THE CARNIVORE DIET: CAN EATING A MEAT-ONLY MENU BE GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH?

The meat-only diet has gone viral on social media, with its proponents claiming that humans evolved to exist on animal protein alone

- WENDY HALL

You've probably heard of the ketogenic diet and you may have heard of the paleo diet, but have you heard of the carnivore diet? This emerging diet trend takes low-carbohydrate diets to a new extreme.

The carnivore diet excludes all plant foods; only foods derived from animals are consumed, including meat, fish, animal fats (lard and ghee, for example) and low-lactose dairy products.

So, breakfast might be eggs and bacon with cream, lunch could be cheese-topped meatballs (no herbs added) with chicken breast and, finally, roast beef and salmon for dinner.

Advocates of the carnivore diet contend that plant toxins and residual pesticides used in plant food production are harming our health. They claim that starchy foods only became a major part of the human diet with the agricultural revolution. Finally, it's proposed that eliminating all plant foods is the best way to go sugar-free for weight control and metabolic health.

Authors of carnivore diet books tend to frame their subject as the answer to the problem of obesity and non-communicable diseases, and often claim that decades of nutritional science research have chronic culminated in flawed dietary recommendations. Most of these authors draw on the argument that Homo sapiens evolved to hunt for meat and fish, and that plant-eating was only a back-up plan for times of animal food scarcity.

What could you expect if you consumed only animal-sourced foods for a significant period?