7 Questions for People Following the 'Carnivore Diet'
1) Are you aware that there is no evidence to support the carnivore diet?
Advocates of the carnivore diet frequently claim it offers health benefits, yet there is no research to back this up. Experts have repeatedly warned that the diet is completely unsupported by scientific evidence. The carnivore diet has no long-term studies proving its efficacy — or safety. Even Shawn Baker, known as the ‘King’ of the carnivore diet, admits there’s no data confirming the diet’s long-term health impacts.
“The theoretical justification for the carnivore diet is highly flawed, and there is no empirical evidence to support it.”
Steven Novella, MD
Clinical neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine; Executive Editor of ‘Science-Based Medicine’
In the absence of valid evidence, promoters of the carnivore diet rely on unfounded claims, anecdotes, and misleading sources. The single study often used to defend the diet has been criticized for several major design limitations: it relies solely on the self-reported perception of selected individuals and does not contain any physiological or biochemical measurements.
2) Why do you think that fruits and vegetables are harmful for health?
There is unequivocal scientific consensus that fruits and vegetables are important components of a healthy diet. Eating more of them brings a variety of health benefits. Low fruit and vegetable consumption has been linked to poor health and increased risk of noncommunicable diseases, which are responsible for 71% of all premature deaths globally. A carnivore diet, which excludes all fruits and vegetables, carries a significant risk of nutritional deficiencies, particularly lacking essential nutrients such as fibers, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E.
“Without the consumption of fruit and vegetables, the body will be highly deficient in essential vitamins and minerals. There are higher chances of cardiovascular diseases, increased blood pressure, constipation, and other chronic illnesses that come along with vitamin deficiency.”
Krutika Nanavati
Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist
3) Why do you ignore the well-documented health risks of consuming animal products?
It’s well-established that high consumption of animal products comes with serious health hazards, including elevated cholesterol and increased risk of heart disease, digestive health issues, obesity, and diabetes. Meat, eggs and dairy products have also been linked to incidence of various types of cancer. Furthermore, research shows that excessive protein intake, particularly from animal sources, can strain the kidneys and lead to kidney disease. Why follow a diet that flatly ignores all these findings?
Even Paul Saladino, previously known as Carnivore MD, recently abandoned the diet after experiencing a drop in testosterone levels, sleep disturbances, heart palpitations, and muscle cramps.
4) Why do you pretend the carnivore diet reflects how early humans ate?
Carnivore diet advocates often claim they are eating like our ancestors, yet this notion has been thoroughly debunked by anthropological evidence. Early humans relied on a diverse diet that included fruits, nuts, and vegetables. In fact, the examination of bones and teeth has revealed that cavemen were mostly plant-based. The idea that humans are evolutionarily adapted to thrive on a purely carnivorous diet lacks credible support. In fact, the real Paleo diet was “heavy on plants with very little meat.”
Ultimately, what should matter to us today is that cutting animal product consumption is significantly healthier, as countless large-scale observational studies, laboratory experiments, and intervention studies have demonstrated.
5) Why do you attribute health improvements to meat consumption when there’s another explanation?
Some people are drawn to the carnivore diet by stories of positive health impacts, such as weight loss. However, experts stress that these improvements are not due to the consumption of meat, but rather the elimination of processed foods and sugar.
Overall, even though the immediate effects may seem beneficial, the carnivore diet carries serious long-term health risks, as discussed above (see question 2). The Chief Medical Editor of Harvard Health Publishing states he would “never recommend a carnivore diet” despite possible short-term benefits. The same benefits can be achieved in a much more sustainable way without a carnivore diet, simply by cutting down the consumption of unhealthy foods (e.g., candy, desserts, alcohol, fast food).
6) Why do you ignore the devastating impacts of meat consumption on animals, humans, climate, and the environment?
Besides relying on the brutal exploitation of billions of animals, the livestock industry is a significant contributor to various environmental crises. It is among the leading causes of species extinction, climate change, air pollution, water contamination, soil degradation, ocean dead zones, and rainforest destruction.
“The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.”
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
The inefficiency of livestock production not only strains our planet but also exacerbates global issues such as antibiotic resistance, pandemic risk, the displacement of indigenous peoples, and world hunger — causing staggering amounts of human misery. Following a carnivore diet means either denying or ignoring these well-documented impacts, both of which would be deeply irresponsible.
7) Why do you promote a diet that is inherently exclusive?
The carnivore diet is, by nature, a diet for elites. Most of the world’s population cannot afford to eat only animal products due to the high costs and resource demands of livestock production. Globally, meat consumption is already skewed — while the average person in the U.S. consumes 273 pounds of meat per year, in India, it’s just 13 pounds.
Even by the most conservative estimates, the world would need to grow six times more calories to sustain a global shift to a carnivore diet, which is completely unrealistic. Already today, much of the global grain yield (e.g., 77% of soy, 60% of corn) are used to feed farmed animals. Any diet trend that further increases the consumption of animal products will place immense strain on already scarce land, water, energy, and other resources.
Promoting a diet that only a small fraction of people can follow while devastating the environment raises a critical question: why push for something that excludes the majority of humanity?