A helpful tool for wellbeing, or should we write it off?
By Teri Clayton
Disclaimer: Please seek the advice of a healthcare professional, registered nutritional therapist, nutritionist or dietician before making long term changes to your diet, particularly if you are planning to cut foods out. This article is an opinion piece for information only; the author does not endorse, recommend or advocate any specific diet.
There’s no doubt about it; we are now in the midst of an explosion of interest in nutrition and its effects upon individual well being. Many recognise that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to diet, and people are trying to find what works for them. For example, few had even heard about the ‘paleo’ diet ten years ago. Yet, nowadays, this diet is well known and has all kinds of additional variations, such as the modified paleo diet, autoimmune paleo, essential paleo, ketogenic paleo, primal paleo and others. People used to think that the paleo diet involved eating loads of meat and not much else and were concerned about the long-term effects. Yet the paleo diet turned out to be more nutritionally balanced than most people thought and seems to be a very suitable diet for some people.
The carnivore diet, which includes only animal foods and products, is now in the spotlight and is facing dramatic criticism like the paleo diet once did. But, is this criticism warranted, or could the carnivore diet eventually be accepted as a helpful wellbeing tool, in the same way that paleo now is?
We have all heard and likely believe that fruit, veg, and fibrous foods are good for us, but many trying the carnivore diet find that they don’t get along well with these healthy foods for many varied reasons. How is that possible?
In a fascinating interview with Joe Rogan in October 2018, Dr Rhonda Patrick says this about the carnivore diet:
‘I think that the most important question really is what is attracting people to try the very restrictive diet, that potentially could be dangerous, without published evidence, or any long term studies.’
Dr Rhonda Patrick – October 2018
She then goes on to say:
‘It seems as though a lot of people are drawn to it because they have some sort of auto-immune problem and so they try this diet and it improves their auto-immune symptoms and I see that seems to be a common theme’
Dr Rhonda Patrick has done extensive personal research on the carnivore diet and has some concerns regarding the changes that occur in the microbiome of people on a carnivore diet. Saying that it could increase putrefactive bacteria that ferment amino acids, potentially increasing the production of cadaverine and putrescine which are genotoxic. She says that lactic acid producing bacteria that feed on fermentable fibres normally limit the growth of putrefactive bacteria and these fermentable fibres are missing in a carnivore diet.
Through the anecdotal information we currently have available, some people with auto-immune symptoms notice that when they cut out plant-based foods, their auto-immune symptoms disappear. A well-known example is Mikhaila Peterson and her Father Jordan Peterson, who both claim that the carnivore diet has alleviated their auto-immune symptoms.
If people struggling with crippling chronic disease claim any diet makes them feel well again, relatively quickly, it’s a compelling reason to at least consider its relevance and place as a dietary tool for wellbeing.
Dr Rhonda Patrick hypotheses that the benefits that appear to come from the carnivore diet could be explained by caloric restriction, which puts the body under stress, as with fasting. This supports various positive effects, such as clearing away cells that cannot activate the stress response pathway (like cancerous cells) and may even re-programme the immune system by clearing away faulty auto-immune cells. However, it may be possible for people to obtain the same results with a less restrictive diet, so this is an avenue that needs to be explored.
When it comes to the carnivore diet, we are still in the very early days of assessing how useful it might be for supporting people’s wellbeing. Shawn Baker, an American orthopaedic surgeon, elite athlete and ex nuclear weapons launch officer, is one of the biggest proponents of the carnivore diet. Shawn says that we should use diet to move people from diseased to healthy and that it is impossible for us to know what is the best diet for anyone to follow long term. In thousands of anecdotal cases, Shawn has seen the shift from ‘diseased to healthy’ in those following the carnivore diet.
This all enters a whole new dimension of complexity when you begin to factor in the quality of meat being consumed.
Fascinating research now suggests that meat and dairy from animals fed solely on rich, diverse pastures contains concentrated amounts of plant nutrients (1). These phytonutrients include terpenoids, phenols, carotenoids, and anti-oxidants and form an important part of the diversity that we consider beneficial for our microbiome and health.
Is it possible that we can get at least some of the benefits of plants through meat and dairy from animals that have eaten a truly diverse and natural diet? Could this be why some people get such impressive results on the carnivore diet and yet still others struggle? If so, then ensuring you source your meat from farms that are not only rearing their cattle and sheep on a 100% grass-fed diet but that manages pastures for a high level of biodiversity in plant species could be a sensible idea. Buying from a range of regenerative and nature friendly farms in different regions of the country who graze different species rich pastures and habitats could be a great way of ensuring you are eating a wide range of microbiome benefiting phytonutrients.
Despite all the unknowns surrounding what constitutes a genuinely optimal diet long term, one thing is for sure; we are beginning to realise that diet is complex and unique to each individual. Though people think of the carnivore diet as too restrictive, couldn’t the same be said for veganism?
We are fortunate indeed if we get to choose what we eat and when, a luxury that is perhaps not widely appreciated. It matters what we eat and it matters why we eat it, but maybe one question we are not asking enough is:
What food can we eat that can be grown in harmony with nature? Can we grow/produce/raise food that increases biodiversity, the food system’s resilience, builds soil, supports evolution, produces nutrient-dense foods, and leaves the land better for future generations than we found it?
If we choose, then perhaps this is what we could choose, and maybe we’d all be healthier for it too?……
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This is a great article. I get emails every day requesting help from Vegans or vegetarians who are now struggling with complex health issues. Once they get put on Low Fodmap diets it becomes extremely difficult to navigate. It is so restrictive and once you begin to go down the slippery slope of low fibre, no legumes, no nightshades, oxylate issues, lectins etc, histamine intolerance and chronic sinus issues, breathing difficulty and severe dysbiosis, no body knows what to do. Ive been there, so I know. I was down to 5 foods, thats all I could eat. Now Im on grass fed everything and really beginning to cook on gas, as they say. Interestingly, before I went onto grass fed, I had a really terrible symptom that caused endless problems and that was agonizingly stinging eyes. It would start anytime, whilst driving, out walking, eating, having a chat. I had tried everything and I do this for a living! As soon as I went onto grass fed meat, it stopped. It took me a week to realise and I was flabberghasted. No more eyes feeling like I had just had acid poured in them! I am totally delighted and share this revelation with my customers at Ambassadors For Health. Thanks for your great articles Caroline. kindest regards
Suzie