I love the carnivore diet… it is a great tool if you are looking to do a Paleo AIP elimination diet…
There are many great things you can learn from a carnivore diet that everyone should take note whether they are on a carnivore or paleo diet…
One of the most important parts of the carnivore diet is the idea of eating whole foods… in the carnivore world, they call this eating “nose to tail”… that means you don’t just eat steak or ground beef, but you need to make sure you are also eating meat organs (especially liver)…
I know that may sound gross to some people, but what you need to know about eating beef liver is that it contains pretty much every nutrient that your body needs… it’s one of the strongest arguments from the carnivore community that says you don’t need vegetables if you eat beef liver…
It’s true… you do get all the nutrients and they are more bioavailable… this is why meat organs are also a big part of the Paleo diet…
That being said, here’s why I prefer Paleo over carnivore…
One of the things I dislike most about the carnivore narrative is that they say eating plants is bad for you because it has anti-nutrients….
It’s true that plants have anti-nutrients like lectins, phytic acid, oxalates, etc…
… but that’s why we have soaking, sprouting and fermentation as tools to remove anti-nutrients and to make plant medicine…
Another thing that many in the carnivore community don’t pay attention to the quality of the meat they eat… sure, many will prefer grass fed, grass finished beef, but many will eat conventional beef over vegetables…
What’s funny and ironic is that conventional beef comes from cattle that’s fed grains, which is really what we all are trying to avoid… there’s a reason why people cut out grains when they’re on a paleo diet…
Doing a carnivore diet Paleo style is the only way I recommend a carnivore diet… here’s what that means…
The idea behind the Paleo Diet is that we are to eat the way our ancestors did… our ancestors did not feed grains to cattle… they also knew the importance of eating meat organs… in other words, the meats they ate were nutrient dense, healthy and highly nourishing…
Modern day meat, especially conventional lacks much of that same nutrition, which is why you want to seek out local food sources that use regenerative farming practices, which are the traditional ways of our ancestors…
Not everyone can do a carnivore diet
Again, as much as I love the carnivore diet (my diet is more animal based than plant based)… the other thing to consider is your starting point… when I started on my journey, I had a hard time digesting food, especially protein…
I would get sharp stomach pain whenever I ate protein heavy meals…
I couldn’t digest meat very well, so I actually had to start my healing journey with a raw vegan diet… once I fixed my digestive issues, I started to incorporate more animal based foods into my diet…
Now, I like to mix and match… a plant based diet is a great way to alkalize the body and is the best way to cleanse the body…
The biggest limitations of a plant based diet is location… when I lived in Arizona, I had access to fruits like citrus and other seasonal fruits… later on, I moved to Colorado and found that nothing grows out here other than peaches for a couple of months out of the year…
That’s the reason why my diet is mostly animal based… it has more to do with location than with what I would love to eat… when I travel to places where fruit and vegetables are abundant from local sources, then I tend to eat a lot of them…
The moral of the story is that it’s not about being Paleo, carnivore, vegan, keto or any diet for that matter… it’s more about the quality fo the food you eat…
The food that you eat determines the type of bacteria that grows in your gut… if you eat good food, you will grow good bacteria (probiotics)… if you eat bad food, then you will grow bad bacteria in your gut…
Good food isn’t differentiated from bad food by saying eat beef not vegetables… it’s not differentiated by saying eat fruits and veggies, and cut out red meat… that’s not what defines good food from bad food…
When it comes to meat, there is good meat and bad meat… good meat comes from cattle that raised using regenerative ranching practices… they graze on grass that grows on healthy soil… healthy soil is mineral rich and is diverse in probiotics…
Bad meat is grown using modern ranching practices that emphasize profit over health of the animal and the land…
The same is true for fruits and vegetables… there is good, and there is bad… Good fruits and vegetables are grown using regenerative farming practices… the way our ancestors did… the Paleo way…
Bad fruits and vegetables are grown using modern farming practices using monoculture, and often times using seeds that are not fertile and produce seedless fruits…
Understanding that last part is more important than trying to figure out if carnivore is better than paleo… both are great tools…
Growing healthy probiotics in your gut is what it’s all about… that’s the secret to finding a good diet that works for you…
