It really exists: the carnivore diet. Is this a good idea?
Phew… I need a moment to recover now that I’ve managed to pick myself up after falling off my chair in astonishment. Of course, I know that many people laughingly (or actually often angrily) brush aside the urgent advice from all sides to eat less meat for the sake of their own health and the planet. But this story?! Fascinating…
I just read an interview with a woman whose eating pattern is something a vegan wouldn’t be able to stomach at all: she eats. only. animal. products. Essentially nothing else. And usually almost a kilo of meat a day! How?!
The horror of the juice cleanse
I’ve seen plenty of strange diets pass by, and I’ve even tried some of them when I wanted to lose a kilo or two quickly (hello, blood type diet nonsense and sauerkraut juice nightmare), but this one genuinely left me speechless: the carnivore diet. What does that mean for this woman? You won’t believe it…
A kilo of meat a day
In the Vrouw section of De Telegraaf, Ksenija Provoost says that she has been following the carnivore diet since March 2020. For her, that means eating between 700 grams and 1 kilo of meat every day! Other than that, she only eats fish, eggs, shellfish and crustaceans, and always more meat than fish. Sometimes she does eat some shrimp alongside the meat.
Just one more egg
She only eats when she’s hungry and has realized that people actually often eat ‘just because’, even though it has nothing to do with hunger. She particularly loves rib-eye; she could eat it every day. She used to follow low-carb diets, but she was always still hungry. Not anymore, although I think that could also be because she sometimes eats as many as 8 eggs a day.
Vegetables? Nope. (I think she does indeed help bring down our average in the study on how many vegetables the Dutch eat). Fruit? In summer, she occasionally feels like having strawberries, so she buys them (about twice during the entire summer). But according to her, the point is that ‘the longer and more strictly you do this, the less you crave other foods.’
The expert’s advice
Not entirely surprisingly, a spokesperson for the Netherlands Nutrition Centre doesn’t think this is a particularly great eating pattern. At the end of the interview, spokesperson Anne Lutgerink’s response essentially boils down to this: this dietary pattern is not recommended, Ksenija is missing out on important nutrients and health benefits, and this eating pattern has a huge impact on the environment.
Because she doesn’t eat vegetables, fruit or whole-grain products, she increases her risk of cardiovascular disease, colon cancer and type 2 diabetes, as well as her risk of stroke and lung cancer from eating a lot of red meat (eating processed meat also increases this risk). And yes, we also think butter tastes delicious, but too much of it can lead to cardiovascular disease, so we go very tranquilo with it.
In short: we didn’t know such a ‘diet’ existed. And where do you put all that meat?! Incidentally, you should take my statement that Ksenija eats only animal products with a grain of salt. She does eat… salt!
Editor’s tip
And hey, would you like to eat good meat (occasionally)? Then follow FavorFlav’s Sharon’s tip and go to the wonderful Sagardi. ‘This really is the place for the most beautiful products from the Spanish Basque Country. And they’re prepared in the best way possible: on Sagardi’s self-designed Basque grill,’ says Sharon.
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Source: Telegraaf, read the full article here
