My husband introduced me to the carnivore diet a few years ago and now, I’m animal-based. If you told my younger self that one day, I would only be eating animal foods, she would be shocked, but she was just as much as a health nerd back then as I am now, and I’m sure she would have started researching this way of eating like her life depended on it.
My younger self wanted the same things that I want now. She wanted good skin, good digestion, a fit body, and a better relationship with food. I really wish I could go back in time and tell her to stop listening to the women’s magazines and to stop eating all the grains, nuts, vegetable oils, beans, lentils and vegetables that didn’t agree with her. I wish I could have told her to start experimenting with an animal-based diet a lot sooner.
Words cannot accurately describe how much better I feel on an animal-based diet.
Why I Love Being on an Animal-Based Diet
Here are some of the biggest reasons why I love being on an animal-based diet:
My Digestion is A Lot Better
I used to think that my IBS was just something I would have to live with for the rest of my life, and now, I don’t get symptoms unless I eat too much fibre, accidentally eat something containing soy or gluten (even meat gets spiked sometimes), or say “screw it” and buy sugar-free chocolate made with sugar alcohols like xylitol.
A few years ago, I had lower stomach pain every day for two months, until I stopped eating nuts and realised that my stomach pain was caused by all the healthy nuts I was consuming. Nuts, seeds, leafy green vegetables are all on the list of foods I used to consume regularly but no longer do on an animal-based diet because they don’t agree with my digestive system.
Just from a fibre perspective alone, switching to a low-fibre diet has been life-changing. I used to try to eat 30g of fibre a day, because that was what I read was recommended for the average person. When I cut my fibre consumption in half, my IBS symptoms reduced dramatically. And then when I cut it even more, bloating and digestive distress became an occasional problem instead of a daily pain in the gut.
An animal-based diet makes it easy to not overdo the fibre. It is a low-residue diet. If you have IBS or struggle with any kind of digestive problem, I highly recommend going animal-based and even full carnivore.
Shopping is a Lot More Efficient
Shopping for food used to be way more complicated and take way longer in our household. Now, we order directly from local farmers and get our meat delivered to our door, and if we do go to the store for food, it is straight to the meat section. My shopping list is simple: meat, eggs, and butter. We also like to buy pure beef and lamb fat, which we fry and render to make cooking tallow.
Cooking Doesn’t Take Forever
Do you have any idea how long chopping vegetables takes? Cooking used to be way more time consuming when I wasn’t on an animal-based diet and was still trying to eat a lot of vegetables.
Now, we just put some meat in the air fryer, put it on the braai (barbecue), pop it in the oven, or fry it all in one pan. There is minimal prep involved. The most amount of food prep I do is when I soak some organ meat like liver in vinegar before cooking.
I Know I’m Getting the Most Nutrient-Dense Foods
Animal foods, especially organ meats and eggs, are the most nutrient-dense foods you can get. It’s also much easier for your body to absorb essential nutrients like protein and iron from animal foods. I like eating animal-based, because it gives me peace of mind that I am giving my body the best sources of nutrients and the best chance of getting everything out needs.
Good luck finding pure vitamin A in plant foods. Your body has to convert the beta carotene in carrots, sweet potato, and butternut into a usable form of vitamin A, and you end up with a lot less vitamin A that your body can use than you thought.
A lot of plant foods also contain antinutrients like phytates and oxalates that make it harder for your body to absorb other nutrients in these plant foods like magnesium and iron. There is nothing in my steak that is trying to make it hard for me to absorb the nutrients in it.
I Don’t Have to Cut Out All Plant Foods
Being animal-based doesn’t mean you can’t eat any plant foods. It just means you base your diet around animal foods and supplement with plant foods if you want. They’re extra. I like eating fruit, but try to do so in moderation.
I also eat dark chocolate on a daily basis. I just love it.
I love being on an animal-based diet and now that my eyes are open, I will never go back. But that’s fine, because there’s freedom in an animal-based diet. I might do experiments with going full carnivore for periods of time in the future, but for the majority of the time, I think animal-based will do.
