Against the Grain: My Contrarian Case for Animal-Based Eating
More alcohol. More processed foods. More "it's the holidays" excuses.
The end of 2025 was a free-for-all for my wife and I.
The least disciplined period of the year.
But this year, this time felt different.
The contrast between how I felt to close 2025 and how good I had felt earlier in the year was more pronounced. It was sharper.
To start 2025, my wife and I adhered to the animal-based diet, and it was transformative.
Stable mood. Sustained energy. Better sleep. Mental clarity.
When my wife found out she was pregnant, she pulled off the diet (first trimester food aversions, anyone?). A month or so later, I also shifted back to my core eating principles:
- Prioritize quality animal and plant sources. Wild/local > organic > factory farmed.
- Avoid refined carbs or liquid calories. Limit blood sugar spikes, sugar and alcohol.
- Embrace cycling. More calories on active days, less on rest days.
- Let off it from time-to-time. 80% strict adherence to better enjoy when we indulge.
I'd distilled these principles through more than a decade of diet experimentation, and they served me well through most of 2025.
But the holidays? Right after we'd recovered our footing from having a baby, right after we'd started getting one foot in front of the other with a healthy lifestyle, I let the holidays pull me back off track.
I veered steadily off course, then completely.
And now that I've clearly felt what I'm missing - the steady baseline, the absence of afternoon crashes, the clarity - I'm ready ...
I know what "the alternative" feels like, and I want it back.
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Absorb what is useful, discard what is not. - Bruce Lee
I've spent over a decade experimenting with different diets and "healthy lifestyle" habits.
It all started when I was 20, reading my mother's copy of Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Body.
I was a chubby kid that stretched a bit in my teens, then fluctuated between fit and "freshman 20 pudgy" through my first couple years of university.
Before Tim Ferrissā book, I had zero understanding of what healthy eating looked like.
Iād thought chocolate milk and a blueberry muffin were a great post-workout meal, then wondered why I'd crash in lecture halls and struggle with focus and hunger throughout the day.
After?
A night and day difference.
Structured meals. Batch cooking. Eating the same thing over-and-over.
Rather than boredom, what Iād expected from dieting, I was fascinated by how simple a clean lifestyle (and being lean) could be.
The Slow Carb Diet eventually poured into Intermittent Fasting and the Paleo Diet, which led me to experiment with a Vegan diet, then the Warrior Diet (one meal per day), then the Ketogenic Dietāuntil I was largely burnt out on "dieting" by my later twenties.
When folks started talking about "ancestral" eating and the carnivore diet, I tuned out. I'd established my own eating guidelines by that point and wasnāt looking for more, new information.
After years of averting my gaze, toward the end of 2024 my wife read Paul Saladino's The Carnivore Code and as she was being pulled into the vortex, I jumped in to save her ā¦
What follows is an overview of the diet itself and why weāve cycled back to it to start 2026.
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ā¦ the fact that some choice is good doesnāt necessarily mean that more choice is better.ā Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Beyond the benefits I've already mentioned (stable mood, sustained energy, better sleep, mental clarity), there are a few specific reasons I find myself drawn back to the animal-based diet:
- I'm a contrarian. To me itās clear that mainstream dietary advice isnāt working. Rather than taking whatās commonly accepted (yet rarely challenged) at face value, I set out to experiment at the edges. I like to find out for myself and then share with others when I believe Iāve found a nugget of truth.
- Diet is my foundational practice. Everything flows from the simplification of my foundation. The animal-based approach reminds me to scale back, simplify, and return to ancestral basics. These basics then inform my training, recovery and lifestyle.
- The constraints extend beyond food. Everything goes under the microscope when I'm "in the zone" on my diet. If I can't be around certain people without feeling judged for how I eat, or if I only enjoy their company a few drinks in, the diet forces me to ask: what are we even doing here? It makes me question food, relationships, and lifestyle choices in ways that feel clarifying rather than limiting.
- I appreciate the restrictiveness. Like carnivore and keto, this diet forces intentional choices about what enters my body. I'd rather say "No" early and often, to get a handle on inflammation, to then selectively reincorporate what truly serves me. The period of intentional restrictiveness acts as a "forced reboot" that makes it obvious what does and doesn't serve my body.
Similar to how canceling a credit card ends all corresponding subscriptions, resetting my diet cleanses me of the baggage I didn't even realize I was carrying.
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Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
The animal-based diet flips conventional dietary wisdom on its head.
Rather than defaulting to "plants are healthy," animal products become your nutritional foundation. Plants are then selectively added back based on how well your body tolerates them.
The framework is simple:
- Eliminate what doesn't serve you. Grains, legumes, most vegetables, seed oils, and processed foods are out. The diet operates on the premise that many chronic health issues stem from plant defense compounds (lectins, oxalates, phytates) rather than from quality animal products.
- Prioritize well-raised animal products. Grass-fed beef, pasture-raised pork and chicken, organ meats, bone broth, wild fish, and pasture-raised eggs form the core of your meals.
- Focus on low-toxicity carbs. Honey, fruit, avocado, squash, and A2 dairy are A-OK. Medium-toxicity options like sweet potatoes, yams, and fermented vegetables are to be (re)incorporated based on tolerance.
The "plant toxicity" framework that underpins the animal-based approach isn't widely accepted in mainstream nutrition science. But for me, I'm less interested in what's broadly accepted and more interested in what actually works.
If you want to dive deeper, check out Paul Saladino's The Carnivore Code and Heart and Soil.
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We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret." ā Jim Rohn
Adhering to this diet? Itās simple, not easy.
You have to really want it. You have to commit fully. Then, you reap the benefits.
For the common stumbling blocks, here are some thoughts my wife and I align on to make it work:
- Don't expect others to understand. Social situations will test you, and others won't be accommodating. Prep meals ahead of time, eat before or after events, or skip situations that make adherence impossible. Do the extra work to reduce friction.
- Prepare for a rough transition. The first couple weeks might be rough. Your body is shifting fuel sources and this can disrupt digestion, mood, energy and sleep. This is temporary and this too shall pass. Ease the transition by prioritizing electrolytes and hydration, gradually phasing down carbs and timing carbs around workouts or before bed.
- Simplify before you multiply. Bulk buy, batch cook and eat the same meals over-and-over. Flying by the seat of your pants will splinter commitment. Remove the need for decision. Simplify and systematize. Once youāve dialed it in, then worry about variety.
The animal-based diet isn't abra-abra-cadabra magic. It's a framework that forces intentionality, eliminates noise, and helps you rediscover what your body actually needs.
If you're tired of coasting through the holidays (or through life) feeling suboptimal, then this might be exactly the āresetā you're looking for.
Start simple. Commit fully. See how good YOU can feel.