Is the Carnivore Diet Too Restrictive?
You are a fixed number of boring actions away from basically any goal — @Dickie Bush
A criticism of the Carnivore diet is that it’s too restrictive. Carnivore is primarily an animal-based diet, so in that sense, sure, it’s restrictive. But I think it’s important to distinguish a diet, a specific, often temporary, way of eating to accomplish a goal like weight loss or allergen identification, from a diet, that is how we choose to eat. What’s in your diet is different from going on a diet.
Everyone has some restrictions on their diet and the way they eat. For many the core restriction is that they don’t eat food they don’t like. President George H. W. Bush famously didn’t like broccoli and didn’t eat it. We didn’t say he was on a broccoli-restricted diet, but technically, he was.
Allergies are another possible restriction. I’m allergic to seafood. If I eat seafood I get an anaphylactic reaction with hives and facial swelling including a risk of airway closure. I’ve had my eyes swell shut and my tongue swell up. It’s not pleasant. People ask if I miss eating seafood. With that kind of reaction, no. Nothing tastes that good.
Then there are the things we know we shouldn’t eat like ultra-processed food. I have yet to find anyone who thinks a diet of primarily Twinkies is appropriate. Most people try to limit food they believe isn’t good for them whether they are on a temporary diet or not.
A vegetarian or vegan way of eating is also obviously restrictive. So is Weight Watchers, and Keto, and every other way of eating. I approached Carnivore a little differently. Yes, I want to lose weight and have lost weight. A lot of weight. Still, I’m approaching the carnivore diet first, as a way of eating, not a temporary diet. The simplicity works for me. I don’t track anything but my weight. I eat primarily meat and eggs. I’m careful with sauces and I’m working toward only drinking water. That’s proving to be the most difficult transition. I still struggle with a couple of items. Chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants is something I don’t yet have control over for example. But I try to identify those items so I can work on them. The list of problem foods is getting shorter.
I’m approaching carnivore as a form of minimalism. It’s not about the things I’m excluding, it’s about curating what I want to eat. I can eat crap or I can eat steak. It’s also about the way I feel. I do occasionally eat crap, and I don’t feel good the next day. I end up puffy and bloated, joint pain comes back, and it’s not pleasant. We are designed to forget how bad physical pain was. Without this, there would never be a second child, but we don’t forget pain, just the level of pain. Remembering pain helps us avoid stupid things like touching hot stoves. When feel crappy after I eat something, I now write that down to help me remember why I don’t want to do that again.
All of this is a journey and everyone draws a different line. I’m trying to draw a line that works for me physically and mentally. Your line may be different, but mine is pretty far down on the Carnivore scale.