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Nutritionist Explains The Carnivore Diet | Myprotein
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Jan 30, 2025
Expert nutritionist explains why people follow the carnivore diet. Curious about the carnivore diet? Join Doctor Richie Kirwan as he delves into the reasons why some people choose to eat only meat and whether there's scientific evidence to back up their claims. In this informative video, Richie explores common arguments in favor of the carnivore diet, such as avoiding plant toxins and anti-nutrients, and breaks down the science behind these claims. *** Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 00:49 - What is the carnivore diet? 01:24 - Plant toxicity 03:04 - Plant anti-nutrrients 04:23 - Nutrition misconceptions 08:27 - Any more Q's? ********************************* Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MyproteinUK?sub_confirmation=1 Want to know what the carnivore diet is? ➡️ : https://youtu.be/mLzlDm1GXnY ➡️ Find more nutrition advice here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkb17OgnhB-E3HuYJuEacRqMjrokvPxpI
View Video Transcript
0:00
you've heard a lot of people talking
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about the carnivore diet but you don't
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know why someone would want to eat just
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meat let's talk about
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[Music]
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that how's it going guys my name is
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Richie Kerwin and today we're going to
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talk a little more about the carnivore
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diet specifically we're going to talk
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about why some people do it and whether
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there's science behind any of those
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reasons as always I want to point out
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that I'm not telling you to follow or
0:25
not follow this diet in all my videos my
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goal is to help explain some of the
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science behind different aspects of diet
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and nutrition my goal is to help you
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understand how different diets foods and
0:35
nutrients affect our health so you can
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use your own critical thinking to help
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you make up your mind about what to do
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with that information let's get started
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just before we start it's worth
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mentioning what the carnivore diet is
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basically it's an all meat or
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predominantly meat diet depending on the
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person doing it they may include eggs
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and some dairy products but the common
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feature is a lot of meat and very little
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are no plants at all not even spices
1:02
I've done another video on the health
1:04
effects of carnivore already which gives
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a better explanation of what the diet is
1:08
so remember to check that out after this
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video so why do people even do the
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carnivore diet well one of the big
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reasons that people speak about is
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avoiding plant toxins you see some big
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names in the carnivore Community like to
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point out that while virtually all
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animals are edible most plants aren't
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now that's a perfectly valid fact that
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unfortunately gets blown out of
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proportion yes there are a lot of plants
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that humans can't eat but there are also
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over 7,000 plant species that we can a
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common Trope in carnivore circles is
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that plants produce toxins because they
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don't want to be eaten so humans
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shouldn't eat them because those toxins
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will be bad for us it's a great story
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but it doesn't really have a lot of
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science to back it up plants do produce
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a huge variety of phytochemicals and
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they carry out a huge variety of
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different roles in plants and some of
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those are to help the plants defend
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themselves there's a really important
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saying that is very applicable in
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nutrition and that's the dose makes the
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poison what that means is that for a
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substance to be toxic it needs to come
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in a big enough dose the truth is if you
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have too much of anything it can be bad
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for you that's literally what too much
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means in smaller doses many plant
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chemicals actually have beneficial
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effects on human health for example
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there's a group of plant chemicals
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called polyphenols and these are
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believed to be responsible for the
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health benefits of foods like
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blueberries red wine tea coffee or even
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broccoli some polyphenols work by a
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process called heresis hormesis is where
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our body receives a small dose of a
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stressor like a plant chemical which
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actually stimulates the body to activate
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protective mechanisms which overall are
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beneficial for health another good
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example of hormesis is exercise exercise
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is a stress that causes our body to
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react and adapt and become healthier in
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the long run and it's possible to have
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too much exercise 2 which highlights the
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fact that the dose does indeed make the
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poison another reason some carnivores
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follow the diet is because plants
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contain antinutrients antinutrients are
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substances in plants that can inhibit
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the absorption of other nutrients or
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have other negative health effects they
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include substances like lectins oxalates
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phytic acid and Tron Inhibitors and it's
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true that antinutrients are part of the
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reason that some nutrients are not as
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well absorbed from plant foods does that
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mean you need to avoid all antinutrients
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not at all in fact we have a huge amount
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of research that shows that higher plant
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intakes leads to many beneficial Health
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outcomes despite the fact that plants
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contain antinutrients many foods that
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have been researched again and again and
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which continuously show benefits for
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things like reducing risk of diabetes
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reducing cholesterol levels improving
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markers of inflammation helping with
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weight loss all contain some
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antinutrients and they're still
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beneficial when it comes to nutrition we
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have to remember to look at the big
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bigger picture if a food contains many
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Health promoting substances and a small
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amount of not so beneficial substances
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overall it will have a net positive
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effect you see I don't have a major
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issue with the carnivore diet per se but
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I do have a major issue with the amount
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of bad information that circulates in
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many of the carnivore communities I hear
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many of the same misconceptions again
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and again and a lot of those
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misconceptions stem from a focus on
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mechanistic Research or research in
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animal models
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mechanistic research is done to help us
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understand the biochemical mechanism of
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how something works in the body it's
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really Nitty Gritty science and it's an
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important part of the scientific process
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as is animal research the problem is
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when someone takes a mechanistic study
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and tries to use that to make dietary
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recommendations you see our bodies are
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really complex machines and don't always
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do what we expect based on mechanistic
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research for example omega-6
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polyunsaturated fatty acids or pfas are
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another substance that many people in
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the carnivore Community seem to be
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afraid of mechanistically omega-6 puas
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are used to make two series of prag
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glandon in our bodies and these are
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involved in inflammation inflammation is
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a perfectly natural process but an
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excess of inflammation is associated
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with a lot of chronic diseases like
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diabetes and heart disease this has led
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some people to believe that if you eat
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Omega 6 proof of containing seed oils
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you will increase your levels of
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inflammation and be at a greater risk of
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these diseases the thing is we have a
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huge amount of research that shows that
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Omega 6 don't lead to increases
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inflammation in the body and higher
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intakes of Omega 6 are often associated
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with a lower risk of disease like
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diabetes and heart disease the same goes
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for animal studies because what happens
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in animals with one food may not and
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often doesn't happen the same way in
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humans so you can't base your diet
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choices on mechanistic data and animal
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studies alone the good news is you don't
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have to we have plenty of research from
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rcts cohort studies and even
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epidemiological data that helps us
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better understand what's most likely to
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be best for our health I say most likely
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because science is never 100% but we can
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use science to help us get closer to
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certainty another benefit that is often
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mentioned about the carnivore diet is
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that animal products are nutrient-dense
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and in general this is true animal foods
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like meat fish eggs and dairy are
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amazing sources of very bioavailable
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nutrients like protein iron zinc B
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vitamins iodine calcium choline and many
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many more the problem is adding a lot of
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fat to animal Foods reduces their
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nutrient density you see nutrient
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density is tough to quantify but in
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general it's the amount of nutrients
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provided divided by the amount of energy
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or calories in the food 100 gr of lean
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round steak provides about 2.3 milligram
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of iron in only 15 calories so it's a
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nutrient dense source of iron however if
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you have 100 gr of a fatty cut of steak
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like sirloin it has a little less iron
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at about 1.5 mg and about 214 calories
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because of less muscle and more fat
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tissue so if you want the most nutrient
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dense versions of certain animal Foods
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in many cases lower fat or leaner
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versions are better options not the
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fatty options which are common on the
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carnivore diet which brings me to butter
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a common food for some on the carnivore
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diet and a very nutrient poor food
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because it's mostly just fat with very
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few nutrients if any at all and finally
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another major reason I hear from people
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promoting carnivore diets is that there
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are no essential substances that you can
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get from plants that you can't get from
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meat another way of saying this is that
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certain substances in plants like
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carbohydrates or fiber are not essential
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to life so you don't need to eat them
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this is a false dichotomy just because
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something isn't essential to survival
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doesn't mean you can't benefit from
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having it in your diet you absolutely
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can survive without eating carbs but
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your diet might be a lot more fun and
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your exercise performance might be a lot
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better with them you can also absolutely
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live life without eating fiber but
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eating some may reduce your risk of
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colon cancer you don't need a phone or a
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tablet or shoes or a house to live but I
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bet your life is a lot more comfortable
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because you have them like I said at the
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start I want people to understand the
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real science behind how Nutrition Works
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and that's hard for people to do when
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they're bombarded with nutrition
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misinformation and disinformation almost
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every single day but I really hope it
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has helped you to better understand and
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think more critically about the
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carnivore diet as always if you have any
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questions let me know in the comments
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below and remember to like And subscribe
8:31
to the my protein YouTube channel for
8:32
more great evidence-based nutrition
8:39
information
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