Mocktail Minutes

Hot Take: The Carnivore Diet

• Mocktail Minutes • Episode 106

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We haven't talked about any fad diets in a while so we thought we would give you the pros and cons of the carnivore diet. 

As always, we try to give you our unbiased opinion, but more than that, we want to empower you  to make informed decisions about your personal diet choices. 

If you have questions, or topics that you want to hear about, head over to our Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/bayleethedietitian/ or https://www.instagram.com/brianna.dietitian/ and send us a DM! You can also follow the podcast https://www.instagram.com/mocktailminutes/

Featured Mocktails:

Electrolyte Powder Plus - https://www.instagram.com/powdervitamin/

Ultima - https://www.instagram.com/goultima/

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Baylee:

Hello everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey

Brianna:

This is Brianna.

Baylee:

this week I am drinking. I got a new Ultima flavor. Blue raspberry pretty good.

Brianna:

I got a new flavor of the electrolyte powder plus I'm doing, it's black tea hibiscus. It's actually pretty good. It's a really summery flavor. If you like iced tea ish things, I feel like you'd like it.

Baylee:

I'D is not my favorite.

Brianna:

it's refreshing it's good. But I like it really cold.

Baylee:

It's one of those drinks. Must have gold.

Brianna:

Mm-hmm. Not like my last week where, where I just didn't have any ice, you know? That was so weird.

Baylee:

yes. Well, this week we are talking about another diet. We're doing a little diet review we're diving into the carnivore diet. I've had a few people around me do this. I've had lots of questions, so here we go. Carnivore diet first. What is it? It's high protein. It's only eating animal products. And we were just talking about before we got on where a lot of times these types of diets pop up, they get really trendy, and then I feel like a lot of people just kind of do their own version of it. But I'm not saying like it is a bad thing, but I feel like I'm doing the carnivore diet for this, this, and this, but you're not following it. Like you're probably not gonna get the same results. But basically it's only animal products, like zero carbs. So it's meat, fish, eggs. I mean, they say sometimes dairy, but I mean, dairy has carbs in it, so really it's just meat, fish, eggs.

Brianna:

Yeah. Well, and I think like the traditional carnivore was like, you know, the really low lactose dairy, lactose is the carb and dairy. So it was like hard cheeses. But I feel like with raw milk and stuff being more popular, it's like, oh, only animal based raw milk is animal-based. So let's incorporate that. But then you're not getting a no car. I guess it's still low carb diet, but there's a good amount of carbs in dairy, so it's not technically carnivore. I've also heard to it be referred to as like basically keto, not the same. Keto is high fat, moderate protein, very minimal carb but they're doing a lot of nuts, seed, things like that with keto. Also, if you're doing really high protein on keto, you're not doing keto. topic for another day, the carnivore diet. So yeah, it's very popular right now. I've had a couple people that I've worked with recently who have like been on it or they've been interested in it, or they tried it out and they're like, I kind of felt good on it, you know? I like to always hear people out. I do like to give the pros and the cons.'cause I feel like with any way of eating, I mean, there's pros to it. There's a reason why people start doing it, you know? So I'd say it's easy, no counting calories, no counting macros, not really stressing about how to put together a balanced plate or a balanced meal it eliminates a lot of common allergens. So you know, you're not eating gluten, you're not eating oxalates, you're not eating, you know, any of the other chemicals that can be irritants. Gluten is a major one, and we'll probably get into why people feel so good on carnivore and how it's probably related to gluten containing products. Definitely has improved satiety, so it is high protein, high fat, so you're gonna stay full for a really long time, which can be the reason it helps with weight loss, I've known people on the carnivore diet, especially a lot of them mixed with intermittent fasting, and it's like, yeah, I have one really large meal a day. I feel great. Like, oh yes. Probably takes a ton of time to digest. And then mental clarity. People feel like it reduces their anxiety, they have less depression, they just feel like they're more alert. And then autoimmune relief. So some people say that they have reduced inflammation, things like psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, stuff like that kind of decreases. I wonder how much of that, is taking out other foods that cause issues because. Carnivore in itself is not gonna be anti-inflammatory for everybody. And when I'm thinking autoimmune relief, I'm thinking anti-inflammatory.

Baylee:

Yeah, I think it kind of depends like, like what were the things you were eating and now you're not eating, and you bring up a good topic that it would be good to dive in at a later point as why do you feel so good going gluten free, even if you're not celiac or have a sensitivity or something story another day, but. So yeah, I mean there's like, if anything, pros and cons, I would say cons. You're probably gonna have some malnutrition. Starting with lacking vitamin C. Fiber. Fiber is a big one. I get very concerned for my carnivores with their fiber. All I can think about is like that has to be a very painful bowel movement. And it's like the first one after you have a baby.

Brianna:

Which is terrifying. It's horrible. I mean, anyone who's had a baby listening to this knows exactly what we're talking about. Miserable. I can't be having those every week. I cannot.

Baylee:

no. That would be terrible. So, yeah, I mean, fiber is a big concern for me if you're going carnivore, but also like your antioxidants, your phytonutrients. So with that fiber piece, it can cause some constipation or diarrhea. I mean, it kind of depends like how your body's going to react, how it's gonna digest that protein

Brianna:

Mm-hmm.

Baylee:

and being like, is this actually sustainable? Like for me, I would not sustain a carnivore diet. It's, I mean, my preface is don't align with that. I'm not a huge like steak eater. I would be eating a lot of chicken and egg.

Brianna:

And it's kind of expensive too, like when I'm thinking of foods that I really wanna make sure are high quality. In this economy, like most bang for my buck, I'm gonna be like my meat and my eggs. I really want them to be a great quality. That would get really expensive

Baylee:

And it's hard to go out to eat like you are just gonna order a steak with a side of steak. Good luck. And I feel like you would get bored very easily. I mean, it gets pretty repetitive. Eating steak, chicken, fish, eggs, and like that's it. You're not eating fruit, veggies. Start your carb to switch it up. It's that same thing. So I get a little bit boring, which obviously it's not gonna be sustainable. And are you actually eating satisfied? That's one piece that many people are missing with a lot of diets is like, do I actually enjoy this? Am I actually satisfied? You're not enjoying it and you're not getting that satisfaction of your out of your meals, you're not gonna continue it. So honestly, I mean, I would say definitely not a long-term diet for like,

Brianna:

With traditional carnivore. It's water only, by the way. So thinking about this, when I was thinking about going out to eat, like what's sake? I'll just, I'll just eat at home. Yeah. Water. It's just, just water. So I'm like, that would be, I think that might break it for me to be completely honest. There's no way I could just drink plain water. Are you actually happy with what you're eating? Do you enjoy it? Are you happy?

Baylee:

This wasn't, this is, we try to be very unbiased with these.

Brianna:

Yes.

Baylee:

So I mean, we gave you the pros, we gave you the cons. Now, people who may benefit, like Brianna mentioned, if you have autoimmune or inflammatory disorders maybe you do have some digestive issues going on and you react bad to fiber, I would say. I mean, you could probably try this as like an elimination diet, but then it's like, okay, like why am I reacting that bad? I feel like it's not a long-term solution. Be like never eaten anything else again, besides if it's meat. So I mean, just something that you would know to check in more, but I feel like a lot of biohackers are experimenting with this. I feel like a lot of people who are metabolically sound. Experiment with lots of different diets like this. Number one, I mean, with our social media world, it's super, that's how, that's how you get the likes. That's how you get the shares. That's how you, how you viral. You do something odd and.

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

Where information gets misconstrued is that you are somebody that's already taking care of the basics, the foundations, your metabolically sound, and now you're like, oh my God, I did carnivore and I feel like I could jump over the St. Louis Arch and you can do this too. And.

Brianna:

And you're missing that key part. You probably didn't have high cholesterol. You probably didn't have like high risk factors for, you know, heart disease. Probably didn't have like a lot of diabetes or anything going on. Like exactly. You were people that were already metabolically great and you can get away with messing around with things like this, And also too. Didn't the like creator the carnival diet come out and be like, just kidding. My testosterone isn't like great and my cholesterol isn't great, and now I'm like starting to add back in carbs. He was also the one that was like, drink coconut water, which I'm like, huh, that is that a sugar in it? But I mean, whatever. A lot of it is just for, it's just for likes. You scroll across somebody in their kitchen eating two sticks of butter at one time, you're gonna stop and watch the video. And again, I think it's that middle ground, right? Like there's nothing wrong with tallow and butter and red meat and eggs and like I love it. I love it. But we are always looking for how to be super extreme, which. I feel like if you're someone that's like, I feel like I, Ben benefited from this, I would take a look at what was I doing before? And this is the same with keto. This is the same with like whole 30. This is especially true with gluten-free. If you just start, all of a sudden I'm gonna start eating a certain way and suddenly you feel so much better. I don't think it's the foods that you started eating, I think it's everything you've stopped eating. So like, obviously with carnivore, keto, gluten-free, all that, you're not gonna be having a bunch of highly processed foods. You're not gonna be having a ton of highly processed added sugar. You know, you're not gonna be having all these like nutrient, lacking foods, and so maybe you just feel better eating high nutrients and not having. All those other foods. That's always what I like try to like point out. And again, if you're like, no, this is my life forever. Okay. I would say make sure you know the concerns and risks and that you're testing to make sure that your metabolic health is still where it needs to be.

Baylee:

I mean, it's a pretty extreme elimination. Like yeah, it's simple, but. I mean, it's really extreme. I've seen people try and do this. I'm like, that just looks disgusting. I just wouldn't wanna do it. And so I think a lot of times we turn towards these again too, because we're just frustrated. We want something to work, and it's like, we've tried diet after diet. It's like, well, this worked for someone. I actually looked them up. He was actually an orthopedic, which is interesting.

Brianna:

Yeah, it's, it is Sean Baker. I'm looking him up. There's two people I was thinking about him and then this other guy called the Carnivore MD Paul. Saladino, whatever. Anyways, Sean Baker, I guess, I don't know if he is like the maker of it, but he's like the big leader of it. Number one, he's a doctor, a surgeon, so let's point out, okay, he has unlimited money to buy, to buy these things,

Baylee:

and he started it for inflammation,

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

but he was also doing keto too.

Brianna:

Yeah, he did keto before that, apparently.

Baylee:

Car paleo and then carnivore.

Brianna:

And also, he's not a all natural, just so you know. If you look a picture of this guy, he's like almost 50.

Baylee:

No way.

Brianna:

That's not what you look like at 50, just your normal hormones. So again, I, I think it's like an aesthetic thing too, like look how great and jacked I look and then you realize like there's other things on board. But the other guy, the one that's like all over TikTok, like, yeah, who would like recently like, oh, I stopped being so hardcore carnivore'cause I was having like sleep disturbances and a huge dip in testosterone and all that. Like now he. Now he eats fruit and a couple other things.

Baylee:

That's good.

Brianna:

Yeah, need a little fiber. I think that's the biggest one. Like you said, like there's gonna be nutrient deficiencies for sure that you have. If you cut out all, all plant, everything from your diet, you're gonna have vitamin deficiencies and that's not great. And that right there in itself tells me that probably isn't sustainable long term just for like us as a species. Like if you are getting, you're not gonna be able to get like, very important essential vitamins and minerals. And then that other thing is just like that colon health. And just GI health really the lack of fiber is not great. I don't know why that's going around. This like misconception that the human body doesn't need fiber, it doesn't need

Baylee:

I've actually heard a couple doctors say that. I'm like, what? Why

Brianna:

once a day. That's like carbs aren't essential. Like

Baylee:

I mean, yeah, we can make glucose from other things. It's a great process We have, but

Brianna:

Can also make other chemicals that we still need to.

Baylee:

yeah, but like you're gonna feel a whole lot better if you just give your body its preferred energy source. I.

Brianna:

Yeah, and I'm always, I question it, I'm like, who has gone from a very like whole food based diet? Then try this. Most people are going from, I eat a ton of processed foods, I eat a lot of convenience foods, and then I go to this. I'm like, what would've happened if you just tried to have much more whole Foods? Like the carbs you're getting were from like dairy, fruits, vegetables, you know, maybe whole grains, maybe not. I would say that would be a great place to start maybe cut out grains for a bit, but you can still get carbohydrates from other things and see how you feel.

Baylee:

Or if you're really wanting to dive into everything, I mean, I would say paleo.

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

But again, probably not long term.

Brianna:

Yeah. It's also because it gets boring. Like I like seasonings, you know? Sometimes cooking with oil is nice. But who should definitely avoid it? I would say anyone who's pregnant and breastfeeding. This is not, not the time in your life to be like, I'm gonna try this out. No. Anyone with a history of an eating disorder, because this is so easily, if you are completely honest with yourself, is just another way of doing disordered eating or having severe control you know, orthorexia type thing. Definitely those with kidney disease. Then individuals that have like high cholesterol or already have heart disease, and then anyone not supervised by a doctor for a long-term adherence or anyone not testing. Like you have to be testing to make sure, like, okay, maybe you feel good. But I mean there's, there's people walking around right now that feel great, that are like, have insane high blood pressure and high blood sugar. How, I don't know, maybe that's your baseline, but you have to be like testing to make sure like, Hey, everything is still in good standing.

Baylee:

And even though it's not like carbs, because we talk a lot about like help blood sugar balancing helps too. Aid in weight loss and everything. And so when we're like, oh, eat all this protein now, it doesn't mean that you, you can just eat as much as you want. It's still possible. Overeat on protein

Brianna:

Oh yeah.

Baylee:

and gain weight. I mean, you're probably feel really sick because it is super satiating, but I mean, it's still possible.

Brianna:

Well, yeah, because your body can make glucose from certain amino acids, which is exactly why keto is not. If you go too high a protein while on keto, you won't be in ketosis. So your body is still making glucose and you could still be having high blood sugar even though you're not eating a ton of carbs or you know, I mean, especially'cause your body does overcompensate and if you already had a little bit of like. A metabolic dysfunction happening. Maybe now your liver is trying to overcompensate and it's still not looking great. So you guys balance. Balance.

Baylee:

I feel like all of these diets end in that way. Like every time we re, we review them, we're like just balance out. And it's because a lot of these diets, I mean anything, it's like we take it to the extreme, they're not sustainable. People are getting stressed out over'em where it's like, go eat an apple and stop stressing about eating all meat. Like just go eat a normal meal.

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

You'll feel so much better. You don't have to necessarily like label your diet. You can just eat for blood sugar bouncing. I mean, I guess that is kind of labeling it, but like you don't have to do this big fancy diet to get results. Honestly, just switch to more whole foods, add it protein, eat your fruits and vegetables, and you will notice a difference without having to feel so extreme or like back and forth from one diet to another. Really the rundown is carnivore. You're only eating meat. It's meat, fish, eggs, maybe some dairy. It's really like zero carbs, no plans. People usually have to do it to reduce inflammation or kind of heal some gut issues or just like with any other diet that we've talked about. Everything always comes back to weight loss.

Brianna:

Always,

Baylee:

We, we always get it to weight loss because. That's how you sell things. I mean, that's how a lot of people sell things. If you can connect it to weight loss, people will buy it. And it's not necessarily because you're just eating animal protein, animal products that you're just, oh, animal products equals weight loss. It's not that simple. It doesn't just work like that. Mm-hmm.

Brianna:

because I mean, fast food is animal products, honestly, because I, I did go down a rabbit hole and all these guys, like, these are how our ancestors ate. Okay.

Baylee:

They didn't go to

Brianna:

Not eating it in mass amounts. Okay, ma'am? Like they were like working on this buffalo and we have to make it last for like a real long time. You're not floating your plate full of it and going and getting the butter that it took forever for you to milk from the cow and churn and just eating the whole stick in one sitting. Okay, maybe they were eating like this, but it was not in these amounts.

Baylee:

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things that are different than way back when

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

stressors were different.

Brianna:

down, right down to like, we also are just sitting at our desks all day. We were literally working to survive. I don't, yeah, see you gotta like take it. It's a whole picture. Balance is gonna be good. And also I will stand by. If you're not pooping every day, it's not healthy and you're not pooping every day on carnivore. It's maybe four times, or like once every four days or once every seven days. I don't know how your cholesterol is staying so good if you're not pooping out. Excess cholesterol.

Baylee:

Fiber, like helps you get rid of cholesterol.

Brianna:

Yeah,

Baylee:

So

Brianna:

I, I don't know. Also, your bacteria, your gut bacteria really likes fiber.

Baylee:

yes, it does need it. That's another thing that I've heard a doctor be like, no, it doesn't. I'm like, but

Brianna:

Like what?

Baylee:

the plant not need water too?

Brianna:

Yeah, I know, right? Like, technically we don't need the sun. We all do better with it. You know, getting some kids, I know it's hard. I feel like we do try to be like, we're gonna give you both sides and not be biased. But it's so hard, like knowing what we know to be like, I stand by this. You can totally do it. I think it's gonna be great. Again, if you really want to do it and I, you're testing all the time and you're working with someone to make sure you're really getting in all those nutrients. Cool. Like, I mean, you're in the driver's seat, you're an adult. But you know,

Baylee:

There's easier. Or

Brianna:

but yeah,

Baylee:

to feel better to lose weight, to decrease inflammation, like still enjoy birthday cakes.

Brianna:

yeah. Like, oh, what are you having had a birthday? That's such a good question. You're not. What's your kid having here? Timmy? Here's your T-bone. I'm just thinking about like the meat sweats. Okay.

Baylee:

Oh yeah.

Brianna:

I do not wanna crush a plate of a giant steak and butter and then like go out in the heat and be like, I'm gonna go lift weights.

Baylee:

No, that sounds terrible. I don't think my stomach could handle all this meat, honestly.

Brianna:

I don't either. And like we love animal products.

Baylee:

yeah,

Brianna:

That's the thing. We, we love it. I mean, I think I'm

Baylee:

protein at every meal,

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

but I'm eating other things with it.

Brianna:

Balance.

Baylee:

Yes, rundown. If you only wanna eat animal products, maybe it'll help with your inflammation. Maybe it'll help with your gut issues. Maybe it'll let you know, Hey, your gut can be fixed a little bit, give you some guidance. But I would say is what dietician, I would not recommend this. I would especially not recommend it long term. I don't think it's sustainable. I think you're gonna give yourself probably some more gun issues in the long run. I think your belly gonna,

Brianna:

Yeah, I do too. I think you're not gonna feel great. Yeah. But I do think you're always gonna benefit from cleaning up your diet and trying to be more whole food like

Baylee:

there's a benefit. It'll help reduce the processed foods.

Brianna:

Which is always a plus,

Baylee:

that's, that's a good way to end it. Anytime you can reduce your processed foods, eat more whole food base, that is going to be beneficial. So just focus on that. You do not need to do carnivore or keto or paleo to start seeing the needle move. You could start by eating some eggs for breakfast.

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

If you're eating a piece of toast,

Brianna:

Having breakfast first. Eating

Baylee:

breakfast, drinking water. Walking

Brianna:

Yeah.

Baylee:

so many other things.

Brianna:

Sleeping every week. Every week I am astounded, like still people are like, yeah, like four or five hours. I'm like, what? I don't, we're not even gonna talk about carnivore or keto, paleo, any of this. I need you sleeping. Okay. And then we'll talk about whatever it it is that you would like to do. Okay.

Baylee:

we experiment. You have to, you have to, you have to earn those experiments.

Brianna:

Yeah, exactly. Have a foundation. Because then I tell people, I'm like, how do you know that it was that, that, you know, whatever you started doing or whatever way you started eating that started making you feel good. You have no idea.'cause you were a dumpster fire before that.

Baylee:

Mm-hmm.

Brianna:

Foundations, guys.

Baylee:

All right everyone. We hope this is informational and you get our point of Whole Foods. Any diet we review might end up in this way. We try to just skip both sides, but some, it's just like, it's too overwhelming for people and it's not necessary. So we're trying to give you the light at the end of the tunnel to ease anything going on. If you ever have felt like you need to go carnivore,'cause you're feeling just like no luck here. I mean we can help you. There's others,

Brianna:

Percent.

Baylee:

Have a great rest of your week everyone, and we will be back next week.

Brianna:

Bye.

People on this episode

Contributor

Baylee

Host
Contributor

Brianna

Host