“Hey, Doc, I heard thecarnivore dietis good for your gut.
Should I do it?”
Diet is at the foundation of how I treat my patients to foster digestive health.
Let’s take a trip inside my mindhere’s the lowdown on the carnivore diet and your gut.
First, what is the carnivore diet?
You’ll also find butter, heavy whipping cream, and some hard cheeses in the mix.
But no legumes, vegetables or grains on this diet.
What’s the 411 on gut health?
Excuse me while I geek out.
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I truly believe that all health starts in the gut.
It’s not just about digestion.
When people takeproper care of their guts, their health tends to follow.
Disease gets reversedor, better yet, preventedand the body functions the way nature intended.
You feel energized and strong, and you’re basically living your best life.
So if this is true, then it’s important to know what determines a healthy gut.
Thankfully, there’s an answer from Rob Knight, M.D., andThe American Gut Project.
This groundbreaking 2018 study involved more than 15,000 microbiome samples from more than 11,000 human participants across 45 countries.
This was more important than age, gender, nation of origin, and even recent antibiotic exposure.
Plants and your microbiome.
Makes sense, right?
They strengthen the good gut microbes and weaken the inflammatory bad ones.
In short, they are powerful!
But there’s only one way to get SCFAs, and that’s throughprebiotic fiber.
And there is only one place you’ve got the option to get fiber fromplants!
Yes, plants have cornered the market on fiber and SCFAs.
This is why I stress the importance of fiber for SCFAs.
There is no evidence that butter or a supplement is able to adequately recreate these benefits.
OK, so what about the carnivore diet?
By now, you might be wondering where I’m going with all of this.
If you’ve been paying attention, then you know there’s a problem here.
In this regard, the carnivore diet is one-size-fits-all, and it’s not a size you want.
You literally could not have less plant-based diversity than the carnivore diet.
Plant diversity = ZERO.
It’s an essential nutrient for a healthy gut.
But again, we have a problem.
Plants have a monopoly on fiber.
It doesn’t exist in meat, eggs, or dairythe constituent parts of a carnivore diet.
In other words, you could not have lessfiberin your diet than you will have on the carnivore diet.
Why the carnivore diet is bad for your gut.
None of that equates to a healthier gut.
Which brings us right back to the original question (see what I did there?
): “I heard the carnivore diet is good for your gut.
Do you recommend it?”
It would seem the answer is pretty clear.
But in case you need me to spell it out, that’s a hard “no.”
