Over Half Of Men Perceive The Carnivore Diet As 'Masculine'

More than half of men perceive the carnivore diet as masculine, finds a new poll.

Meanwhile, approximately a third of men associated plant-based and vegan diets with femininity, rising to just over a third for soy products, in particular.

The survey, published by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), was conducted by Morning Consult over two days in May in the form of an online poll. It surveyed a 1,020-person, representative sample of US adult men.

While most of those surveyed did not immediately associate dietary patterns with socially constructed ideas about gender, PCRM said that “when probed further,” 53 percent of the men said they perceived the carnivore diet as masculine. Furthermore, 49 percent said that they considered beef, chicken, pork, and other meat masculine.

“Meatfluencers and the manosphere are pushing the disease-causing myth that consuming meat and milk is manly,” said Noah Praamsma, registered dietitian with the Physicians Committee. “But make no mistake, these foods can be detrimental to men’s health – from heart disease and prostate cancer to erectile dysfunction and reduced fertility.”

The claimed benefits of the carnivore diet have been widely debunked, and experts such as Dr Shireen Kassam, the founder of Plant-Based Health Professionals, have described it as “nutritionally unbalanced, unsustainable, and potentially harmful.”

Soy products, estrogens, and health misinformation

Photo shows a selection of soy products on a wooden table. A new survey has found that just over half of men perceive meat and the carnivore diet as masculine, and 35 percent associate soy products with femininity — Adobe Stock Twenty-four percent of men incorrectly believe that both dairy and soy contain estrogens

Forty-three percent of the poll’s respondents said that they perceived plant-based and vegan diets as feminine. In particular, soy products such as tofu, edamame beans, and non-dairy milk were associated with femininity by 35 percent of men.

When asked about which foods contain estrogens, 24 percent of men incorrectly said that both dairy and soy products contain the hormone.

According to PCRM, while dairy products do contain estrogens that increase the risk of hormone-related cancers, soy products actually contain phytoestrogens, which are estrogen-like compounds. Some research has indicated that regular soy consumption in the form of tofu and milk may actually reduce cancer risk.

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