The carnivore keto diet, an increasingly popular dietary approach, combines the principles of the carnivore and ketogenic diets. This article delves into the specifics of this diet, exploring its potential benefits, risks, and providing a sample meal plan.
What is the Carnivore Keto Diet?
The carnivore diet involves eliminating all carbohydrates and consuming only meat and other animal products like beef, chicken, pork, fish, and eggs. Proponents suggest that cutting out carbs forces the body to burn fat for energy, leading to weight loss and other health benefits. These benefits include fighting inflammation, lowering blood sugar in people with diabetes, and improving mental health.
The ketogenic (keto) diet is similar, but only limits carbs rather than cutting them out altogether. The carnivore diet excludes all carbohydrates and other food groups, including fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds, and legumes.
Historical Context
The idea of a carb-free diet isn’t new. In the late 1700s, Scottish military surgeon John Rollo, MD, used a meat-only diet to treat patients with diabetes, successfully lowering their blood sugar levels. More recently, former orthopedic surgeon Shawn Baker, MD, popularized this way of eating with his 2019 book, The Carnivore Diet.
Diet Principles
The carnivore keto diet hinges on the following principles:
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- Elimination of Carbohydrates: All sources of carbohydrates, including fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, are strictly avoided.
- Emphasis on Animal Products: The diet primarily consists of meat, fish, eggs, and certain dairy products.
- Ketosis Induction: The severe restriction of carbohydrates forces the body into ketosis, where it burns fat for fuel instead of glucose.
Foods Allowed
The list of approved foods is short and includes only animal products:
- Red Meat: Steak, burgers, chuck roast.
- Poultry: Chicken, lamb, pork.
- Fish & Seafood: Salmon, trout, oysters, clams, shrimp, lobster.
- Organ Meats: Liver, kidneys, tongue, oxtail.
- Eggs: OK in small amounts.
- Fats: Butter, fat tallow, or ghee for cooking.
- Seasonings: Salt, pepper, chili paste, cumin, paprika, and garlic.
Foods to Avoid
Any foods that aren’t animal-based are off-limits. The following foods should be avoided:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Grains
- Legumes
- Nuts
- Seeds
Dairy foods like milk, yogurt, and cheese are allowed, but in limited amounts, due to their effects on inflammation.
Potential Benefits
The carnivore keto diet claims to promote weight loss, improve heart health, autoimmune issues, blood sugar control, and mood. One study surveyed over 2,000 people who said they’d followed a carnivore diet for nine to 20 months. People in the study reported improvements like:
- Lower body mass index (BMI)
- More energy
- Better sleep
- More strength and endurance
- Improved memory and focus
Most people with diabetes in the study were able to lower the dose of their diabetes medicine or go off it entirely. Overall, they said they were happy with this way of eating.
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Potential Risks and Side Effects
The carnivore keto diet doesn’t align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommends that adults get 45% to 65% of their daily calories from carbohydrates.
By cutting out entire food groups, this diet could leave you short on important vitamins and minerals. For example, vegetables are sources of fiber, potassium, vitamins A and C, and folate. Not getting enough fiber from your diet could cause constipation. Interestingly, people who have tried this diet reported the opposite side effect: diarrhea. A high-fat, high-protein diet may cause loose poop because it changes the balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut. People who eat this way also complain of headaches, nausea, and a lack of energy.
Animal-based diets are high in saturated fat, which can raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. That’s the unhealthy kind of cholesterol that increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. And processed meats, which the diet allows, are high in salt, which can raise blood pressure.
The diet is very restrictive and needs careful planning, which makes it hard to sustain. The lack of diversity can lead not only to nutritional deficiencies but also boredom. It can affect social events, as eating out becomes more difficult.
The diet is not recommended for everyone. This may include people with kidney failure or liver disease, as well as type 1 diabetes as it can lead to diabetes-related ketoacidosis. Make sure to consult your healthcare team before beginning the keto diet.
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It may not be safe for those who are pregnant or nursing.
Is the Carnivore Keto Diet Safe?
This diet probably won’t hurt you if you’re healthy and you go on it for a short period of time. But it’s not recommended.
If you want to cut carbohydrates to lose weight, the keto and Paleo diets are slightly better options. They still allow you to eat small amounts of carbs.
The high protein content may be too much for your kidneys to process if you have kidney disease. Also avoid this diet if you have diabetes, heart disease, or high blood pressure because of the high saturated fat and sodium content. Such a restrictive diet could trigger unhealthy eating patterns for people who have had eating disorders.
Sample Meal Plan
A typical carnivore diet menu might look like this:
- Breakfast: Eggs and bacon
- Lunch: Burger patties
- Dinner: Salmon
Here are a few recipes based on the carnivore diet:
- Scrambled eggs with turkey. Cut 1/2 pound turkey breast into small pieces. Cook in a skillet until browned. Whisk three large eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper to taste. Move the turkey to one side of the skillet and pour the eggs onto the other side. Scramble the eggs and mix them with the turkey until the mixture is cooked through.
- Salmon patties. Cook three slices of turkey bacon and crumble. Mix bacon, two cans of salmon, 1 teaspoon of salt, and two whisked eggs in a bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon of dill. Form into burger-sized patties. Cook in butter until browned.
- Carnivore chicken casserole. Put 1 pound of cubed rotisserie chicken into a food processor and process until chopped very fine. Add 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1 cup of sour cream, and 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Process until fully combined. Add 1 tablespoon of taco or Cajun seasoning and mix again. Put the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350 F for about 45 minutes
Carnivore Diet Snacks
If you get hungry and want a snack, here are some ideas:
- Cheese sticks
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Salmon jerky
- Sardines
- Skinless chicken wings
7-Day Ketovore Meal Plan
Here is a sample 7-day ketovore meal plan:
- Day 1
- Breakfast: Scrambled eggs cooked in butter with bacon
- Lunch: Grilled chicken thighs
- Dinner: Ribeye steak
- Snack: Cheese slices or cubes
- Day 2
- Breakfast: Omelette with diced ham and cheese
- Lunch: Baked salmon with butter sauce
- Dinner: Ground beef
- Snack: Hard-boiled eggs
- Day 3
- Breakfast: Sausage links with fried eggs
- Lunch: Turkey breast slices
- Dinner: Pork chops
- Snack: Beef jerky
- Day 4
- Breakfast: Bacon-wrapped chicken thighs
- Lunch: Tuna salad
- Dinner: Grilled lamb chops
- Snack: Ketovore cheesecake
- Day 5
- Breakfast: Steak and eggs cooked in ghee
- Lunch: Roast beef slices
- Dinner: Pan-seared halibut with lemon herb butter and roasted cauliflower
- Snack: Pork rinds
- Day 6
- Breakfast: Ham and cheese roll-ups
- Lunch: Chicken drumsticks with roasted broccoli
- Dinner: Bison burger
- Snack: Ketovore waffles
- Day 7
- Breakfast: Egg salad
- Lunch: Shrimp skewers
- Dinner: Prime rib roast
- Snack: Cheese slices or cubes
General Recommendations
If you're healthy, it’s probably OK to try this diet, as long as you don’t stay on it for more than a week to 10 days. Lower the saturated fat by choosing leaner cuts of protein like skinless chicken instead of fattier steaks, lamb, and ground beef. Include seafood for the omega-3 fatty acids. And take vitamin, mineral, and fiber supplements to fill in the nutritional gaps created from the food groups you aren't eating on the diet.