The carnivore diet: Panel discusses an all-meat diet during annual beef celebration

Riverton hosted the Fifth Annual Rendezvous City Beef Roundup (RCBR) on Aug. 24 at Central Wyoming College’s Rustler Ag and Equine Center, where meat enthusiasts from across the U.S., Canada, England, Australia and China gathered together to celebrate everything beef.

Eight high-profile personalities were invited to the event to hold a panel discussion about the carnivore diet and the benefits of eating beef. Each one discussed their unique journey to becoming carnivore and how the diet has changed their life for the better.

The carnivore diet 

Within the past year, the carnivore diet has taken the world by storm, with influencers boasting they’re in the best shape of their lives. 

The restrictive diet consists entirely of meat, fish and other animal products like eggs and full-fat dairy, while excluding all other foods including fruit, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts and seeds, and especially processed foods. 

According to a May 29 Healthline article written by Lizzie Streit, the carnivore diet stems from “the controversial belief ancestral human populations ate mostly meat and fish and that high-carb diets are to blame for today’s high rates of chronic disease.” 

While the carnivore diet claims to aid in weight loss, regulate blood sugar levels, increase mental clarity and improve a number of health issues, there is no peer-reviewed research to date backing up these claims, and critics of the carnivore diet believe it is likely unhealthy in the long run. 

Despite this, an increasing amount of testimonials online and across all social media platforms rave about the carnivore diet and life-changing effects of consuming only meat.

Merit-based results

The eight individuals featured at the 2024 RCBR morning panel discussion are among some of the most famous proponents of the carnivore diet.

Jake Thomas, the founder of the mindset training program Life Like Jake, went carnivore after dabbling in several different diets, including the macro diet and vegan diet, while competing as a natural body builder. 

Thomas noted the “merit-based results” he saw while watching podcasts and reading books on the carnivore diet ultimately convinced him to give it a try.

“About five years ago, my mother was given a very grim bone density scan and osteoporosis news, and the doctor told her she had less than a year to live,” Thomas shared. “I took it pretty heavy, and she took it worse.” 

“I went from being vegan to eating nothing but meat about four years ago, and ever since, my mother has been following along herself,” he added. “She just completed her first Murph Challenge. She has put on 12 to 13 pounds of lean muscle in the last 15 months, she has reversed her osteoporosis and she is no longer seeing the doctor who told her she has a year to live.” 

Continued improvement

Dr. Sean O’Mara, a leading health and performance physician and the founder of Lantu, an innovative medical startup in Minneapolis, explained his journey to the carnivore lifestyle was a little different.

“I went to medical school and gained weight like everybody else who goes to college,” he stated. “At 48, I was heavy and riddled with disease. I was sick and falling apart, and although I found all of the best doctors, I continued to worsen.”

One day, O’Mara bumped into a healthy young man at the hospital who encouraged him to try the paleo diet. From there, he moved to the keto diet, and after conducting some research on the carnivore diet, decided to give the lifestyle a try, seeing nothing but continued improvement.

Similarly, Courtney Luna, a former yacht chef who shares carnivore and keto-friendly recipes on her website and social media platforms, has a long history of yoyo dieting, even going to her first Weight Watchers meeting at only 13 years old. 

“I have tried everything. You name it, I’ve tried it,” she stated. “But, I got a little warmer towards good health with paleo in 2010, which led me to keto.” 

After doing some research, Luna decided to give the carnivore diet a try and is now down 55 pounds, has clear skin and is off of her anxiety and depression medication.

Bella Ma, known as the Steak and Butter Gal by her 130,000-plus followers on TikTok and more than 350,000 followers on Instagram, promotes an entirely meat- and butter-based diet. 

Like her fellow panelists, Ma noted while on the carnivore diet she has seen her skin clear up and feels more vibrant, energetic and healthy than she ever has before.

Shout it from the rooftops

Known as the Carnivore Doctor, Dr. Lisa Wiedeman is a carnivore-based life coach and optometric physician who has been in practice for 33 years. 

Weideman went carnivore 15 years ago after struggling with carb, sugar and processed food addictions from a young age.

“It became very secretive because you don’t binge in front of other people – it’s embarrassing,” she said. “So, I was fortunate when the internet came around and I found a group called ‘Zeroing In On Health.’”

“Now, I just want to shout it from the rooftops because I really do believe there is something so valid about not eating anything from a box, bag, bottle or jar. It doesn’t belong in our bodies.” 

Western medicine tried to kill me

Angelo Leero, a holistic health practitioner known as the Meat-Based Medium, found the carnivore diet after battling breast cancer at the young age of 28, on top of an autoimmune condition.

She noted her medical team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles encouraged her to go plant-based. However, with Western medicine doing little to ease her symptoms, Leero turned to spirituality and holistic health, starting her own holistic practice which teaches mindfulness, meditation, reiki, energy work and frequency adjustment.

Although the holistic approach worked for a while, Leero fell ill with lyme disease, which wreaked havoc on her body, whittling her down to less than 90 pounds. In an effort to survive, she began eating meat, and since going carnivore has reversed all of her neurological symptoms.

“I started my practice because Western medicine tried to kill me,” she said.

“I include the carnivore diet in combination with my spiritual practices,” she added. “I created mind, body and soul courses so my clients can go from being chronically ill to mindfully well, and rather than giving power to the Western medicine system, I teach my clients to take their power back and heal themselves.” 

Plants are predators

Dr. Robert Kiltz, a board-certified OB/GYN, reproductive endocrinologist and the founder, director and head physician at CNY Fertility, admitted to being a “brain-washed doctor” who got really good at disease diagnosis and writing prescriptions for the right drugs. 

“I run a very successful fertility practice doing in vitro fertilization, and years ago I began to incorporate meditation, prayer, spirituality, acupuncture and massage to help people stick to the fertility journey because it’s hard and people tend to drop out,” he explained. “But, some of my patients were getting pregnant on the paleo diet, and as a researcher myself, I wanted to dig deep into why.” 

From there, Kiltz’s research snowballed to the keto and carnivore diets, where he ultimately ended up. 

“What I have learned is something that has changed my life, and as a doctor it is my job to help people heal,” he said. “They simply need to change their diets and get rid of the poisons – kale will kill you and animal fat is the healthiest thing you can eat.” 

He noted, “Plants are trying to kill us, and not just kill us, they control us – heroin, cocaine, nicotine, caffeine, sugar. They all come from plants. Plants are predators. They are deadly.”

The most nutritious food on Earth

Medical Doctor and Neurosurgical Registrar Dr. Anthony Chaffee agreed with Kiltz, noting as the dominate life form on Earth – and like all other life forms – plants have mechanisms to protect themselves from danger.

However, unlike animals that are able to fight back or flee, plants are stationary and easy to “catch,” and therefore, defend themselves in other ways. 

“Plants are easy to get to, but once we get to them, they hide their nutrients in less bioavailable ways, they stop the thing consuming them from absorbing other nutrients or they are directly toxic,” Chaffee stated. “Plants have a million different defense chemicals to try to kill or disrupt the animals or insects trying to eat them.” 

Chaffee further explained all plant-eating species have evolved to address specific toxins in specific plants, but for species which haven’t evolved to digest them, they are inherently bad.

“We need to eat what our species was designed to eat, and there is no special adaptation to eat meat,” he said. “Any animal can eat meat. There is nothing toxic or harmful about it. It is the most nutritious food on Earth.”

He added, “The point of eating is building the means to maintain the body, which is made out of meat. So, the perfect food for any animal is another animal.” 

Additionally, Chaffee noted species which have survived the test of time are the strong and healthy species. 

“The natural state of all biological matter on Earth is that of health,” he stated. “We are born from the survivors and the species that won. There is no species of any life on Earth that is inherently sick. So, if you are not healthy, something is wrong in your environment – something you are eating or not eating or happening to you from an outside source.” 

“Everyone should be healthy all of the time, and as doctors we should be there for the other 10 percent of issues that come up – accidents, emergencies, childbirth – that is real medicine and something a body can’t do very well on its own,” he concluded. “We have to clear this rash of toxicities we are facing, which is what I am trying to do in advocating for the carnivore lifestyle.”

Hannah Bugas is the managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.