Scrolling through TikTok mukbangs, amidst the Taco Bell and Wingstop videos, you’re bound to find a carnivore. Carnivorous influencers display giant cutting boards of steak, biting into sticks of butter like candy bars. The carnivore diet is a highly restrictive subculture of the keto diet in which only meat, seafood, eggs and some dairy products are consumed. In recent years, its spread has been heavily facilitated by the internet. The increasing number of people subscribing to the carnivore diet is directly linked to society’s worsening exclusivity and disregard for the planet.
Proponents of the carnivore diet sing its praises in terms of health benefits: weight loss, prevention against cancer, lessening visible aging, lowering blood pressure to the point of no longer needing medication. Such claims sound just short of medieval potion-sellers peddling waters from the “fountain of youth.” They sound too good to be true, and according to Harvard Medical Studies, they are too good to be true. The carnivore diet has been proven to increase the risk of kidney stones, gout and osteoporosis. Rather than prevent cancer, diets high in red meat increase the risk of colon cancer by 30%. The concept of a keto diet is inherently harmful — ketosis is a temporary change in state in which the human body does not have enough glucose to create sustainable energy levels, so it breaks down fat instead. Normally, ketosis is a state typically reserved for starvation. Now, it’s rebranded as a chic way to lose weight to fit some archaic beauty standard.
Many diets center around weight loss, but keto diets are a different beast. Ketosis is essentially controlled starvation, which is dangerous if not carefully monitored. In a world in which many starve to death, the carnivore diet is especially cruel. Starvation can only become a trendy lifestyle and a hobby for those who are privileged enough to not see it as a real issue.
Veganism, the reverse of the carnivore diet, was popularized due to its affordability, accessibility and incredible benefits to the environment. Vegans often receive a reputation of being “tree-huggers,” refusing to eat animals out of care for living beings and the planet as a whole. They are often ridiculed for restricting themselves, despite vegan diets providing all necessary food groups where carnivore diets do not. Aside from being extremely restrictive, carnivore diets lack the values and morals behind diets like veganism. With the growth of the carnivore diet, I can’t help feeling that dietary trends are shifting in a negative direction. Meat is expensive, especially when it’s being eaten multiple times a day. Furthermore, animal agriculture represents 14.5% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. With an influx of people eating meat for a majority of their meals, this number will only increase. The carnivore diet is inherently exclusive to those who can afford or access high-quality meat and has detrimental impacts on the planet.
If you went back to 2016 L.A., land of the vegans, and showed the average person a steak mukbang, they’d just about have a heart attack if they realized people ate three meals a day this way. If you traveled back to the ’90s and started chomping at whole sticks of butter, you’d be met with intense concern (“don’t you know how bad butter is for you?”). Why is that? It is the concept of diet fads that has led to this moment, and these temporary fads are inherently harmful. People have different health issues that require treatment through nutrition. Swinging too far in the direction of either carnivore or herbivore can lead to vitamin deficiencies and eating disorders. One’s diet is not only lifestyle, it’s medicine. Yet no one bats an eye at the concept of taking advice from unqualified strangers on the internet as to what they should be eating. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next viral diet was called “star,” short for starvation, in which you eat nothing but rice cakes and ice cubes.
All in all, the popularity of the carnivore diet has startling implications. A meat-centered diet is expensive, unhealthy and exclusive. Consider the implications of taking diet advice from random people on the internet, and do your body a favor by eating a vegetable every once in a while.