TikTok’s ‘Lion Diet’ Trend: Experts Raise Concern About “Cure-All” Carnivorous Diet

After the “Alpine Ice Hack” trend, a regime backed by an alleged new discovery by Stanford University scientists, another fad has taken over TikTok and fans are going crazy over this new regime. Called the “Lion Diet” trend, TikTokers are flooding the video-sharing platform while taking this diet challenge. So what is this “Lion Diet” and is it even safe? Read on to learn about it.

What Is The “Lion Diet” Trend?

TikTok is buzzing with a new trend, called the “Lion Diet” trend, wherein TikTok users are posting videos of this so-called “cure-all” diet, which consists of eating nothing but meat, salt and water for 30 days. Also termed as “a healing elimination diet”, TikTok users are claiming that it helps with headaches, allergies, bad skin and balancing moods.

The “Lion Diet” was invented by podcaster and TedEx speaker Mikhaila Peterson, who prefers calling it the “ultimate elimination diet” and a “Cure-all diet”. On her website, she claims, ““It eliminates all other dietary variables, and sustains your body’s nutritional needs, allowing you to thrive.”

Peterson opened up about her journey of suffering from several health issues since her childhood. At 13, she was diagnosed with severe depression and was put on medication. She was diagnosed with “juvenile rheumatoid arthritis” at 7. At 8, she was taking immune suppressants. She also underwent chronic pain for 10 years from an ankle replacement surgery.

Peterson revealed that she was diagnosed with Idiopathic Hypersomnia (chronic fatigue) at 21, and developed a rash that looked like a Celiac disease so she decide to change her diet. This was the time when she took up an al-meat diet.

“My brain and gut were so damaged that an all-beef or ruminant meat (like lamb and bison) diet, what I call the Lion Diet, was all I could tolerate,” she mentioned on the Lion Diet website. She claims to have been on this diet for five years and feels healthier. But is this diet for us too? Read on to know more.

Is the “Lion Diet” Safe?

TikTok is presently bombarded with several videos of people trying this “Lion Diet” and claiming that this diet is definitely changing them. One TikTok user from Brisbane, who suffers from a long list of allergies decided to document his time on this diet. User @roryskitchen, who has 220,900 TikTok followers and 2.8 million likes, said he was trying this diet for 30 days to figure out if he can heal his gut and autoimmune symptoms etc.

After following Peterson’s videos, he started preparing his meals for the week and began consuming grass-fed mince cooked in broth seasoned with just salt daily. After having this diet, he said that he had the “best night of sleep”, but started feeling unwell after some time.

Later, as his diet progressed, his skin improved and his sinuses started clearing up. In addition to this, he started having more regular bowel movements. Other people, who have taken this diet, claimed that they saw significant changes.

However, health experts have raised alarms about this diet. For instance, the Australian Heart Foundation advises that people should limit red meat consumption to 350 grams of “unprocessed beef, pork, lamb or veal each week – which totals around one to three meals”. However, it is also advised that it should be eaten together with vegetables and whole grains.

Many health experts have termed this diet as  “unsustainable, unhealthy, ineffective, overly restrictive and extreme.” “The Lion Diet eliminates all foods except salt, water, and meat from ruminant animals,” researchers at Healthline expressed. “In addition to being high in saturated fat, it’s unsustainable and likely to lead to nutritional deficiencies.” Well, I’d just say be careful about what you sign up for.