Over a century ago, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a Canadian explorer, spent 11 years in the Arctic, living among the Inuit people. For 9 of those years, his diet consisted of nothing but meat. Upon his return, his claims shocked the scientific community, which doubted whether humans could survive—and thrive—on an all-meat diet.
The Skeptical Scientific Study
To investigate Stefansson’s claims, scientists designed an experiment in 1928 at New York’s Bellevue Hospital. Stefansson and his colleague, Karsten Anderson, agreed to eat nothing but meat and drink only water for one full year under strict medical supervision. The study’s aim was to determine whether a carnivorous diet could sustain human health long-term.
Study Findings
- Perfect Health:
At the end of the year, both Stefansson and Anderson were found to be in excellent health, defying expectations that such a diet would lead to deficiencies or illness. - Nutritional Adequacy:
- Their diet consisted primarily of fatty cuts of meat, ensuring a balance of fat and protein.
- The absence of carbohydrates did not negatively affect their health.
- Key nutrients, such as vitamins A and D, were provided by the animal fats they consumed.
- No Scurvy:
Despite eating no fruits or vegetables, the men did not develop scurvy—a common fear at the time—because fresh meat contains enough vitamin C to prevent the disease.
Why It Worked
- Nutrient Density:
Meat, particularly fatty meat, provides all the essential amino acids, fatty acids, and fat-soluble vitamins required for survival. - Adaptation to Fat as Fuel:
Without carbohydrates, the body enters ketosis, relying on fat as its primary energy source. This metabolic state is highly efficient and sustainable on an all-meat diet. - Cultural Insight:
Stefansson’s observations of the Inuit diet showed that humans can thrive on a diet devoid of plant-based foods when it’s well-balanced in fat and protein.
I Ate Nothing But Meat for 35 Days. Here’s What Happened
What I ate and when I ate it
This example of an all-meat diet demonstrates simplicity and consistency: three meals a day consisting of fatty cuts of steak, supported by hydration through water and black tea. Here’s a closer look at why this diet works and the principles behind its success.
Daily Meal Plan: Consistency is Key
- Breakfast: Ribeye steak
- Lunch: Ribeye steak
- Dinner: Ribeye steak (or New York strip)
By sticking to a repetitive meal structure, you eliminate decision fatigue, making it easier to adhere to the plan. Ribeye steaks, rich in fat and protein, provide all the essential nutrients for energy, satiety, and muscle maintenance.
Why This Works
1. The Importance of Fat
Fat is not just a macronutrient—it’s vital for energy and health when following an all-meat diet. Without carbohydrates, your body relies on fat as its primary energy source through a process called ketosis.
- Ribeye steaks are naturally high in fat, making them ideal for this diet.
- Fat supports hormone production, provides long-lasting energy, and helps absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K).
Key takeaway: The diet cannot work on protein alone. Without sufficient fat, you may experience fatigue, cravings, and other signs of insufficient energy.
2. Nutrient Density
Fatty steaks, like ribeyes, provide:
- Complete proteins: All essential amino acids for muscle repair and maintenance.
- Fat-soluble vitamins: Found in the fat of the meat.
- Minerals: Iron, zinc, selenium, and magnesium, critical for overall health.
3. Simple Hydration
Drinking only water and black tea ensures hydration without added sugars or unnecessary calories. Black tea can provide a slight energy boost and improve digestion.
Why Fatty Cuts Matter
Lean cuts of meat (like chicken breast or sirloin) lack the fat required for energy and satiety on a carnivore diet. Fatty cuts like ribeyes and New York strips ensure:
- Sufficient Caloric Intake: Fat provides over twice as many calories per gram as protein.
- Sustained Energy: Without carbs, fat becomes the primary fuel source.
Potential Benefits
- Simplicity: A straightforward meal plan eliminates the stress of meal prep and decision-making.
- Satiety: High-fat and high-protein meals keep you full longer, reducing the need for snacks.
- Consistent Energy: By relying on fat for fuel, you maintain stable energy levels throughout the day.
My brain fog vanished
The most profound impact the zero-carb carnivore diet had on me is that my brain fog completely vanished. Poof. It vanished into thin air.
I’d spent so many years riddled with a heavy afternoon brain fog that I was at the end of my wits.
Within just a week or two eating zero carbs I’d had the clearest head I have ever had in my entire life.
I credit this profound realization (brain fog is caused by carbohydrates) to my renaissance. Before, I’d be able to do great work only sporadically.
On all-meat diet I was able to write article after article and record podcast after podcast. In between doing the great work of B&D; I was able to read book after book and take page after page of notes.
Nothing was off-limits or overwhelming. Eating only meat gave me back the abilities of my own mind. Again, this is the most profound effect I noticed.
Belly bloat vanished (and facial bloat vanished)
Before this diet I was eating a somewhat standard diet which included both meat and carbohydrates.
My belly was bloated and often sore. It wasn’t fat but my belly would definitely protrude (during this time I took absolutely no bodybuilding supplements or fat burners). I was completely natural like everybody else.
After kicking carbs out of my diet my belly bloat completely vanished. The pain that I had nearly all the time in my stomach vanished. The nasty bloat sensation and the feeling of always needing to use the toilet but never evacuating fully vanished.
I did not lose any weight whatsoever. However, my body re-compositioned from skinny-fat and bloated to lean and hard.
I was never hungry, I never experienced a night going to bed hungry, I always ate until I was full and I never counted calories.
I did not start this diet simply to lose weight or get lean, I did it entirely for health. But being able to maintain a lean stomach and not have to be hungry was a great bonus.
Constipation vanished
During my 35 days of meat only I had zero fiber and I never poo-pood better in my whole life. I was never constipated and I was never bloated. I also never farted.
There were no issues with waste elimination. I would wake up in the morning and use the toilet like clockwork. My belly would be nice and lean for the rest of the day.
We’ve all heard about the need for fiber over and over. In my experience fiber actively HURTS, it does not help. I never had worse shits in my life than when I was eating a high fiber diet full of vegetables, fruits, and grains.
The “Hangry” feeling vanished
I had steady energy throughout the day, never experiencing lulls in energy.
My mood completely stabilized on this diet. I was never once angry.
In the past I would get angry over the smallest thing. It was like I had no control of my emotions. If I was hungry, get out of my way because I’d turn into Mr. Hyde.
Now? I am always calm, cool, and collected. I attribute this to the complete lack of blood sugar spikes from not eating carbohydrates.
I often found myself smiling like a child after meals.
I have tried every diet in existence including intermittent fasting, vegan, vegetarian, bodybuilding low fat/high carb, all raw etc.
The all-meat, zero carb, carnivore diet is the only diet that has ever left me feeling satisfied and happy.
What about all the vitamins we need?
Humans cannot properly digest vegetation, which is why you fart so much after eating plants, beans, and other high-fiber foods.
Ruminant animals such as cows have different stomachs than us and they can digest vegetation.
Ruminants (e.g. cows, deer, goats, antelope, bison, buffalo, moose, giraffe, elk) have a specialized stomach for fermentation, which requires that they chew, regurgitate and chew their food (cud) again. We humans don’t do this (thankfully!).
(By the way, our digestive differences start in the mouth. Most ruminants have a thick dental pad they use to chew plant-based foods and they don’t have upper incisors.)
The ruminant has a stomach that is made up of four separate compartments, each with its own digestive function. After bacteria have done the job of fermenting cellulose, ruminants digest those bacteria in the fourth stomach chamber — the only enzymatic digestive chamber in their complex four-stomach system.
Unlike humans, ruminants do not absorb glucose from dietary carbohydrates via an enzymatic process. Instead, they get their energy from Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs) through fermentation of fibrous and non-fibrous carbohydrates in the first two chambers and obtain the majority of their protein from the digested bacteria (i.e. microbial protein) in the fourth chamber of their stomach. (source)
In a nutshell, the animals eat the vegetation that we cannot properly digest and they turn that vegetation into vitamins. Then we eat the animals and get our vitamins that way.
As it turns out we can get all of the vitamins we need from meat, especially beef. In fact there are many B vitamins in beef that are not found in any plant foods whatsoever.
The following vitamins and minerals are abundant in beef:
- Vitamin B12: Animal-derived foods, such as meat, are the only dietary sources of vitamin B12, an essential nutrient that is important for blood formation and the function of the brain and nervous system.
- Zinc: Beef is very rich in zinc, a mineral that is important for body growth and maintenance.
- Selenium: Meat is generally a rich source of selenium, an essential trace element that has a variety of functions in the body.
- Iron: Found in high amounts in beef, meat iron is mostly in the heme form, which is absorbed very efficiently.
- Niacin: One of the B-vitamins, also called vitamin B3. Niacin has various important functions in the body. Low niacin intake has been associated with increased risk of heart disease.
- Vitamin B6: A family of B-vitamins, important for blood formation.
- Phosphorus: Widely found in foods, phosphorus intake is generally high in the Western diet. It is essential for body growth and maintenance.
Meat is our most important source of vitamins, our natural multi-vitamin. According to this study:
Meat has been a staple part of the human diet since the dawn of mankind, but in recent years there has been some debate over whether too much red meat can raise the risk of health problems.
Now a team of researchers has studied the issue of meat in the diet to help gauge just how important it is for a healthy mind and body – as well as the crucial nutrients that red meat in the diet brings.
The latest study found that data from dietary surveys indicates that UK diets for people of all ages can be worryingly low in nutrients normally found in meat, such as vitamin A, vitamin D, iron, magnesium, zinc, selenium and potassium.
The researchers say that integrating red meat into diets across the age spectrum, from infanthood to old age, may help to narrow the present gap between vitamin and mineral intakes and recommended levels.
In addition, there is emerging evidence that nutrients commonly found in red meat may play a role in supporting cognitive function, immune health and addressing iron deficiency.
Red meat – defined as beef, veal, pork and lamb, which is fresh, minced or frozen – is a source of high quality protein and important micronutrients.
Beef and lamb are classed as a ‘rich source’ – more than 30% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) – of vitamin B3 (niacin), B12 (cyanocobalamin) and zinc. It is also a ‘source’ – 15% or more of the RDA – of iron, potassium and phosphorous. Pork is also a ‘rich source’ of vitamin B1 (thiamin).
Meat, particularly from grass-fed animals, can be a valuable source of long chain (LC) n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) such as omega 3 fatty acids.
Research shows that these fatty acids support normal foetal development as well as help lower the risk of inflammatory conditions, depression and dementia in later life.
Red meat is also an important source of haem iron – a type that is readily absorbed – and data shows that average iron intakes in the UK are inadequate, especially among females in general and during pregnancy.
“But my vegan friend said that meat is bad?”
The vegan diet is a form of eating disorder and your vegan friend is mentally ill.
All vegans are profoundly deficient in important vitamins and suffer from extreme malnourishment.
Meat and animal fat is a vital necessity for the brain.
When the brain does not get the nutrients it needs, mental illness appears.
Dr. Deans warns that many of the nutrients our brain needs are often found in meat and animal proteins. When our brain is lacking in these vitamins, the levels of glutamate in our bodies is lower, which causes an increase in feelings of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. When our brains don’t have enough zinc or iron, both of which we find in meat, then it’s expected that one can experience mood swings. Dr. Deans recalls that in the past she’s treated patients who believe they’ve had a panic attack but are really just experiencing iron deficiency.
These feelings can compound themselves even worse in vegetarians who are unsure what to eat and instead reach for white bread, rice, pasta, and cereal. Experts call this the “carb-itarian diet” and warn that the “resulting seesaw of blood sugar and hormone levels may lead to even more irritability, depression, and anxiety.” (source)
Carnivore Diet Results
The all-meat diet has profoundly changed my life for the better. I have never been so calm, so nourished, and so fulfilled.
I experience what people pretend to experience with meditation or religious/ritualistic fasting but I do not have to starve to achieve it. I literally eat as much as I want and I get nothing but good benefits.
I now have a deep understanding that we are meant to eat meat. When I look at grains and vegetables I don’t even see food.
Am I ever tempted to eat cheat meals? You bet I am. But I recognize that the desire for cheat meals is a mental desire caused by the addictive nature of most of our carbohydrate foods.
In fact, carbs fit the category of drugs better than the category of food. Actually, all of our medicines come from plants and high-sugar carb foods act exactly like drugs.
They get you high via a dopamine release and then a few hours later you get “hangry” and you desire more and more carbs.
You are never satisfied eating carbs the same way you are never satisfied with your intoxicating drug intake. It’s always more, more, more.
When I eat steak, I eat one steak and then I’m finished for hours with no cravings and no spikes in blood sugar or mood.
The benefits of the zero-carb diet far outweigh the cons.
Actually, the only “con” to eating this way is overcoming your own mind and using your own willpower and self-discipline to not eat these fake foods that get us addicted.
Foods like pies, cakes, breakfast cereals, breads, pastas and pizzas etc. I have absolutely no desire to ever eat vegetables so there is no struggle there.
For me, it’s steak, steak, steak, and more steak. If I want a cheat meal I eat some cheese and drink some sparkling water.
I have to repeat that I have never in my life felt worse than when I increased my consumption of so-called “healthy” foods such as fruits and vegetables.
I have never, ever felt better than when I eat all-meat and nothing else.
That’s it friend, that is my experience eating nothing but meat for 35 days in a row.
