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why carnivore?

The carnivore diet, or more popularly called the carnivore "way of eating", means only eating animal products: meats, and for those who choose to include it, dairy. 

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The carnivore diet developed from the high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet as those of us following keto discovered that the wonderful benefits of keto, including blood sugar regulation, weight loss, increased nutrients, decreased inflammation, and so much more, were amplified by completely removing plant based foods from our diets. 

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Dr. Georgia Ede is an expert on nutrients and anti-nutrients. In her blog she discusses how not only do animal products contain the most dense nutrient profiles of any food, including nutrients not found in any plant-based foods, but they lack the anti-nutrients found in plants such as phytic acid, oxalates, and tannins, which significantly block nutrient absorption. 

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The combination of increased nutrients and even further restricted carbohydrate consumption means that when people switch to a carnivore diet, they find many benefits that they have either been struggling to achieve on a ketogenic diet, or benefits that they didn't even know they would experience! 

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I first decided to commit to a carnivore diet when I saw Dr. Ede speak at the Low Carb San Diego 2018 conference. During a question and answer panel, members of the audience kept coming forward to ask questions about specific medical conditions such as insomnia and restless leg. When the first question was posed, Dr. Ede took the microphone and said, "I used to struggle with that but it went away for me when I switched to carnivore". Eventually, she was taking the microphone at almost everyone question and apologetically saying, "Not to sound like a broken record... but that also went away for me when I switched to carnivore..." You can watch this question and answer panel here.

 

During the conference many other attendees attested to the benefits of carnivore. One doctor in his 80s, still practicing, had followed carnivore for several years and swore he'd never go back. One lady who had cut her epilepsy symptoms in half through keto completely got rid of them by switching to carnivore. Other testimonies I've heard attest to benefits such as getting past weight loss stalls, improved eyesight, and increased hair and nail growth. For me, I reversed an autoimmune low blood platelet condition which my mom has always had too. After several months of following keto and then carnivore, I got a blood test for the first time in me or my mom's life showing normal blood platelets. 

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If you're like me, even if you're already following a ketogenic diet, at first this probably sounds crazy. But scientific, historical, and anecdotal evidence has already shown us without a doubt that carbohydrates are an unnecessary nutrient, fat in any natural form is extremely healthy, and animal-based products are a superior source of nutrients by every measure. Therefore, the carnivore way of eating is essentially all the benefits of a ketogenic diet taken to the next level. In his groundbreaking book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr. Weston Price documents the diets of traditional cultures all around the world. Every culture he studied included animal products as a substantial part of their diets and were abundantly healthy. Furthermore, it's clear from his data that those cultures that ate almost exclusively animal products were the strongest and most immune to diseases of all. 

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But are we sure this isn't just some masochist's newest idea for making diets even more difficult than they already are? I thought a paleo diet, when I first tried it, was restrictive. Then I tried autoimmune-paleo which additionally cut out nuts, seeds, nightshades, and other seemingly random foods, and thought eating couldn't get much harder. But cutting out everything but meat and dairy takes diet restriction to a new level, by far. Isn't this extremely difficult?? 

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However, it turns out that this is one of the best benefits of the carnivore way of eating! 

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I call this blog Minimalist Eating because I believe the carnivore way of eating captures the beauty of minimalism like no other way of eating has ever done for me and many others. Along with my paleo and autoimmune-paleo experiments, I've restricted many different foods from my diet at times like refined sugar, dairy, eggs, and gluten, but these have always felt restrictive and required a lot of discipline. But what I and many other people have found on the carnivore diet is that it quickly creates a craving for nothing but animal products and eliminates the desire for other foods. 

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Last year I moved into a new apartment and decided to completely start over with all of my furniture and most of my possessions. As I bought new furniture and household items I was very intentional about buying exactly what I wanted and buying nothing more than exactly what I needed. 

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It turned out that this did so much more for me than I thought it would. Not only do I love how my apartment looks, but I have a deep desire to keep everything in order and well taken care of. I have no desire to impulse buy new items because everything I need is already in my home, in its specific designated spot. After all the years of struggling to motivate myself to not leave dishes in the sink and make my bed, this caused a complete 180 for me. 

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This is what switching to carnivore was like for me. I had spent about a year before this on a ketogenic diet, but still constantly struggled to resist cravings and keep my carbohydrate intake under a certain level. After years of restriction and discipline on this and other diets, I suddenly didn't feel like I needed some nuts and chocolate after my meal or that I needed to replace all my old favorite foods with keto versions. My eating wasn't just modified, it had switched over to something new. I could make a steak with salt for dinner and be perfectly satisfied rather than feeling like I needed to make a complicated meal with different food groups and courses to be satisfied. 

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I think you will find that along with the numerous health benefits, carnivore is not more restrictive, it is actually freeing and an extremely rewarding tribe to belong to. I hope you will join us!

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