Animal-Based Diet Benefits for Muscle, Skin and Hair

If you want to build muscle, grow your hair and have glowing, nourished skin, an animal-based diet puts the building blocks on your plate. An animal-based diet puts meat, seafood and other animal foods first. It is basically a meat, dairy and fruit diet, and the amount of carbohydrates included in the diet is up to you as an individual.

Beauty comes from within, and that means what you put inside your body matters if you want to look and feel your best. An animal-based diet provides everything you need to build muscle and enjoy glowing skin, healthy hair and great digestion.

Why Protein Does the Heavy Lifting on an Animal-Based Diet

Meat is made of protein and fat, which your body can break down and knows exactly what to do with. The protein gets broken down into amino acids, and your body can turn the fat into energy. A high-protein diet is recommended for weight loss and muscle building, and protein is essential for healthy hair. On an animal-based diet, you get all the protein you need.

If you’re on a weight-loss journey and follow a high-protein diet, it helps you retain more muscle, and the protein makes you feel fuller for longer. Research backs this up. In controlled studies, people who followed high-protein diets lost more weight and fat and kept more muscle.

A steak takes up far less space on your plate than a big bowl of vegetables, and it can leave you more satisfied. Meat is more calorie-dense than most vegetables, but you get a lot more nutrients and it is a lot more satiating. So if you eat more meat, you might end up eating less food. If you want to build muscle, pair strength training with an animal-based diet that gives you the protein you need to build the body of your dreams.

Why Animal Foods Give You More Nutrients From Less Food

With an animal-based diet, you can get all the nutrients you need from a smaller amount of food. Yes, it’s calorie-dense, but it’s also nutrient-dense. Animal foods provide complete proteins, which your body needs. These are protein sources that contain all nine essential amino acids your body can’t make.

Iron is another nutrient that’s best to get from animal foods. The NIH says your body absorbs about 14% to 18% of the iron from a diet that includes plenty of meat, seafood and vitamin C, compared with only 5% to 12% on a vegetarian diet. Liver is basically nature’s multivitamin, and it’s one of the richest sources of vitamin A. Going nose to tail and using the whole animal gets you a lot more nutrients, especially from organ meats.

Why Glowing Skin and Healthy Hair Start on Your Plate

If you want to grow your hair or improve your hair health, eat more meat and other animal foods and get those amino acids. You need the building blocks for hair. The same goes for skin: you need building blocks for skin repair and for maintaining healthy skin, and amino acids from protein give you that.

Animal foods are good sources of collagen, which is essential for skin structure. Some animal foods high in collagen include bone broth, gelatin, chicken skin, pork rinds, fish with the skin and bones, and tough beef cuts.

Your skin and skin barrier are built with fats, and those fats have to come from somewhere. A lot of it comes from what you eat. So if you want healthy, glowing, nourished skin, you need enough healthy fat, especially animal fat, which also gives you fat-soluble vitamins like A, D and K.

Anyone with skin issues may find an animal-based diet worth trying.

Better Digestion (and Less Bloating) on an Animal-Based Diet

Many people report better digestion on an animal-based diet. In one study, 63 people who had chronic constipation went on a zero-fiber diet for two weeks and then chose how much fiber to add back. After six months, those who stayed fiber-free went from only having one bowel movement every 3.75 days to one a day, and reported no bloating or straining. On the other hand, people who went back to eating a high-fiber diet still experienced both. It might have been a small study, but it isn’t something that should be ignored.

Should You Try an Animal-Based Diet?

If you’re trying to build muscle, enhance your beauty, improve your digestion and get all the nutrients you need, animal foods are where the magic is. This article is general information and not medical advice, so check with your doctor before making a big change to your diet, especially if you have a health condition.