Rose Rimler

The thinking here is that plants make chemicals to defend themselves against diseases or getting eaten by bugs.

They'll use stuff like tannins, oxalates, et cetera, and that those chemicals are bad for us.

And frankly, Wendy, this is the most irritating part of the whole carnivore diet spiel that I see online because I think it irritates me because it's like plants are being framed for a crime that they didn't commit.

Oh, so what's happening here?

I mean, as always, these influencers are taking little grains of truth and blowing them up.

So, like, yes, there is some stuff that can be toxic in plant foods, including some stuff that some might call anti-nutrients in plants that they can interfere with us absorbing certain nutrients.

But most of these things either break down when they're cooked or they're in very small doses or they just don't matter that much as long as we're eating a generally healthy, varied diet.

No.

Yeah.

I mean, to throw the carnivores a bone, maybe some people are uniquely sensitive to these chemicals.

And like going back to our IBD people we just heard about, maybe their guts were really reactive to stuff that's in plant foods.

But that doesn't mean that everybody should throw out our vegetables and, like, call them the enemy.

Because, I mean, I also found a case series where people with IBD switched to a vegan diet, literally the opposite, all plants, and their IBD cleared up, too.

Yeah, there's probably no one IBD diet to heal them all.

Although the typical Western diet full of ultra processed foods is best avoided.

But beyond that, we really don't know.

Actually, one review paper I found said that it basically comes down to if it hurts, don't eat it.

If I was shitting blood every day, yes, I would try this.

And everything else hadn't worked?

Sure.