Metabolic Medical Newsletter #7 | January 2026 | World Carnivore Month

Medical schools don’t teach their future doctors that chronic diseases can be reversed. Instead, I learned long lists of medications to mitigate organ injury and to relieve symptoms. These prescriptions control the disease, but they do not reverse or cure it. Just like bandages protect a wound, they do not heal the wound itself. So when I graduated in 1998, I could write five prescriptions for diabetes, but I had no idea how to reverse it with a diet. That was considered impossible! How little I knew. Over a century ago, Sir William Osler, the “father of modern medicine,” was reversing diabetes with what we now call a “carnivore diet.” Specifically, in 1892, he recommended that diabetes patients consume a diet of 65% fat, 32% protein, and 3% carbohydrate, and abstain from “all fruits and garden stuff.”¹ However, the 1921 discovery of insulin wiped the diabetic cure from medical curricula until now. 

Since 2019, a cheeky subset of the ketogenic world has declared January “World Carnivore Month,” an opportunity for many to reset their metabolism, perhaps after a holiday season of dietary indiscretions and inactivity. A carnivore diet is the exact opposite of a vegan diet, consuming only animal products, such as eggs and dairy. Despite the criticism that it lacks variety, the carnivore approach to eating has a range of “flavours.” From the least inflammatory “lion diet” that thrives off of only ruminant meat and salt to the zero-carb carnivores that eat any species of meat, organs, eggs, seafood, dairy, coffee and seasonings. As carnivores consume fewer than 20g of carbs daily, this low glucose load means very little insulin is secreted, allowing body fat to be used rather than stored. Yes, this means WEIGHT LOSS! The liver turns this body fat into ketones, boosting energy and erasing fatigue. The low insulin levels are metabolic magic. As you recall from my December 2025 newsletter, high insulin is the fuel that drives all chronic diseases by promoting the formation of inflammatory visceral fat. All chronic diseases, from obesity, diabetes, autoimmune illnesses, depression, infertility, dementia, osteoarthritis and cancer have inflammation and hyperinsulinemia as their root cause. By dropping both glucose and insulin, this ketogenic carnivore diet has reversed an exhaustive list of chronic diseases. 

A 2020 study from Harvard surveyed over 2,000 people following a carnivore diet. The authors concluded:

“Respondents reported substantial BMI reduction and improvements in physical and mental well-being, overall health, and numerous chronic medical conditions.” (see table 1)

“Respondents with diabetes reported special benefits, including greater weight loss than the overall group, reductions in diabetes medication usage and HbA1c—notable findings in view of the generally low success of lifestyle interventions for obesity and diabetes.”

“Respondents reported high levels of satisfaction, and little social impact.”²

A 2024 case report of 10 patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD: six ulcerative colitis and four Crohn’s) saw universal remission of disease with a carnivore-ketogenic diet.³ The participants described the diet as “pleasurable, sustainable, and unequivocally enhanced their quality of life.” So what is the magic of carnivore-ketogenic therapeutic interventions for IBD? Studies have demonstrated that as ketone levels increase, bowel inflammation decreases. As well, REMOVING fibre can improve the microbiome. Mechanistically, the absence of dietary fibre inhibits the growth and metabolism of some PATHOLOGIC bacteria, preventing inflammation.⁴ For those that eat plants, stool is made of water, bacteria (this makes the smell!), sloughed cells from the digestive tract, bile and fibre. For those that eat a carnivore diet, a combination of ketones, collagen, and adequate dietary fats combine to create regular, less bulky stools: no fibre, less stool! Yes, eating LESS FIBER can improve our microbiome and decrease symptoms of IBD, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), diarrhea and bloat. Fibre is a carbohydrate, and like all carbohydrates, it is not essential to eat.  

The volume on the carnivore megaphone has grown louder as more humans have realized the power of diet on disease. Eliminating plants allows carnivores to avoid anti-nutrients, compounds in plants that act as a chemical defence, since plants cannot move. These molecules, such as gluten, oxalates, lectins, and phytates, can increase intestinal permeability, create kidney stones, cause joint inflammation, and block nutrient absorption. To further demonstrate the power of carnivore, the first randomized controlled trial will start in January 2026. For over six months, Dr Robert Abbott will assess the effects of a carnivore-ketogenic diet on symptom burden and quality of life among patients living with autoimmune conditions, specifically rheumatoid arthritis and IBD.

I look forward to the results and the heightened awareness of the anti-inflammatory diet's impact on disease.

As I have navigated this delightful carnivore community, I have also met many humans who have overcome food addiction using a carnivore approach. This is an under-recognized form of addiction, conservatively estimated to affect 15% of children and adults. To maintain abstinence, eliminating all carbohydrates is key. For many, even the taste of fruit can trigger food noise and cravings, threatening their “carb sobriety.” I believe this group has revealed the most potent part of carnivore: eliminating all ultra-processed foods reverses disease. Eating real foods, mainly the meat, seafood and eggs from which we evolved over two million years, is a metabolic homecoming. It was what our bodies were designed to eat. It allows us to heal and thrive.

The fear of meat, cholesterol and fat dogmatically promoted by our food guides has driven us to carb toxicity. We did not evolve on a 60% carbohydrate diet; we evolved on a diet primarily of meat and a few plants. Fear and avoidance of meat have been conditioned responses, covertly cultivated by corporate interests. In 1960, Procter and Gamble, the makers of Crisco, donated $20 million to the American Heart Association (AHA). The following year, in a blatant act of bias, the AHA recommended cutting down on saturated animal fats and eating more vegetable oils, such as Crisco. How much suffering has come from corporate greed and a lack of scientific vigour? 

We are the most chronically sick humans to inhabit the earth. Given 55% of adult Canadians use at least one prescription medication, and many take more than that,⁵ I am left with more questions than answers:

Do people know they can reverse disease?

Do they want to?

Can we learn to enjoy fat without fearing it?

Are we scared to embrace a meat-based diet? 

Diet is more influential than DNA on our health. You have a powerful part in your destiny.

Does everyone need to be a carnivore? No. 

Do we all need to eat some meat to thrive? Absolutely. 

References:

1. Allen FM, Stillman E, Fitz R. Total dietary regulation in the treatment of diabetes. Monographs of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. No. 11. New York, NY: Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research; 1919. Published October 15, 1919.

   
   

2. Lennerz BS, Mey JT, Henn OH, Ludwig DS. Behavioral characteristics and self-reported health status among 2029 adults consuming a “carnivore diet.” Curr Dev Nutr. 2021;5(12):nzab133. doi:10.1093/cdn/nzab133

   
   

3. Norwitz NG, Soto-Mota A. Case report: Carnivore-ketogenic diet for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: A case series of 10 patients. Front Nutr. 2024;11:1467475. doi:10.3389/fnut.2024.1467475

   
   

4. Kuffa P, Pickard JM, Campbell A, Yamashita M, Schaus SR, Martens EC, Schmidt TM, Inohara N, Núñez G, Caruso R. Fiber-deficient diet inhibits colitis through the regulation of the niche and metabolism of a gut pathobiont. Cell Host Microbe. 2023;31(12):2007-2022.e12. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2023.10.016

   
   

5. Statistics Canada. Prescription medication use among Canadian adults, 2016 to 2019. The Daily. Published June 28, 2021. Accessed December 12, 2025.