The Carnivore Diet: Can We Live On Meat Alone?

Hi. I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Versus. This is the show that pits facts against flesh. Today on the show, the carnivore diet. Fancy eating meat? A lot of meat? This is day 312, eating nothing but meat, eggs, and seafood. 18 ounces of the chuck eye portion of the chuck roast. Beef, chicken, lamb, pork. Burgers and beef tallow. So good. Some say this diet is so good because it's Gargle. Others say it's the best thing they've ever done for their health. They feel more vital, their brain seems to work better, and their chronic illnesses seem to have disappeared. One big influencer here is Michaela Peterson. She's the daughter of the controversial author Jordan Peterson. And Michaela says that the carnivore diet cured her rheumatoid arthritis. Here she is giving a talk about it. And I cut everything out except for beef. And two weeks after doing that thinking I'm nuts, hopefully I don't get vitamin deficiencies, the itch went away and my joints started to feel better. Four weeks after that, I stopped crying in the morning. And five months after that, the anxiety lifted and I was back in what I felt was heaven compared to how I'd been living. All beef, all lamb, salt and water. Her dad went on the diet too. Here he is telling Joe Rogan about it a couple of months ago. I eat steak. And when I deviate from that, things start to fall apart around me pretty quick. This diet is blowing up right now. People cannot get enough. Y'all, I have never felt better. My energy has been amazing. I have been sleeping so much better than I normally do. I don't get any bloating, gas. Like, my stomach issues are completely gone. I was able to lose 90 pounds. My knee pain over a decade went away. My mental health is the best it's ever been. In fact, researchers did a big survey of people who have been on the carnivore diet for at least six months, asking them about their mood, hunger levels, weight and health. And tons of people reported that they loved this diet and it improved their health. But to a lot of us listening to this right now, the carnivore diet feels plain wrong. There's the environment to think about. Plus, we've been told our whole lives that eating vegetables is good, and eating loads of meat puts us on a fast track to crappy health, stuff like heart disease and cancer. The carnivore diet is gonna kill you. What is so terrible about this diet is the insanely high amounts of saturated fats people are consuming. Do not embark on the carnivore diet unless you would like to get scurvy. Scurvy. Scurvy. Scurvy. Scurvy. Scurvy. Scurvy. Scurvy. Scurvy. Scurvy. So who's right here? Can a carnivore diet really make you mean and lean? Or is this diet a big mistake? Because when it comes to the carnivore …