Nutritionally Perfect Carnivorous Diet

Average Daily Amounts:
15oz lamb/beef, ~17% fat
+ 3tbsp tallow (or 465g 24% fat beef/lamb)
3oz mackerel (or 4oz salmon)
55g lean pork
3 large eggs (save the shells for broth)
2oz chicken liver
2oz pork kidney
15g pork liver
1/7 of home-made broth (link at bottom of post)

6g potassium chloride salt
7g sea salt
1 litre water


Technically plant foods:
2tsp tea

Supplements:
300mg magnesium citrate


Nutrition:
2021 calories, 162g protein (34% of calories), 3g carbohydrates (1%), 144g fat (65%).


Vitamins & Minerals:
>15x RDA: B12!!
>4x RDA: Vitamin A, B2, selenium.
>3x RDA: B3/niacin, vitamin D, calcium.
>2x RDA: B5, B6, copper, phosphorus, zinc.
>1x RDA: Fotate, B1, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium.
Below RDA: Vitamin C 41.3mg 55%, vitamin E 4.5mg 30%, vitamin K1 23.2ug 26%.


Vitamin C: Very little is needed on a carnivore diet, just don't overcooked your meat.
Vitamin E: Little is needed as you're not eating putrid vegetable oils, grass-fed meat has plenty.
Vitamin K1: Only found in plants, but K2 which isn't measured, found in grass-fed meat and liver does everything K1 does as well as helping bones.


Ratios, etc.:
Calcium:Phosphorus = 1.95 (ideal ~2)
Zinc:Copper = 10.9 (ideal >10)
Potassium:Sodium = 2.4 (ideal >2)
Omega-6:omega-3 = 1.6 (ideal <2)
Saturated:Mono-unsaturated = 1.1 (ideal ~1)
Poly-unsaturated = 4% of calories (ideal ≤4%)

Link to weekly shopping list and how to make broth.

How To Do A Zero-Carb (Carnivorous) Diet Correctly, Part 2: An Example Menu And Why Steak & Water Is Not Enough

I have created an example menu following the principles laid out in the previous post to show that the nutrition is sound as compared to the ‘steak and water’ diet of which zero-carbers seem to be becoming more and more fond. We’ll use the standard 150lb person for comparison.

Menu 1:

16oz beef, 18% fat

2 eggs

1.5oz chicken liver

1.5oz pork liver

1/2oz beef liver

3tbsp gelatine (or equivalent)

1/4cup broth (~400mg calcium)

1 eggshell (~1g calcium)

Supplements: 3/4tsp potassium chloride, 1tsp normal salt, 1/2tsp magnesium chloride, 1 drop Lugol’s solution.

Menu 2:

21oz beef, 18% fat

	Menu 1	Menu 2
Calories	1425	1421
Protein	130	106	g
Protein	39	32	%
Fat	96	107	g
Fat	61	68	%
Carbs	1.7	0	g
Protein:
Grams/lb   (>0.7g/lb)	0.87	0.71	g/lb
Threonine	4.8	4.1	g
Threonine (>15mg/kg)	70	60	mg
Gelatine equiv	25	17.2	g
(glycine/proline/serine)	11.1/8.2/5.7	7.4/5.5/4.3
Cysteine	1.5	1.1	g
Vitamins & Minerals:
Folate	398	39	mg
Retinol	2307	0	ug
Selenium	222	91	ug
Calcium	1559	100	mg
Magnesium	434	104	mg
Potassium	4783	1669	mg
Sodium	2354	397	mg
Choline	732	348	mg
(Iodine not compared as it’s not measured in CRONometer)

As you can see eating just muscle meat to the same calories is very poor nutritionally compared to eating ‘whole animal’ style, ie including livers, kidney, gelatine, broth, and supplemental minerals.

Unless one is drinking mineral rich water, they may develop several mineral deficiencies; even so, they will lack folate (which increases the risk of birth defects), retinol (risking eyesight), and selenium (risking poor thyroid).

Advising some-one that they can live on nothing but ‘steak and water’ is dangerous at best. Just as an omnivorous diet includes plants for balanced nutrition, so too a carnivorous diet should include more than just muscle meat.

Carnivorous animals, like lions and wolves consume all the organs bar the digestive system, eat the skin, and gnaw on the bones. Humans do not produce enough stomach acid to be able to digest bones directly, and so broth should be used instead for optimum nutrition.

A side note on calories:

You may notice the menus are only ~1400 calories; this should be a minimum, such as for someone trying to lose weight or a small female. Protein should not be increased too high (1g/lb ideal weight maximum): extra calories should come from fat, use a higher percentage of fat in your meat or add fats such as tallow, butter/ghee, or coconut oil. Coconut oil is very good for use during exercising as it provides fast energy.

Mostly Meat: A Manifesto

One thing that really annoys me in the diet world (diet, not nutrition) is all the false dilemmas: there’s a lot of black and white thinking. Vegans are particularly good at this, to them a ‘plant-based’ diet can only mean vegan and they group all diets including animal products in the same group whether it’s the standard American diet ‘SAD’, Atkins or someone who only eats fish once a month. The other end of the spectrum, the ‘zero-carb’ers group all others, even very-low-carb diets, under one banner of ‘those carbs will kill you sooner or later’ .

In this day and age this is more unacceptable than ever. The world is not black and white, those who aren’t with you are not going to stab you in the back. If someone has a different opinion, that’s fine! Even if you can’t even start to get your head around their point of view: if you deny others the right to have an opinion then you are selfish, as the only opinion allowed is yours.

We should be focusing on the similarities, not the differences. We all want to better ourselves and the world and we will get nowhere if we all keep fighting over the pettiest things. Yes caging animals in tiny cages and feeding them farming by-products is bad, but that doesn’t mean we need to all stop eating them, instead letting them graze freely on their natural diet before quietly being let off and gently put to sleep in a calm and peaceful atmosphere.

Yes, it may be better if people didn’t kill animals, but you will NEVER get the whole world to change, and even then lions in Africa are going to still hunt and eat the antelope. Do they need a moral lesson too?! The simple fact is that humans have been killing and eating other animals for a minimum of two million years. We’ve now found that chimpanzees, those noble peaceful leaf-eaters vegans try to emulate, kill and eat other animals. They even eat monkeys and other chimpanzees!

If you define yourself on an absolute then anything you do, no matter how small, outside that ‘purity’ is ‘evil’ or ‘wrong’, you have FAILED AS A HUMAN BEING! If you declare yourself vegan or zero-carb to the world, one bite of the wrong food and everyone around jeers, suddenly you’re on the other side of the fence, an outcast from your former comrades. This isn’t how it should be: a ‘planet-based’ diet should be allowed to include animal products in small amounts. Similarly just because you eat meat doesn’t mean you’re a complete carnivore.

That is why I named this blog ‘Most meat...’, because I’m not a carnivore, I’m an omnivore and I will never give up eating plants completely. This doesn’t make me a failure for living up to some absolutist standard. I am what I am and mostly meat is what I eat.

How to do a zero-carb (carnivorous) diet correctly

1.     Eat enough protein for making glucose (gluconeogenesis).

·         At least 0.7g/lb ideal weight (105g+ for 150lb).

2.    Glutathione is the body’s natural anti-oxidant, and is made from protein, especially gelatine.

·         So consuming plenty of gelatine-rich broth is very important, made with skin, feet, cartilage and powdered gelatine.

·         Raw whey (from raw milk, not the powdered stuff), also boosts glutathione production.

·         N-acetyl-cysteine, melatonin and milk thistle are supplements that can help too.

3.    Without fibre, you need to ensure the gut has everything it needs to make mucin naturally. Several amino acids do this better than others: serine (can be made from glycine), threonine, proline and cysteine.

·         Threonine is an essential amino acid; good sources include eggs, fish, cottage cheese and animal foods in general. Adults need a minimum of 15mg threonine per kg (~1g per 70kg).

·         Glycine (to make serine) and proline are most concentrated in gelatine (see previous point).

·         Cysteine is plentiful in animal proteins; it’s difficult not to get enough.

4.    Folate is named for its abundance in leaves, which are not eaten on a zero-carb or carnivorous diet.

·         The best animal source is chicken liver; 50g gives ~300mg of folate. Livers from pastured chickens are even better than caged chicken livers.

5.    Your vitamin A (retinol) requirements increase as you eat more protein.

·         Beef and lamb liver are the best sources and also contain a lot of other vitamins and minerals you need.

·         Pork liver is very poor in nutrients compared to beef/lamb.

6.    Iodine is needed to make thyroid hormones and keep your metabolism strong.

·           Sea vegetables and animal thyroid glands are the best natural sources of iodine; though thyroid glands are hard to get a hold of and sea vegetables are not an animal food. For this reason, supplementation with Lugol’s solution is recommended.

7.    Selenium is needed to activate the thyroid hormones.

·           Pork kidneys are the best source of selenium, followed by beef and liver kidneys.

·           Brazil nuts are a very concentrated source of selenium, only one or two a day gives you all the selenium you need, if you are not opposed to consuming some plant matter. [Do not eat more than two a day or you may get toxicity]

·           Other sources include lamb and duck livers, oysters and egg yolks.

8.    Always ensure you get enough electrolytes in the proper ratios.

·           Calcium and magnesium should be equal. Calcium is found in bones (like in small fish and from broth) and eggshells (added to broth). Magnesium is difficult to get from animal foods so supplementing with citrate or chloride helps, 400-600mg is best.

·           Sodium is easy to get from salt, but you need twice as much potassium, which is hard to get in animal foods. ‘Losalt’ or potassium chloride salts are a good source (double-check the ingredients as some brands add cyanide to their salt).

9.    Choline is needed to get fat out of the liver and so is very important.

·         Egg yolks are the richest source, two yolks a day provides plenty.

10.  Vitamin D₃ is made from the sun, but during the winter, your reserves can run low.

·         Oily fish, such as sardines, salmon and mackerel are rich in vitamin D₃.

·         Supplementing in addition to your diet is usually needed to maintain year-round healthy levels. A good start is 1,000IU per 25kg (6,000IU/150lbs).

·         Check your blood ‘25(OH)D₃’ levels at least twice a year (in summer and winter) to make sure you’re not deficient or over-supplementing.

11.  Although technically plants, you can really benefit from the addition of anti-oxidant rich herbs and spices, and the amounts needed are tiny.

·         Oregano, cloves, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, turmeric, vanilla, parsley and nutmeg are at the top of the ORAC list (i.e. the richest in anti-oxidants).

·         Garlic is a great addition, as it’s anti-viral, kills parasites and many other nasty things that are better off dead.

In summary:

1.     Ensure you eat enough protein from fatty meat.

2.    Drink plenty of broth made from gelatine (skin/feet/cartilage/powdered gelatine) and rich in minerals (bones/eggshells).

3.    Eat chicken liver for folate, kidneys for selenium, and beef/lamb liver for retinol & other nutrients. [1.5oz, 1.5oz, and 1/2oz a day respectively are a good amount]

4.    Eat two eggs a day, or just the yolks.

5.    Add potassium, magnesium and iodine to your drinking and cooking water.

6.    Use sodium salt to taste along with herbs & spices.

7.    Sunbathe regularly and supplement D₃ in winter.