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Steak and Butter Gal built her brand on being the perfect carnivore; a glowing example of how meat-only eating could supposedly heal everything from acne to anxiety. But in a new exposé, vegan fitness YouTuber Brian Turner takes a scalpel to that image, revealing what he calls “cracks in [the] conviction” of one of the carnivore movement’s most visible influencers.
In his latest episode of The Meat Grinder, Turner digs through Bella Ma’s (aka Steak and Butter Gal’s) own videos and social media posts to uncover inconsistencies, alarming health issues, and even allegations that she’s secretly consuming plants, the very foods she publicly condemns as “toxic.”
Read more: Leading Doctor On Why The Carnivore Diet Is Bad For Health
With side effects ranging from chronic fatigue to digestive distress, Turner’s investigation underscores how extreme diets can do more harm than good. The carnivore trend, once marketed as a cure-all, is increasingly revealing its cracks and the human cost of chasing perfection through restriction.
Who is Steak and Butter Gal?
Bella Ma, a former vegan turned carnivore evangelist, has amassed a loyal following with claims that animal products cured her health problems. “She plays the character of the perfect carnivore,” Turner says. “All of her ailments have magically gone away, and her content garners millions of views.”
But Turner argues that her story “feels off” from the start. As he puts it, “Under the surface, things aren’t as rosy as they seem.”
Gastric distress and palate fatigue
Turner opens with one of Ma’s recurring themes: bowel movements. “She talks about poop a lot,” he jokes, before rolling clips where she repeatedly mentions “loose stool” and “explosive diarrhea.”
In her own videos, Ma admits, “I poop two times a week,” and describes the start of her carnivore journey as “a whole phase of explosive diarrhea.” She calls it “probably one of the biggest pitfalls and negatives of going carnivore.”
Turner quips, “After a few quick rounds of Russian roulette with my toilet bowl, it’s smooth sailing, right?” But the evidence suggests otherwise.
Turner lists the physical side effects Ma herself has described: “meat aversion, palate fatigue, nausea, heartburn, acid reflux every single day.” She even says, “I started to notice that my eyes…were filled with gunk. Eye boogers. Literally, crystals came out of my eyes.”
Then comes what Turner calls “the worst cult indoctrination video of all time.” Despite her glowing claims, Ma admits that some of her issues – including skin problems and autoimmune flare-ups – got worse.
From vegan to high cholesterol
Turner notes that Ma “used to be vegan” and now likes to compare her “before and after” photos. But he’s skeptical: “She literally looks exactly the same.”
The real concern, he argues, is her cholesterol. Reviewing footage of Ma’s bloodwork with Dr. Hampton, Turner points out that her LDL levels skyrocketed. “It’s not through the roof,” he says. “It’s on a rocket ship hurtling out of the atmosphere.”
While Ma’s doctor downplays the rise, Turner calls out the carnivore community for ignoring evidence. “Any responsible doctor would be calling and urging you to come into the ER immediately,” he says.
The boyfriend experiment gone wrong
To boost her credibility, Ma convinced her boyfriend to try the diet. It backfired spectacularly.
He admits, “One of the first things I noticed on the carnivore diet that persisted throughout the three months and eventually got the better of me was lower energy.” He describes “a cloud of fatigue lasting throughout the day” and concludes, “The carnivore diet didn’t really fit my body type and my body goals.”
Turner pauses on Ma’s face in that moment, saying, “What he’s saying is killing her.”
Her boyfriend also confesses, “No matter how much I ate or how little I ate on the carnivore diet, I never really felt like I was getting closer to my own goals of physical composition.” Turner comments, “Everyone knows your muscles need carbohydrates to create glycogen, which is what your muscles run on.”
Cracks in the ‘meat-only’ conviction
Despite growing evidence of problems, Ma’s following continued to grow. But Turner argues that her conviction started to slip. He highlights a conversation where her boyfriend asks why she calls other foods “poison.”
Ma responds, “Sometimes they will cook it in seed oils, and I can taste it.” Turner mocks her extreme stance: “Even a little bit of black pepper on her steak is enough to ruin her meal and stop her from eating it.”
But then he finds proof that she isn’t fully carnivore at all.
The coffee confession and beauty channel contradictions
Turner discovers a Facebook post where Ma writes, “Coffee on a carnivore diet. I personally drink this bitter plant poison every single day.”
“Wait,” Turner says. “I thought plants were toxic.” He points out the contradiction: she publicly warns about “plant toxins” but drinks coffee – a plant-based beverage – daily. “She says plants are toxic, except for this plant that she loves to have so much that she tried quitting and then couldn’t.”
Turner digs deeper and finds Ma’s separate beauty YouTube channel, where she promotes skincare products. In one video, she holds up a facial oil labeled “rose hip seed oil.”
“Isn’t it toxic to put seed oils on the skin?” Turner asks. “Being carnivore is so confusing. Are plants toxic, or are some of them okay?”
He also finds her saying, “Since vitamin C does make your skin more sensitive to the sun, I will be putting on this sunscreen.” Turner contrasts this with her past claim: “I’ve quit wearing sunscreen and no longer get sunburnt after cutting out all seed oils.”
“She can’t keep track of her own claims,” he says. “How is anyone supposed to trust anything these carnivores say?”
The alleged pasta and salad incident
Turner’s final revelation is the most damning. He cites a Reddit post titled “Steak and Butter Gal, carnivore diet fraudster, eats pasta and salad but edits them out of her photograph.”
The post claims that a photo of Ma in Rolling Stone shows her eating “pasta, wasabi, lemon, lettuce, and other salad” – all supposedly taken in her own apartment. “It means she actually buys pasta and salad,” Turner reads.
While he clarifies that “I do not know if this is true or not,” he says the allegations add to a growing pattern of carnivore contradictions. “This is quite damning if it’s true. And this isn’t the first time carnivores have been caught eating the poisonous plants they are always so worried about. Paul Saladino’s done it. Sean Baker’s done it. The list goes on,” he says.
“They always have an excuse,” Turner concludes. “You can argue that that explains it away, or you can argue that she was caught, and that’s just the convenient excuse. Either way, this empire built on steaks seems to be getting shakier by the day.”
Find more vegan lifestyle and fitness videos on Turner’s YouTube channel.
Read more: Pediatricians Say ‘Carnivore Babies’ Trend May Mean Kids Miss Important Nutrients
