating glucose?
Most long term carnivore eaters do not take supplements from what I’ve seen on carnivore diet forums and within Facebook Groups. There may be a concern if you’re not eating fresh, pasture-raised meat. I hope you wouldn’t consider doing this diet with lean meats or sandwich meats or anything cured or not 100% fresh and organic. The quality of animal kingdom food you choose to eat on the carnivore keto diet is the key to making this work, if it even can. I think it can for many and am considering giving it a go since half my ancestry does come from a northern meat eating area.
If you feel great, you have less arthritic or auto immune symptoms, better moods and thinking, and the blood work is good, then this is good right? There are no real long term studies I’ve seen done on carnivore recently, other than information on past groups of people like with the Masai or the Intuits and how they ate Animal-Only diets and generally had good health.
Experiences With Carnivore Eating
What caught my eye about this carnivore diet plan was when Jordan Peterson said he felt great from it. Here are some notable experiences of people (and families) on the carnivore diet.
Primal Health Edge
This guy Tristan won me over when I saw he interviewed Jay Dyer. I liked him before, but that’s one of my favorite youtube channels, so it was great to hear them talk. Dr. Berg recently interviewed him too:
Danny Vega
Danny Vega is another super outspoken carnivore keto advocate. I haven’t read or watched much of him, but I always see him around on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and online ketogenic diet communities, and now carnivore diets. Now I’ll have to look at his stuff since I’m looking into this carnivore keto. In the past I would have thought not eating the prebiotic fibers from vegetable bad for gut health, like with carnivore, but there must be an explanation. Perhaps you don’t need as much and bowel movements go perfectly when you eat carnivore. Or maybe the argument of our long intestinal tract being bad for meat is just bunk in general. These two videos provide good insights.
I’m noticing a trend the more I research it.
Many have achieved great results.
The Diet Doctor links out to a site called MeatHeals with many personal carnivore diet testimonials. That site is unsecured, so I’m not sure if I should link out to it. You can go to this Diet Doctor blog post, and then click on the MeatHeals link to see more carnivore diet testimonials.
A couple carnivore testimonials from that blog’s comment section:
My last PET scan showed my high volume metastatic prostate cancer in remission. This was after moving to a no plant diet from a ketogenic diet. – Steve
No constipation, my wife says I have no keto breath at all since I switched to all meat on Valentine’s day. Surprisingly easy to do, and my cravings for sugar/dairy/peanut butter have all gone away, I eat two big steaks a day and live it 1 month in. – Dave
Carnivore Keto Not A Fad
The keto carnivore diet seems like a fad diet, but it’s much, much older than our USDA “food pyramids.”
The Carnivore keto diet may seem extreme, but when you add the keto element to it, it makes it that much more. But just like how the keto high fat diet makes sense once you look into it, this carnivore keto diet does too. Then you learn more about it, and see people’s results with it. I have not personally tried it, I need a more consistent source of pasture raised meats before I consider it. But it seems like a great diet to try doing, and see how my ankle and knee inflammation issues would respond.
Is Carnivore Right For You?
If your ancestry ate a meat-heavy diet, this diet might work for you. Heavy meat eating ancestors would include Northernmost latitude ancestors like being of Nordic or Inuit descent. Some say those are who would benefit most from this diet.
Not everyone needs to do any diet. Some push diets onto others and then make it a social justice issue, but that’s the extreme side of it. Carnivore keto is not a social justice issue. Carnivores generally eat the whole animal from brain to balls even. When you eat only animal kingdom foods, you would think you would respect the animal and appreciate it as the life source that it is no matter what your beliefs are.
I don’t consider this geo politics or climate talk territory. Naturally anyone should be able to raise organic animals as you would a garden. And it’s great to be able to have access to pasture raised meat year round if you’re not able to grow and handle the deed yourself as many would have had to do back in the day. There are companies pushing for a meatless future ,so you should keep that in mind when you see the push back on the keto carnivore diet. I prefer to look at real peoples’ experiences. And hope more long term ones come up.
The results are in the blood work: I’m not a doctor, nutritionist or dietician, however I’d check with your doctor and do proper testing before, during and then again after some time if you’re trying out any new way of eating like this carnivore one.
Carnivore Keto Conclusion
Everyone is different.
For some people, the carnivore diet is what they need. Others, the carnivore keto diet would be the most beneficial to their health. And to others, they prefer to stick to the Mediterranean. everyone is different in wants and needs!
The important thing is to not dismiss the carnivore keto diet simply because convention “food pyramid wisdom” says to. We all know where that rabbit hole leads to, so while focusing on the good, just remember to ask why you reject things at first and make sure it’s rightfully rejected.
So many are having wonderful results from eating this way. For many people, simply going paleo or whole food ketogenic has done them wonders. If this has been the case for you then you may consider just keeping the good you have going. But the carnivore keto way of eating is showing to help many people in much the same way whole food keto diets do.
UP NEXT: Well-Known Speaker Jordan Peterson Loves His Carnivore Diet Plan
Related Links:
- Information on the carnivorous diet of healthy aboriginals by Primal Health Edge
- BiohackersLab post on carnivore is very informative
- Shawn Baker (IG)
how are you dealing with Bill Gates buying up 1/2 the farm land in the US and starting to promote eating fake protein and insects? What will you do when the price and availability of meat is no longer possible?