Meat-only diet followers claim disease reversal as expert says Americans are 'the sickest'

Carnivores from far and wide descended recently on Gatlinburg, Tennessee, to partake in Meatstock, a convention for followers of meat-based diets.

The weekend gathering featured presentations from experts, panel discussions and vendors centered on carnivore and keto diets — as well as biohacking. 

In the wake of the convention, Texas biochemist and author Nathan Bryan, who presented at Meatstock, told Fox News Digital, "Americans are the sickest people on the planet." 

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"Nine out of 10 Americans are metabolically unfit, two out of three Americans have an unsafe elevation of blood pressure and nearly half of the people in America are diabetic or pre-diabetic," he added. "That can be attributed to the foods we eat."

Bryan said he was extremely compelled by stories from Meatstock attendees, who talked about how much weight they lost and autoimmune diseases they cured by switching to a meat-based diet.

"What I found at Meatstock was people who eat mainly just a meat-based diet, high protein and really good fats with limited or no carbs or plants," Bryan said. 

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"These people seem to be the healthiest, and then they're able to reverse disease without drug therapy."

These outcomes were self-reported by attendees and are not broadly established in clinical research.

Meat-centric eating has its fair share of critics. Tara Schmidt, a registered dietitian and instructor of nutrition at Mayo Clinic, cautioned that carnivore-type diets put people at risk of missing out on essential nutrients like fiber, calcium and Vitamin D.

They also lack balance and are too restrictive to be sustainable long-term for many people, Schmidt said.

The science presented at the Meatstock convention was intriguing, Bryan said.  

"I come from academia as a former professor of medicine," Bryan said. "So I put a lot of emphasis on the science and clinical data behind [these diets], and it was impressive."

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) unveiled a new food pyramid and Dietary Guidelines for Americans earlier this year. The updated guidance reflects a broader shift in federal nutrition messaging, while also prompting debate among health experts.

The new guidelines encourage people to eat "a variety of protein foods from animal sources," including red meat, and are a radical departure from previous recommendations that emphasized carbohydrates.

The new guidelines have attracted much scrutiny. In an article on the release of the new guidelines, for instance, UC Berkeley Public Health reported, "When the federal government issued its recommendations for a healthy diet last week, many nutritionists and health care providers were appalled."

It is widely believed that misinformation about nutrition dates back to Ancel Keys, a physiologist whose "Seven Countries Study" is responsible for many accepted modern ideas about cholesterol and heart disease, Bryan said. 

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However, many nutrition researchers continue to cite Keys' work as foundational, even as aspects of it have been debated over time.

Special-interest groups, such as vegan societies, have used Keys' research to "demonize" meat and perpetrate widespread misconceptions about nutrition, Bryan said.

During an address to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association in February, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that the "war on protein is over."

Bryan himself is not a strict carnivore, but each one of his meals includes some form of protein — mainly red meat. 

He also fasts for 18 hours every day.

"I have a ranch in Texas and I grow my own beef, so I know the food that I'm getting is free of antibiotics and growth hormones and all that," Bryan said.

"I usually eat meat with some kind of low-glycemic-index starch, whether it's a baked potato, a sweet potato or maybe rice," he said. 

"I have my own garden, so I eat green beans and corn. I usually eat a salad, usually before a meal. For me, it's a balanced diet in moderation — but at every meal, I eat meat."