Words: Natalia Nowak (she/her)
CW: diet culture
Many of you will remember being taught about the key food groups in wellbeing classes, with the staple NHS Eatwell Guide marking out what a healthy diet looks like. Despite this, you got older, and after a particularly rough week of student meals consisting of Doritos and RedBull, you aren’t feeling great. You’re tired, bogged down, and maybe guilty that you haven’t had many vegetables since university started. So, you decide to go onto Instagram reels and find a peculiar phenomenon. You begin your scrolling with a bodybuilder named Eddie Abbew screaming rather passionately about how ‘you’re doing it all wrong’ when it comes to diet. How you should be eating single ingredient meals instead of highly processed snacks. ‘This is not food!’ he yells in a store, chucking a sweet packet at the ground. You scroll and are faced with a shirtless man who looks akin to early hominins and calls himself the “Liver King”. You watch him eat some very raw meat whilst promoting a ‘carnivorous’ diet – one that takes you back to your ancestral roots. Scrolling again you see someone drinking unpasteurised milk, describing to you why modern pasteurised milk is toxic and full of harmful chemicals. What is this emerging trend of raw foodism? Today we are seeing a rise in these extreme diets to promote a “natural” approach, often as a rebuttal to the chemical-filled reality of everyday processed food. Is there validity to these trends, and should you be switching to a carnivorous diet to satisfy your need for a natural diet?
The carnivore diet is a new variant of the ketogenic diet which has been rising in popularity over the last couple of years. Ketogenic diets are controversial as they involve cutting out whole food groups, and studies have had various and contradictory theories on the effects they may have on the human body. Many researchers and articles still state that more research is required on the topic, no matter their results. Despite this, influencers not only undertake the diet but promote it by sharing success stories such as muscle gain, improved energy levels, and enhanced mental capabilities. Studies have found that those who apply the carnivore diet reported improved health and satisfaction with little negative effects. But these have significant limitations and cannot be generalised.
The simplicity of such diets, like the ones that cut out the need to count calories and such, are attractive to those looking to lose weight as they offer a clear-cut approach to healthy eating. You can eat this, can’t eat that – there’s no maths involved. Although they have been found to be effective for quick weight loss, it is the long run we should be concerned about. Raw food and ketogenic diets may lead to nutrient deficiencies, osteoporosis, and increased risks of cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer. Symptoms such as these may remain with you much longer than the initial benefits, and are only a portion of the overall effects from these kinds of diets. But what is inspiring such extreme diets?
This cultural shift of experimenting with established dietary norms cites an approach that is often called ‘do your own research’, which aligns with the rise of anti-intellectualism on social media. This diet pseudo-science is following tensions found in our culture today, with fears rising from a mistrust in science and calls for a return to a more “natural” way of living. It is rather obvious that the way we are going about food production is ruinous. In an effort to feed our population, the use of pesticides, the genetic modification of livestock, and the destruction of natural resources, is essentially hurling us towards climate disaster. Such tactics are making us cautious in trusting food companies to provide quality products when all we’ve seen them do is cut corners, add more chemicals to our food, and increase revenue. With the democratisation of health information online we’re able to determine what is best for ourselves – for better, and often for worse. This wave of diet influencers is exploiting the decline in institutional trust and rise of conspiracy theories. Of course, many of these influencers may not realise that they are the vessels for such sentiments, however it is difficult to deny the circumstances we are seeing unfold online.
So, will we ever be satisfied that the way we are eating is good for us? Will we ever be content that companies and health organisations are working for us and not for profit? Will these influencers ever be satisfied searching for the next shocking trend, trying to get away from the truth that we live in a man-made world that can only provide us with controlled food. It is scary, but we shaped our own reality. This is what we came up with.
References:
- www.foodnavigator.com
- www.abc.net.au
- www.healthline.com
- www.healthline.com
- www.fda.gov
- www.ft.com
- www.sciencedirect.com
- onlinelibrary.wiley.com
- www.mdpi.com
- https://thejas.com.pk/index.php/pjhs/article/view/135
- https://journals.lww.com/co-endocrinology/abstract/2020/10000/can_a_carnivore_diet_provide_all_essential.11.aspx
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2475299122106086
- http://journalofexerciseandnutrition.com/index.php/JEN/article/view/173
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499830/
- http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/9/1725
- http://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/carnivore-diet-health-impact
- https://www.theportlandclinic.com/the-keto-diet-pros-cons-and-tips/#:~:text=Common%20short%2Dterm%20side%20effects,no%20long%2Dterm%20studies%20exist
