Here is the Harvard Carnivore study. It's self-reporting from people who have been on it six months or more.
I'm thinking this bypasses the usual "how can you remember what you eat?" When the answer, 99% of the time, is MEAT, then recall is easy
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In 2020 a team of researchers at Harvard University conducted the first mainstream study on the carnivore diet. The study surveyed over 2000 carnivore dieters. And the findings were published on 2 November 2021 in Current Developments in Nutrition .
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I found a good breakdown on a carnivore site, by a doctor:
The Harvard Carnivore Diet Study: Findings and Takeaway
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What health reasons?
Under health reasons, the participants cited the following specific areas:
Body weight/body composition 78%
Focus and energy 74%
Allergy/skin/autoimmunity 56%
Digestive health 52%
Athletic performance 46%
Mental health 45%
Diabetes 11%
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What is interesting is half of them were autoimmune issues, and only 11% about diabetes. Also, as one can imagine, the ratio was 2/3rds men, since I believe women have been socialized towards plant-based eating in ways men can resist more easily. Also, when they are celebrated for muscular size and women for how closely they can resemble a twig, we see the social issues at play.
Not dabblers, certainly:
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Participants reported being on the carnivore diet ranging from 6 to 337 months (28 years!).
The median length of reported time on carnivore was 14 months.
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I started Carnivore Jan 2019 and currently this describes me:
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What foods did they eat on the carnivore diet?
Ruminant (red) meat
The most common carnivore diet food was ruminant meat.
85% of respondents reported consuming either or a combination of beef, bison, lamb, goat, and venison at every meal or at least daily.
Eggs and High Fat Dairy
The other most popular diet foods that participants ate daily or at every meal included:
Eggs: 44%
Cheese and cream 43%
...
Organ meat
42% of participants reported consuming organ meats at least once a week
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Which means they weren't messing around with Faux Keto variations, but real whole foods and nose-to-tail principles.
And here's something fascinating, and human:
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Levels of Compliance
Compared to most diets, carnivore dieters reported a very high level of compliance across various categories:
89% never consumed legumes
87% never consumed breaded and fried fast food meats
81% never consumed candy & milk chocolate
80% never used multivitamin supplements.
79% never consumed grains
78% never consumed sugar
75% never ate desserts
74% never consumed honey
74% never consumed starchy vegetables
69% never consumed non-starchy vegetables
66% never consumed fruit
65% never consumed non-calorie sweeteners
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Which meant, to me, the people who stuck with it found it easy to stick to.
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What did participants experience on the carnivore diet?
Based on the data, researchers concluded that “Contrary to common expectations, adults consuming a carnivore diet experienced few adverse effects and instead reported health benefits and high satisfaction.”
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Somebody at Harvard is eating their meat! And they don't want any pudding.