Today is the first day of January and is also the first day of World Carnivore Month. To that end, let's challenge ourselves to eat a carnivore diet for the entire month of January. The type of carnivore diet and the level of strictness you choose to do is entirely up to you. Examples of carnivore diets include the following...

1) The Lion Diet. A person eating the Lion Diet only consumes the flesh of ruminant animals, water, and salt.

2) The BBBE Diet. BBBE is an acronym for Beef, Butter, Bacon, and Eggs. 

3) The Carnivore Diet. This allows for the consumption of any and all animals and animal by-products, including dairy. 

In any of the above examples, the object of course is to not consume any plants as part of your diet. Of course, we're not going to micromanage hoe you prepare your food, so your use of seasonings is entirely your own personal choice.

IF your circumstances don't allow you to go full on carnivore in January, then you can participate in this topic by challenge yourself to do better, above and beyond what you have been doing. For example, if you have still been eating grains, seed oils, refined sugar, or drinking alcohol, challenge yourself to avoid these items and just eat a clean, single ingredient whole foods diet such as clean keto, ketovore, or animal based. 

We encourage you to check in daily, and share what you have eaten, perhaps a weigh-in if you're willing, and enjoy in some small talk.  Participants in this topic will be entered into a drawing for a prize at the end of the month.

20 hours ago, Carburetor said:

I´m jealous of your 80/20... it can have 70% fat. Highest fat content in any ground meat here in Finland is 23%. 10% beef is standard.

My carni would be totally dairy free to begin with.

Same in north Sweden. I'm having a hard time even finding the 80/20 the most common I can find is 95/5-88/12. You can imagine how dry it is. I add minced lard and organs to make it less miserable.

Lately I was having so many issues (skin and digestion related) that I decided to cut out pork and chicken to see if it was really that giving me do many issues. I will try to live on minced beef for a while. So far it seems better. It would be interesting to understand if I'm allergic to pork or just very reactive to the imbalances of omega 6/3. Also I eat quite a lot of meat per day which surely doesn't help when said meat contains a lot of pro-inflammatory substances. Two meals for about 1.5kg of meat in total. Did any of you tried how they feel excluding monogastric animals for a while?

6 hours ago, Carburetor said:

If you feel ok with it, fat-coffee in the morning and another in the afternoon can help a lot. Yes it disturbs OMAD and fast a little but you can get butter/coconut oil added nicely. My add-ons are about 10 g each / cup. Today I had cream,too.

I have done this lately again while doing OMAD and my blood ketones were whopping 4,1 yesterday afternoon. Glucose was 4.9 mmol/L (90 mg/dL).

We call that bulletproof coffee I’ve here. It’s food stuff for coffee drinkers. 
I blend butter into my hot bone broth for my morning drink. 

Edited January 23, 20251 yr by Geezy

6 hours ago, Nemo said:

Did any of you tried how they feel excluding monogastric animals for a while?

I haven’t but only because i haven’t had any issues with pork or chicken. My system is only sensitive to vegetables and sugar. 
Many people do have issues with the monogastrics and have to stay away from them. 
Skin issues can also be attributed to eggs or more specifically the egg whites do that may be something else to look at. 

This may not be the right thread but it came to my mind:

I once adopted a two year old german shepherd that did not become a good competition dog because of allergies. Everything was difficult. The owner family had three "better" shepherds.

She was my third GS and sixth own dog.

First thing I did , we went strict BARF. No industrial dog food of any kind. Huge success, skin and rash eased up remarkably. I then dropped pork and things got even better. But still cortisone...

Then a vet from Eastern Europe heard that I´m giving minced meat. She said "dogs often react to minced meats , there can be anything mixed in". None of my earlier dogs had  had probs but I decided to try.

So no more mince, full meats instead and VOILA`, no more yeast,rash,anything at all! That dog became completely allergy free and we had many wonderful years together. Super obedient and we had this mind connection that only dog owners know about. I swear she read my thoughts and wanted to obey and act right. Oh man I´m getting emotional,typing this.

Anyway,my point is:

That experience taught me that all meats are not even close to equal when you´re sensitive enough.

I could not take a dog after that one, I decided to stop while on top. She was perfect.

Edited January 23, 20251 yr by Carburetor

1 hour ago, Carburetor said:

This may not be the right thread but it came to my mind:

I once adopted a two year old german shepherd that did not become a good competition dog because of allergies. Everything was difficult. The owner family had three "better" shepherds.

She was my third GS and sixth own dog.

First thing I did , we went strict BARF. No industrial dog food of any kind. Huge success, skin and rash eased up remarkably. I then dropped pork and things got even better. But still cortisone...

Then a vet from Eastern Europe heard that I´m giving minced meat. She said "dogs often react to minced meats , there can be anything mixed in". None of my earlier dogs had  had probs but I decided to try.

So no more mince, full meats instead and VOILA`, no more yeast,rash,anything at all! That dog became completely allergy free and we had many wonderful years together. Super obedient and we had this mind connection that only dog owners know about. I swear she read my thoughts and wanted to obey and act right. Oh man I´m getting emotional,typing this.

Anyway,my point is:

That experience taught me that all meats are not even close to equal when you´re sensitive enough.

I could not take a dog after that one, I decided to stop while on top. She was perfect.

interesting. what type of minced meat were you giving to the dog? cause i react badly to pork minced meat or mixed, but not to beef.
And talking about dogs, i have an interesting experiance. I have a very small and old dog (14yo 3kg), her health was rapidly going downhill and was getting her face swallen for a bone abscess. No vet wanted to operate her since a full anesthesia is risky on an old dog. we went carnivore together and it was a blessing for her. the entire swelling got better really quickly, her eyes got better, and her energy levels are through the roof. when i cook for myself in the morning i cook for her as well (but without salt), and she is thriving. I'm trying to balance her micronutrient income giving her enough liver. At first she wouldn't eat much and i thought that she didn't like it, but after gaining a lot of weight in a week i realized that i was giving her the same amount of food in terms of grams, but the calories intake was literally 10 times higher XDD
I found what amount is right for her and she is doing so well that she doesn't need to be operated any longer.

14 hours ago, Nemo said:

Lately I was having so many issues (skin and digestion related) that I decided to cut out pork and chicken to see if it was really that giving me do many issues. I will try to live on minced beef for a while. So far it seems better. It would be interesting to understand if I'm allergic to pork or just very reactive to the imbalances of omega 6/3. Also I eat quite a lot of meat per day which surely doesn't help when said meat contains a lot of pro-inflammatory substances. Two meals for about 1.5kg of meat in total. Did any of you tried how they feel excluding monogastric animals for a while?

How about fish then? Replace the pork and chicken with fish, maybe? 

Just like us, dogs need to eat a species specific diet. 

This happens a lot in dogs as the bag food diet is better than it ever was, but nothing compared to what they were designed to eat (a lot like us). I have two dogs in the back that are fed any table scraps we have left (not many) but the staple of their diet is chicken backs. I buy a 40lb case every other week. I step out the back door and toss a couple-three backs to each dog. 

This week our temperatures are atypical, and we have been below freezing since Monday night. I boil a few of the backs and feed them the fatty broth. One is 13 and the other is 12 and both move and act like they are three. 

The 12-year-old had six littermates. Our female died just a few months ago at 12 and he is still kicking at 13. The other five were fed bag dog food by their owners and none lived past 8. I'm not expert enough to say there is correlation between their diet and lifespan, as my wife goes all out on their care, but I think the diet played a huge role in their longevity, healthy and active longevity at that.

As an example, my wife inherited a pet pig from my son. We are in the grocery store a few years back and she grabs a bag of green apples. I speak up and say I'm not a big fan of the green apples and I actually like the smaller, harder red apples. My wife quickly replied, the green apples are for the pig, if you want your own apples, 'get you some red apples'.

And since I am night shift, I will babble some more on her thought process. We had a yard beagle and a house Fila Brasileiro. The Fila weighed about 170lbs. The big dog was let out to do his business and he followed the little dog to the pond. The pond was frozen over. The little dog took a stroll out across the ice and the big dog followed and he broke thru. He was basically in a hole and could not climb out. My wife is screaming, and my son is balling. I take a large rock and break out a chunk of ice. They hand me big rocks and I waded out in the path I was creating. The last rock broke some ice and gave the dog a path to the bank. At 170 he knocked me over as he came by, and I went almost completely under. As I struggled to the bank nearly freezing, feeling the water freezing in my beard, my wife was wrapping the dog in a blanket and rushing him back to the house. I'm not sure she ever looked back.

I was pretty much 'on my own'.

The animals at our house live like kings/queens. 

Scott

 

18 hours ago, Nemo said:

what type of minced meat were you giving to the dog? cause i react badly to pork minced meat or mixed, but not to beef.

Quitting all minced completely healed that dog. Pork was possibly a little worse but beef was bad,too.

9 hours ago, Scott F. said:

I'm not expert enough to say there is correlation between their diet and lifespan

No doubt about it. As carnivores they are no different than us. 
I’ve seen a tremendous difference in my older dog, Great Dane and American Bulldog Cross. He’s 12 years old and was getting around pretty poorly until we put him on a meat and fat diet. Within 3 months he was moving around pain free and playing with the younger dogs. 

We might be onto something with this carnivore thing. LOL

 

Scott

On 1/23/2025 at 5:54 PM, Geezy said:

I blend butter into my hot bone broth for my morning drink. 

This sounds like my kind of drink.

I was in our hunting club´s moose group for 15 years. Most of that time as a dog guide.

We dog guides had a priority for bones,dogs are so important in our way of hunting. I always got plenty... but I made broth out of most of them. Sorry dogs! Cut and grilled them bones a bit first, then cook in pressure cooker for a loooong time... to get sticky extract that I put in ice cube bags and froze for practical use later on.

Dogs got some moose bones -and heads -but perfectly good bones for dogs can be bought. I wanted moose broth.

Just remembered,we have a meeting tomorrow. I might be back in moose business if ketovore keeps healing me the way it is doing now. It´s a group hunt, pretty physical in cold weather and I don´t want to be the squeaky wheel.

5 hours ago, Carburetor said:

Quitting all minced completely healed that dog. Pork was possibly a little worse but beef was bad,too.

5 hours ago, Carburetor said:

Quitting all minced completely healed that dog. Pork was possibly a little worse but beef was bad,too.

I genuinely wonder why. As far as i know minced meat should be great since they grind pretty much everything in it, therefore you end up eating things like tendors, skin, etc, which are great for your health but otherwise people most likely wouldn't eat. If minced meat is an issue i'm completely screwed, here the only ruminants i can find are raindeer and cow, and the prices are out of hands. minced meat is the cheapest and it goes  at about 110sek (10$) per kg (2.2pounds), then for about 15$ per kg you can find some cuts of meat with a lot of tendors like the Högrev (dunno how is called in english), which is pretty great for stews, but when it comes to steaks, the cheapest i found for 30$/kg for Entrecôte (Ribeye). those were the prices for cuts of cow meat; if you desire to buy raindeer you gotta be ready to pay with tears of polar bear harvested on a full mood.

 

Update: i believe the Högrev is called Chuck in english, or at least that's what chat gpt said.

Edited January 24, 20251 yr by Nemo

26 minutes ago, Carburetor said:

This sounds like my kind of drink.

i drink something very similar every morning. i make bones broth, in which i add pork skin for collagen. When cold it becomes a jelly and i store it in the refrigerator. in the morning i just warm it up and enjoy some hot bones broth with ghee.

7 hours ago, Carburetor said:

I was in our hunting club´s moose group for 15 years. Most of that time as a dog guide.

Here we like to use blood trackers for finding game. 
This is my blood tracker. She loves her job. Has a very strong prey drive and one of the best noses I’ve seen. 

6 hours ago, Nemo said:

If minced meat is an issue i'm completely screwed, here the only ruminants i can find are raindeer and cow, and the prices are out of hands. minced meat is the cheapest

Not to worry. As Dr. Ken Barry says, eat what you can afford to eat as long as it’s meat. If all you can afford is hotdogs and lunchmeat it’s still better than highly processed junk and vegetables. 

9 hours ago, Geezy said:

Not to worry. As Dr. Ken Barry says, eat what you can afford to eat as long as it’s meat. If all you can afford is hotdogs and lunchmeat it’s still better than highly processed junk and vegetables. 

I have to say that i highly disagree with dr. barry.  i believe he has somehow a single minded prospective, and a bit of an absolutist way to approach the topic, seeing everything in black or white. To be honest switching a europan diet for a hotdog based diet is surely not something that i would consider a good idea. There are levels of 'unhealthy', and i believe you can't go any more unhealthy than the standard american diet (since is based on ultra processed foods). I find his point of view single minded cause he bases his 'facts' on the prospective of someone that is heavily overweight and eats an ultraprocessed diet, which is very much not the case here. In my family is very common to get far over 100yo, and i'm positive that wouldn't  happen with a diet based on processed food like hotdogs. Sure hotdogs are better than eating at mcdonald, taco bell and dominos pizza, or eating potato chips in a bag with a coca-cola zero on the side, pop-tarts for breakfast, and cheese balls as a snack. But if i had to choose between the two i would go for worms and crickets😅

On my personal experiance (lived in the us for few years as a teen in texas and cali) people don't only eat processed food when they go out to eat, they tend to eat a lot of processed food at home as well which makes it a daily occurrance for the average Joe.

Here most of us buy raw ingredients and cook, so yes, you have the components of all the anti-nutrients and toxins present in plants which on the long run feeds autoimmune disease, but not the burden of ultra-processed food, which i personally believe to be worse in particular if combined with the first one.

16 hours ago, Nemo said:

I genuinely wonder why. As far as i know minced meat should be great since they grind pretty much everything in it, therefore you end up eating things like tendors, skin, etc, which are great for your health but otherwise people most likely wouldn't eat. If minced meat is an issue i'm completely screwed, here the only ruminants i can find are raindeer and cow, and the prices are out of hands. minced meat is the cheapest and it goes  at about 110sek (10$) per kg (2.2pounds), then for about 15$ per kg you can find some cuts of meat with a lot of tendors like the Högrev (dunno how is called in english), which is pretty great for stews, but when it comes to steaks, the cheapest i found for 30$/kg for Entrecôte (Ribeye). those were the prices for cuts of cow meat; if you desire to buy raindeer you gotta be ready to pay with tears of polar bear harvested on a full mood.

 

Update: i believe the Högrev is called Chuck in english, or at least that's what chat gpt said.

Insane prices...

10 hours ago, Geezy said:

Here we like to use blood trackers for finding game. 
This is my blood tracker. She loves her job. Has a very strong prey drive and one of the best noses I’ve seen. 

Looks good!

Our moose hunt is dependent on the dogs. We have an area where we think moose are, based on observation and tracking all year round. Moose have their standard routes,too.

So we let a dog in the area, area is already surrounded by hunters standing quietly in their posts.The dog finds a moose and starts barking at it from a reasonable distance, hopefully, to not scare the moose right away... After a while, A Dog guide can try to sneak closer while the moose is "hypnotized" by the dog. Sometimes guide manages to shoot the moose, more often the moose bolts away and one of the surrounding hunters can try to shoot it.

I had two Grey Norwegian moose dogs. The first one was too hot,moose did not stay. The second one was too shy... I did much better with german shepherds, obedience is the key with them. They tracked me many a deer in the dark,too. We are allowed to hunt very late in the dark, finding the dead deer can be tough.

---------------

To Nemo, I did not understand why minced meat by itself would be bad either. But the vet who told me about it was from Eastern Europe with horrible minced meat experiences there, she said "there can be anything" and that means chemicals,too. Who knows. Maybe the bad practises,whatever they are,are universal now? 

Anyways, my dog reacted very very strongly,that´s all I know. I was given a very expensive,imported good breed competition grade, basics trained german shepherd for free! All because of wrong nutrition. >Minced meat continued to be wrong.... I do not know why,all I know is what happened.

Reindeer is tasty but extremely lean.