A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the carnivore diet, a subject I admitted I couldn’t quite make up my mind about. Rather than rushing straight back to it, I thought I’d let that newsletter settle for a little while and give you the chance to share your thoughts and experiences.
And I’m glad I did, because some of the replies were fascinating.
What struck me wasn’t just how differently people felt about the carnivore diet itself, but the range of experiences and perspectives you shared. Your replies raised some interesting questions, and a few challenged me to think about the subject a little differently.
So I thought I’d share some of them with you.
Bonnie and Penny both shared their experiences of moving away from plant-based eating towards a more animal-based approach, and what particularly interested me was just how much better they reported feeling after making the change.
I think it’s important not to dismiss experiences like these simply because they challenge what we’ve traditionally been taught about healthy eating. When someone tells you that changing their diet has made a real difference to their wellbeing, surely that’s worth listening to?
Doug, meanwhile, shared a very different experience, having found that veganism suited him well. And that’s what makes this whole subject so fascinating. We have people following almost opposite approaches to eating, yet reporting positive results.
Helen’s reply highlighted another side of the discussion. She enjoys meat and fish but has been navigating concerns about oxalates and bone health, which can make choosing what to eat surprisingly complicated.
It reminded me that for some people, dietary decisions aren’t about following a trend at all, but about trying to find a way of eating that works around their individual health concerns.
Of course, personal experiences can’t tell us everything about the long-term effects of a particular diet. But neither should we be too quick to explain them away. Perhaps there’s still plenty we don’t fully understand about why individuals respond so differently to the foods they eat.
One possibility is that some of the benefits people experience come not just from what they’ve started eating, but from what they’ve stopped eating. Someone switching to carnivore might have eliminated foods that previously disagreed with them, while someone adopting a whole-food vegan diet might have made equally significant changes.
That doesn’t diminish either experience. It simply reminds us how complicated nutrition can be, and how difficult it is to separate the effects of one dietary change from another.
And perhaps that’s where we need to be a little cautious about turning dietary preferences into dietary rules.
One of my favourite observations came from Magnus, who offered plenty of food for thought about individual differences and the importance of keeping an open mind.
He finished with this:
“Don’t get stuck in consuming any labelled diet!”
And I think he might have a point.
We’ve become rather fond of giving everything a name. Carnivore, vegan, keto, paleo, Mediterranean. Each comes with its own rules, enthusiastic supporters and occasionally the suggestion that everyone else has got it wrong.
But perhaps the more useful question isn’t which diet deserves the winning label, but how we can eat well, enjoy our food and support our health over the long term.
So, two weeks on, have I finally made up my mind about the carnivore diet?
Not entirely. But I think I’m increasingly convinced that we should spend less time defending dietary labels and more time thinking about what suits us as individuals, what we enjoy eating and, of course, what supports our long-term health.
And if you have anything more to add to this conversation, please do write in. I always enjoy hearing your thoughts and experiences, particularly when they challenge my own thinking!
