Parents are raising their kids on carnivore diets, and the internet is losing its mind over it. But is it actually dangerous, or is the outrage missing the point?
generated summary
Children and diet
- Kids should definitely not be on the standard Western diet; it is absolutely unequivocally driving obesity, type 2 diabetes, and probably gut-related and mental-health problems in children.
- For most kids, a strict red-meat-only carnivore diet is not the answer. There are some kids where it could potentially be a solution; carnivore is best used to help people fix illnesses such as eating disorders, food addiction, metabolic disease, and autoimmune disease, while beyond that it becomes more a matter of preference.
- One woman raises her children on an animal-based diet of about 90% meat and 10% fruit, with lots of red fatty meat, some eggs, some dairy, and a little fruit; the kids are thriving, and I have seen that many, many, many times, including some big wins among kids.
Clinical examples
- One child with an extremely rare gut disease was about 2½ years old, under 20 lb, on tube feeds and TPN, and basically dying; her mother switched her to a carnivore diet, and two or three years later the child was thriving, to the point that her doctors were asking what she had done because they had never seen it before. [1]
- A vegan teenager with Tourette's syndrome wanted to add meat because she wanted to be on the track team; her parents reluctantly allowed it if she bought and cooked the meat herself, she went fully carnivore, and the Tourette's syndrome went away. [2]
My family and diet
- None of the four children are full carnivore, but all eat a healthy amount of animal products by preference; none are sick, and they are healthy, well-behaved, respectful, intelligent, physically doing well, and athletic.
- A child's diet should include plenty of animal products because they are an easy way to get high-quality nutrition and help push out ubiquitous junk food.
Food quality and GRAS
- The MAHA movement has not seriously changed the junk-food environment; there may be more junk food with protein and perhaps a few food dyes will be removed, but a wholesale removal of the literally thousands of chemicals in the food supply is unlikely.
- The "generally recognized as safe" designation is often made with minimal support and minimal evidence; companies do basic testing, say they feel an ingredient is safe for human consumption, and it gets rubber-stamped GRAS, while questions such as whether it causes inflammatory bowel disease or IBS have not been tested before approval, though some people may go back and test later. [3]
Practical diet for children
- A child's diet should have plenty of meat, eggs, and dairy for most kids, with the rest primarily composed of single whole ingredients that are minimally processed as much as possible.
- Ultra-processed food should be extremely rare: birthday cake belongs on the birthday, not as dessert after every meal, and sugary breakfast cereal is effectively another dessert.
Social norms and chronic disease
- The mother feeding an animal-based diet received more criticism than the mother feeding her children doughnuts and other garbage; this is completely backwards.
- The masses have been brainwashed to believe that convenience and a need to snack constantly make this food appropriate to consume, while chronic disease has nothing to do with it and lifelong pills, drugs, and shots are expected.
- People in their 40s, 50s, and 60s often expect that they will be on some kind of drug at some point, and when that happens it is often seen as no big deal; the physician will often downplay it as no big deal because lots of patients are in the same situation.
- A chronic-disease diagnosis is a big deal and a red-flag problem, and these illnesses should be prevented before they happen.
References
- [01:37] Her Daughter Is ALIVE Thanks To MEAT | Dr. Shawn Baker & Jessica — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/her-daughter-is-alive-thanks-to-meat-dr-shawn-baker-jessica/id1495714614?i=1000682065854
- [02:16] Kicking Tourette Syndrome to the Curb! | Mady — https://music.amazon.com.br/podcasts/eb1459c5-577a-4878-8acc-423fb2da12de/episodes/e2fd3fc8-4992-46ae-a023-3b70a29da959/dr-shawn-baker-podcast-kicking-tourette-syndrome-to-the-curb-mady
- [04:08] How U.S. FDA's GRAS Notification Program Works — https://www.fda.gov/food/generally-recognized-safe-gras/how-us-fdas-gras-notification-program-works