Carnivore-Veganism: Equally bad?

Published 4.7.2026: This piece will be a bit different, in that I’m unlikely to link to any sources. The impetus for this piece was a podcast that I was listening to, in which the guest (a nutritional debunker of sorts) made the claim that the arguments of carnivores and vegans were the same. Now, he did make an exception for vegans who ethically believe that the harming of animals is morally wrong. He (nor I) have no argument with those people. They have made a choice that is not health based.

His contention was that beyond the arguments for ethics and morality, there is no health reason for veganism. He made the same point about carnivores (who are rapidly adopting eating fruit because they are reaping the results of not eating any plants— morons). I’d never considered that vegans and carnivores are essentially the same before. My opinions and biases about carnivores are obvious and upfront. I think they are morons: humans are not carnivores, we don’t have the guts and we don’t have the teeth. But I’d be lying if I thought that the carnivore diet was how I wanted to eat. I’d go vegan first, that’s my bias.

I think humans began eating meat by coming upon the “leftovers” of a successful animal kill. It was only our learning how to control fire that made meat something that humans crave. How much raw meat does the average human eat? I’d venture to say litlle or none. Eating offal (organs and innards) might have been the custom back in the day when meat was scarce, but in modern society eating offal is not common. Heck, even mice will eat meat if it’s been cooked. (Mice are hervivores.)

But neither are humans herbivores, and a vegan diet is only possible in our modern world of supplementation and fortification. Honest vegans know that they need to supplement to be healthy, and the bottom line is that we do not know all of the substances found in the food matrix. Supplements and fortifications are not the same as food. If you gave me the choice of carnivore vs vegan, I’d choose the plants and supplements, but I wouldn’t think it was a healthy diet. You don’t have to eat much meat, but your do need to eat some.

I’d never considered that the arguments made by vegans (with which I am more familiar) and by carnivores are the same, albeit from a different direction. Part of the issue is that beyond saying, “Eat all the meat and avoid all the plants,” I don’t know what the carnivore argument is. I actually don’t want to know, because I think it’s stupid. “Avoid all plants because they are poisonous?” What’s wrong with you?

At least low carbers make a bit of sense (I don’t buy their arguments either, but low carb doesn’t mean no carb, and you can fashion a healthy diet eating a lower carb content). And if that’s what you will adhere to, go with whatever diety brung ya. But it’s the cutting out of an entire macronutrient that sticks in my craw. And well, the fact that humans are NOT carnivores.

But neither are they vegans. There has never been a vegan society in the history of humans… because there can’t be. You have to get Vitamin B12 from somewhere… and vegans long term are deficient in other minerals, such as iodine, zinc, and omega 3 fatty acids. At least according to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who is a vegan (and yes, he sells supplements, but I think his overall points are valid… and I’ve watched other vegans suffer in the long term).

Which brins us to fiber, which vegans (even if they are not whole foods based) probably get an adequate amount of. But so-called carnivore dieters do not. Fiber isn’t found in animal products. And I’ve listened to enough gstro-enterologists on podcasts and read enough to know that greatly upping your fiber can cause problems. Whic is to say, I believe so-called carnivores when they say that their gut improved when they went carnivore. But like a blocked sink that you just don’t use, I’d rather eat a bit of fiber and fix the damn sink.

Ironically, lack of fiber isn’t what most carnivores (that I’ve seen) point to when they start to eat fruit, but I can’t imagine that it hurts. Not much poin tto this piece beyond my thinking out loud.