My very favorite salad contains three types of greens–let’s say butter lettuce, arugula, and baby bok choi–tomatoes, avocado, at least one variety of radish, artichoke hearts, sugar snap beans, and dry-roasted pumpkin seeds. Of course, every ingredient is organic, making it a micronutrient feast. I dress it with an emulsion of EVOO, balsamic vinegar from Modena, some variety of mustard, and spices. I eat it, or something similar, five times a week. I love it.

According to proponents of the increasingly popular carnivore diet, it’s poison.

Over the last several years I have stopped believing a lot of things about food and eating. I don’t think grains, even organic whole ones, offer much in the way of nutrition or gut health, so I eat them sparingly. I don’t believe calorie reduction diets work. I think every oil other than EVOO, avocado, and coconut is inflammatory to the human body, so I avoid them completely. I think my brain needs lots of the substances found in the good oils as well as in grass-fed beef and butter, wild fish, and eggs, so I eat those copiously. I fast at least 12 and preferably 16 hours most days.

These things are working very well for me, and I wish I could enlist others to try them, but most people have a lot of trouble reworking their models of eating, changing their habits, or giving up their favorite foods. I have never criticized anyone for these reactions, but now I can empathize, because I have the same reaction to the carnivore diet.

Eat nothing but animal products? What kind of crazy is that?

Carnivores, as they style themselves, will tell you that

• all the studies that show vegetarians live longer actually measured health habits such as exercise rather than diet;
• while animal use hooves and claws to avoid being eaten, plants contain antinutrients that actively block absorption;
• the carnivore diet puts you into ketosis, great for your brain and body;
• since it’s clearly an elimination diet, you will recover from all symptoms possibly related to food reactions; and
• protein is so filling, you will only need to eat once or twice daily, thereby saving time, regaining insulin sensitivity and reducing inflammation.

Being a big fan of epigenetics, I keep coming back to micronutrients. Carnivores insist their diet creates no symptoms of micronutrient deficiency. Maybe the body just operates differently on this diet. Maybe most micronutrients are used to metabolize carbs. One micronutrient in particular, vitamin C, prevents scurvy, but carnivores aren’t getting that so they may need less. There is vitamin C in fresh, grass-fed beef, though not as much as in leafy greens.

Here’s the tiny elephant in the room: the microbiome. The gut MB only eats fiber. Not much fiber in meat. Starving the MB seems like a bad idea. On the other hand, how much does it need? Maybe my MB is awash in Too Much Food.

My go-to for resolving diet question is, What did we evolve to eat? Intriguingly, there is some evidence it may have been mostly meat. There are many micronutrients we absorb more readily from meat than plant sources, including iron, B12, and omega-3s.

Mostly meat, but surely not only meat. I just can’t overcome my bias on this one.