carnivore diet Archives - Onnit Academy https://www.onnit.com/academy/tag/carnivore/ Wed, 29 Nov 2023 17:29:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2 The Carnivore Diet: Is Eating ONLY Meat Healthy, or Totally F@#$ing Crazy? https://www.onnit.com/academy/the-carnivore-diet/ https://www.onnit.com/academy/the-carnivore-diet/#comments Wed, 29 Nov 2023 17:29:25 +0000 https://www.onnit.com/academy/?p=23063 If you could design a diet for men who hate diets—and vegetables—it would be the so-called carnivore diet, in which you subsist on animal foods alone. Let that sink in for a moment. You only …

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If you could design a diet for men who hate diets—and vegetables—it would be the so-called carnivore diet, in which you subsist on animal foods alone.

Let that sink in for a moment.

You only get to eat animal foods. No fruits. No vegetables. But all the burgers and rib-eye steaks you can get your claws on.

Most people have one of two reactions to this. A) “Are you out of your fucking mind?” Or B) “Sign me up!”

Of all the trends that buck conventional nutrition advice, the carnivore diet may seem like the most radical one yet. It’s one thing to recommend cutting carbs (the ketogenic diet) or eating only plant foods (the vegan diet), but to suggest that animal foods are all you need to be healthy, and that vegetables can actually be detrimental to health is a giant punch in the face to everything we were taught in school and all the recent nutrition and health headlines.

After all, everyone knows that meat is dangerous, especially if you eat a lot of it… right? And that you need at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day… Or do you?

Well, Onnit investigated the carnivore diet down to the marrow, and found out what happens to your body when you consume animals and nothing else. Here’s our guide to eating meat, bones, and organs for better health. (Spoiler alert: it’s not as crazy as it sounds.)

The Carnivore Diet For Humans

The Carnivore Diet: Is Eating ONLY Meat Healthy, or Totally F@#$ing Crazy?

Animals with big teeth and short digestive tracts are meant to eat meat. But what about people? We’re omnivores. Is an all-animal diet even possible for us?

According to Brian St. Pierre, R.D., Director of Performance Nutrition at Precision Nutrition, an education and consulting company (precisionnutrition.com), plant foods aren’t absolutely required in the human diet. “What do we actually need to live? We need protein, fat, and vitamins and minerals in certain amounts,” says St. Pierre. Animal foods—and meat, specifically—can arguably cover those needs (see “Does The Carnivore Diet Create Nutrient Deficiencies?” below). That certainly doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t eat plants, but, from a nutrition standpoint, it isn’t vital that we do, at least for short-term health.

The thing is, though, aside from some isolated tribal people in far corners of the world (such as the Inuits of arctic regions), few people have ever tried to live on animals alone. Those who have did so simply because no other sources of food were available. However, the carnivore diet (also called a zero-carb diet) has recently caught fire. And people are following it by choice!

Why? For many of the same reasons people try a ketogenic diet: weight loss, clearer thinking, fewer digestive problems, and a simple approach to eating that lets them consume foods they enjoy. It may also offer performance benefits. Though scrapping all plant foods seems like a severe step, it instantly removes nearly all of the allergens and antinutrients that some people find cause health problems and discomfort, and, as with ketogenic diets, the lack of carbs alone can offer a range of advantages.

With his appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in late 2017, and his promotion through the website nequalsmany.com and Instagram (@shawnbaker1967), Shawn Baker is the most famous proponent of the carnivore diet. An orthopedic surgeon and lifelong drug-free athlete, Baker is in his 50s, ripped, and a physical marvel, having recently set two indoor rowing world records. He claims to have eaten only animal products—limiting himself mainly to rib-eye steaks—for more than a year, while suffering no ill health effects and watching his gains in the gym soar.

He hosts an ongoing and informal experiment, encouraging anyone who’s willing to follow the diet to record his/her experience with it, but admits that he hasn’t had his own health officially appraised since he started eating animals only. Rogan, in fact, cringed during their interview when Baker confessed that he hadn’t had any blood work done to check where his cholesterol, triglycerides, and inflammation markers rated. Fortunately, other (human) carnivores have been tested.

But before we discuss the health effects of a carnivorous lifestyle, let’s define exactly what it entails.

Carnivore Diet Food List

The Carnivore Diet: Is Eating ONLY Meat Healthy, or Totally F@#$ing Crazy?

The carnivore diet consists of animal foods alone. As long as the constituents of your meal walked, crawled, flew, swam, or otherwise had parents, they’re fair game (no pun intended). You don’t have to follow any rules as far as food timing, macronutrient breakdowns, or portions. Simply eat when you’re hungry and until you’re full. The following are examples of approved carnivore diet foods.

Meat

Steak, burgers, and red meat in general are the main food sources for carnivore dieters. Because you’re not eating carbs—or any plant foods at all—it’s crucial that you get enough calories to keep your energy up, so fattier cuts of meat are best. Poultry and organ meats are also fine, as are processed meat products such as bacon and sausage.

Fish

Any kind is OK, but again, fattier types such as salmon and sardines are the smartest choices.

Whole Eggs

You’ll need the fat in those yolks.

Dairy

Milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter all come from animals and are technically admissible, although most carnivore dieters seem to omit or at least limit them. This is usually due to people discovering the carnivore diet as an outgrowth of the ketogenic diet, in which milk and yogurt are generally not permitted due to their lactose (sugar) content. (See “What’s The Difference Between The Carnivore Diet and The Ketogenic Diet?” below.)

As one of the goals of a carnivore diet is to eliminate nutrients that your body may not be able to process optimally (see “Carnivore Diet Benefits”), you should experiment with dairy foods one at a time and in small doses to see how you handle them. You may find you feel better with none at all.

Bone Marrow

Bone broth is allowed.

Fatty Meat Products

Tallow, lard, and other fat-dense foods derived from meat are greenlit.

Note: Baker doesn’t believe that your food needs to meet USDA organic, pasture-raised or wild-caught standards. However, we do. If you choose to follow the carnivore diet, or consume animal products as a cornerstone of whatever eating philosophy you follow, we strongly suggest that they be of the best quality that you can afford. See our discussion of organic foods in our rebuttal to the documentary What The Health.

Condiments

Salt and pepper are your friends here, as salsa, horseradish, mustard, and various herbs and spices don’t technically qualify. With that said, most sugar-free condiments don’t contain substances that cause digestive problems in most folks, so we don’t see any harm in using them just because they come from plants (especially since people typically enjoy condiments in small servings). With that said, due to its fat content, meat—particularly red meat—is quite flavorful on its own, so you’ll probably find that salt, pepper, or small amounts of butter provide the taste you want without the need for further add-ons.

Supplements

None. Although products such as whey protein and creatine come from animals, there’s virtually no need to supplement with them in this case. Eating animal foods exclusively pretty much guarantees you’ll meet your daily protein needs, and relying on red meat, which is rich in creatine naturally, leaves little reason for further supplementation.

Carnivore dieters who work out do report consuming coffee or caffeine supplements for an energy boost pre-exercise (in spite of the fact that it isn’t an animal product). If you’re concerned that you’re not getting enough micronutrients from your food, a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement may be a good idea.

What’s The Difference Between The Carnivore Diet and The Ketogenic Diet?

The Carnivore Diet: Is Eating ONLY Meat Healthy, or Totally F@#$ing Crazy?

The carnivore diet and ketogenic diet both permit protein and fat while restricting carbs, but the carnivore approach is considerably more extreme. Because you aren’t eating any plant foods at all, your carb intake is virtually zero. This isn’t to say that your body won’t have carbs in it though. As with a keto diet, the body learns to make its own carbs to fuel activity in a process called gluconeogenesis. So while the carnivore diet may also be called a “zero-carb” plan, that’s somewhat of a misnomer.

In a ketogenic diet, the emphasis is on fat. Protein is limited in order to prevent excess gluconeogenesis, which can take a person out of ketosis. In the carnivore diet, however, you’re encouraged to eat both protein and fat liberally. As a result, depending on exactly what foods you eat and how much, you may or may not achieve technical ketosis following a carnivore plan. Whether you do or don’t doesn’t matter. The only goal is feeling better and getting healthier.

Unlike with keto, there are no clear guidelines to follow for the carnivore diet regarding macros or percentages of total calories. Because the diet has never been formally studied, there is no hard science to define how to set it up optimally. But Baker and other carnivore dieters seem to agree that relying on red meat makes the diet simple to follow and takes care of every nutritional need.

Remember that your food must be sourced from animals, so the avocados and coconut oil that typically abound on a ketogenic diet have no place in the carnivore plan. On the other hand, you can eat any animal foods you like in any amount or combination you prefer.

Dairy foods containing sugar, such as milk and yogurt, are generally not found in a keto diet plan, but may be included in a carnivore one, even though they contain some carbs.

See the table below for a quick comparison you can use as a reference guide.

 

Carnivore Diet Ketogenic Diet
Main Nutrients Protein and Fat Fat
Amount of carbs allowed Virtually 0 5–20% of calories*
Foods allowed Only animal foods (meat, fish, eggs, bone marrow, some dairy) Animal and plant foods (coconut oil, avocados, some nuts and seeds)

*The classic, medically-defined ketogenic diet calls for only five percent of calories to come from carbs, but there are many versions of the diet (including the Mod Keto Diet described HERE) that allow for more and are more appropriate for athletes and active people whose energy needs are greater.

Carnivore Diet Benefits

Eating meat, meat, and more meat may sound like a nightmare to your doctor, but it has some strong advantages backed both anecdotally and by research.

1. Weight Loss

On an all-meat diet? Most people’s first reaction is that you’d get fat, but that’s highly unlikely. As with the ketogenic diet, failing to take in carbs keeps your blood sugar low at all times. You don’t get insulin spikes, so your body has no reason to store incoming calories as body fat. Additionally, the limitations on what you can eat make it almost impossible to get a calorie surplus without a concerted effort.

Ryan Munsey, a performance coach with a degree in food science and human nutrition (ryanmunsey.com), has been on a ketogenic diet for years. Last fall, he experimented with the carnivore diet for 35 days. “I wasn’t trying to lose weight,” he says, “but I went from 188 to 183 pounds in the first week.” Despite the weight loss and the severely restricted food list, Munsey says he never felt the least bit hungry—probably because protein and fat are highly satiating nutrients. To put weight back on, Munsey found that he had to discipline himself to eat two to four pounds of meat daily. “It wasn’t like I was stuffing myself, but it did feel weird at first to eat so much meat.”

If you’re the type who absent-mindedly noshes on nuts, pretzels, or other snack foods, taking in hundreds of calories without even noticing, the carnivore diet can help keep you in check. “You have to be truly hungry to eat,” says Munsey. It may be easy to throw handfuls of popcorn down your gullet, but you can’t accidentally eat a hamburger or cook a steak. You’ll get in the habit of eating only when you need to, and taking in just enough to keep you satisfied. “You learn the difference between physiological hunger and mindless eating,” says Munsey.

Also, though it wasn’t his goal, Munsey’s body stayed in a low level of ketosis throughout the five-week diet (he tested ketone levels to know for sure). “Most people in the keto camp would say if you eat more than a pound of meat a day you’re not going to be in ketosis,” says Munsey. “But I ate up to four pounds a day and I was.”

2. Better Heart Health

First of all, as we explained in our defense of coconut oil last summer, there’s still no clear link between the consumption of saturated fat and heart disease. There is also a solid pile of evidence that saturated fat can potentially improve heart health. Munsey himself found that to be the case.

A few months before starting his carnivore diet experiment, Munsey’s blood work revealed that his total cholesterol was 180mg/dL, his HDL level (frequently called the “good” cholesterol) was 57, and his LDL (the so-called “bad” cholesterol) was 123. All good scores. After 35 days of carnivore dieting, he had his numbers checked again.

His total cholesterol climbed to 241mg/dL. While many doctors consider anything over 200 to be too high, part of the reason was the increase in his HDL—it went up 10 points. His LDL went to 162, but his VLDL levels—considered a major marker for heart disease risk—were measured at 12, which is extremely low.

The Mayo Clinic says your cholesterol ratio is a better risk predictor than total cholesterol or LDL. To find it, you divide your total cholesterol number by your HDL score. That gives Munsey a ratio of 3.6 to 1. As 3.4 is considered optimal, he’s in a very healthy range.

Another thing about cholesterol: even though higher LDL numbers are seen as risky, the type of LDL particles you have shuttling through your arteries is most important. If they’re small and dense, they’re considered more dangerous than if they’re bigger and “fluffier.” Therefore, two people with the same LDL value could be at very different levels of risk.

According to the Cooper Institute, a good way to determine what kind of LDL particles you have is to find your ratio of triglycerides to HDL cholesterol. The lower the ratio, the less the risk. Munsey’s triglycerides came in at 59mg/dL, making his triglyceride-to-HDL ratio less than 1, which is exceptional.

Of course, Munsey followed the diet for a very short time, so it’s impossible to predict what would happen to his body long-term, but it should ease your fears about the dangers of meat for the cardiovascular system. Five weeks of eating cow parts didn’t give him a heart attack. In fact, it seemed to reduce his chances of having one. (For more on what he ate specifically, see “Does The Carnivore Diet Create Nutrient Deficiencies?”).

If you don’t believe us, or Munsey, see his official blood lab, direct from his doctor, below.

The Carnivore Diet: Is Eating ONLY Meat Healthy, or Totally F@#$ing Crazy?

3. Lower Inflammation

According to some vegans, fat-rich animal foods promote inflammation to a degree that’s on par with smoking cigarettes. The truth, however, is that they can actually lower it. A 2013 study in the journal Metabolism compared subjects who ate a high-fat, low-carb diet to those following a low-fat, high-carb diet. Calories were restricted in both groups, but the high-fat eaters had lower markers of systemic inflammation after 12 weeks. As a result, the researchers concluded that high-fat eating may be more beneficial to cardiovascular health.

The liver produces C-reactive proteins (CRP) in response to inflammation, so measuring CRP levels can indicate how much inflammation is in your system. A level of 10mg/L or less is normal, and 1mg/L or less is good. Munsey’s CRP score post-diet was incredibly low: 0.34.

Simply cutting plant foods from your menu can lower inflammation by itself. “If you had a food sensitivity to some of the plants you were eating and had low-grade inflammation,” says Brian St. Pierre of Precision Nutrition, “then removing them will make you feel better.”

Lower inflammation can mean less achy joints. Plus: “There’s some evidence that eating more gelatinous proteins, as you find in bone broth, collagen, and gelatin,” says St. Pierre, “can improve cartilage health.” This is discussed further in our guide to bone broth.

4. Higher Testosterone

Diets high in fat have been shown to boost testosterone levels. In fact, a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that men who followed a high-fat, low-fiber diet for 10 weeks had 13% higher total testosterone than subjects who ate low fat and high fiber. It’s no surprise then that Munsey’s total testosterone levels leaped from 495 ng/dL to 569. Not bad for age 33. “I was pitching a tent first thing every morning,” he says.

5. Fewer Digestive Problems

We’ve been told how important it is to eat fiber our whole lives, and have been sold everything from bran muffins to Metamucil to make sure we get enough. But carnivore dieters think it’s more trouble than it’s worth, and science may prove them right.

A 2012 study in the World Journal of Gastroenterology investigated the effects of reducing fiber intake in people with chronic constipation—the complete opposite of what most doctors would recommend. Subjects were told to consume no fiber whatsoever for two weeks. Then they were allowed to increase their fiber intake to a level they were comfortable with, or follow a high-fiber diet. Incredibly, most of the subjects were doing so well that they opted to continue on the zero-fiber plan. The study lasted six months.

Those who ate high fiber reported no change in their condition, but those who ate no or small amounts of fiber noted significant improvements in their symptoms—including reduced gas, bloating, and straining. Furthermore, the ones on zero fiber actually increased the frequency of their bowel movements!

The reason fiber-filled eating could be problematic for the gut isn’t clear, but carnivore dieters blame certain compounds in plant foods as the source of digestive issues. They cite the book The Plant Paradox, by Steven R. Gundry, M.D., which argues that the natural defense mechanisms that plants contain to dissuade predators cause bloating, gas, and other digestive distress that may make them not worth eating for humans. Lectins, gluten, and phytic acid—common in fruits, greens, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds—can contribute to inflammation and auto-immune disorders such as IBS, Leaky Gut, and more. While this is a controversial opinion (see “Reasons The Carnivore Diet Might Still Be Totally F@#$ing Crazy”), it does provide an explanation for why carnivore dieters claim to feel better than they did eating plants.

“We’ve been told for so long that you need all this fiber,” says Munsey. “But maybe you don’t. Maybe you don’t need any. The carnivore diet challenges what we think we know.”

6. Increased Mental Clarity

Just as with the ketogenic diet, carnivore dieters report thinking more clearly and having better focus almost right away. Again, as with going keto, there is a break-in period where your body has to figure out how to fuel your system without carbs, so you’ll probably feel lethargic and moody at first. You may have difficulty sleeping and even develop bad breath (an early sign that your body is making ketones), but you can ride it out. Within a few days, or just over a week, you could feel sharper than ever. Perhaps even better than if you were doing a standard ketogenic diet (see “The Carnivore Diet for Athletes”). “By the second week, your system comes online,” says Munsey.

7. Simpler Dieting

There’s one thing about the carnivore diet that no one can argue: it’s not complicated. You eat animal foods when you’re hungry, and that’s it. If you’re the type of person who gets confused counting calories or macros, is tired of weighing portions on a food scale, or isn’t sure what’s gluten-free and what isn’t, a carnivore diet will all but relieve you of having to think.

“I started by trying to eat one rib-eye in the morning and one in the afternoon, or the equivalent amount of protein and fat,” says Munsey. “It worked out to be about a pound of meat in the morning and then two in the afternoon. I never measured anything or tracked ratios.” It’s also worth noting that Munsey prefers to follow an intermittent fasting style of eating, having his first meal between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. and his second between 3 and 5 p.m. But you don’t have to.

“As far as your lifestyle goes, it’s quite enjoyable,” says Munsey. “You get to eat steak and bacon all day. I never got tired of eating meat. I actually started craving it.”

And while a meat-rich diet may sound like it would break the bank, the amounts you actually consume may not be high, since meat is so satiating. That should keep costs down—especially if you literally aren’t buying any other food.

Is The Carnivore Diet Safe?

The Carnivore Diet: Is Eating ONLY Meat Healthy, or Totally F@#$ing Crazy?

Because it’s similar to a ketogenic diet, and we’ve already shown that meat isn’t to blame for heart disease, it appears fair to consider the carnivore diet safe for most people—at least in the short term. However, if you’ve ever seen the movie Beverly Hills Cop, there’s one question you’ve been dying to ask: is all that meat going to get stuck in my gut?

In the film, one character reads a (fictitious) article to another, citing science that claims that “by the time the average American is 50, he’s got five pounds of undigested red meat in his bowels.” Based on this one scene in a popular movie from more than 30 years ago—and an Eddie Murphy comedy at that—the urban legend has perpetuated that beef somehow blocks up your intestines, colon… you name it.

However, just as you can’t disable a police car by shoving a banana in its tailpipe (another bit of wacky science from the movie), your body won’t choke itself to death from eating rib-eyes.

“Like most foods, meat is absorbed in the small intestines before it reaches the colon,” says St. Pierre. “The idea that meat gets impacted in your GI tract is silly.” It’s possible to get a bowel obstruction due to disease or physical injury, “but red meat isn’t something that blocks your GI tract.” Since there isn’t much coming out, people who have small bowel movements tend to assume that waste is getting stuck inside them. But St. Pierre says that small movements, including those of carnivore dieters, are simply due to low intakes of fiber. “Fiber adds bulk,” he says. So the reason your poop is small is because it doesn’t have veggies in it.

“I never had any distension, bloating, or water retention throughout the whole process,” says Munsey. “In fact, I felt light and had a bounce in my step.”

A more serious concern on the carnivore diet, however, is the risk of cancer. “There’s so much evidence on phytonutrients from plant foods and how they help with DNA protection,” says St. Pierre. “If you’re not consuming those things, your guess is as good as mine as to how that’s going to impact you long-term.” Bacteria in the GI tract and colon ferment fiber into butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid. Butyrate decreases inflammation in the GI tract, potentially decreasing the risk of colon cancer.

“I would highly suspect that an all-animal diet would increase your risk of colon cancer,” says St. Pierre. Not because animal foods are carcinogenic in any way, but because “you wouldn’t be consuming things that help to inhibit colon cancer. So the dose makes the poison. Having a few servings of red meat each week is no big deal, but when you’re eating three steaks a day with nothing else, that’s a different story. You’re changing the equation substantially.”
Not to mention, eating fruits and vegetables offer benefits for eye health, brain health, and overall longevity, says St. Pierre. “You’d be ignoring so much research on their potential benefits by cutting them all out.”

Another popular carnivore diet question: what happens to the gut biome? That is, the balance of bacteria that help digest your food and prevent disease. Surely, those critters must require some carbs. Or not.

“I had zero dysbiotic flora [the bad bacteria] at the end of the diet,” says Munsey, who had his poo tested. “And I had pretty good numbers on all the beneficial flora.” He chalks it up to the carnivore diet being, if nothing else, an extreme elimination diet that starves sugar-hungry bad bacteria to death. “Yeah, it would starve some of the good ones as well, but maybe we don’t need as many of those. Maybe we only need them if we’re eating a high-plant diet. It’s never been studied, so for people to jump right out and say the carnivore diet is wrong and bad for your health… well, we don’t know that.”

Does The Carnivore Diet Create Nutrient Deficiencies?

The risk of life-threatening illness aside, the carnivore diet—somewhat surprisingly—doesn’t seem to lead to many, if any, serious vitamin or mineral deficiencies. Red meat alone contains copious amounts of iron and zinc, and seafood and dairy supply vitamin D, which usually has to be added to plant foods. The one micronutrient that nutritionists like St. Pierre aren’t sure you’d get enough of is vitamin C, which is otherwise extremely easy to obtain when eating fruits and vegetables.

In rebuttal, carnivore supporters make the argument that, in the absence of carbs, your body may not need much vitamin C, thereby making small intakes sufficient. Stephen D. Phinney, M.D., Ph.D., author of The Art and Science of Low-Carbohydrate Living, has speculated that the ketone beta-hydroxybutyrate—which your body will produce when you remove carbs from your diet—replaces the need for vitamin C, at least in part. On a balanced diet, one of vitamin C’s roles in the body is to form collagen, but Phinney says that the amino acids you get from a large meat intake get the job done without it. Indeed, neither Munsey or Baker have come down with scurvy, and neither have hundreds (thousands?) of other zero-carb dieters at home and abroad—as far as we know.

St. Pierre adds that if you make the effort to eat a diverse range of animal foods—i.e. NOT just rib-eye steaks—you hedge your bets that you’ll get the micronutrition you need. That means venturing beyond lean muscle meats and taking advantage of foods like bone broth and organ meats. That’s what Munsey did. “I was just being extra cautious,” he says. And “organ meats,” he points out, “have more micronutrients than vegetables.”

The Carnivore Diet for Athletes

The ketogenic diet has taken a lot of heat from critics who say that people who exercise must eat carbs to supply fuel, but science has shown that not only is it possible to work out on a low-carb diet, you can even perform at an elite level. But take away ALL carbs and all plant foods and it could be a very different story. The short answer is that we don’t know exactly how a long-term carnivore diet would affect muscle mass, endurance, or overall performance yet. But many carnivore dieters report making some of the best gains of their lives on the plan.

As mentioned above, Shawn Baker is a world-class indoor rowing competitor and deadlifts 700-plus pounds at over 50 years old. He could well be a genetic outlier, but what about Ryan Munsey? Without adding body weight, Munsey made dramatic strength gains on the diet. Below are the improvements he made on his two-rep max in the various lifts he tested. All were accomplished within five weeks of carnivore eating.

Front squat: from 235 pounds to 265
Deadlift: from 335 to 375
Incline bench press: 205 to 220
Weighted pullup: 60 pounds of added weight to 100 pounds

The first week on the diet, Munsey says he felt sluggish and had little motivation to train. But by the second week, he says, he was a “samurai” in the gym. He credits the gains to the increased amount of protein he was eating, as he had been doing a ketogenic diet prior. “With keto, I felt great mentally, but I never felt like doing much physically. On the carnivore diet, I just felt like a warrior.” He was getting 120 to 150 grams of protein per day before when he weighed between 185 and 188 pounds. After adopting a two-to-four-pounds per day meat habit, Munsey estimates his protein intake was between 200 and 300 grams.
It’s worth noting that Munsey did not do cardio, apart from daily walks (he averaged 5,000 steps a day, total). Therefore, it’s difficult to say how he would have fared had he been running, rowing, or doing more metabolically-demanding workouts such as CrossFit. “I think the adaptation period before you would excel again at those activities would be more brutal than what I went through,” says Munsey.

To be fair, Baker claims he needed six months to fully adapt to the diet and get his performance back on track.

“Just because we can live on a carnivore diet,” says St. Pierre, “doesn’t mean we’d necessarily thrive on it. If you’re an intermittent sport athlete, competing in sprinting or something else that requires high output for 60–120 seconds, it would be very challenging to perform well when you’re not eating any carbs. There are people who adapt really well to fat and their performance does improve, but I think performance would suffer for most.” As with any diet, you’ll have to try it and see what happens.

If you are an athlete or gym rat, you may do better to modify the carnivore diet just as we discussed modifying the ketogenic diet HERE. St. Pierre suggests starting by adding some vegetables. “Cruciferous ones like broccoli, cauliflower, and kale would be my vote.” If you find that your workouts are suffering, “maybe that means having the occasional sweet potato or apple,” says St. Pierre.

Carnivore Diet Meal Plan

Here’s an example of how you could eat in a day if you want to get the broadest possible nutrition from an all-animal diet.

Breakfast
Coffee (black, or with whole milk)
Scrambled eggs and bacon
(You may also choose to skip breakfast and fast till lunch)

Lunch
Rib-eye steak, OR chicken liver, seasoned with salt and pepper

Snack
1 cup bone broth, OR a few slices cheese

Dinner
Hamburger patty seasoned with cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper
OR salmon fillet

All meats and dairy products should be organic and pasture-raised whenever possible

Reasons The Carnivore Diet Might Still Be Totally F@#$ing Crazy

The Carnivore Diet: Is Eating ONLY Meat Healthy, or Totally F@#$ing Crazy?

If you’ve made it this far into the article, you’re probably realizing that the carnivore diet isn’t as ridiculous as it may at first sound. Nevertheless, there are some compelling reasons to not try it—or at least not follow it for very long—apart from what we’ve already mentioned.

Environmental Impact

It’s safe to say that, if everyone adopted this diet, the world would run out of animals pretty fast. Supporting organic farming practices and eating locally is a noble, smart way to improve the welfare of animals and reduce pollutants, but drastically increasing the demand for meat would undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on the planet—at least while conventional farming methods remain pervasive.

Vegetables Are Still Good

Carnivore dieters blame digestive problems on plants. Grains, legumes, and nuts are indeed sources of phytic acid, an antinutrient that can prevent the body’s absorption of iron and zinc. But according to St. Pierre, the negative impact it has on your nutrition is minimal. “The data on phytic acid, lectins, and tryptin inhibitors is nowhere near as bad as people like to make it out to be,” says St. Pierre. Plants have innate defense systems to discourage predators from eating them, but that doesn’t mean they can’t or shouldn’t be eaten. Similarly, “a lobster has a shell and claws to defend itself, but that doesn’t mean you can’t eat it,” says St. Pierre.

Also, the way we prepare food reduces the potency of the antinutrients within it. When bread is baked with yeast, the phytic acid content in the grains dissipates. Levels are also low in sprouted-grain and sourdough bread. “At the same time,” says St. Pierre, “in reasonable amounts, phytic acid also has some potential health benefits, one of them being anti-cancer, and it can chelate heavy metals.” One such heavy metal, iron, can be toxic in high amounts. And you risk getting such amounts on an all-meat diet.

This isn’t to say that some people aren’t especially sensitive to certain plant foods. If you know one that bothers you, don’t eat it. But it’s probably best not to weed out every bit of vegetation in your diet based on a reaction to one or two types.

Sustainability

The planet isn’t the only thing that could suffer if you go all meat, all the time. You may end up hating life, no matter how cool the idea of eating burgers and bacon all day sounds to you now. A strict animal diet means no beer, no avocados for your Fajita Night… and, in fact, no fajitas at all (tortillas are a no-no). You can bend the rules and have your cheat days, but then you’re not really doing the diet, are you?

Munsey says he didn’t get many cravings on the carnivore diet, but has since added back some plants and the occasional carbs for the sake of long-term health. “I still pretty much follow the carnivore diet because I love the way I feel on it. But it’s really difficult to do when you travel.” If you can’t find high-quality meat on the road, you need to be careful where you eat out. But that can be part of the thrill of going carnivore, too.

“It’s fun to order two rib-eyes and nothing else and see how the waiter reacts,” says Munsey. “I was in an airport and got four hamburger patties and the manager came out to confirm that my order was right. It definitely throws people off.”

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Bison vs Beef – Which Red Meat Reigns Supreme? https://www.onnit.com/academy/bison-vs-beef/ https://www.onnit.com/academy/bison-vs-beef/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2020 09:47:40 +0000 https://www.onnit.com/academy/?p=21202 After decades of being maligned for its saturated fat, beef has made a comeback with nutritionists, with recent research showing that saturated fat may not increase the risk of heart disease as previously thought. But …

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After decades of being maligned for its saturated fat, beef has made a comeback with nutritionists, with recent research showing that saturated fat may not increase the risk of heart disease as previously thought.

But beef has another opponent to contend with, and it’s been here for centuries: bison.

Similar to beef both nutritionally and in terms of flavor, buffalo meat is an alternative to the cow (incidentally, “bison” is technically the correct term for the animal, but it’s come to be used interchangeably with “buffalo”).

Both bison and beef can be part of a healthy diet. But if you had to pick one big animal to take a bite out of, which one should you choose?

We compared beef and buffalo in every important category to determine the alpha protein on the range.

Is Bison Better than Beef?

 

BISON

BEEF

Nutrition (4 oz serving)*

130 calories
25g protein
3g fat
0g carbs

140 calories
25g protein
4g fat
0g carbs

Safety

Never administered antibiotics or hormones

Often administered antibiotics and hormones (unless USDA Organic)

Environmental Impact

Low carbon emissions, helps preserve grasslands

High carbon emissions, depletes grasslands

Treatment of animals

Allowed to graze freely most of the time

Usually raised in feedlots (unless marked “free-range” on label)

Taste

Drier and sweeter than beef

Drier and leaner than conventional beef if grass-fed

Cost

More expensive (approx. $9 or more per pound for most cuts)

Less expensive (approx. $6–7 per pound for most cuts)

*There are many cuts of both bison and beef available. To equate them as closely as possible, we chose top sirloin—a very lean cut preferred by athletes—for the macronutrients in the table. Also, as bison is mainly raised on pasture, we went with grass-fed beef in the example to match it. In other words, the table compares buffalo to the very best the beef world has to offer. More commonly found conventional beef would have approximately 230 calories, 23g protein, and 15g fat per four-ounce serving.

WINNER: Bison

Why Bison Wins (By A Horn)

Bison vs. Beef

Buffalo Meat is Better Quality

Across all cuts, buffalo meat is lower in calories and fat than beef is, and higher in protein. A three to four-ounce serving of bison ribeye has 177 calories, 6 grams fat, and 30 grams protein compared to a typical beef ribeye, which contains 265 calories, 17 grams fat, and 27 grams protein. According to the USDA, bison burgers have 152 calories and 7 grams fat, which is less than even a 90% lean beef burger (184 calories and 10 grams fat) and a 93% lean turkey burger (176 calories and 10 grams fat). Bison offers more omega-3 fats than beef, and a better omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.

Bison doesn’t give up any micronutrition to beef either. It’s higher in B vitamins than beef—critical nutrients that support energy levels, memory, and mood—as well as copper, potassium, and zinc. Reader’s Digest even recommended it as one of the best sources of iron for pregnant women, who tend to be anemic more often than men due to menstruation.

Research supports bison as being heart-healthier too. A study published in Nutrition Research in 2013 compared the effects of consuming bison versus beef. Ten healthy men ate 12 ounces of either beef or bison per day, six days per week, for seven weeks. Then, after a 30-day “washout” to clear their systems, the bison-eaters switched to beef and vice versa for another seven weeks. Researchers concluded that “in terms of vascular health, bison meat appears to provide a healthier alternative to red meat.” In fact, after a single beef meal, harmful oxidized LDL cholesterol levels were elevated. The same changes did not occur after eating buffalo.

If you’re concerned about how your meat was raised (and you should be), bison is the safer choice every time. “All bison spend the majority of their life grazing on pasture,” says Dave Carter, Executive Director of the National Bison Association, a non-profit organization of bison producers. “Some are finished with grain, sometimes in a feedlot,” meaning that they’ll eat grain feed just as most cows do to fatten them up a bit in the last few months before slaughter so they yield more meat. But Carter says that, even if the bison are forced to spend some time fenced in, they get a lot more space than cows do. Bison aren’t as easily controlled as cattle, so it’s much harder for ranchers to keep them in confined quarters like cows are where they can be mistreated and develop diseases.

In fact, it’s more advantageous for buffalo ranchers to treat their livestock well. “If there’s stress on the animal, it won’t produce good meat,” says Carter. “One thing you can be sure of with all bison is that it’s produced without growth hormones or antibiotics. It’s illegal to use them. And most of the bison producers have independent auditors come in to test them.”

OK, But How Do I Cook Bison?

Buffalo meat is drier than beef due to its leanness, so it cooks faster. Carter recommends salting it and brushing it with olive oil to lock in the natural juices. Then be careful not to cook it past medium or it will be too tough. “The biggest mistake is that people dump on so many seasonings they lose the great bison taste,” says Carter, so keep it simple. “If you’re going to pay a premium for bison meat, you should taste it.”

Raising Buffalo is Better for the Environment

Bison vs Beef – Which Red Meat Reigns Supreme?
According to Carter, 30–40% of ecosystems around the world are grasslands. These draw in carbon, taking it out of the atmosphere and producing oxygen, thereby fighting climate change. “Whether it’s the high plains of North America or the Sahara in Africa, they evolved with grazing animals. These animals get a black eye for being so-called terrible carbon producers, but if you didn’t have them, the environment would collapse.”

Carter says grasslands overgrow, creating 30% more matter than can decompose every year. Without bison to chew some of it up, “grassland will essentially choke itself out.” To be fair, buffalo do fart out carbon just as cows do, but there are far fewer of them—there are a mere 500,000 in the U.S. versus nearly 100 million head of cattle. And bison consume less. “It takes 35 acres to support one cow,” says Carter. Bison by nature must eat different grasses at different times of the year, so the animals are cycled through grazing lands, which promotes sustainability.

Furthermore, Carter says bison are better designed by nature to care for the earth. “Bison hooves are more pointed than cattle hooves, so they tend to stir the soil and push seeds down further. Their bodies make depressions in the ground that capture moisture and return it to the soil.” Buffalo drink less water than cattle and are more resistant to extreme weather, so they can forage for their own food even in a harsh winter and don’t require the same amount of resources that cows do.

Buying Bison Can Support Native Americans

Bison were the staple food of Native American tribes until the latter half of the 19th century, when their population was decimated by disease (brought over from European cattle, says Carter), reckless over-hunting, and anti-Indian U.S. government policy at the time. As a result, the health, culture, and economy of Native Americans has suffered since. Fortunately, a large contingent of the bison industry supports the restoration of bison on Native American land and the resurgence of their community.

The Tanka Fund, created through a partnership between Native American Natural Foods (NANF) and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, develops the assets needed to supply land to Native Americans to raise their own bison and bring it to market. Their goal is to convert one million acres of land to Native American buffalo producers in order to benefit tribal nations.  You can make a donation at the link found here

https://tankafund.org/return/

Resources

1. National Bison Association

https://www.bisoncentral.com/

2. Bison edges beef in nutrition study

https://www.research.va.gov/currents/summer2013/summer2013-10.cfm

3. 5 Super Foods For Women

https://www.rd.com/health/healthy-eating/5-super-foods-for-women/

4. Feeding Bison

https://extension.usu.edu/behave/files/uploads/Bison-Choice/Feeding%20bison.pdf

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Easy & Delicious Healthy Ground Beef Recipes for 2020 https://www.onnit.com/academy/healthy-ground-beef-recipes/ Fri, 28 Feb 2020 23:58:25 +0000 https://www.onnit.com/academy/?p=25939 You usually don’t read about healthy ground beef recipes, because ground beef gets a pretty bad rap. Sure, it makes hamburgers and other delicious not-so-weight-loss friendly food, but the truth is it can easily be …

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You usually don’t read about healthy ground beef recipes, because ground beef gets a pretty bad rap. Sure, it makes hamburgers and other delicious not-so-weight-loss friendly food, but the truth is it can easily be part of a healthy diet. Ground beef is also relatively inexpensive, freezes well, and mixes with pretty much anything to make a complete meal.

If you started a healthy nutrition plan for 2020, and aren’t sure how ground beef fits, then you’re in the right place. Read on to learn the healthiest types, how to make good burgers, and even get inspired with a few easy ground beef recipes!

What’s The Healthiest Type of Ground Beef?

There are generally four types of ground beef, each of which has a different fat content.

1. Regular Ground Beef

This type of beef is ground shank and brisket and is generally the least expensive. Regular ground beef also has the most amount of fat—somewhere around 30%. Don’t knock the fat, however. The fat in the meat makes it the most flavorful. If you’re on the Ketogenic diet and need some fat in your meals, getting it from ground beef isn’t a bad idea.

2. Ground Chuck

Ground chuck is often labeled as “lean” ground beef because it has less fat content than regular ground beef. Ground chuck contains about 20% fat, but is still flavorful.

3. Ground Round

Ground round is less-fatty option. It contains around 12% fat and is great to mix with veggies our sauces. Sometimes, the ground round is labeled as “extra lean.” Ground round is a good choice if you’re looking to lower cholesterol levels or just want a little less fat in your diet.

4. Ground Sirloin

Ground sirloin may be the leanest cut, but it’s usually the most expensive. Because there’s only about 10% fat content, it will cook a bit drier than other beef options. But if you’re really watching your calories, ground sirloin is generally the best choice.

When you’re out shopping for ground beef, it’s best to spend a little extra money on grass-fed, free-range options. Cows that were allowed to move around and eat grass usually produce better-tasting meat. Healthy ground beef is also generally free of antibiotics and other chemicals.

What Can I Eat with Lean Ground Beef?

Lean ground beef is great to eat with almost anything. You can stir it into vegetables, add it to sauces, or throw it in a baked potato. See the recipes below for more options!

Really, what you eat with your ground beef depends on how much you like the flavor of the meat. In general, meats with more fat tend to be juicier and taste better. Less-fatty meat tends to cook drier and have a mild, less “beefy” flavor.

How to Make a Healthy Hamburger with Ground Beef

Ultra-lean beef can be difficult to make hamburgers with. The fat is what binds the beef together, so there are a few things you can do to make your burgers juicy and flavorful, even with lean beef.

The best way to add some moisture and improve the binding is to add a little something to the beef. A tablespoon or two of water, or an egg will often do the trick, but if you want to be a little more adventurous, you can try moistened breadcrumbs, ketchup, barbeque sauce, salsa, hot sauce, or even soy sauce.

Combine the meat with your hands, but don’t handle too much. If you crumble the meat too much, it won’t stick together.

Quick and Easy Ground Beef Recipes

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be hard. The following recipes are quick, easy, healthy, and are great if you like to meal prep.

For each of the recipes below, we used lean beef, but let your taste buds be your guide!

Ground Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry

This recipe is really easy to transfer into Tupperware containers and take for lunch. It cooks plenty, so you can feed a lot of people with this recipe.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp grated ginger
  • 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp Sriracha
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 12 oz broccoli florets, chopped
  • 2 green onions, sliced
  • 1/2 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/2 cup red bell peppers
  • 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds

Directions

  1. In a large saucepan, cook rice according to package instructions. Set rice aside.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, vinegar, sesame oil, and Sriracha
  3. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook until browned. Drain excess fat.
  4. Stir in broccoli, green onions, carrots, peppers, mushrooms, rice, and soy sauce mixture until combined. Allow simmering until broccoli is tender.

Meatballs

These meatballs are easy and super delicious. The most difficult part is deciding what to eat with them!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
  • 2 oz. Parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup parsley leaves, chopped
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2 lb. lean ground beef
  • 1/2 lb. Italian sausage
  • Canola oil
  • 1 medium sweet onion, finely diced

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
  2. Combine panko, Parmesan, parsley, milk, egg, and garlic cloves in a bowl; let stand 10 minutes.
  3. Add beef, sausage, and onion to bowl. Gently combine using your hands. Shape into 36 (1- to 1 1/2-inch) balls.
  4. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly grease with canola oil. Place meatballs on a baking sheet and bake until browned, 15 minutes. Drain well.
  5. Mix with your favorite spaghetti sauce and serve over noodles, or eat with veggies.

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers seem fancy and advanced, but this recipe makes it really easy to impress anyone—even your kids.

Ingredients

  • 1 can crushed tomatoes
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup scallions, sliced
  • 1 tbsp. tomato paste
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (if desired)
  • 1 tbsp. granulated sugar
  • 4 large red, yellow, or orange bell peppers
  • 3/4 lb. lean ground beef, browned
  • 3/4 c. instant brown rice, cooked
  • 2 tbsp. crumbled feta cheese

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Cook rice according to package directions.
  3. In a bowl, stir together tomatoes, garlic, tomato paste, oregano, sugar, 1/4 cup of the scallions, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
  4. Slice tops off the peppers, just below the stems. Roughly chop the tops and add them to the bowl along with the beef, rice, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix well.
  5. Remove ribs and seeds from peppers.
  6. Season inside of peppers with salt and pepper, and then stuff with beef mixture.
  7. Pour a small amount of water in the bottom of baking dish and set peppers in it. (If they don’t stand, slice a thin piece from the base of each pepper.) Drizzle them with olive oil, and cover with tin foil.
  8. Bake for 30 minutes, then uncover peppers and bake until they’re soft.
  9. Transfer the peppers to plates. Sprinkle with feta and remaining scallions.

Taco Salad

Low-carb, healthy, and freaking delicious, this taco salad recipe checks all the boxes!

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 packet taco seasoning
  • Romaine lettuce, or another salad mix
  • 1-2 medium tomatoes, chopped 
  • 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
  • 1 can kidney beans
  • 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
  • 1 avocado, chopped
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

  1. Brown beef and drain any excess fat.
  2. Add taco seasoning and follow directions on packet.
  3. If lettuce is not already chopped, chop lettuce or other greens mix. Drain kidney beans.
  4. Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl. Top with tortilla strips, chips, or any other crunch you like!

Easy Beef Chili

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, shredded
  • 4 cans stewed tomatoes
  • 1 can tomato sauce
  • 2-4 tbsp chili powder (you choose the spice level)
  • 2 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 can red kidney beans with liquid
  • 1 can black beans, drained
  • 1 can white kidney beans, drained
  • 1 avocado, chopped
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 cup sour cream

Directions

  1. Combine ground beef, onions, and garlic in a large pot. Cook until beef is browned and drain any excess.
  2. Add celery and carrot, cook until tender.
  3. Stir in stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, Italian seasoning, and salt.
  4. Bring liquid to a boil, reduce heat, and stir occasionally for about an hour.
  5. Stir in beans and simmer for another 20 minutes.
  6. Top with chopped avocado, shredded cheddar cheese, and sour cream.

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9 Tips To Avoid Thanksgiving Weight Gain https://www.onnit.com/academy/9-tips-to-avoid-thanksgiving-weight-gain/ Wed, 20 Nov 2019 16:13:52 +0000 https://www.onnit.com/academy/?p=19086 The average American consumes between 3,000 to 5,000 calories during the Thanksgiving meal. Eating almost always takes the place of good health during the holidays, but Thanksgiving does not have to sabotage your health or weight. It …

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The average American consumes between 3,000 to 5,000 calories during the Thanksgiving meal. Eating almost always takes the place of good health during the holidays, but Thanksgiving does not have to sabotage your health or weight.

It seems like gaining weight during the holiday season is a national pastime. Year after year, most of us pack on at least a pound (some gain more) during the holidays – and keep the extra weight permanently.

Check out these tips for a fit and healthy holiday – without sacrificing flavor or fun. Enjoy the holiday feast without the guilt – or the weight gain. After all, being stuffed is a good idea only if you are a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey!

Workout Before and After the Feast

Create a calorie deficit by exercising to burn off extra calories before you dive into your favorite foods. Take a walk or do a quick kettlebell workout early in the day and then again after dinner. It’s a wonderful way for your family to get physical activity and enjoy the holiday together.

You could also plan some outdoor fun before dinner, like the traditional game of football with the kids. Instead of feeling bloated and lethargic and lonely, try doing a workout the next morning.

Eat Breakfast Before the Big One

While fasting until the big meal might make sense to save up calories, experts say eating a small meal in the morning can give you more control over your appetite. Start your day with a small breakfast – such as an egg with a half of a sweet potato.

Ditch the Empty Calories

Ditch the Empty Calories
Whether you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner or bringing a few dishes to share, make your recipes healthier with less sugar and calories.

There are plenty of ways to make Thanksgiving far healthier. For mashed potatoes,  try mixing in chicken broth, coconut oil, herbs or roasted garlic to perk up the flavor instead of adding in butter or heavy cream.

For green bean casserole, swap out fried onions with toasted almonds for a less-oily alternative, and instead of having cranberry sauce, make a cranberry salad instead.

For dips, use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. The consistency is similar, but yogurt has more protein.

Be an Adult and Practice Self-Restraint

Thanksgiving tables are beautiful displays of traditional family favorites which are always abundant. Before you fill your plate and start gorging, survey the buffet table and decide what you’re going to choose.

Try to select reasonable-sized portions of foods you cannot live without.

Don’t waste your calories on foods that you can have all year long. Fill your plate with small portions of holiday favorites that only come around once a year so you can enjoy desirable, traditional foods.

If you fill up on those lower caloric density and higher nutrition foods, you’re going to feel full, but not bloated and tired.  It’s a holiday, so indulge a bit if your diet allows it.

But if you’re going to eat dessert, make sure you allot for the calories elsewhere. Don’t go back for that second helping of marshmallow sweet potatoes, and instead spoon some cranberry salad on your plate.

Slow Down and Skip the Seconds

9 Tips To Avoid Thanksgiving Weight Gain

Try to resist the temptation to go back for second helpings. Leftovers are much better the next day, and if you limit yourself to one plate, you are less likely to overeat and have more room for a delectable dessert.

Try going for white turkey meat, vegetables, roasted sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Those tend tend to be the best bets because they are lower in calories. But if you keep your portions small, you can enjoy whatever you like.

Instead of seeing how much you can eat, serve yourself a small, golf-ball-size serving of everything you want – no restrictions – but have only enough to satisfy your stomach without overdoing it.

Savor Every Bite of Turkey Goodness

Eating slowly, putting your fork down between bites, and tasting each mouthful is one of the easiest ways to enjoy your holiday meal without going overboard on calories.

Go Easy on the Booze, You Lush

Don’t forget those alcohol calories that can add up quickly. Have a glass of wine or a wine spritzer and between alcoholic drinks, (or) enjoy sparkling water. This way you stay hydrated, limit alcohol calories, and stay sober.

Be Realistic

The holiday season is a time for celebration. With busy schedules and so many extra temptations, this is a good time to strive for weight maintenance instead of weight loss.

Shift from a mindset of weight loss to weight maintenance. You will be ahead of the game if you can avoid gaining any weight over the holidays.

Focus on the People Not the Food

Thanksgiving is not just about gorging on delicious bounty of food. It’s a time to celebrate relationships with family and friends.

Rather than obsess over the food at Thanksgiving, focus your attention on the entire celebration, including the once-a-year sights, sounds, and people at the event.

Instead of sampling each and every appetizer before dinner, walk around and catch up with family and friends.

9 Tips To Avoid Thanksgiving Weight Gain

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Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior https://www.onnit.com/academy/qa-with-chris-bell-the-carnivore-diet-kratom-and-the-ultimate-warrior/ https://www.onnit.com/academy/qa-with-chris-bell-the-carnivore-diet-kratom-and-the-ultimate-warrior/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2018 17:56:57 +0000 https://www.onnit.com/academy/?p=23511 If you like movies, and working out—and movies about working out—then Chris Bell is your Werner Herzog, Ken Burns, and Michael Moore all wrapped into one. A lifelong gym rat (and brother of “Meathead Millionaire” …

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Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

If you like movies, and working out—and movies about working out—then Chris Bell is your Werner Herzog, Ken Burns, and Michael Moore all wrapped into one. A lifelong gym rat (and brother of “Meathead Millionaire” Mark Bell), Bell is one of the most popular and controversial documentary filmmakers of our time—and one of very few tackling subjects that are near and dear to the hearts of fit people.

Bell has an everyman appeal that derives from his fearlessness in including his personal struggles in the stories he tells, whether it be his family’s flirtation with anabolic steroids in 2008’s Bigger, Stronger, Faster, or his own battle against opioid addiction in 2015’s Prescription Thugs, and the newly released A Leaf Of Faith (available now on iTunes and Netflix).

Bell recently visited Onnit HQ to talk about his results on the carnivore diet (he showed us his blood work!), upcoming movies he’s making, and how the WWE’s Ultimate Warrior turned his life around.

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

Onnit: You’ve been following the carnivore diet for months and documenting your experience on social media. How did you discover it?

Chris Bell: I started with the carnivore diet in 1994. I was 19 years old and weighed 245 pounds, and I wanted to be a powerlifter. I was strong—I could squat 500 for sets of 8—but I had no idea how to eat right. I was in Gold’s Gym one day and this older, very experienced lifter told me I was too fat. So he said, “Just eat red meat and water. Do that for two weeks.” I did, and my body did awesome on it. I lost over 20 pounds.

I ended up competing at a lighter weight class and lifting more weight than I had ever done before. I continued on the diet for almost two years. But then, for whatever reason, you just abandon things. I started eating bad foods again. I think it was chicks. Girls wanted to go out for drinks and I worked at a bar so it was hard to stay carnivore. I ended up letting life get in the way and eventually got fat again. And it makes no sense, because if I had stayed on carnivore and stayed lean, I might have had a million girls [laughs].

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

Chicks… The downfall of many a diet.

Yeah. I didn’t know what I was doing with carnivore at first, and I think that was the beauty of it. It’s funny because, I think if that lifter had said, “I want you to do a keto diet,” it would have been too complicated for me. But red meat and water was something I could handle. I think if more people knew less nowadays, they would do better. Everybody’s got Google now. They start asking, “What can I have on the carnivore diet?” and exploiting every loophole, when they should stick to the main idea. What can you have? Red meat. That’s fucking it. I ate when I was hungry, ate as much as I wanted to, and I stayed in awesome shape.

One reason the carnivore diet works so well is there’s no interference from antinutrients—compounds that stop you from digesting things and using them in your body. I don’t think we should disregard plants entirely, but my attitude lately is that animals are food, and plants are medicine.

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

Let’s talk about that next. What brought you back to the carnivore diet this past year?

My brother Mark [Bell] and I started making the movie The War On Carbs, which should be out next year. A lot of people don’t like that title, but from my experience, you have to be inflammatory to get a response. Anyway, we started doing a lot of research on nutrition, and I was following a ketogenic diet. I got good results, but I was pricking my fingers constantly, nervous that I wasn’t in ketosis. I rediscovered the carnivore diet in January and I weighed 200 pounds. Now I weigh 185. I was 20-something percent body fat, and now I’m down to 16%.

No more pricking my fingers. Now if I wake up in the middle of the night and I’m hungry, I’ll just eat three burgers. People say, “You shouldn’t eat before bed…” Dude, I do everything people say you shouldn’t do. I don’t even follow the carnivore diet to the letter. I eat apples sometimes because I crave them. I think that’s your body telling you that you need something, and it makes carnivore more sustainable for me. Ultimately, the only diet that will work for you is one you can follow. So I’d say I’m 90% carnivore. But it’s hard to teach people to listen to their bodies and have balance. It’s easier to give them one direction, like just eat red meat, so if that’s what somebody needs to hear to get started, that’s fine.

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

Have you had blood work done since going on the carnivore diet?

Yeah, it’s awesome. The only thing that’s a little bit off is my liver enzymes, which are a bit high, but my doctor said that was no big deal. My HDL cholesterol is 87 and my triglycerides are 85. That’s pretty close to a 1:1 ratio, which is good, meaning there’s no indication of insulin resistance. But most important of all, I feel good.

See Bell’s latest blood lab results here

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

So tell us about A Leaf of Faith, your new documentary on the supplement kratom.

I have arthritis and three fake hips—I had one done twice. It seems like I’ve always been in pain. For years, doing anything would wear me down. I could never sleep well. And when you don’t feel good, you don’t want to exercise or follow a diet. I got into drinking and abusing prescription pain meds to deal with it.

After I did [the documentary Prescription Thugs], people told me the one thing they didn’t like about the movie was that there was no answer at the end. I heard a lot of, “That’s great for you, Chris. You were hooked on opioids, went to rehab, and got better. But what about all the other people who need help? How are you going to help them?” And I had no idea.

So this movie is about what an alternative did for me and how it can help.

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

How does a typical day for you look?

I get up at four a.m. and do fasted cardio for an hour at Gold’s Gym in Venice. Half the days of the week I do steady-state cardio and the other half I do HIIT [high-intensity interval training], like pushing a sled, or using battle ropes. I like the step mill for steady state. If you go an hour on that you burn a ton of calories. If I walk on a treadmill on an incline for an hour, not a drop of sweat comes off me, but three minutes on that step mill and I’m drenched.

After cardio, I go back home, shower, and eat. Then I go back to the gym. I do a lot of deadlifting with the trap bar these days, and squats with the safety squat bar. They’re easier on my lower back and shoulders. I do things easier now in general. I’m 45 years old and I’m not going to win Mr. Olympia. I’m not going to the NBA. So what are the things that are important to me? Getting in shape and helping others get in shape.

After the workout, I work on my films for the rest of the day.

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

Do you have any tips for aspiring filmmakers?

Just do things. Getting a film made is always about the money, and it’s real easy to back away from doing something you want to do because you don’t have the money. I say, don’t worry about getting the money because you’re probably never going to [laughs]. Think instead about how you’re going to make your project as cheap, easy, and simple as possible. You don’t have to have a lot of money to make something really cool.

The way I started making movies was at my house, making up skits with my brother Mark with a VHS camcorder. My first real project was a music video for some rappers who lived down the street from me. So don’t wait around for anyone to give you the go ahead, or the money. The best filmmakers make decisions quickly. I’ve become friends with [actor/director] Peter Berg, who I made Trophy Kids with. If you ask him, “Pete, which hat should the guy wear in this scene?,” he’ll say “the blue hat.” If you ask why, he’ll say, “because that’s what I fuckin’ want.” OK then.

The more you can decide and get going, the quicker you get things done. The biggest enemy of the filmmaker is procrastination. Don’t wait around—go.

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

You’ve been a lifelong fan of pro wrestling/sports entertainment, and its influence shows up in many of your films. For you, who’s the greatest wrestler of all time?

Overall, I’d go with Stone Cold Steve Austin. He’s actually a good friend of mine now. But during the Attitude Era, he was the ultimate bad ass. I was in my 30s, and when I would go to arenas to see him and I heard the sound of glass breaking in his theme song as he came to the ring, I would jump up out of my seat. I don’t get that excited about anything. But when his music hit, I would jump. I’m a grown man, but I still turn into a little kid when I hear it. His in-ring ability, his ability on the mike, and the fact that he changed wrestling forever make him an icon. I also think he made The Rock. If you didn’t have Stone Cold, you never would have had Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson the way you do today. Their rivalry was huge.

Also, one of the documentaries I’m working on is about the Ultimate Warrior. He really changed my life, so for personal reasons, he’s one of my all-time favorites. He had these videos on YouTube called “Injections of Inspiration,” and they got me sober. I was doing drugs and drinking because I was in pain. I’d sit there and feel sorry for myself, and then I found this video where Warrior was saying, “You’re lost, you’re confused, you don’t know where to go…” And I said, “Yeah! I am lost, confused, and I don’t know where to go.”

Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior

Is that the one where he talks about how “pasty-faced” exercise scientists “couldn’t groom the groin hairs on a warrior?” We got a kick out of that one too.

Yes! He said, “I want you to walk all fucking night until you find yourself.” I literally started crying, and I said, “I’m gone.” I was out the door and I walked for three hours that night, asking myself, “Who the fuck am I? Why am I doing this to myself?” And three weeks later I was in rehab. It was just a YouTube video, but I get emotional talking about it. It goes to show that the media can change minds all the time.

The best thing you can do is put something out into the world and have people come back to you and say that you’ve changed their life. And for me, thanks to the movies I’ve done, they just keep coming. Every day. “Thank you, kratom changed my life.” “When I watched Prescription Thugs, I realized my mom was killing herself, so I got her off of drugs.” “When I watched Bigger, Stronger, Faster, I realized that I didn’t want to take steroids to be somebody.” And then another guy says, “Guess what, I DID take steroids, and my life got better as a result!” [laughs]. So it doesn’t matter how people are interpreting my movies, really, as long as they’re making a positive difference.

See A Leaf of Faith, available now on Netflix, and follow Bell on Instagram, @bigstrongfast

The post Q&A With Chris Bell: The Carnivore Diet, Kratom, and the Ultimate Warrior appeared first on Onnit Academy.

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