Joe Rogan’s Carnivore Disaster – Carnivore Diet [2023 Update]

“Organs are primary. Eating liver and eating heart is very good for you.” 0:50 – 0:55

Joe Rogan wildly famous UFC commentator, podcast host and comedian – did it again: He went full carnivore at the beginning of this year.

Which is understandable – I mean the results were exceptional on his previous tries, right?

The enormous benefits of the carnivore diet included being worried about:

  • “shitting his pants”, and:
  • “trusting his butthole about as much as he trusts a shifty neighbor with a heavy Russian accent that asks a lot of personal questions.”

I guess that happens when you’re not consuming vegetables, right?

In this video you’ll discover:

  • WHY Joe Rogan is on a carnivore diet (and he’s not just doing it for the ‘experience’. Get it?)
  • And why Rogan’s diet poses a big, nasty problem (not just for Rogan)

For those that are new here: Hi, I’m Florian. Award-winning personal trainer, published author, and vegan since 8 years.

So let’s just dive right in:

Why Joe Rogan Eats Only Meat

Now to outside observers, Joe Rogan’s carnivore diet might sound nonsense. Right?

Here’s a buff, badass, famous and highly successful person – mingling around with geniuses like Elon…

… and then eating ‘meat and fruit’ only – defying doctor orders and giving thin-skinned, well-meaning nutritionists a heart attack in the process.  

Just like Jordan Peterson on his ‘salt, beef and water’ diet… right? Brilliant on one side and seemingly stupid on the other:

Why does this happen? Why do brilliant people decide to base their diet around ‘just meat’?

Let’s use some good old empathy, and see what would have caused a rational person to do this:

The Elk (Meat) In The Room

Well, the elephant in the room. Or the – elk in the room – as we talk about Rogan…

… is that he suffers from an auto-immune disease. Vitiligo. It’s the same disease Michael Jackson had – just in much lesser form.

michael jackson vitiligo

If you ever wondered why his hands look a bit weird – that’s why. You can see white spots (Joe Rogan’s auto-immune disease – vitiligo) here:

Experimenting With An ‘Only Meat Diet’

The reason this matters is that whenever you suffer from a health problem you become emotional – and you become very inclined to stray away from the beaten path…

… because drum roll – the beaten path has not worked for you.

So naturally, your tendency to experiment goes up. You want to try new things because the old has nothing in store for you but misery.

That’s typically why people change their nutrition habits in the first place. It’s not out of a position of strength – it’s out of a position of pain.

Carnivore Dieters Explained

In the Vice News Documentary on the carnivore diet they mention this. I’m paraphrasing:

“The people that come to us typically have some health and nutrition journey.”

That’s typically why carnivores become so outraged at vegans criticizing their food choices – because carnivores are in pain. And they’re doing the best they can to look for a solution.

Now who can blame carnivores for that? No one.

Except, well…

… us vegans.

Why? Because carnivores are stepping on the very thing that vegans strongly believe in – and that is animal welfare.

I think for vegans it’s important to know here that most carnivores are not doing this on purpose. They’re looking to solve their own pressing health problems and to some extent accept the animal slaughter as collateral damage.

Which doesn’t make it less wrong. It just puts things in a different light, right?

‘Extreme Diet’ vs. ‘Last Resort To My Problems’

Instead of seeing carnivores as these villains that eat children for pure pleasure – it’s worth seeing them as humans trying to solve their own health problems with the information that they have at hand.

  • Yes, some carnivores might see their nutrition choice as a rebellion against the mainstream. I’d suspect that this is why the ‘world carnivore month’ is in January – similar to ‘Veganuary’.
  • Some carnivores are doing it because for the urge of community.
  • And some carnivores seem to be doing it for rock hard erections.

Wait what?

So anyway…

… most carnivores I’ve seen do it for the proposed health benefits. Such as this person starting a carnivore diet to beat their auto-immune issues (also weight loss is a common goal):

The problem is just…

… that the carnivore diet is not very good at solving health problems.In fact, it can lead to potential long-term effects that are quite disastrous.

Negative Effects Of The Carnivore Diet

The all meat diet often aggravates pre-existing health problems such as heart disease….

… and is pretty much the polar opposite of what conventional wisdom believes a healthy diet should be.

Which is again, probably also the reason people to choose to hop on a carnivore diet in the first place.

But What About The Positive Benefits?

Let’s start with…

… Mental Clarity And Energy:

The reason our UFC commentator Joe Rogan feels increased energy and more mental clarity eating carnivore…

… is that his digestive system is not working.

A necessary part of eating is to switch from the fight and flight mode to the rest and digest.

That’s why some tiredness after eating a meal is normal.

Researchers have a word for this and it is postprandial somnolence (‘somnolence’). Again, induced by the load in your digestive system.

The rest and the digest is the polar opposite to the fight and flight. It’s the ying and yang. And is required for proper long-term functioning.

If your body does not get the right signals to initiate the rest and digest stage, you end up not being able to trust your own butthole.

And if there’s one thing you should be able to trust in this world – it’s your butthole.

And what about the…

… Improvement of Immune Conditions?

The only reason an improvement in immune conditions happens is due to the elimination of other foods.

So it’s not the meat that is special. It’s the absence of junk that is special.

A better way to do an elimination diet then is through a potato. A potato is generally a quite complete food that is well-tolerated.

And it is considered the most satiating food – meaning it will help you lose even more weight in the process.

So if you want to go extreme, do it with a potato. As it allows you even more weight loss – without any of the collateral damage.