1d ago

The Carnivore Paradox

It's demonstrated over and over again, that people following a strictly ketogenic lifestyle, especially carnivore, reverse a lot of their metabolic problems, enjoy great health, feel amazing, are at lower risks for cancer....

But..Most conscientious people when discussing carnivore, always add.. "we don't know the long term effects of this diet"

That statement is absolutely true, but it also applies to every other diet as well, we know of deficiencies of certain restrictive diets, but we don't know the long-term benefits of any specific diet. Clean populations who follow only one diet are very rare now.

It's not quite a paradox, but it feels like a paradox, the people promoting carnivore are very detail-oriented and conscientious so they list the restrictions of our knowledge, but everybody else competing for People's health interests don't list the restrictions of knowledge of their diet of choice.

9 comments

I have long suspected the same benefits (or more) are possible with low-carb vegetarian diets. Or with meat but only one or two servings a week.
Then it's long-term sustainable for the whole planet and affordable for everyone.
- I'd broadly agree, a low-carb intervention will give most people 90% of the benefits, but I would encourage people to do a whole food based diet - even low carb processed foods can be troublesome.
  Then it’s long-term sustainable for the whole planet and affordable for everyone.
  I would say carnivore is sustainable for the planet, and affordable (meat is less expensive them all the non-meat people end up buying and eating), not to mention the savings in health care costs by avoiding metabolic diseases.
  
  Its not actually sustainable for the whole planet. Meat farming, particularly beef, is terrible for the environment.
  Not to mention the already dubious state of meat production in the US, the country with the highest consumption of meat. I don't think these issues would be solved with everyone on an all meat diet. Obviously they'd worsen.
  I'm glad its working for you, but consider the larger implications of 7 billion people going all meat. Or even just the entirety of the US.
The better something is, the less credible it is to describe, so we find ourselves diminishing it in our caveats when we talk about it.
Frankly, I undersell carnivore to people when I'm talking to them, because they wouldn't believe me if I told them all the changes and how good I actually feel. It sounds crazy, sounds like it fixes Everything, it isn't that carnivore fixes everything, it's that the standard diet breaks everything
- Frankly, I undersell carnivore to people when I’m talking to them, because they wouldn’t believe me if I told them all the changes and how good I actually feel.
  I know exactly this feeling. If specifically asked to do so, I have to start by saying "Ok, I'm going to sound crazy, but..."
  
  Yeah, it's much better for people to ask about my old health problems and for me to say it went away when i changed my diet... and eventually they put the pieces together themselves.

9 comments