The manosphere’s animal-based diet has gone mainstream

Holistic counsellor Lucy Barker was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, celiac disease and hypothyroidism two years ago after a lifetime of gut and mental health issues. It was around this time that she came across animal-based influencers on TikTok. “I saw online how many people had eliminated their autoimmune symptoms and got them into remission through the lion diet,” she says. “So I tried it for 60 days and could not believe the success.” According to Barker, consuming ruminant meat, salt and water alone alleviated many of her symptoms, including skin issues, joint pain, stomach pain and bloating. Then, she switched to the carnivore diet, which includes all meat, fish, eggs and dairy, before identifying as “animal-based” and eating fruit on occasion. Where wellness influencers promoting sustainability (and low calories) used to shy away from fats, many are now swapping a plant-based approach for an animal-based eating plan like Barker – chomping on sticks of butter as an “energy bar” and serving slabs of meat on wooden chopping blocks. 

Several men within the “manosphere” have popularised a meat-based diet: including right-wing professor Jordan Peterson, orthopaedic surgeon Shawn Baker (who published The Carnivore Diet in 2018), and podcaster Joe Rogan himself. And it’s easy to see how today’s political gender divide is pushing more men toward protein: eating red meat has long-standing associations with masculinity and power. But the extreme diet has also officially entered women’s wellness circles, with terms like “hormone balancing” widening the audience. Ex-vegan creators like Bella (aka @SteakAndButterGal) post about “carnivore femininity” and carnivore-friendly weddings on TikTok, and Sylvia (another ex-vegan) claims that eating six eggs, a steak and animal fats every day helped her lose body fat, heal her gut, clear her hormonal acne, and put her PCOS into remission. Others swear that eating animal-based eliminates brain fog, reduces belly fat and provides “unlimited energy”. 

@luvvsylv here are some of the FEW benefits ive experienced since eating this way: - healed gut - cleared hormonal acne - no more bloating/digestive issues (IBS) - the return of my menstrual cycle (& less pain) - the vanishing of my depression - the ability to get off 3 different medications for more guidance on how to eat just like this so you can lose weight & heal your body from the inside out, you can check out my 🆓 introductory guide in my bio 💛 #animalbased #carnivore #healthylifestylechange #weightlosstipsforwomen ♬ original sound - sylvia | meat based

Barker says she starts her day with black coffee and a teaspoon of MCT oil, with a pinch of salt. Then, around 12pm, she makes herself a large portion of bacon and eggs scrambled in beef tallow. For dinner? You guessed it, more meat. “I like to eat dinner early, at around 5 pm, where I will have a rib-eye steak cooked in lard or a bowl of ground beef,” she says. If she’s hungry in between meals (which she says she rarely is because of the high protein and fats), she reaches for Mikhaela Peterson’s crunchy bits (air-fried beef brisket), boiled eggs, a Paleo Valley meat stick, or a spoonful of coconut yoghurt. “Stripping it back to basics and eating primal has given me my life back,” she says. “People are waking up to the fact that we have never had such advanced technology and knowledge, but, as a nation, we are sicker than ever and that the majority of the food in supermarkets now isn’t even food; it is so highly processed that our bodies don’t recognise it.”

As the backlash against processed food claims canned produce and frozen vegetables in its path, and low-carb diets like keto are positioned as a weight loss method, meat is now being positioned as a health holy grail. “When I first started, I struggled with the fear of judgment as the diet goes against everything we have been taught about how we should eat,” says Barker. “But, in reality, we evolved eating this way and it is the most natural way to eat.” And, from the number of meatfluencers serving their animal-based meals on wooden chopping blocks, it seems plates and cutlery have been deemed “unnatural” also. “Why does everyone who follows this diet only eat on cutting boards?” one person commented on a now-viral video. The consensus seems to be to avoid dishes and “tiny fragments” of plastic and to make cutting the slabs of meat easier. 

@steakandbuttergal #carnivore #carnivorediet #animalbased #butter ♬ original sound - Steakandbuttergal | Carnivore

Bonnie Jortberg, associate professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado, says the current “high-protein hype" is baffling and not backed by evidence. “There’s little research to show that a high-protein diet has health benefits, so I think people get bored and are looking for the next shiny object to focus on,” she says. “It is important to note that most Americans eat too much protein, not too little.” According to data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the average US and Canadian citizen gets a full 90g of a day, a fifth more than the recommended amount. Instead, Jortberg hopes the attention of the masses will soon turn to a Mediterranean diet (high in fruit, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and lean sources of protein and low in red meat). “All of this really concerns me, and is contradictory to the large body of research that shows that a plant-based diet is by far the best and most healthful for people to eat,” she adds. 

Extreme diets have always existed online (think of the low-fat push and Freelee the Banana Girl), but the internet’s endless search for a meal plan that will “cure it all” lacks a key element of nutrition: balance. No, we shouldn’t live in fear of healthy fats, but that also doesn’t mean we need to chomp on raw butter like it’s soft-serve. A diet heavy in meat, organs and fats is antithetical to what Jortberg says research has “shown consistently over the past decade of research”. But, when the foundation of the diet is built from a subsection of the internet rife with extremism, misinformation and conspiracy theories, the rejection of modern medicine is part of the goal. It’s why raw milk is currently trending despite salmonella outbreaks and many animal-based creators also don't believe in sunscreen. “Doctors have failed us,” Braden Hendricks, a biohacking creator, posted in March. “We have been lied to our whole lives.” Unfortunately, even his four eggs and multiple slabs of meat weren’t enough to appease his animal-based following – he (apparently) slipped up by including some fruits. People pushed back in the comments: “Clone oranges and GMO bananas.”