The online world of the 2010s was rammed with novel diet trends. Keto, raw vegan and even fruitarian content flooded our social media feeds ― and has largely quieted since.
But that doesn’t mean eating trends have gone anywhere.
According to Google Trend data, searches for the carnivore diet have slowly climbed worldwide since 2019. This seems to apply to the UK too.
The all-meat regimen is popular with social media stars like controversial pop academic Jordan Peterson, who claims the approach has helped him to look and feel his best.
So, HuffPost UK spoke to Dr Jonathan Fialkow, the deputy director of clinical cardiology at Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, about whether or not the all-meat diet (strict adherents eschew any food other than animal products) is good for us.
And?
“The main concept of the carnivore diet is to avoid foods that our bodies have not had time to evolve to manage which includes processed, refined foods and carbohydrates,” the doctor explained.
“It’s all protein at high percentages of total food intake and fat. The presumed benefit is to decrease our body’s inflammation and thus all the medical conditions associated with that.”
But in practice, Dr Fialkow told us, that doesn’t always necessarily bear out.
Calling the carnivore diet “extreme”, he said it can be constipating thanks to its lack of fibre and potential vitamin intake reduction.
There’s “debate” as to whether the carnivore diet prevents or promotes disease, he added.
However, the doctor says: “The main concern is that it may (MAY) increase LDL-cholesterol,” which would be bad for your heart health.
Still, “the drop in triglycerides and other markers may (MAY) indicate that this is not necessarily increasing our cardiovascular risk if our overall inflammation is decreased,” he pointed out, clarifying: “I believe this is an extreme diet that avoids some natural variety but I am not convinced it is necessarily dangerous for most people.”
“It is based on pseudo-science, so it’s not clear what the long-term benefit/risk is,” he continued, stressing: “More research is needed.”
So what’s the best diet?
It can be hard to pick a one-size-fits-all diet that benefits everyone, Dr Fiaklow told HuffPost UK.
“In reality, there is no single diet for all. Age, genetics, our microbiome and many other variables affect our bodies’ response to our diet in terms of hunger/satiety, fat/weight accumulation, inflammation and insulin resistance,” he said.
In his own practice, however, he works with patients on “low-refined carbohydrate diets (which I believe are beneficial to reduce inflammation and chronic disease risk) with more variety and less emphasis on meats.”
“However, if someone follows and feels good and their labs and other markers of disease are low risk, I will continue to monitor them but not necessarily recommend they stop it.”
