TikTok officially has a new favorite diet. Videos about animal-based eating, and the closely related carnivore diet, are filling up phone screens with hulking steaks and over-easy eggs. For some reason (maybe to drive home animalistic tendencies?), the serveware of choice is almost always a giant wood cutting board instead of a plate.
While fans of the animal diet claim they’re losing weight, getting shredded, and their skin is glowing, dietitians aren’t wild about these high-protein, high-fat diets that are super-restrictive. Animal-based eating is even more limiting than the keto diet that was trending a few years back.
Carnivore diets focus entirely on animal products, and, in the most extreme cases, exclude all plant-based foods, explains Dietitian Christopher Mohr, Ph.D., R.D., a fitness and nutrition advisor at Fortune Recommends.
“It’s based, albeit falsely, on the idea that early human diets were mainly meat based,” he says. “Data suggest grains and other plant-based foods were part of early diets.”
Unlike other diets that are backed by research—like the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet and similar Atlantic diet—carnivore diets and animal-based eating don’t have any studies backing up their potential health benefits, experts say.
Here’s what else to know about these meat-heavy diets and the limited pros and many cons of eating this way.
What Is the Carnivore Diet and ‘Animal-Based’ Eating?
Animal-based eating and the carnivore diet are similar, but there are some nuances that distinguish them from each other.
The carnivore diet focuses exclusively on animal-derived foods, explains dietitian René Ficek, the owner and operator of Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating.
“Essentially, it emphasizes meat, fish, and other animal products, eliminating all plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, and nuts,” she says.
The carnivore diet, despite how it sounds, doesn’t just focus on meat, says Destini Moody, R.D., an expert on the panel of Garage Gym Reviews. It also includes dairy, eggs and butter.. Vegetable and olive oils are not allowed as they are derived from plants, and, the strictest iterations of this diet don’t allow for herbs or spices, Moody says.
“Animal-based” eating takes a similar approach but has a little more flexibility than the carnivore diet, allowing for some low-sugar fruits or honey, Ficek says.
What Foods Can You Eat on the Carnivore Diet?
The carnivore diet includes all types of animal meat, including beef, pork, lamb, fish and seafood, poultry and eggs, animal fats like butter, lard, and tallow, as well as some dairy products (depending on the version of the diet) including cheese or heavy cream.
But lots of foods are considered off limits, which is what has dietitians so concerned.
In addition to ruling out things like fruits and veggies, those who strictly follow the carnivore diet also don’t consume plant-based oils, processed foods, sugars, and sweeteners, Ficek says.
What Are The Risks of Eating a Carnivore Diet?
This diet lacks many beneficial vitamins and nutrients, including fiber and plant compounds that provide antioxidants, says Dawn Menning, a registered dietitian with Nutu App, a healthy living app to help people reverse prediabetes,. The reason antioxidants are so important in a diet is they work like a defense system, helping to ward off free radicals, which are known to cause oxidative stress, a condition that could play a role in the development of all sorts of health issues. And, you guessed it, plant-based foods like fruits and veggies are the best source of antioxidants.
Eating a strict carnivore diet, Menning explains, could lead to nutritional deficiencies and eventually increase the risk of health issues like heart disease or colon cancer, she says.
For those who work out—especially those who do aerobic exercises, like walking after a meal, jogging, biking, and swimming—the carnivore diet would not provide them with sufficient carbohydrates as a source of energy, explains Leah McGrath, R.D., corporate dietitian with Ingles Markets. Because of the lack of fiber, she says, eating a carnivore diet may be tough on your gut health, too, causing constipation.
In addition to stripping nutrients from your diet, you risk raising your cholesterol and LDL (bad cholesterol) levels by eating a carnivore diet, explains Antonette Hardie, M.S., R.D.N., a registered dietitian at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
A diet that is 100 percent animal proteins can also lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and atherosclerotic disease, Hardie says. (Atherosclerotic disease is the buildup of fats and cholesterol in and on your artery walls and lead to blood clots).
Are There Any Benefits of Animal-Based Eating?
You’d be hard-pressed to get a greenlight from a dietitian to embrace animal-based eating.
Dietitians aren’t surprised that people on the animal-based or carnivore diet are claiming that pounds are falling off when they start the diet.
A high protein and high fat diet would be very satiating for most (i.e. making a person feel full for longer), McGrath says, so this may result in eating fewer calories over the course of the day, which could theoretically result in weight loss.
Also animal-based eating could put your body in ketosis and thus create some weight loss, however that weight will quickly come back after the diet is no longer followed, Ficek says. (Quick explainer: Ketosis occurs when your body burns fat instead of glucose for energy).
“Aside from the brief and unsustainable weight loss, there are virtually no ‘pros’ from eating this way for any period of time,” Ficek says. “It is incredibly high in fat while lacking critical nutrients for both short term and long-term health.”
How Does ‘Animal-Based Eating’ Differ from Keto?
Keto is a high-fat, moderate-protein, and low-carb diet. When it was trending a few years back, many dietitians were concerned with how restrictive it was, but animal-based eating and the carnivore diets are even more stringent.
Keto allows non-animal foods like low carb vegetables and fruit, nuts and seeds, Menning says. It also allows up to 10% of calories from carbs. The carnivore diet, however, is more restrictive and allows for almost no carbs.
What’s The Verdict on Animal Diets?
A big problem nutrition professionals have with this diet is that it is very low in fiber, which is critical for heart and gut health. Fiber, in addition to helping things move in the GI department, acts to reduce the bad cholesterol in your blood. Animal products tend to be high in saturated fat, a nutrient that plant foods lack that can be harmful to heart health when consumed in excess.
If you’re on a carnivore diet, it’s a safe bet you’ll be consuming saturated fat in excess as it is high in foods like butter, beef, and pork, Moody says.
“This is a problem because saturated fat also raises your bad cholesterol and, without fiber or antioxidants from fruits and veggies to combat this, it can seriously harm your health,” she says.
Overall, the cons of “animal-based eating” far outweigh any potential health benefits, according to experts, and staying on this diet could have serious health implications.
“To be blunt, I wouldn’t recommend the carnivore diet to anyone,” Hardie says.
Brittany Anas is a former newspaper reporter (The Denver Post, Boulder Daily Camera) turned freelance writer. Before she struck out on her own, she covered just about every beat—from higher education to crime. Now she writes about food, cocktails, travel, and lifestyle topics for Men’s Journal, House Beautiful, Forbes, Simplemost, Shondaland, Livability, Hearst newspapers, TripSavvy and more. In her free time, she coaches basketball, crashes pools, and loves hanging out with her rude-but-adorable Boston Terrier that never got the memo the breed is nicknamed “America’s gentleman.”