In recent years, there have been large quantities of anecdotal experiences that have highlighted the positive impact that following a meat focused carnivore diet may have in terms of natural healing and optimizing human health. Although the question of whether or not the carnivore diet is in fact a plausible long term solution isn’t completely certain, it has undoubtedly earned the right to be taken seriously in talks of human diet optimization.

So, can the carnivore diet help heal psoriasis? There is no denying the high quantity of anecdotal evidence suggesting that following a carnivore style diet can be an effective healing tool for people struggling with psoriasis and many other autoimmune diseases. This is a sort of elimination diet that breaks your nutritional intake down to its most fundamental form. Human beings have been surviving, evolving, and reproducing on animal based diets for millions of years. This is a diet that is reflected deep into our ancestry and it can serve as a tremendous tool that people can use to improve their health. With that said, there are some possible negatives that need to be considered and one must also seek to understand how to formulate a well-rounded carnivore approach.  

Why the carnivore diet is working for people

One of the big reasons why the carnivore diet is helping people who are suffering from psoriasis and other autoimmune conditions is the same reason that following any restrictive diet may be beneficial to such a person. By taking a restrictive approach and eliminating a wide variety of foods from your diet, you are 1. cutting out many of the foods that could potentially be initiating your symptoms and 2. simplifying the work that your digestive system must perform.

The carnivore diet takes this restrictive outlook to the next level and serves as a sort of ultimate elimination diet for many people. But why eliminate everything besides meat and animal foods? The truth is, human beings have been surviving, evolving, and reproducing on animal based diets for millions of years. Although the sustainability of a full on carnivore diet is not completely clear, it is safe to say that animal foods are a fundamental component of the human diet.

By making animal food consumption them focal point of your diet, you are in turn building your diet around the most nutritionally bioavailable human food source and avoiding any complications that other foods may cause in terms of your digestion. Although you can certainly find large groups of angry vegans to argue this point, animal meats and organs can be said to be the most crucial component of the human diet according to our ancestral biology, which makes them the perfect focal point for any sort of elimination diet approach. 

Possible negatives 

When speaking of a relatively extreme dietary approach, it is important that we ask the question of whether or not such a diet is capable of fulfilling all of our nutritional needs. One thing I learned from my past experience following a plant based diet (the reason why I transitioned to a fat based diet) was that there was certain nutritional needs that plant foods alone could not fulfill. I needed meat in order to optimize my health and allow my body to thrive. Naturally, I have begun to question if there are certain nutrients that you cannot get in sufficient amounts without the inclusion of plant foods.

A couple of the common concerns people have about the carnivore diet are the possibility of micronutrient deficiencies and the lack of fiber. Although vitamins such as A, C, E can be elusive to someone who is following an all meat diet, the truth is, you can find a source of all of these vitamins within the animal kingdom. The key to making the carnivore diet work in terms of complete nourishment is to eat “nose to tail” and include other parts of the animal besides the muscle meat. Although things like liver, heart, brain, and bone marrow are not exactly at the forefront of the typical western diet, these extremely nutrient dense foods are great sources of some of the nutrients that may not be included in a diet that relies solely on muscle meat. 

The argument that carnivores will make in response to the lack of fiber in such a diet is that we really don’t even need to be consuming fiber. One thing to understand is when transitioning into a restrictive diet such as carnivore is that your microbiome is going to undergo some drastic changes and you may find that body adapts to the approach in a way that sort of redefines its apparent needs. 

Many of those who follow a carnivore style diet for an extended period of time report anecdotal digestion improvements related to the elimination of plant fiber. But is it true? Is fiber really not essential? Honestly, this is something I believe people need to research and determine for themselves. Although I will not claim to have any scientific proof of why we need fiber, I personally do still include plant fiber in my diet. I will touch some more on my personal experience with carnivore and what my diet looks like at the end of this post.

What can/should you eat?

While many people may associate the carnivore diet with eating only meat, there is no one way to do it and there are several different animal foods that carnivores are including in their diet. As I touched on in the previous section, if you wish to fulfill all of your nutritional needs on a carnivore diet, you’re probably going to want to consider including things like organ meats and bone marrow in your approach. Variety is the spice of life regardless of what diet you’re eating. Below I’ve included a shining example of a well-rounded carnivore diet foods list.

• Beef
• Fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines)
• Lamb
• Eggs
• Liver 
• Heart
• Brain 
• Bone marrow
• Bone broth
• Fish roe

This is not to say that you absolutely need to be eating all of these things all the time in order to do well on a carnivore diet, but I do think that it is extremely important to consider your options and understand how you’re going to fulfill your nutritional needs when eating such an unconventional diet. This is your health. Do your own research (scientific and anecdotal) and determine what you need in order to optimize your health and succeed on your given diet approach. 

Why wouldn’t you eat plants?

Why would one even consider eliminating plants from their diet? Most of us grew up in a world where fruits and vegetables were symbols of optimal health. Could it be that this information is misleading or even false and these plant foods are actually negatively effecting our health? 

The big argument that carnivores have against plant food consumption is the fact that they contain antinutrients such as lectins, oxalates, and phytates. These are natural compounds that serve as a sort of natural defense mechanism of the plant. The main issue that is associated with anti nutrient consumption is that they can interfere with the absorption of nutrients. 

But does this mean that we should completely avoid foods if they contain antinutrients? Although everyone is different and some people may be more sensitive to these antinutrients than others might be, it is my opinion that in most cases the positives that come along with eating some of these plant foods (especially fruits and vegetables) outweigh the negatives of antinutrient consumption.

I believe that a healthy human digestive system should be more than capable of processing moderate amounts of antinutrients and they should not be viewed as something human beings should avoid at all costs. With that said, the overconsumption of these antinutrients, which can be very easy to do on a plant based diet can really prove to have some serious negative effects. 

Going carnivore and completely avoiding plant foods for a certain period of time may be a good idea for many people who are battling gut issues and have developed a sensitivity to antinutrients. With that said, I believe that many people should be able to successfully reintroduce some plant foods into their diet once they have corrected their gut imbalances.  

My take/experience with carnivore

If you haven’t noticed by now, I am not sold on the idea that all plant foods are bad and carnivore is the optimal human diet. Although I do acknowledge its power as a healing tool and I do believe that some people may be able to thrive on such a diet in the long term, I’m not so sure that this is necessarily the answer to healing autoimmune disease. 

I personally have experimented briefly with a carnivore diet. I recently went a full week eating nothing but animal foods and I will also have random days that lean towards a carnivore template. With that in mind, I have found that I personally feel better when I include some plant foods into the mix. I know that one week may ,not have been long enough for my body to become adapted to the carnivore way of eating, but I really didn’t see any reason to take it any further.

One thing that I have come to realize over the years is that eating plant foods (vegetables in particular) really seem to help me in terms of balancing my stomach acid and allowing me to process and assimilate my nutrients most efficiently. In my short stint eating carnivore, I felt as if my stomach acid was fairly low and I was not digesting my food as well as I should have been. 

There certainly are some foods that can help to increase positive stomach acid production on a carnivore diet such as bone broth (Which I do include in my diet). But if I am being honest to my experiences, their are certain plant foods that have more than proven that they are worthy of being included in my diet. Foods such as fresh vegetable juice have been invaluable to my healing and I find my diet to be less nourishing without their inclusion. 

To conclude this post, let me just say that I think carnivore is a reasonable idea for many people . Just make sure that you keep your mind open to the possibility that there are some plant foods out there that can greatly benefit your health. Don’t get pulled into all of the carnivore hype. Be real with yourself and listen to your body. If eating a carnivore style diet makes you feel better, that’s great. Just understand that what works today may not always work tomorrow and you should always be cautious in terms of who you take your advice from and stay true to what you feel is right for you.