Mikhaila Peterson Says The First Thing She Fed Her Baby Was Meat

Mikhaila Peterson has said that the first solid food she fed her baby was meat.

Peterson is a podcaster and the founder of The Lion Diet, a strict version of the carnivore diet excluding all but beef, salt, and water. Peterson is also the daughter of Jordan Peterson, a frequent critic of veganism and a climate change denier.

In a recent episode* of The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast, titled “Pregnancy Q&A and Advice,” Peterson answered questions from her audience about pregnancy and children. One person asked, “What are your thoughts on the best diet for children?”

Peterson said, “This is what I’m doing for all my children. So, they start with meat. They go breast milk, and eventually, they start with meat. Feeding a baby meat is a little bit tricky. There is some gagging that goes on, and that happens with any food you give them, but some babies are gaggier than other babies.”

Peterson added that she “did meat” with her daughter “for the first three years,” until the child was “two-and-a-half or three.” She initially just fed her daughter beef before introducing “some fish and some chicken,” but still stuck mostly to “fatty beef.”

Peterson said that people sometimes reach out to her when they have young children who have already developed autoimmune disorders. “They go, ‘Can I do The Lion Diet?’ Yeah, you can do only meat,” she said.

Last year, Mark Corkins, a pediatric gastroenterologist and the chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on nutrition, told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that vitamin C and fiber are essential for kids and rare in a carnivore diet.

Feeding kids meat, food fortification, and deficiencies

In the same episode, Peterson also said, “Research has shown that kids that start with meat have a larger head circumference, in a good way. In the 90s, they were giving everybody iron-fortified cereal because cereal doesn’t have iron in it. I don’t know what marketing genius came up with that, but don’t do that, do meat.”

PBN was able to find a single randomized controlled trial from 2006 that appeared to match Peterson’s description. The study found that infants who were fed meat had a greater increase in head circumference between seven and 12 months than those who were fed fortified cereal, which was attributed to elevated protein and zinc intake.

However, the findings did not suggest that larger heads are inherently better, that children should exclusively eat beef, or that beef is in any way superior to a more balanced, nutrient-dense diet. Furthermore, meat is increasingly expensive, and fortified foods – such as breakfast cereal – are an affordable source of key vitamins and minerals for people worldwide, particularly children, and particularly in the US.

*The full YouTube version of the episode has since been made private, but a brief excerpt of the section on feeding babies meat still exists in Peterson’s YouTube shorts.

‘It makes no sense to raise children on a diet that prioritizes animal-sourced foods’

Photo shows two raw steaks on a white plate. Mikhaila Peterson has said that the first thing she fed her baby was meat. She fed her daughter “only meat” for several years after she began eating solid food — Adobe Stock Many proponents of the carnivore diet benefit financially from promoting its alleged health benefits

The purported benefits of the carnivore diet have been repeatedly debunked. Many of its proponents also benefit financially by promoting the diet.

In 2025, Dr Shireen Kassam, the director of Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, said, “It makes no sense to raise children on a diet that prioritizes animal-sourced foods. We know that the foundations of poor health are often laid down in childhood, with family norms and the food environment shaping lifelong eating habits.”

In a recent article for McGill’s Office for Science and Society, the tagline of which is “separating sense from nonsense,” Jonathan Jarry, a molecular biologist and science communicator, summarized his take on Peterson by writing, “In trying to figure out what is making her sick, Mikhaila Peterson has publicly promoted misguided notions regarding the carnivore diet, mould, mitochondria, and psychiatric drugs.”

He added, “Her podcast is a way for her to get free appointments with people she mistakenly regards as health experts, and she monetizes it by receiving sponsorships from companies selling beef organ supplements and mould detection kits. She regularly promotes doubt in medical doctors, vaccines, and a number of safe and effective interventions like the vitamin K shot given to newborns.”

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