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Advocates of the carnivore diet should be “jailed,” one top doctor has jokingly suggested.
Definitions of the carnivore diet vary, but for many, it involves eating an all-meat diet with no other products. Some people incorporate up to five percent other items like eggs.
Dr. Fuhrman
The diet, which has come under scrutiny from many, was blasted by plant-based advocate Dr. Joel Fuhrman during an episode of Mark Bell’s Power Project Podcast. The podcast has previously featured carnivorous guests, notably Dr. Shawn Baker, who is famously anti-vegan.
Dr. Fuhrman is a board-certified family physician and six-time New York Times best-selling author.
The show also describes him as as ‘internationally recognized expert on nutrition and natural healing, who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional methods’.
Shawn Baker and the carnivore diet
Dr. Baker has defended the carnivore diet in the past saying its benefits include satiety and appetite regulation, craving and addiction extinction, provides thermic effective protein, normalizes gut permeability, and stabilizes glucose levels.
He added: “Based on the strength of the evidence available, there isn’t much, so we can’t make those claims [that it is a miracle diet]. It will not make you live longer, or we can’t make those claims.
“It’s not going to save you from a disease. It might make you healthier and for a lot of people, it has, and it will definitely cure you of veganism! That I can say definitively.”
All-meat diet
Dr. Fuhrman, who is a proponent of a nutrient-dense but low-calorie plant-based diet, spoke about the carnivore diet – and its advocates – during the episode.
“You’re getting a lot of bad information that’s killing people,” he said, “and those people should be put in jail that you’re having on your show…they should be stopped. We should silence them,” he laughed.
Carnivore diet: fast aging
Dr. Fuhrman then added: “The most proven methodology to slow aging – I should say the only proven methodology to slow aging and living longer – is moderate caloric restriction in an environment of micronutrient excellence…and by micronutrients, I mean vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and antioxidants.
“Meat has no micronutrient load. It has no phytochemicals and antioxidants, it doesn’t diffuse free radicals processed foods. A piece of chicken is like a bagel; they both are sources of calories with no significant load of micronutrients, especially the phytochemicals and antioxidants that diffuse free radicals.”
Defining aging, Dr. Fuhrman said it is the build-up of metabolic toxins and waste products. He added that just eating more calories in general produces more free radicals, and that the more calories you eat, the faster your metabolic rate gets. “The faster your metabolic rate, the faster you’re aging,” he concluded.
