Good quality meat is expensive, so naturally we think that switching to carnivore diet will make us go broke. True, meat is more expensive, and one definitely eats more of it on the carnivore diet. But the good news is, we eat a lot less of other foods and that is how to save money on the carnivore diet!
I have a list of 13 food groups that you will save money when switching to the carnivore diet.
Coffee
Your daily consumption of coffee is gone, if you want to be true to the carnivore diet. If you have autoimmunity don’t even think about it twice. Whether you make your own, or buy in the coffee shop, that expense is gone.
Battling coffee addiction can be really tough, read my experience with here.
Tea
Similarly, to coffee, teas have no place on the carnivore diet. I used to drink tea in hectoliters, black, green, ginger and any other herbal tisane that caught my eye. Again, if you are dealing with autoimmunity, definitely lay off tea, at least for the duration of the treatment. As time went by I actually noticed that tea was more inflammatory for me than coffee!
Check out my video about autoimmunity and diet here:
All kind of snacks
Snacks don’t go along with the carnivore diet, besides that, good luck finding snacks that aren’t carbs, maybe beef jerky if you really get lucky. Also, when you eat meat and fat only, you will feel a lot more satiated. I used to buy small packet of dark chocolate almonds or macadamias with my afternoon cappuccino about $8 expense.
Fruit
Fruit is my personal favorite. Each time I fell off my diet, it was an apple, pear or grapes. I used to say that I had no trouble giving up sweets for the rest of my life, but fruit was a must. I bought them organic, ate lots of them between meals and added some to green juices. The bill for my fruit was quite high.
Nut butter and nut breads
If you are low carb or keto, nut butters with celery stalks or keto crackers are such staples. I used to make nut flour cakes, breads, crackers, pancakes, and waffles. I don’t make these anymore and that’s a huge savings because a bag of almond flour is around $12.
Everything Coconut
While we are talking about nuts, everything coconut will be gone as well. I know coconut is an absolute staple, especially on the ketogenic diet. I used to buy coconut oil, flour, butter, cream, water, sugar, shreds, yogurt… the list goes on. It tastes great, is really versatile and it also costs a lot. However especially those of you with autoimmunity, Paleomedicina has a number of case studies showing that coconut in some people with gut permeability gives bloating, but more importantly slows down the healing process.
Check my blog post about diet for autoimmunity here.
Nuts
Nuts are go-to snack on low carb and ketogenic diets. They are high in fat and proteins and low with carbohydrates, so it makes sense. They are also high in lectins and other plant toxins so anybody on the true carnivore diet stays away from them. And you will save money: small bag of macadamia nuts costs around $10, pistachios $7.
Fiber
How many times were you told that to treat your constipation you need to increase the amount of fiber you eat? Except, that If you have an idiopathic constipation, fiber may not be all that helpful. I used to buy all kind of fancy fibers: Indian Psyllium Husk, Chia seeds, apple peel fiber. It costs a lot and it didn’t help me. Then I discovered the carnivore diet, and all my “idiopathic” problems resolved within 10 days.
Salads
Salads are a great business model: lots of leaves with 1oz of chicken, dressing, and some other colorful additions. I used to buy them for lunch all the time, thinking this was the healthiest thing to do. Never mind my autoimmunity was getting progressively worse, at that time I had no idea that was overconsuming lectins and oxalates which were making the matters worse. In fact, I would even get sucked into ordering a salad in the steakhouse: $25 for caramelized pears over watercress. I thought I was doing the healthy thing.
Superfoods
I used to be a superfood junkie: noni juice, mangosteen, acerola berries, acai berries, to name a few. I am not saying they don’t have benefits but I was just spending way too much money on them without putting too much thinking into it, and they are costly. Noni juice is about $45 per bottle. Going on the carnivore diet, eliminates that expense too.
Alcohol
Especially in NYC, drinking gets expensive. Even if you are frugal and go for a happy hour couple times a week the bill adds up quickly.
Alcohol is excluded on the carnivore diet. And if you deal with autoimmunity, it’s an absolute no-no. Alcohol increases gut permeability by a lot.
Check out my video about this here:
Sugar Substitutes
I used stevia, allulose, and monk fruit any time I made a keto treat. My favorite was whipped cream with berries. My version of carnivore diet excludes not only plant foods, but also dairy, and that’s due to autoimmunity. I don’t use any of the sugar substitutes natural or not.
Green Juices
Pursuing health relentlessly, I got into juicing. I got a fancy juicer, a book about juicing and I was going at it juicing bags of kale, green apples, fresh ginger, cucumbers and celery. I used to buy a lot of it, all organic too. This expense is too gone now so is my joint pain.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Whether your reasons are to save money on a carnivore diet or not, it works very well for many different health issues. I can assure you from my own experience, it works like magic for autoimmunity. I kicked up my carnivore diet one extra notch and followed Paleo-Ketogenic.
And while you will spend more on meat itself, you will save lots of money elsewhere too. You will spend also a lot less time chopping, sauteing, cooking and baking.
