Keto Vs Carnivore Diet: Which Is Worse For Your Heart Health?

In the seemingly endless diet and weight loss hacks circulating on your social media feeds, one thing that's often overlooked is whether or not these diet strategies are healthy. Cutting out sugar-sweetened drinks or processed foods can improve your overall health, but cutting out entire macronutrients might not. These macronutrients could provide nutritional value that others lack, which could cause vitamin deficiencies and subsequently disease.

The ketogenic diet emphasizes extremely low amounts of carbohydrates, so your body uses fat for fuel. A more extreme version of the ketogenic diet, the carnivore diet, eliminates carbs altogether for the same reason. Health Digest asked Registered Dietitian Angel Luk for her take on these diets.

"In my opinion, the carnivore diet is much worse because it's essentially zero carbs via cutting out the majority of foods that have mountains of evidence proving their health benefits for a myriad of health conditions," she said. Many foods on the carnivore diet are high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Luk adds that eliminating plant-based foods such as fiber from your diet makes it harder for your body to lower your cholesterol and blood pressure.

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity are health conditions that can increase your risk for heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because the carnivore diet nixes sugar and refined carbohydrates, you won't be causing those blood sugar spikes that could increase your risk of diabetes. Like the keto diet and other low-carb diets, following the carnivore diet could also cause you to lose weight quickly.

However, eating only animal-based foods without balancing them with plant-based foods could increase your risk for hypertension and high cholesterol. In a 2018 meta-analysis in the Journal of Human Hypertension, eating more red meat can increase your risk of high blood pressure by 22%, and poultry raises your risk by 15%. People who eat more eggs have a 21% lower risk for high blood pressure, suggesting that not all animal-based foods can lead to hypertension.

Eating more foods high in saturated fat could lead to high LDL cholesterol levels, which increases your risk of heart disease. A 2019 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition had people eat a diet of low or high saturated fat for four weeks. When people ate more saturated fat, their LDL cholesterol increased compared to a diet low in saturated fat.

You don't have to completely give up meat if you want to take care of your heart, but you might instead limit your saturated fat. The American Heart Association suggests keeping your daily intake of saturated fat to 6% of your daily calories. That's only 13 grams of saturated fat for a 2,000-calorie diet.

Saturated fat isn't the only substance to limit for your heart health. Luk says added sugar and sodium can also lead to poor heart health. The World Health Organization recommends capping your added sugar to less than 5% of your daily calories. That's 25 grams of added sugar, which is less than half a can of Coca-Cola. Luk also advises keeping your sodium to less than 2,000 milligrams a day. Substituting some ultra-processed foods (which are usually high in sodium) with more natural foods can keep your sodium within limits.

Luk recommends eating nuts, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other foods to get at least 30 grams of fiber each day. Don't forget about exercise for your heart health. "Create a list of ideas that you would consider as 'joyful movement' so exercise doesn't have to be a grueling or dreaded experience," she said. "Joyful movement such as socializing over pickleball would do the heart and the brain (which is connected to the gut by the way) a whole lot of good."