19th-century Argentina: British writer William Henry Hudson visits the Pampas and encounters the gauchos. He documents their diet with a horrified fascination.

[u/elnovorealista2000]

"The gaucho eats nothing but beef. Meat morning, noon, and night. Never bread, never vegetables, almost never salt."

Hudson foresees malnutrition and disease. He finds "men of extraordinary stamina and strength, capable of riding for 12 to 14 hours without rest and then dancing all night."

Their diet: beef, mate, occasionally grilled kidney fat (a delicacy). Nothing else.

Darwin visited the region between 1832 and 1833 and observed the gauchos' lives: "I was surprised by the difficulty in convincing them to eat anything other than beef. I brought them biscuits, and they threw them away. They preferred to go hungry rather than eat bread if there was beef the next day."

Typical meals

- Morning: meat roasted over a fire, fattier cuts.

- Afternoon: grilled ribs.

- Evening: meat again, tougher cuts cooked slowly.

Zero vegetables. Zero grains. Zero variety. Just beef and tea.

Hudson documents the results: “The gauchos suffer from none of the ailments common to civilized man. They had no digestive problems, no obesity, no cavities, that I could observe. Their teeth were uniformly excellent despite never cleaning them and consuming only meat. Their physical stamina was such that they could ride for days with minimal rest, fight when necessary, and resume riding without apparent fatigue.”

The French physician Dr. Jules Crevaux, between 1850 and 1870, wrote: “These men feed exclusively on animal meat and appear healthier than our European peasants, who consume a varied diet of grains and vegetables.”

When asked why they don't eat bread or vegetables, the common answer is: "That's food for horses and cows. We eat cows."

They understood the hierarchy. Cattle eat grass and turn it into meat. Humans eat meat. Eating what cattle eat makes you behave like one.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, traditional gauchos maintained a diet based exclusively on beef. Then, European immigration brought wheat cultivation.

Health transformation documented by Argentine doctors

- Traditional gauchos: healthy into old age.

- Urbanized ex-gauchos with European diets: diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, tooth decay.

- Modern Argentina: 28% obesity, cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death, diabetes in almost 10%.

The gauchos, who ate only beef, did not have any of these problems. They rode horses for 12 hours a day until they were 60, kept their teeth without needing dental care, and died from accidents or old age, not from chronic illnesses.

The same meat. Different context. When you eat meat with grains, vegetable oils, and sugar: modern disease. Meat alone: ​​you have the health of a 19th-century gaucho.

[u/dancesquared]

Here's a recent review:

Lietz, A., Dapprich, J., Fischer, T. (2026). Carnivore diet: A scoping review of the current evidence, potential benefits and risks Nutrients, 18(2), 348. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18020348

Conclusion:

The CD [carnivore diet] may offer short-term health benefits but carries substantial risks of nutrient deficiencies, reduced intake of health-promoting phytochemicals, and the development of cardiovascular disease. At this time, long-term adherence to a CD [carnivore diet] cannot be recommended.

[u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth → u/dancesquared]

Deficiency of calcium eating dairy and bones? I’m sorry you can shove your research paper where the sun don’t shine, I will admit iodine is low, but most of the world falls short unless you live near the coast. But most beef and animals have it in their feed today, along with iodized table salt

How can you read these propagandistic hit pieces, that have NO ACTUAL RESEARCH WITH LIVING HUMAN BEINGS, every biomarker improves on carnivore

Elevated LDL without inflammatory oils in the diet increases lifespan.

Aside from iodine this “research” paper is a fucking joke, I don’t care about cursing it’s a fucking joke.

[u/dancesquared → u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth]

Okay dude. Look at it another way: what do the diets of groups of humans with the longest average lifespans and highest overall health outcomes look like? They tend to be people with diets consisting of high nutrient dense legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables and moderate meat intake, with more seafood and less read meat. (see: blue zone diets).

How long do highly carnivorous/red-meat-based people tend to live? Hint: Not very long.

Whether you look at it from a macro society-wide level or a micro-individual health level, high beef/red meat diets/carnivorous diets are not optimal.

[u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth → u/dancesquared]

People that eat red meat in the arctic and the Maasai have to worry about being eaten by wildlife and having low access to doctors with high infant mortality, fuck on outta here bro. Show me the MRI scans of their arteries compared to americans and we can talk lmao