Inside a Carnivore Convention Where Meat Is Considered MedicineDevotees of the diet, which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. follows, bonded over brisket and butter at Meatstock. By Dani Blum Photographs by Juan Diego Reyes for The New York Times Reporting from Gatlinburg, Tenn. May 5, 2026 Lisa Moss roamed the halls of Meatstock with a butter keychain dangling off her bag and a pin on her jean jacket that read: “I <3 steak.” She carried a bag of air-dried steak with her, just in case she needed a snack. Ms. Moss, 57, and her husband, Phil Moss, had flown from Alberta, Canada, to Meatstock, the three-day carnivore convention in Gatlinburg, Tenn. They were among more than 1,400 attendees who came to see their superstars — influencers who went by handles like “Steak and Butter Gal” and “2 Krazy Ketos” — and to meet other like-minded people who follow a carnivore diet of primarily or solely animal products, often forgoing fruits and vegetables entirely. “I’ve had people say that to me — ‘Don’t you want to just be normal?’” Serena Musick, a carnivore influencer, said during a panel on carnivore cooking tips. “If being normal means that you can’t exercise, and being normal means you can’t stand up without your knees or back hurting, then I don’t want to be normal,” she added. Talking to one another over brisket dipped in butter and cups of raw milk, they shared what they called their “testimonies,” describing how they believed the diet had healed a wide array of ailments, including arthritis, mental illness and diabetes. One attendee carried a pair of jean shorts that were nearly twice as wide as his waist, to show off the weight he’d lost since “going carnivore.” Most doctors would disagree with the attendees’ enthusiastic claims about the diet’s benefits. They have urged people to eat less red meat, warning that consuming too much raises cholesterol and increases the risk for heart disease. And they have stressed that fruits and vegetables are essential to prevent chronic illnesses. Those perspectives are of little interest to many at Meatstock. After shunning traditional diet advice, they have gone on to lose faith in conventional medicine and health guidance more broadly. It’s not just a diet, they said — it’s a mind-set. “It’s rethinking, relearning what we’ve all been taught,” said Ms. Moss, who adopted the carnivore diet seven years ago and wore a hat bearing the word “Tinfoil.” Standing for the national anthem. Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America. Followers of the carnivore diet remain a niche community, but their worldview is gaining more legitimacy. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has said he follows a carnivore diet, which he has claimed could eliminate dangerous body fat. When Mr. Kennedy unveiled a new food pyramid this year, steak earned a top spot. Several of his prominent allies spoke at the convention, including Calley Means, his close adviser; Zen Honeycutt, founder of the advocacy group Moms Across America; Vani Hari, a food activist known as “The Food Babe”; and Alex Clark, the host of a popular wellness podcast. While many of the attendees said they weren’t particularly interested in politics, their statements often echoed the rhetoric of Mr. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement. They were eager to trade prescription drugs for added helpings of beef and painted mainstream medicine as trying to profit off patients. Attendees crammed into conference rooms for presentations on raw meat and food addiction, as well as a seminar that questioned whether high cholesterol could actually lead to heart disease. (It can.) In the exhibit hall, women in bonnets sold raw cheese and butter, advertised as “for cats and dogs” to skirt restrictions on selling those products to humans. People drifted between booths selling meat-centric items like tallow lotions and a cereal made of ground beef. Non-edible offerings included a holistic health class for home-schooled teens and a tool to block radiation from cell phones. Veronica Eggleston, 24, said that she had become increasingly attentive to what she puts into or on her body since she adopted the carnivore diet in high school. She replaced her traditional sunscreen with a tallow-based product, for example. Ms. Eggleston, who attended the conference with her mother, said that one of the hardest parts about adhering to the diet was the pushback she received from friends and co-workers. “It’s so nice to not feel weird, to be in a space where I’m not constantly getting questions or personal attacks,” said Ms. Eggleston. Many of the attendees also said they were there to find community. Some even walked around with cutting boards that they asked others to sign, like high school yearbooks. “There just seems to be such a camaraderie here,” said Karen Chandler, 65. “That’s felt really good for me, because I’ve been kind of out there by myself.” Ms. Chandler was sitting next to Christy Desautels, 59, whom she had befriended on the bus from the airport. They two were now talking over lunch — plain burger patties heaped high on silver trays. Attendees wore shirts with a variety of slogans, such as “Real Women Eat Meat” and “Eat Meat and Question Everything.” Another attendee, Adi Lavi, 34, seemed concerned with matters beyond friendship: She walked around the exhibit hall, wearing a bag that said “Ask me about carnivore dating.” She had become a carnivore while in a relationship with someone who “believes in conventional medicine,” she said. That divide was one of the main reasons they broke up. Now she was starting a matchmaking service, just for carnivores. Dani Blum is a health reporter for The Times. ARTICLE SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/well/meatstock-carnivore-diet-rfk-jr.html
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Ex-vegetarian hits rock bottom and tries the carnivore diet for a month
‘I’m never going back to a meatless existence.’
Amira Stevenson-Hynes tries the controversial carnivore diet, eating only meat, eggs, raw animal-based dairy products, fruit and honey for a month.
Do you remember last year when The Hills star Heidi Montag made headlines for her Instagram video of her chomping down on a raw cow’s liver in an effort to fall pregnant? (Let me remind you.)
Well I followed the Montag-approved carnivore diet for a month and you might not believe it, but I think she’s onto something.
There’s nothing like hitting rock bottom to open you up to trying new things. So when I found myself chronically bloated, iron deficient, suffering from endometriosis and depression, this ex-vegetarian was ready, willing and able to let meat back into my life in the hope it would cure all that ailed me.
What is the carnivore diet?
Doctor Paul Saladino, who calls himself carnivore MD, is one of the leading medical authorities of the carnivore diet. The carnivore diet he endorses consists of eating meat (nose to tail), eggs, raw animal-based dairy products, fruit and honey.
Fed up with Western medicine, Saladino created the diet based on the diet of one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes, the Hadza people of Tanzania. This tribe experiences almost no auto-immune disorders, obesity or diabetes; all of which are associated with the gut.
Saladino claims this diet can be a cure-all for issues of the body, from fertility to depression, arthritis to erectile dysfunction. An important part of Saladino’s diet is consuming meat from 100% grass fed and finished sources to ensure the nutritional benefits you’re receiving are top-notch.
Why aren’t vegetables included in the carnivore diet? Well, Saladino believes they aren’t actually good for you.
He points to two studies to prove his point - the first which found raw and cooked vegetables ineffective against preventing cardiovascular disease and another that found both fruits and vegetables had no effect on oxidative DNA damage (one of the stimuli responsible for cancer development) and repair in healthy nonsmokers.
There’s no doubt this diet is controversial. It completely rejects mainstream medicine's ideas that vegetables are the leafy-green path to optimal health, grain-based fibre is a key to regularity and consuming large quantities of meat is a sure fire way to develop heart disease.
However, a 2021 Harvard University study concluded, “Contrary to common expectations, adults consuming a carnivore diet experienced few adverse effects and instead reported health benefits and high satisfaction.”
In the online self-reported study of 2029 participants over 6 months the average participant lost 20lbs, 100% of diabetic participants came off injectable medication and there was a 90% improvement in all patient’s diseases. Other notable findings include 85% of participants reporting better mental clarity, 69% reporting better sleep and 89% reporting higher energy levels.
Fair warning to any vegetarians out there who want to tango with meat again, be close to a toilet. Lucky for me, the meat shits (the diarrhea you experience after breaking vegetarianism) only lasted a single day but I’ve never been so close to soiling myself at work.
From the moment the first bit of steak hit my lips I knew there was no turning back. After years of lethargy and generally poor health the almost instant energy that meat gave me was exactly what my body was craving.
On the carnivore diet I experienced no bloating, regular bowel movements (excluding the day one diarrhea), increased levels of energy, a dramatic decrease in endometriosis symptoms and a slight decrease in depressive symptoms. My most recent blood test also shows my iron levels are back in the healthy range.
However, these improvements didn’t come without sacrifice. The novelty of eating only meat, fruit, honey and raw animal-based products very quickly wears off. While cravings for my previous lovers that go by the names of sourdough bread, chocolate, pasta and teriyaki chicken sushi rolls lessened over time they did not go away.
In addition to craving foods that would tickle my palette more than plain steak and apples ever could, there was the added sacrifice of not being able to eat in social settings. There is nothing quite as torturous as watching your friends dig into a delicious meal while you sit on the sidelines thinking about the plain hamburger patty you have waiting for you at home.
It probably won’t come as a surprise that I also got some pretty weird reactions from people when I told them what I was doing. But their confusion turned to disbelief when it came to the organ meats of it all.
In the aforementioned organ eating instagram video Heidi Montag claims, “There are so many health benefits to eating liver and [other] animal organs,” and Dr. Saladino agrees. He touts organ meat's jam-packed nutritional benefits on his website for desiccated organ meat supplements and on social media.
Since I wasn’t going to be getting any nutritional benefits from vegetables (or vegetables didn’t have them to begin with, depending on whether you believe the above studies) I decided I needed to give organ meats a go. I started with fried liver which can only be described as gross. I then moved on to cutting up little bits of liver and swallowing them like tablets to consume them without having to taste them, which worked well.
But ultimately I settled on Dr. Saladino’s desiccated organ supplements as the least offensive and most effective way to consume animal organs daily. In addition to the carnivore diet, organ supplements have further increased my energy levels and made me even more regular for those of you (sickos) at home with vested interest in my bowel movements.
When it comes to the billion dollar health and wellness industry it’s important to proceed with caution. Be skeptical about fix-all cures, doctors that claim to have it all figured out and diets as extreme as this one. I encourage anyone who is considering the carnivore diet to do their own research.
For this ex-vegetarian, the carnivore diet has changed my life. Reintroducing meat has done wonders for my overall health. I’m sleeping, pooping, exercising, working and generally living better.
The biggest sacrifice of this diet was missing out on social eating experiences. But after a month of eating strictly carnivore I incorporated a few social meals a week back into my diet, eating whatever I wanted for those meals. Thanks to my otherwise strictly carnivore diet and organ supplements, these meals have had little effect on my overall health.
That being said, most weekday lunches and dinners you’ll still find me chowing down (tyrannosaurus rex-style) on a steak, some roast chicken or hamburger patties.
Amira is a Sydney-born, New York-based freelance writer with a Bachelor of Communication (Media Arts and Production) from the University of Technology Sydney. Amira has five years of experience working in the TV/film industry and as a freelance writer in Australia and abroad. You can find her here.
Source: https://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/nutrition/exvegetarian-hits-rock-bottom-and-tries-the-carnivore-diet-for-a-month/news-story/59b6747ecaa0c69da08c49bb0141ff3b
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