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The ‘vegan backlash has begun’, according to an article in the Mail Online, which features four women who have embarked on carnivore diets*.
The carnivore diet, strictly speaking, is composed of 100 percent meat, though some followers claim to add small portions of greens or other foods. One of its biggest proponents is disgraced former doctor Shawn Baker who had his medical license revoked in 2017 due to ‘failure to report adverse action taken by a healthcare entity and incompetence to practice as a licensee‘.
Although Baker says he is in excellent health, a number of doctors have questioned how healthy eating only animals is.
No plants
Despite a lack of evidence that the carnivore diet is effective, according to the Mail Online, it is becoming more popular.
“While veganism has been the runaway dietary trend of 2018 – chances are most people know at least one person who’s ‘gone vegan’ over the past year, with 3.5 million Britons now eradicating animal products from their lives -there is another, less well-known health movement also gaining momentum,” says the article**.
“Followers consume up to 95 percent meat daily, and fans claim it cures ailments, maintains weight and even lifts mood. Some feel their body needs a higher protein intake and cannot function efficiently without it.”
Carnivore diet
But numerous doctors are not so sure. Speaking about the carnivore diet on the Joe Rogan podcast earlier this year, plant-based physician Dr. Joel Kahn said he’s interested in finding out more about how the diet impacts people.
“The big puzzle is…one of the things that plant-based eaters…get way more than anyone else is Vitamin C, which builds healthy walls, builds healthy immune systems…Vitamin C has so many benefits to the body,” he added.
“Where are these people – where every chart says meat has no Vitamin C – getting it? Are they eating raw meat which may contain it? Are they eating organ meat?”
Discussing the carnivore diet. Subscribe to PBN’s YouTube Channel here
Not healthy
Other researchers believe that if everyone cut animals from their diet, a third of early deaths could be prevented.
Speaking at the Unite to Cure Fourth International Vatican Conference in Vatican City in April, Dr Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard Medical School said: “We have just been doing some calculations looking at the question of how much could we reduce mortality shifting towards a healthy, more plant-based diet, not necessarily totally vegan, and our estimates are about one third of deaths could be prevented…
“When we start to look at it we see that healthy diet is related to a lower risk of almost everything that we look at. Perhaps not too surprising because everything in the body is connected by the same underlying processes.”
* It’s worth noting here that the Mail Online has compared veganism to the carnivore diet. A more appropriate comparison may be a plant-based diet to the carnivore diet, as the article references only dietary habits and not ethics.
**This statistic has been challenged by The Vegan Society which puts the number of vegans in GB at closer to 600,000.
