What to eat on The Carnivore Diet (2024)

Here is the first step into the world of Carnivore. I outline what you will be eating as a Carnivore and the different levels of Carnivore you will see in the community. Any of these titles may fit your situation and others may not. We recognize each of these levels to have a better understanding of the purpose of the diet and a better understanding of the community being created by this diet. We will close on the reason why the Carnivore Diet is so successful.

Yes. Just Meat.

This seems very self explanatory but The Carnivore Diet is a huge step for anyone. We have been taught all of our lives to eat veggies, grains, and what not. Now I barge in and tell you to drop the last (insert number of years you have been alive here) of your life. I am Filipino from my Mom so that meant steamed white rice was made pretty much daily. Anytime the house did not reek of steamed rice it was like there was something missing. Giving that up used to sound like a fairy tale to me. The worst part is meat goes well with rice, and it goes well with tortillas, and beans, and bread, and french fries. So why do we take all of those amazing things out? Because they make us sick. Well I'm not completely sure if they make you sick yet but I'd put a lot of money down saying they do. Once you've gone a few miles down Carnivore Lane you will see how detrimental it is to veer off this way of eating and honestly the farther you go down that road, the more dangerous it is to go over the sides. Sounds scary right? I promise it's all worth it and if you're lucky enough this might not be a problem for you. Anyway, let's get to the meat and pota-... uh never mind that. Let's just get to the meat!

Super Strict Carnivore:

This is what seems to be the miracle version of the diet. The one that helps people recover from severely debilitating injuries and sicknesses. It is truly amazing what some people have recovered from. There is a collection of anecdotal articles on a website called meatheals.com by Shawn Baker, a proud proponent of this diet, where you can read about the many health problems that have been solved. For day to day function I do not follow the Super Strict Carnivore because it is a bit pricey for me to eat Beef at every meal. I include eggs, pork, and butter on most days so I wouldn't call myself a Super Strict Carnivore. I am more of a Strict Carnivore.

Strict Carnivore:

Anything if it is an animal or will be an animal. This means if you can pick up meat at the supermarket, do that. If you can raise your own animal and butcher it, do that. If you can hunt an animal and butcher it, do that. It doesn't matter how you got the animal as long as it's an animal that you are eating. This is still pretty strict. An important note is that different meats will leave you feeling different. Okay? When I eat all beef is when I feel best. If I have a day that is only pork, or worse: chicken, I do not feel as good. Noticeably worse actually. On the worst occasion of eating only pork in a day, I had a pretty bad headache, never felt quite full from eating, and had the desire to throw up. Even before this diet pork upset my stomach every now and again so don't expect this to happen to you for sure. Some people say they can go on pork for days and it feels just as good as beef. Lucky for them they don't have to pay even half the price of beef then. For this reason I tell you to try things out to see which is best for you. You don't have to do it immediately, beef is the safest course of action in my opinion so you can stick with that for the first month or so then try other stuff.

Casual Carnivore:

This is about as far as I would say you could go and still call yourself a Carnivore. Milk is a really big deal here. The Carnivore Diet is closely associated to a Zero Carbohydrate Diet because a Strict Carnivore would be eating 0 carbs a day. By definition milk, butter, and any dairy doesn't fall into a carnivorous animal's diet. This is why some proponents of this diet will get angry when a question is raised about dairy or honey. While dairy and honey come from animals they are not the flesh of an animal, that is what a carnivorous creature eats. Flesh is also the most powerful and nutritious part of this diet. When I consolidate down to just beef, butter, and salt there are obvious effects. My body fat goes down faster, my mood is more stable, and I have no negative side effects that I would experience while eating carbs. On that note, if I eat a large amount of eggs, say 8 of them, by themselves I become bloated and sluggish just like if I was eating donuts every day. This is another reason to test things out before adding them into the diet permanently. I would hate for you to come into this thinking you can eat bacon for every meal only to find out it is something that just makes you feel awful. Again, I am not saying you are the one to get messed up by bacon, eggs, or pork.

Part-time Carnivore:

Adding in coffee or mustard really steps away from the definition of being Carnivorous. I feel like it's important to point this out because this is so common. People get flamed for using mustard or drinking tea in other carnivore groups so I just want you to know what the reason is for that and why.

A Carnivore eats animal flesh, so even butter or salt could be considered non-carnivorous but that's exactly why I think it's okay to be anywhere on this spectrum from Super Strict to Part-time. There will be no hate or harsh language from me if I find out you add cinnamon to your coffee before having a big T-bone steak. If it works well for you then I say that's a job well done. Non-carnivorous items should be tested to ensure they do not effect you negatively because that is, in my opinion, the whole reason for this diet.

Why Carnivore?

So now you know what it means to be carnivorous. Now you know what thousands of other people are doing to find their optimal health and happiness. But why is it The Carnivore Diet that does this for them? What's the key? Digestion and effects to the body. There is no science needed to confirm this yourself. Eat this way for a month and then jump right back into a diet of salads, or a diet of hamburgers, or a diet of potatoes and bread, and you will see exactly what I'm talking about. Eating like a Carnivore simply makes you feel your best. Your mind will be clear, your emotions will be under control, your health will regulate almost as if your body was trying to do it all along and you've finally given it the opportunity to do so. There will be some rough days in the beginning but that is only understandable after years of depending on plants to live. Once your body has become independent of carbohydrates you will see what benefits that brings.

Inversely, when or if you return to plant material for food you will immediately recognize all of the symptoms you lived with previously. Chronic inflammation and drowsiness are the most notable physical effects to me. Mentally, I cannot focus on anything without great effort. This diet has been recorded to reduce inflammation, cure ADHD, revert depression, and more. You can research the science behind that if you like but I think it's just too awesome to make your judgment based on articles. So instead of reading and believing I call you to see and believe the results in yourself. Do the diet and find out what it does for you. Do it for as long as you can and fail, I don't care what happens. I will just be happy you tried to move a few steps closer to a happier life for yourself. I tried this way of eating 7 times before I got to where I am now. Double that number if you need to, I will be here with you all along the way.

Next week I will outline what I believe is the Best way to jump into The Carnivore Diet. Until then, if you haven't already, read Article 0 about how I found this diet and some of the valuable lessons I learned during that journey. I am currently working on this blog at the same time as improving this site so hopefully when you read this I have implements in place so you can email me or chat with me about any question you have. Even further down the line I would like to have a forum up so you all can talk among yourselves about being a Carnivore Human. Anyway thank you for reading and supporting this site and The Carnivore Diet, I hope to see you here again.

Adam

The Carnivore Human