ADDING PLANT FOODS IN TO THE CARNIVORE DIET

Adding plant foods back in to a carnivore diet can be a tricky topic, especially when you’re within the vicinity of a carnivore nazi who will relinquish you of your carnivore status for simply smelling an apple.

In this guide, I’ll attempt to offer some simple logic to the argument and possible approaches to take should you choose to add plant foods back in. Because here at the Carnivore Diet Coach, we respect that, we respect you and we respect your choice.

HUMAN'S AREN'T CARNIVORE | FIX WHAT IS BROKEN | FIND WHAT YOU TOLERATE | VARIETY APPROACH | HUNTER GATHERER APPROACH | GUT APPROACH

Shock Horror: Humans Aren’t Carnivores

Contrary to what some Facebook groups and carnivore enthusiasts will have you believe, humans are not carnivorous animals.

Yes, we have some biological equipment that suggest we’re designed to eat animal foods, but we also have some equipment that clearly shows we’re also designed to plants.

Not to mention the fact that we literally evolved from herbivores.

Of course, there have been times in our evolutionary history when we probably ate mainly animals, other times when when we thrived on plant foods, and in the past 10,000 years or so, we also gave birth to agriculture.

To me, this points to the likelihood that we are in fact omnivores and can survive off of anything, but we like thrive on a mostly animal based diet due to the bio availability of nutrients.

READ MORE: WHAT HUMANS EVOLVED TO EAT

Fix What Is Broken First

If you do choose to add plant foods back in, the first step is to fix whatever it is you began your carnivore journey for in the first place.

Whether, like me, you were dealing with chronic IBS for over a decade, or like some of our members who have a broken metabolism and want to lose weight, or you got hit hard with an autoimmune issue…

Your first job is to fix that.

This might take a month, 6 months or even a year. Whatever time frame you’re dealing with, roll with it, push through and stay strong.

READ MORE: PLANT TOXINS

Find What You Tolerate

No matter which of the approaches you choose to take, you still need to figure out what your body likes and doesn’t like. This can take months of trial and error and you might be surprised. You can also use a food intolerance test to speed things up.

I’m from Yorkshire in England where potatoes are home grown and included in most meals. Guess what I’m intolerant to? Potatoes. They give me the worst stomach cramps. Who’d have guessed!

Find what you tolerate by including the foods you want to try one at a time.

For most foods, you’ll likely know straight away. Your body with react or it won’t within the day.

For some foods, it might take a week. For example, I can now tolerate bread. However, if I eat too much of it, my injuries and niggles from years of training begin to resurface.

Once you feel you might be fixed and want to add foods in, here are a few of the most popular approaches.

The Variety Approach to Plant Foods

Some people love eating animal foods only which is cool. But most people, especially when confronted with the prospect of eating nothing but animal foods for the rest of their life, crumble.

This approach ideal for those who just want a bit more variety in their lives.

The plant foods you add back in might include some herbs and spices, fruits, low FODMAP vegetables and maybe even small amounts of carbohydrate to help with sleep or performance.

READ MORE: CARNIVORE DIET FOODS

The Hunter Gatherer Approach To Plant Foods

This approach is inspired by Dr Paul Saladino and the approach a lot of the health conscious carnivores tend to gravitate towards.

It involves picking and choosing plant foods that our hunter gatherer ancestors and modern day hunter gatherers would have access to.

Alongside your regular meals of meats and organ meats, you could add in fruits, honey and certain vegetables.

Fruits because they’re literally designed by nature to be eaten and available in most  places in the world. Just be sure to pick seasonal, organic fruits to avoid pesticides and of course, eat in moderation.

Honey because it’s one of natures sweets. Again, consume in moderation.

Vegetables might include in season below ground vegetables. The kind you might find growing in nature. Again, we’ve likely never consumed these in large amount so consume in moderation.

The Performance Approach to Plant Foods

This is my approach to plant foods. I’m of the mindset that humans have been consuming farmed foods for around 10,000 years.

Not only have we likely created defences against any toxins in these foods but we seem to have increased our average lifespan as a species since then too.

Ergo, these foods aren’t the problem. Something else is. I currently suspect seed oils are.

Seeing as my main goal with nutrition is to live as long as possible, I tie this into the research by Peter Attia and many other longevity clinics which propose the best way to live a long hefty life is to have a strong cardiovascular system and to have muscle mass.

To the most efficient way get both of these things, is to train hard and to train hard, carbs help a lot.

Therefore,  the performance approach is pretty much the hunter gatherer approach with enough carbs, usually from rice, built in to cover energy needs.

The Gut Approach to plant foods

Humans have obviously been eating plant foods for centuries, but refrigeration has only been around for 100 or so years. Before refrigeration, plant foods were heavily processed to either remove bacteria and anti nutrients (pickling) or processed to favor useful bacteria (fermenting).

Seeing as both picking and fermenting foods removes anti nutrients, unlocks nutrients from within the plant food and increases the amount of beneficial bacteria in those foods, I suspect this is the way we're supposed to eat plants.

People who do include fermented or pickled foods report better digestion and due to the increased variety, have more exciting meals.