What to Eat on a Carnivore Diet

If you have just come across the Carnivore Diet then you might be wondering what foods you can actually eat whilst partaking in this glorious way of eating. It might seem obvious that meat is the answer and yes, you’d be right but you can also eat some dairy products.

BUT, this diet isn’t set in concrete and there are varying ways of tackling it. For example, some people will only eat meat and no dairy. This is often because of an intolerance to dairy or they may be trying to lose weight and they think the dairy may be stalling them in some way. Some people will only eat beef and nothing else. This may be again because of an intolerance of some kind, say to chicken for instance, or it could be that beef is just more satisfying to them.

Here is a list of what you can eat on the Carnivore Diet.

Carnivore Diet Food List

Meat

Choose fatty cuts wherever possible. Avoid processed meats unless you know exactly what is in it.

• beef
• chicken
• pork
• lamb
• animal fat
• bone marrow
• bone broth
• fatty ground/minced meat
• offal

Unfortunately most meat these days is lean so you do need to add fat into your diet.

Fish

You can eat any type of fish or crustacean but try to go with fatty fish wherever possible. Here’s some examples of fatty fish:

• salmon
• mackerel
• herring
• lake trout
• sardines
• tuna
• anchovies
• carp
• eel
• whitefish
• butterfish
• halibut

Dairy

Some avoid dairy completely due to an intolerance or if they are trying to lose weight. For most that do eat dairy, they tend to keep it to a minimum.

• cream
• cheese
• raw milk (some choose to avoid milk)

Eggs

• whole eggs
• some eat egg yolks only and will eat them raw
• some avoid eggs completely

Seasonings

Some people will use salt only whilst others avoid all seasonings.

• salt
• pepper
• herbs
• spices

Fats

A good amount of your fat should be coming from the animal products listed above so choose fatty cuts of meat wherever possible. When frying, grilling, broiling, barbecuing, roasting etc, use only animal fats. Here’s some examples:

• Beef tallow
• Lard (pig fat)
• Suet
• Duck fat
• Chicken fat (schmaltz)
• Butter (some avoid butter if they have an intolerance to dairy)
• Beef dripping

We get offcuts of fat from our butcher and fry up pieces of fat to have with at least one meal per day. I found that my weight loss stalled and realised I wasn’t getting enough fat. Once I started adding in more fat the weight started dropping off.

Drinks

• water
• bone broth
• coffee or tea – avoided by many – if you are having any issues or you are trying to lose weight and it’s not budging then give them up for a while to see if it helps

Carnivore Diet Meal Example

There is no requirement to eat 3 meals a day on the Carnivore Diet and in fact many people will only eat twice a day and some only once. So you may not need breakfast at all, or you may want to have breakfast at lunch instead and skip the lunchtime meal completely. The choice is yours.  We personally only have two meals a day.

Breakfast

• Bacon
• Eggs
• Black Pudding

Lunch

• Cup of bone broth – we leave the fat in the bone broth rather than skimming off the fat
• Minute steak, steak or fatty meat patties (eat till you are full)

Dinner

• Steak – rib eye, porterhouse, scotch fillet
• If you can’t afford a good steak then you can go with fatty ground beef made into meat patties