None of the Wikipedia claims are based on reproducible science, at best the justification is weak epidemiology with weak hazard rations and not controlling for carbohydrate consumption.
There is no nutrient deficiencies on a carnivore eating pattern, with zero carbohydrates, the nutrition from fatty red meat is complete
Agreed. And I’m going to expand on your comment a bit.
A lot of people like to argue that you’re not getting enough vitamin C on a carnivore diet, but that’s not true. There’s some details that most people aren’t aware of.
Glucose and vitamin C have very similar molecular structures. So similar that most mammals are capable of synthesizing any vitamin C they need from glucose, which can in turn be synthesized from protein. A side effect from this similarity is that vitamin C and glucose are absorbed via the same pathways, so a diet that’s high in glucose will result in less vitamin C absorption due to crowding out those pathways.
Because of this, if you’re not consuming a lot of glucose, you don’t need to consume as much vitamin C because you’ll absorb a higher percent of it. Not only that, on a carnivore diet you’re avoiding some compounds like oxalic acid, which significantly reduces absorption of several vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, etc. Oxalic acid is found in most leafy green vegetables.
Also, there’s small amounts of vitamin C (alongside every other necessary vitamin/mineral) in meat, particularly beef. Not a lot, but if you’re more efficient at absorbing it it ends up being enough.
Granted, I don’t personally recommend the carnivore diet because 1: it’s boring, 2: it’s expensive, and 3: you need to do more research than what I’ve stated here to avoid problems. But regardless, it is doable.
But if you want most of the upsides without as much hassle, I’d recommend just going keto. You get 90% of the benefits, you get more variety in your food, and you can even make it vegetarian or vegan if you want.
Great write-up, thank you for taking the time, I liked reading it
the carnivore diet because 1: it’s boring, 2: it’s expensive, and 3: you need to do more research than what I’ve stated here to avoid problems. But regardless, it is doable.
As somebody doing carnivore, I don’t think it’s boring.
When you remove all of the plants from your grocery shopping, I don’t even think it’s more expensive. It’s about the same price. You’re not buying all that other stuff.
As far as research goes, I would agree for getting started, it’s a really good idea to follow somebody’s program, especially around electrolytes for adaptation. But if you are eating red meat and no sugar, and electrolytes, I don’t think there’s any negative problems you need to avoid
None of the Wikipedia claims are based on reproducible science, at best the justification is weak epidemiology with weak hazard rations and not controlling for carbohydrate consumption.
There is no nutrient deficiencies on a carnivore eating pattern, with zero carbohydrates, the nutrition from fatty red meat is complete
Agreed. And I’m going to expand on your comment a bit.
A lot of people like to argue that you’re not getting enough vitamin C on a carnivore diet, but that’s not true. There’s some details that most people aren’t aware of.
Glucose and vitamin C have very similar molecular structures. So similar that most mammals are capable of synthesizing any vitamin C they need from glucose, which can in turn be synthesized from protein. A side effect from this similarity is that vitamin C and glucose are absorbed via the same pathways, so a diet that’s high in glucose will result in less vitamin C absorption due to crowding out those pathways.
Because of this, if you’re not consuming a lot of glucose, you don’t need to consume as much vitamin C because you’ll absorb a higher percent of it. Not only that, on a carnivore diet you’re avoiding some compounds like oxalic acid, which significantly reduces absorption of several vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, etc. Oxalic acid is found in most leafy green vegetables.
Also, there’s small amounts of vitamin C (alongside every other necessary vitamin/mineral) in meat, particularly beef. Not a lot, but if you’re more efficient at absorbing it it ends up being enough.
Granted, I don’t personally recommend the carnivore diet because 1: it’s boring, 2: it’s expensive, and 3: you need to do more research than what I’ve stated here to avoid problems. But regardless, it is doable.
But if you want most of the upsides without as much hassle, I’d recommend just going keto. You get 90% of the benefits, you get more variety in your food, and you can even make it vegetarian or vegan if you want.
Great write-up, thank you for taking the time, I liked reading it
As somebody doing carnivore, I don’t think it’s boring.
When you remove all of the plants from your grocery shopping, I don’t even think it’s more expensive. It’s about the same price. You’re not buying all that other stuff.
As far as research goes, I would agree for getting started, it’s a really good idea to follow somebody’s program, especially around electrolytes for adaptation. But if you are eating red meat and no sugar, and electrolytes, I don’t think there’s any negative problems you need to avoid