It’s been over a year since Edie Cooper Willhite went on the carnivore diet, and she’s never felt better.
“I’m kind of surprised that I stuck to it, but I was convinced by all the informational videos I’d seen. It made sense to me that meat was the proper human diet,” she explained. “These are real doctors, and they are seeing real results.”
Most of the referrals came to her from Mike Callicrate, owner of Ranch Foods Direct, a farm-to-table meat market with two locations in Colorado Springs.
Business has been steadily increasing at his stores this past year, with many customers choosing to eat high-quality meat and fewer carbohydrates to lose weight and improve their health.
“A growing number of doctors now consider metabolic health and lifestyle as the solution to common problems like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer,” he said. “Word is spreading … about the flaws in our food system and all the highly processed foods that contain harmful ingredients like high fructose corn syrup and industrial seed oils.”
A carnivore diet of strictly animal-based foods was first popularized in 2018 by Shawn Baker, an orthopedic surgeon who noticed it relieved joint pain and arthritis for many patients. But variations on low-carb-high-protein diets are nothing new. The popular Adkins diet, first introduced in the 1960s, was based on the ketogenic approach to eating, which was used as early as the 1920s to treat certain health conditions. A keto diet of low carbs and high fat triggers a metabolic state known as ketosis, during which the body derives energy from burning stored fat rather than glucose from carbs.
Good Fat, Bad Fat
More recently, bestselling science journalists played a role in bringing to light the troubled history of federal dietary guidelines and food pyramid recommendations. Two of the best-known examples are Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, and Nina Teicholz, author of the Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.
Their scrutiny of nutritional research over the past century revealed inconsistencies and conflicts of interest, with natural fats like butter and lard demonized in favor of industrially manufactured margarine, and grain-based foods questionably used as the base of the pyramid.
While there’s now greater awareness of the harm caused by excess sugar and the need to consume high-quality protein, healthy fat is an equally important part of the story, Callicrate said.
“I think that’s the one thing most lacking in our American diet,” he said. “Yes, protein is important. But optimal human health requires high-quality fat, because so many of the nutrients reside in the fat. It’s critical for digestion and a feeling of satiation. Too much of the fat in our diet now comes from ultra-processed seed oils, like soy and canola.”
These are crops that are often genetically modified and processed into oil using chemical extraction methods.
Callicrate, who raises his own livestock on the plains northeast of Colorado Springs, said his goal is to provide meat with good clean healthy fat.
“Healthy animal fat is a function of how the animals are raised and fed,” he said. “If we’re worried about human health, we should also worry about animal health and well-being. The animals need to be well-fed, not necessarily grass-fed or grain-fed exclusively, but provided with adequate nutrition free of performance enhancing drugs.”
Properly grazed and managed livestock also benefit the environment, he noted.
“A cow on pasture can sequester up to four times the greenhouse gases she produces in methane,” he said. “For the health of our environment and the health of people, we need more cows and sheep out on the landscape that can convert grass into human food, while enriching the soil with natural fertilizer and increased organic matter.”
Carnivorism isn’t so much a diet, he said, but rather a lifestyle that returns meat to its rightful place at the center of the plate.
“Instead of treating meat like a condiment, people are realizing it’s okay to make it the centerpiece of their meals again,” he said.
Beef, Butter, Bacon
Willhite said eating animal products exclusively hasn’t felt restrictive to her, or to her husband Dave, who is also on the diet.
“When you have quality meat, you don’t ever get tired of it,” she said. “You might as well be eating chocolate.”
Shopping at Ranch Foods Direct offers plenty of variety, with artisan butchers on-site at both stores and a wide selection of cuts ranging from heavily marbled steaks to freshly ground burgers, ribs, roasts and specialty items.
“The people there know me well; they know what meats I like,” she said. “They are very accommodating of special orders. It’s like family. Just a great atmosphere.”
Website: https://ranchfoodsdirect.com/
Facebook + Instagram: @RanchFoodsDirect
“When you have quality meat, you don’t ever get tired of it. You might as well be eating chocolate.” — Edie Cooper Willhite