The odd thing about the carnivore diet versus other diets is that you won’t feel much of a need to snack. After doing it for 30 days, I can’t think of many times when I needed to add a snack in to my day.
Doing a mix of intermittent fasting without snacking is optimal for weight loss and health. The carnivore diet breaks many previous notions about needing snacks and eating three square meals a day.
You will simply not be able to eat a lot of food because one or two meals will be enough to satisfy your satiety. You will be free to go on with your day saving you tons of time in the long run. That is one of the things I love about the carnivore diet.
While it is said that the carnivore diet is very restrictive and you cannot enjoy it because it is simply eggs, bacon, or steak. That is simply not true.
Most people haven’t stretched their inner chef and prepared delicious steaks and roasts in a variety of different ways. There are a ton of different animals to choose from and tons of creative ways to cook them.
Many of the carnivore snack choices are best homemade so that you know what is actually in the food.
WARNING: Fast food on the carnivore diet
At fast food joints, you have no idea cooking your burgers next to. It could be cooked in dangerous plant oils like canola or soybean oil. Many of the meats might have sugars and spices added before cooking as well.
I avoid fast food at all costs and if I have to order food at a restaurant, I get a steak.
I remember when I was on the keto diet and I would go to a fast food joint. They would always look at me oddly when I said I just wanted meat and cheese with no bun or sauce. It would be screwed up about 30% of the time.
So just be mindful to avoid these places if you can and just stay fasted until you can get home and prepare a proper carnivore meal.
If I were in a rush and didn’t have time to eat a meal, I would use my carnivore snacks in a pinch.
My go to snack was pasture raised hard boiled eggs. They are simple, filling, and convenient.
There are also many options for sausage and jerky. You can find them online or in local markets. Just make sure you aren’t getting them mixed with things like jalapeno peppers or sugar.
Carnivore diet snacks list:
hard boiled eggs
beef jerky
liver jerky
Parm Crisps
beef sticks
pork sticks
pork rinds (these have a variety of flavors)
liver pâté
cheese crackers (homemade)
smoked string cheese
cheese curds
cloud bread (made from cream cheese & egg whites)
hard cheese and summer sausage
pepperoni
butter
crispy bacon strips
beef tallow
tuna can
sardines (avoid in seed oils)
cream cheese inside salami
You can even get creative and start making your own sausages, beef sticks or jerky. I haven’t tried to make my own liver jerky yet, but I will be doing that this upcoming month and I will write about how it turned out.
I need to purchase a food dehydrator. I think this will inspire me to prepare more at home rather than buying a big bag of jerky.
Too much dairy?
You might be thinking that these carnivore snack foods include a lot of dairy. I consider these animal products. If you are just starting out on a carnivore diet, there is no reason to remove them right away and is up to your personal preference.
Feel free to experiment with cheese. Just make sure you aren’t getting a lot of carbohydrates. Any low lactose dairy choices should be fine.
A2 Cows
Cows that produce the A2A2 gene have been touted as being extra special. There are “claims” that they are better to digest for humans. There is even a brand in the United States that is called A2.
Do I need to get A2 Dairy?
A2 cows are an option to those who have always had issues with dairy produced by conventional American cows.
You can find some Greek yogurt that is produced by A2 cows as well. I would only say to spend the extra money if you or your family has issues with conventional dairy.
A quick word on dairy with the diet
Try to go 30 days without the dairy to see how you feel and then add it back in.
The reason is because dairy and eggs can trigger issues in some people. If you begin the diet and still feel miserable, that might be your reason. Afterall, the carnivore diet is perfect as an elimination diet. If you did identify dairy or eggs as your triggers, experiment if A2 dairy or pasture raised eggs solve your problems.
Also, don’t get grass fed beef sticks or jerky as it is super expensive and not really worth it for a snack. Save the money and either dry your own or buy the brands that don’t have added sugars.
Grain finished vs Grass finished beef
Many people do the carnivore diet on American factory farmed grain finished beef.
This is not a problem for most people. It is still better than shoving fibrous anti-nutrient plants down your throat and suffering from chronic inflammation as a result.
Listen to your body. If you need to experiment and buy all grass fed beef one month and try that to see how you feel, than go for it.
I have listened to Shawn Baker and his podcasts about many people using grain finished beef and still gaining all the benefits of the carnivore diet.
I personally will use grass fed organs and grain finished steaks because they have a higher fat content.
Meat is expensive and especially if you have a large family it would be fine to buy conventional products as it is still much better than what most people are eating on a daily basis.
Food allergies on the carnivore diet
On this diet, you will be extra sensitive to food that you had no idea you were allergic to. I can’t eat conventional eggs and discovered this through my food journal.
One night I picked up some eggs real quick and didn’t buy pasture raised. I usually always buy pasture raised eggs, but this time I just grabbed the standard ones.
The following day I was sick. I traced it back to those eggs. I never had an issue with pasture raised eggs, I just hate spending $8 a dozen because I eat so many.
I know while on this diet, my body will give me very quick feedback on to what I ate.
The other time I got feedback was when I had beef jerky from a local market.
I got a terrible stomach ache the next morning and traced it back to the jerky.
I realized that they used crushed black pepper on it. Black pepper is a seed.
I never had any issues with black pepper before. I think my body was so used to the onslaught of plant toxins, sugar, and alcohol that black pepper was a non issue and just skated by.
Now that I am on the carnivore diet, little things like black pepper and conventional eggs can be a trigger.
The healthiest carnivore diet snacks
The healthiest snacks on the list are going to be liver or boiled eggs. They will have the highest nutritional content. Liver is super lean, though, so you will not feel very satisfied if just eating it alone.
I am including liver on the snack list because of its nutritional content and the need for organ meats on the carnivore diet.
Some people opt to just eat muscle meat, but from my research, it would seem important to include these organ meats in your carnivore diet at least a once a week.
Following the carnivore diet can be extremely rewarding when you have the vitamins, health, and vitality that you wouldn’t have from a Standard American Diet.
Carnivore diet snacking: Dos and Don’ts
Do not snack often. Use them for a crutch because snacking isn’t optimal for the carnivore diet nor needed. It can be helpful at times.
Do not buy jerky or sausage sticks that contain sugar, added spices, and peppers.
Do try to make your own snacks as it will be cheaper than buying at the store deli or gas stations.
Do have a plan in place each day when following the carnivore diet so that you are not tempted to eat junk food instead of carnivore snacks.
The Carnivore Diet: Food List
Meat: Lamb, Beef, Chicken, Turkey, & Pork
Seafood: Salmon, Tuna, Clams, Oysters, Squid, Crab, Sardines, & Shrimp
Animal products: Low Carbohydrate Cheese, Ghee, Butter, Bone Marrow, Lard, Bone Broth
Salt for seasoning
I have created the carnivore diet food pyramid here to demonstrate basically what you will be eating and you can base your shopping cart off of that.
I have a goto list that I saved on my phone and I can just go to it when I need to grocery shop and browse what I have and what I need to get.
The top of the Carnivore diet food pyramid
Here you have your dairy. This can be your Greek yogurt, bacon, & cheese.
Too much bacon on any diet is not good. Bacon is amazing but I noticed that people eat too much of it on the keto diet and it is especially tempting to have it on the carnivore diet as a daily breakfast.
Keep your bacon intake within reason as well as your other dairy products hence the top of the pyramid.
The middle of the Carnivore diet food pyramid
Here you have meat, organ meats, & seafood. I see many videos on YouTube and Tik Tok of carnivores eating a lot of organ meat. This is not needed and liver has so much Vitamin A & copper that it could be dangerous to be eating so much every day.
You also don’t want to be basing your carnivore diet off tons of seafood because of the plastics and contaminants that are found in the ocean.
The whole purpose of the diet is to be as healthy as possible and eating Tuna steaks every day instead of beef steaks is not the right strategy.
Just remember the larger the fish, the higher up on the food chain and thus more toxins. I believe sharks are the most toxic meat you can eat in the ocean.
Birds
Eat your chicken, turkey, and duck. It is practical to buy the whole bird if you can because it will give you a variety of cuts. Chicken has a decent amount of potassium which you will find useful as a valuable electrolyte on the carnivore diet.
The bottom of the Carnivore diet food pyramid
This is what humans are meant to eat. Fatty red meat.
Who doesn’t love fatty, juicy ribeye steaks?
If you can’t afford to buy those, look for deals on chuck roasts and you can cut those into steaks or cook the roast. If I see lean steaks on special, I will buy them and add beef tallow or butter to them to fatten them up after cooking.
The Golden rule of Carnivore:
Erase what you have learned by pseudoscience epidemiology “studies”. Eating fat doesn’t make you fat. Meat won’t cause cancer and cholesterol doesn’t cause heart disease.
CARNIVORE DIET & INTERMITTENT FASTING
At the beginning of my article, I talked about intermittent fasting and how it is where most carnivores end up.
If you eat a big meal the night before, your body might not even be hungry for breakfast and you just head off and start your day by skipping breakfast and maybe lunch. Think about all the time that you will save.
Fasting is an incredibly healthy behavior that has been around for thousands of years. It gives your organs and digestive system a rest.
The added bonus is you will accelerate your weight loss on the carnivore diet.
I will do a fast a few times a week and around noon I get an incredible mental clarity and joy. It is strange but I love it.
I also never eat before working out in the morning and I have much more strength than if I ate a big meal before hand.
While you are fasting, your body is still eating, it is eating your body fat. Just be sure you are still getting your electrolytes and that you ease into this practice.
Many people have never intentionally fasted their entire lives so it is always a good practice to ease into it.
You would do this by pushing your breakfast back slowly until you reach 16 hours. That would mean that from the time you ate dinner the previous night to the following day at 16 hours.
There are a variety of apps that track your fasting times. I use the app ZERO.
Beware that a lot of fasting apps will try to have you fast daily at the same time every day with the exact same window.
Fasting isn’t really meant to be done this way in nature. Fast randomly with your times, it’s not supposed to be a routine. Some days you do it, some days you don’t.
Reasons to fast on the carnivore diet
Saves tons of time in the morning
Healthy for most people
Saves money on groceries
Keeps your cognition sharp & focused
You will accelerate weight loss
Questions about the carnivore diet snacks or foods to eat
Which eggs do I buy, pasture raised, organic, or conventional?
This is extremely confusing because eggs have gotten complicated over the years.
I always buy pasture raised eggs as they are by default cage free and are supposed to roam free. This gives them access to eat grubs and worms from the ground.
Pasture raised eggs also have 4 times the amount of Omega 3 fatty acids and a high dose of vitamin D & E. They really are worth the money.
I can even tell the difference in the yolk color of pasture raised eggs versus conventional eggs.
The yolk on the pasture raised eggs is dark orange and the conventional ones have a very light almost translucent yellow coloring.
The other thing I notice as a difference between conventional eggs and pasture raised is that the pasture raised egg shells are tanks. Sometimes I can’t even break the shell on the first hit.
The conventional eggs have fragile and weak shells. I will often get the fragments in the mixing jar because they are so weak and shatter easily. That is of course if they didn’t on the drive home.
Organic eggs are probably a step up from conventional. It just means the chickens were fed an organic feed. I don’t buy these often because they are so close in price to pasture raised.
Can you drink milk on the carnivore diet? Is milk OK?
Yes and no. Milk has lactose in it which is a milk sugar. Ideally, you don’t want any carbohydrates on the carnivore diet.
It is a personal choice of whether or not you want to drink milk.
I would say if your body can handle it and you don’t have any digestive or skin issues from it. Milk is okay.
What vegetables can I get on the carnivore diet?
Very funny.
How many eggs can you eat a day on the carnivore diet?
As many as you want. Contrary to what we’ve been told, dietary cholesterol is not a problem in healthy humans.
Which butter is best for you?
KerryGold Irish Grassfed butter.
Can you drink on the carnivore diet?
No. Ethanol is a toxin to the human body. There is no place for it. It is useful for fuel and a cleaning agent killing anything in its path.
Can you drink coffee or tea on the carnivore diet?
Water is accepted. Coffee has lectins from the ground seeds. It also contains mold.
I would say tea is the better option out of the two but you can still do whatever you want.
If you prefer to have coffee and it isn’t causing you issues, then by all means have what you prefer. Just know that coffee isn’t considered “carnivore”.
How can I add fat on the carnivore diet?
I bought a big 5lb bucket of grass fed beef tallow on Amazon for $30. I just throw a spoonful on my steaks if they are lean. I also add it to my fatty cuts as well.
Your other options are ghee or butter. KerryGold Irish Grassfed butter is my favorite butter of choice.
Can you eat too much fat on the carnivore diet?
Yes. Your body will let you know when it is running right through you. Some people have said that heated fat in liquid form can also cause issues versus cold (hardened fat). You will have to experiment with what your body can tolerate.