Pure Carnivores

What does it mean to eat a purely carnivorous diet?

The word carnivore has "flesh" at its root--the flesh of prey, specifically. Our pure carnivores are eating exclusively from the animal kingdom. Generally, hunter-gatherers do not consume dairy with any regularity. And certainly, dairy is a product of the Neolithic Revolution. So it is a bit questionable as to whether or not dairy foods fit into this paradigm. We can look at the Maasai warriors of Africa and see fine people who drink milk and eat meat and blood. Most of our long term pure carnivores eat only flesh foods. Please see the Diet Basics for more details about dairy.

Can a purely carnivorous diet meet an individual's nutritional needs?

What an individual needs in terms of nutrition can be highly variable. But if we look at the RDA values for clues, we find that a carnivorous diet that excludes dairy can indeed provide a solid foundation for sound nutrition. Adding dairy foods like cheese only increases some nutrients. This idea first arose as a discussion topic on our Dirty Carnivore Forum.

What we found is that while muscle meat from animals can give us a good foundation of nutrition, it cannot provide some nutrients in measurable quantities. The nutrients lacking from most muscle meats include vitamins A, C, D, E, K and the minerals calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese and potassium. This is where foods like eggs, organ meats such as liver, seafoods like oysters and fish such as whole sardines can round out the diet nicely. Also, some nutrients are heat sensitive, so eating foods raw to minimal cooked is a good way to ensure better nutritional value from foods. This happens to be what is found in traditional hunter gatherer groups. They tend to eat a variety of animals seasonally, with most parts consumed, and some animal foods eaten raw.

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