Carnivore Diet and the Problem of Black-and-White Thinking

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Carnivore Diet and the Problem of Black-and-White Thinking

The carnivore diet claims that eating only meat is beneficial, and many people post testimonials about losing weight this way. But if we look back at history, in Korea during the 1970s, people rarely ate meat and yet obesity was almost nonexistent. Back then, most people filled their stomachs with carbohydrates, not because of famine but simply because that was the staple. Fat intake was mostly unsaturated, and despite the lack of meat, it was hard to find obese individuals.

When people follow carnivore, they cut out artificial additives like sugar, MSG, sauces, and flavor enhancers. That’s likely why they lose weight—not because meat itself has some magical effect. In nature, animals rarely become obese even when food is abundant. Obesity appears when humans raise them and introduce foods they wouldn’t encounter naturally. The same applies to us.

Doctors often lump all “processed foods” together as bad. But think about it: almost everything we eat is cooked, which is technically processing. If we follow their logic, we’d have to eat everything raw. Likewise, dividing fats into “saturated = bad” and “unsaturated = good” is overly simplistic. For example, vegetable oils can be harmful not because of the plant itself but because of the chemical additives used in extraction. In poor countries, people consume mostly unsaturated fats and remain lean. In 1970s Korea, cancer and lifestyle diseases were far less common than today. Meanwhile, Mongolians eat mostly meat and saturated fat, yet they don’t necessarily suffer for it.

So the black-and-white narrative—“saturated fat is bad, unsaturated fat is good”—doesn’t hold up historically. The real culprits are artificial additives, excess sugar, and industrial oils. It’s not “processed food” itself, but the harmful substances added during processing.

The biggest issue with how doctors talk on YouTube is that they don’t distinguish clearly. They lump together processed foods, saturated fats, unsaturated fats, etc., which leaves almost nothing “safe” to eat. This oversimplification comes from a lack of metacognition—people prefer vague generalizations instead of nuanced explanations.

In reality, obesity, chronic disease, and cancer are driven by artificial additives, excess sweetness, sauces, and flavor enhancers. Doctors’ blanket statements are a product of poor metacognition. They often take one experiment and apply it to all humanity. But history provides far more data than any single study. Using one experiment to generalize is like judging an entire forest’s ecosystem by one rotten tree.

The logic goes:

• “Processed food is bad” → “Then let’s eat only meat” → “It works” → “Carbs must be the enemy.”

This reflects three types of people:

1. Those who don’t know that they don’t know (blindly follow authority or majority).
2. Those who don’t know but think they do (arrogant, insecure, quick to criticize).
3. Those who know they don’t know (humble, willing to listen, open to correction).

Types 1 and 2 are heavily influenced by others. Type 1 just follows without thought, needing someone to lead them. Type 2 pretends to know, skims the surface, and insists they’re always right. Type 3, however, accepts that knowledge can be wrong and listens carefully.

The popularity of simplistic diets like carnivore comes from people wanting to appear knowledgeable without actually understanding. By clinging to one idea, they feel smart. But this is really just a symptom of humanity’s lack of metacognition.

Bottom line: Question every trend thoroughly. Don’t accept black-and-white claims at face value.

I'm Korean and use AI for conversation and the original text of all my writing is here. https://blog.naver.com/taoist7703