Transcription
A brand new carnivore diet study has just been released, and the results are pretty insane. For a long time, carnivore diet advocates such as Dr. Kimbury, Dr. Sha Baker, and Dr. Anthony Chaffy have been ridiculed by the mainstream for promoting what was often labeled as a quote, unsafe diet. But this new study, it tells a very different story.
Unlike other carnivore diet studies we have seen in the past, this one was far more comprehensive. It examined pre and post-diet blood work with some participants following the diet for over 4 and a half years. So, today we're going to break this study down and look at why it'll change the way many people see the carnivore diet.
This study was an exploratory human study conducted in Germany. The researchers recruited individuals who were already on the carnivore diet for at least a month and had blood test results from before they started. This is important because it means that the study wasn't limited to the very early transition phase. Instead, it captured the full dietary shift, avoiding the misleading temporary metabolic changes seen in short-term trials, and it makes the results far more meaningful. These results actually reflect how the body functions once it has fully adapted to a carnivore way of eating.
The researchers collected data in two main ways. First, every participant completed a detailed questionnaire designed specifically for the study. This covered things like what their diet looked like before they were carnivore, how long they've been eating this way, why they decided to start, whether they use supplements, as well as how strict they adhered to a carnivore diet. Then, at the end of the study, participants filled out another questionnaire where they reported their real-world experience on the carnivore diet. This included what changed for their health, symptoms, and how they felt as a whole.
But the study didn't stop at self-reported data. Participants were also asked to provide metabolic blood test results. Specifically, they submitted blood panels from before starting the carnivore diet and then another blood panel taken after they had been on carnivore for at least a month. However, the average amount of time people in the study were on carnivore for was actually 17 months. So, we have pre and post blood work from people that have been on carnivore for a relatively significant amount of time.
Now, I really like how this study included this blood work from before and after the diet. This was a major limitation of the Harvard Carnivore Diet Study that came out a few years ago. In that study, we saw some pretty striking reported outcomes across the board, including improvements in diabetes, autoimmune conditions, and a wide range of health markers. The problem with that Harvard study, however, is that it relied entirely on self-reported data collected at a single point in time. There were no standardized pre-diet blood markers, which means you couldn't actually track how biomarkers changed within the same individual.
So, what makes this study more credible is that it allows for tangible within-person comparison. And it's also far more informative than a survey because you can directly observe how blood markers shift once someone has adapted to a carnivore diet. With that being said, however, self-reported data is still incredibly important because blood work, it can only tell you so much. You can have labs that look perfect on paper and still feel terrible day-to-day. Symptoms, energy levels, digestion, and overall quality of life, they don't always show up on a blood panel. So, this study is great because it combines both of these things. In my opinion, this is the best carnivore diet study to date. It certainly isn't perfect. There are some definite limitations, but we'll discuss that later in the video.
So, let's go through the results of this study category by category. In the study, 22 of the 24 participants had a chronic health condition when starting out. Now, this is actually really important context to understand before we even look at the individual markers. The majority of people in this study weren't metabolically healthy individuals experimenting with a new diet. Most of them actually started carnivore because they were already dealing with chronic health issues. Now, the issues ranged from metabolic and autoimmune conditions to gastrointestinal and inflammatory disorders. Of these 22 participants, 17 saw an improvement or resolution of their chronic health issue. Five saw no change and zero saw a worsening of their condition. Now, that's pretty impressive.
Now, where numbers get clearer is where you look at the objective blood markers. For HBA1C, which largely reflects long-term blood sugar levels, there were two participants who started the study with pre-diabetic HBA1C values. Both of these participants saw the HBA1C decrease on the carnivore diet. Then, in regards to systemic inflammation and metabolic stress, six participants entered the study with elevated triglyceride levels above 130 mg per deciliter. And again, six out of six of those participants saw their triglycerides decrease.
Now, this is actually very significant. Elevated triglycerides are strongly associated with chronic low-grade inflammation and increased oxidative stress. When triglycerides are high, it often reflects an inflammatory environment where excess energy is being packaged into circulating fat particles rather than being properly utilized or cleared. So, the fact that all participants who entered the study with elevated triglycerides saw those levels decrease suggests that the carnivore diet reduced inflammation and metabolic stress. So, this actually makes the study one of the first real-world human investigations to pair a carnivore diet with lower levels of objective blood markers associated with inflammation. This suggests the carnivore diet is anti-inflammatory, which, I mean, we've all been saying fears. All the true carnivore fans, they're nodding their heads right now. They knew this was true a long time ago, but it's great to have the data here showing it, too.
Now, one thing I was curious about when reading this study was uric acid levels. A lot of people say red meat raises uric acid, which then causes gout. So, let's see if these people in this study actually developed gout. Now, the proposed mechanism as to why people say that red meat causes gout is because meat is high in something called purines. Now, the thing with purines is they can be converted into uric acid. But in practice, dietary purines from whole foods like meat have a relatively small effect on uric acid levels in most people. And that's exactly what we saw in this study. The average uric acid levels for participants in this study before starting carnivore were 5.17 milligrams per deciliter and afterwards they dropped down to 5.1 milligrams per deciliter. And there were a total of zero people who got gout in this study. Who would have thought?
Uric acid is something your body is constantly producing. The reason people get gout isn't because they're eating too much meat and its high purine content. It's because in these individuals, their kidneys stop clearing uric acid effectively. So, what causes the kidneys to stop clearing uric acid efficiently? You may be wondering. When you consume carbohydrates, those carbohydrates are broken down into glucose or sugar, which enters your bloodstream. Your body then releases a hormone called insulin. This is because insulin's job is to move that glucose out of the blood and into your cells to be used for energy or stored for later. The problem is that when this happens repeatedly, especially with refined carbohydrates and sugar, insulin levels begin to stay chronically elevated. And insulin has many roles in the body. It doesn't just regulate blood sugar. Insulin also signals to the kidneys to retain certain substances. This includes sodium and uric acid. So, when insulin levels are chronically high, the kidneys reduce uric acid excretion, that causes uric acid to build up in the blood, and over time, it can crystallize in the joints, and that is what we know as gout.
Now, fructose, one of the primary sugars in fruit, actually makes this even worse because its metabolism directly generates uric acid, and then fructose also rapidly drives up insulin, which then prevents it from being excreted. This is why we see gout rates track very closely with sugar-sweetened beverage consumption that uses high fructose corn syrup and metabolic syndrome. Whereas gout isn't even linked to meat consumption. On a carnivore diet, your insulin levels become much lower and much more stable. With lower insulin signaling, the kidneys are better able to excrete uric acid effectively. That's why despite a high amount of purine in meat, people don't get gout from eating meat. And it's also why so many people go on carnivore and all of a sudden their gout disappears.
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Now, another thing the researchers also measured was C-reactive protein, or CRP, as it's commonly known as. This is a well-established marker of systemic inflammation. Now, C-reactive protein is produced by the liver in response to inflammatory signaling, and high levels of CRP indicate a higher inflammatory burden on the body. So, this is a marker you definitely want low. The typical reference range for CRP is less than 0.5 mg per deciliter. And what's striking in the study is that CRP levels dropped from a median of 0.66 mg per deciliter before the carnivore diet all the way down to just 0.1 mg per deciliter after being on the diet for some time. So, that shift actually moved the average C-reactive protein for participants in the study from above the reference range to a very low level. That magnitude and discretion of change is consistent with a very meaningful reduction in systemic inflammation. So, essentially, again, this study has shown that the carnivore diet reduces systemic inflammation. Again, all the carnivores online have been saying this for a long time, but it's great to have some data that actually backs this up.
Now, when it comes to weight loss, the results were also very clear. Participants reported significant improvements in body composition. The majority of the participants lost weight, particularly those who entered the study overweight or obese. Now, with carnivore, you're eating what humans are meant to eat. And when you're eating the right foods for your biology, your hunger hormones, they normalize. You eat when you're hungry, and you stop when you're full. And you end up just naturally consuming less food. You don't have to starve yourself. And as a result, the weight, well, it just falls off essentially.
In regards to cravings, when you stop eating processed foods designed by scientists to make you want more for only a short period of time, typically two weeks or less, your brain actually forgets the pleasure it got from them, and as a result, you stop craving them, which again is exactly what the study showed.
Now, 89% of participants also reported improved energy levels. Again, this makes perfect sense once you understand how your cells function on a carnivore diet. When you're eating lots of carbs on a high-carbohydrate diet, your body is constantly running on glucose. Your blood sugar spikes after meals, then crashes a few hours later. And when it crashes, it actually goes below baseline. This is why so many people feel up and down all day with their energy all day long. But on carnivore, fat becomes your primary fuel source. And fat is a much more stable, efficient energy source. Your blood sugar levels stay steady, so your energy stays consistent throughout the day. You don't get the afternoon crashes or the brain fog, just consistent, high levels of energy. Again, these results are not surprising at all.
Participants also reported improvements in mental clarity, memory, and focus. Again, this is not surprising at all when you know what the brain actually needs to function. Roughly 20% of the human brain is made from long-chain fatty acids. In animal fats, these are abundant. There's lots of them. But in fat from plant-based sources, there is zero. The human body actually has a very poor ability at converting shorter, 18-carbon and below, fatty acids into the carbon 20 and 22 fatty acids we require. This is why since humans switched from hunting to agriculture 10,000 years ago, our average brain size has shrunk 11%. And it also explains why vegans are the way they are. Sorry vegans. I, I didn't even mean to insult you there. That one right there, it was served to me on a platter. So, anyway, my bad. And on top of these essential fatty acids, meat is also very high in nutrients like choline and B vitamins, which are essential for neurotransmitter production and cognitive function. Also, when you remove carbohydrates from your diet, your body also produces more ketones. Ketones are an incredibly efficient fuel source for the brain. They provide more energy per unit than glucose. And they've been shown in studies to improve focus, memory, and overall cognitive performance. So, it makes perfect sense that when people go on a carnivore diet that they report they feel mentally sharper.
Now, when it comes to strength, 69% of participants reported improvements in strength and endurance. Now, this one surprises a lot of people because there's this common misconception that you need carbohydrates for athletic performance, but that's simply not true at all. Your muscles store energy in the form of glycogen, which is the stored form of glucose, aka sugar. A lot of people think you need carbohydrates because they break down into sugar to replenish this glycogen. But what they don't realize is that your body can produce all of the glucose it needs through a process called gluconeogenesis. This is where your liver converts protein and fat into glucose. And studies have shown that once you're fat-adapted, meaning you're adapted to running on fats, your glycogen levels are identical to someone who is on a high-carbohydrate diet. Even though you're eating zero carbohydrates, your body becomes very efficient at creating its own glucose and it maintains its glycogen stores. On carnivore, your body simply makes more glycogen from its own body fat. Which is why many athletes are switching to carnivore and why carnivore endurance runner Alex McDonald ran five marathons in five days without eating once during this period. Something like this would be basically impossible for someone on a high-carbohydrate diet because they don't have the sufficiency to replenish glycogen stores from its own body fat. And on top of that, because a carnivore diet is so high in protein, you're giving your muscles all the building blocks they need to repair and grow. And because inflammation is lower, like we saw earlier, recovery becomes faster, so you can train harder. And as a result, you just build more muscle.
Overall, when you look at the totality of the data, the results are overwhelmingly positive. Across nearly every relevant clinical marker, both subjective and objective, things look very good in favor of a carnivore diet. However, in saying all of this, to be fair, objective, and maintain scientific integrity, it would be wrong for me to not discuss the limitations of the study because, like all of nutrition science, there certainly are a few.
For one, the sample size was relatively small, which can make it harder to detect smaller changes in certain blood markers. But with that being said, there are meaningful changes in these key markers, which were observed, and these results are consistent with what we typically see in blood work from long-term carnivores. Another limitation is that a lot of this data was self-reported. This is pretty standard across nutritional research. Importantly, however, the blood work came from certified medical laboratories. So, the actual blood markers themselves, they weren't self-reported, which certainly increases the reliability of the study.
The third major issue I see is that dietary intake was not precisely measured. This is an issue that affects essentially all nutritional research. It's basically impossible to precisely control dietary intake in any long-term human study. As in order to do this, you would need to lock someone in a laboratory for years, which, I mean, who would want to do that? And you'd have to pay them a large sum of money, probably in the millions of dollars. So, it's just not possible to actually control people entirely and monitor exactly what they eat. And then the final major limitation I've seen is that there was no control group where participants were fed a different diet. However, I would argue that there actually is a clear control group. It's called the general population. The majority of society eats a standard control diet, and most people are sick and overweight. In this study, however, we saw the opposite of that. So, I guess in a way, there kind of is a control group. Yes, it would have been ideal if there were a few more people that they looked at and things were controlled a little bit better. However, it is close to impossible to conduct a well-controlled nutritional study. So, honestly, this study is basically as good as we're going to get. And in regards to the small sample size, all you have to do is load up YouTube, search carnivore diet blood work before and after, and there are hundreds of people. And in essentially all of these videos, we see the same things that are in this study. So, in a way, there kind of is a larger sample size. So, again, what we see time and time again in the real world is replicated in the study.
Anyway, another win for carnivore. The good guys were on top once again. The mainstream does everything they can to discredit us. Fious claims, hit pieces, you name it. But through all the lies, we stand here unfazed and victorious. Well, I mean, it's not the best study, but I mean, hey, we'll take it.
Now, if you want even more evidence that humans are meant to be carnivores, then you'll enjoy this video right here, where I break down every reason as to how we know that humans are carnivores. Anyway, as always, great speaking with you, and I'll see you next.