77: The Truth About the Carnivore Diet: Why Nose-to-Tail Is Essential!

The Truth About the Carnivore Diet: Why Nose-to-Tail Is Essential!

Michael Kummer: What if I told you that eating only steaks and eggs might not be the most effective way to follow the carnivore diet? And what if the key for thriving, whether you're healing or optimizing your health, lies in eating nose to tail? Today, we're diving into what the carnivore diet really gets right, what it often misses, and how you can make it work for you.

Intro: Are you ready to revolutionize your health and reconnect to your primal self? Welcome to the Primal Shift Podcast.

Thank you to this episode’s sponsor, Peluva!

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Michael Kummer: You know, the carnivore diet is one of the most powerful tools for healing chronic conditions like IBS and other digestive issues. It resets your body, restores your health, and helps you thrive.

But there's a catch. Is eating only muscle meat and eggs really how humans are meant to eat? Or is there more to the story? Spoiler alert, there is more. The carnivore diet when done right is incredibly powerful. But done right doesn't mean just steak and eggs. Look at nature. True carnivores like lions or wolves don't eat only muscle meat.

They instinctively go for the organs and fat first where the nutrients are most concentrated. Muscle meat comes later. And humans are not true carnivores. We are meat leaning omnivores. You know, so we are not even at the same level. As those true carnivores, and if they eat more than muscle meat, chances are maybe we should too.

Now think about our own evolution, you know, depending on how long you think humans have been around. It's been a while, and the story still applies, even if you don't think that humans have been on this planet for millions of years. You know, humans began as scavengers, eating whatever scraps we could find, often leftover muscle meat.

But when we became hunters, we gained access to the most nutrient dense parts of the animals. The organs, fat, and connective tissue. And this shift fueled the growth of our brains, and allowed us to evolve into the species we are today. And that's why it puzzles me when I see people promoting diets that limit carnivore eating to just muscle, meat, and eggs.

Uh, Dr. Anthony Chaffee, for example, shared what he believes is the ideal carnivore diet on a post on Instagram. It included poultry, a meat high in PUFAs, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and low in nutrients and excluded organ meats, labeling them as suboptimal. Now, let's talk about why this perspective doesn't hold up.

First, let's discuss poultry. Specifically, Cornish cross chickens, the breed used in most conventional chicken production. These birds are essentially obese babies when slaughtered, bred to grow unnaturally fast and large in just a few weeks. They go from birth to butchering in about 45 days. And this rapid growth makes them highly inefficient at storing nutrients.

Compared to beef or lamb, chicken is lower in essential nutrients like iron, zinc, and fat soluble vitamins. It's also higher in PUFAs, which are unstable fats that, when oxidized, can contribute to inflammation, especially when consumed in excess. And PUFAs aside, let's not ignore the bigger picture. Poultry wasn't a staple.

For most of human history, large grazing animals like ruminants provided a more consistent and nutrient dense food source. Poultry became a fallback option, like when spent layers would, you know, end up in a, in the soup pot. But that was never a primary, uh, source of nutrients for us, especially because if you raise poultry right, there is not much meat on them.

You know, it's not worth raising poultry for meat. And including them as the, in the optimal section of a carnivore diet, in my opinion, is just ludicrous. Now onto eggs. While egg yolks are nutritional powerhouses packed with choline, healthy fats, and fat soluble vitamins, egg whites are more complicated.

They're a waste product. They are meant to be the cushion for the growing chick that consumes exclusively the egg yolk as a source of nutrients. You know, and those egg whites contain proteins like avidin, which can interfere with nutrient absorption and even trigger sensitivities in some people. So consuming egg whites in large quantities, or the whole egg, really, because that includes the egg white, without properly cooking them, can also bind biotin, an essential B vitamin, making it unavailable to the body.

And this doesn't mean you should avoid eggs entirely, but it's worth being mindful of the potential downsides of relying too heavily on egg whites or poultry as a cornerstone of your diet. So why limit yourself to these less than ideal options when history, science, and common sense tell us that eating nose to tail is how humans were designed to thrive?

Now, if you're using the carnivore diet to heal chronic conditions like IBS or autoimmune disorders, stick to eating animal foods exclusively, but go nose to tail. This means muscle meat, yes, but also organs, bone marrow, and connective tissue. This approach doesn't just align with how we evolve. It gives your body the full spectrum of nutrients it needs to repair and thrive.

And once you have healed, you can explore adding other foods like the least toxic seasonal plants, raw honey, or raw dairy, if it works for you. But the foundation remains the same. Prioritize nutrient dense animal foods that fuel your body the way nature intended. Now I know what you're saying or thinking.

Of course you're saying this, you know, you sell freeze dried beef organs. And you have a benefit a financial incentive to push beef organs or organs in general and you're right We do but here's the thing We only started selling organ supplements because we believe so strongly in their importance. This isn't just a business for us It's personal, you know, my family and I follow this way of eating because we experience its benefits firsthand Now here is the thing if you eat only muscle meat and eggs you're likely doing better No, you are doing better than 99.

99 percent of the population out there who consume Other stuff that's less than ideal for humans, but that doesn't mean it's the optimal diet For humans, not based on how we've evolved our history and what we know about nutritional science, you know, and regarding organs I always recommend fresh But if you don't like fresh if you don't like the taste the texture the way you have to prepare them Whatever and it's not practical for you, you know free stride supplements are a convenient way to get the same nutrients That's why we made them not because it's trendy But because it's the best way we've found to help others incorporate these critical nutrients into their diets.

So here's the takeaway. The carnivore diet is an incredible tool, especially for healing. But don't limit yourself to just steak and eggs. By eating nose to tail, you're not only respecting how humans evolved to eat, but you're also giving your body everything it needs to thrive. Now I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Have you tried a nose to tail approach? Have you tried a strict carnivore diet of only, consisting of only muscle meat and eggs? Did it work for you? How did it work? How long have you been doing it? Share your experience, you know, either in a comment, if you're listening or watching this on a platform that allows comments.

You can send me an email. Um, you can comment on social media on YouTube. Um, and if you enjoyed this discussion, you know, don't forget to subscribe for more deep dives into what makes us thrive. Thanks for tuning in. And remember eating the way we are designed to eat isn't restricted. It's empowering until next time.

Stay curious and stay Primal. Next time on the Primal Shift podcast, we sit down with Kyle Bernier, a former professional CrossFit athlete and fitness coach, who's redefining what it means to be truly fit. We dive into his journey from college football to the CrossFit Games, his take on recovery, mental resilience, and the surprising lessons he's learned from injuries.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation that will shift how you think about training, life, and purpose.