TikTokers have been hunting for the latest diet trend, and now they’re challenging themselves to “The Lion Diet.”
The Lion Diet, which bills itself as “a healing elimination diet,” consists of eating nothing but meat, salt and water for 30 days.
People have been documenting their time testing out the latest fad, claiming it helps with allergies, headaches, bad skin and balancing moods.
One TikTok user from Brisbane decided to try the questionable diet to see if it helped with his long list of allergies, documenting his progress along the way.
User @roryskitchen — who has 220,900 followers and 2.8 million likes — said he was trying the diet for 30 days to find out three things: If he can heal his gut, autoimmune symptoms and health conditions; what would happen to his body after only eating meat for 30 days; and what his poop would be like.
He prepared his meals for the week and began eating grass-fed mince cooked in broth seasoned with nothing but salt on a daily basis.
When he first started the carnivorous diet, he said he had the “best night of sleep” — but started feeling unwell shortly after.
As the diet progressed, he said his skin started to look better, his sinuses started clearing up and he had more “regular” bowel movements.
According to his latest video, he’s currently on day 23 of the diet and said he feels like “what I’m doing is actually working.”
The Lion Diet was invented by podcaster and TedEx speaker Mikhaila Peterson, who calls it the “ultimate elimination diet” and a “cure-all,” according to the Daily Mail.
“It eliminates all other dietary variables, and sustains your body’s nutritional needs, allowing you to thrive,” Peterson wrote on her website.
Peterson, 28, said she dealt with multiple health issues beginning from childhood. She was chronically ill until she was 23 and then suffered from SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) withdrawal until she was 25.
She was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis when she was just 7 years old — though her symptoms began when she was 2 — and was put on immune suppressants when she was 8. Peterson was diagnosed with severe depression and medicated with SSRIs when she was 12.
At 14, Peterson was chronically fatigued and started itching all over her body. Three years later, she had hip and ankle joint replacements due to arthritis. She was in chronic pain for 10 years from the ankle replacement. The podcaster also spent a year on OxyContin post-surgery and had an “unpleasant” withdrawal.
When she was 21, she was diagnosed with Idiopathic Hypersomnia (chronic fatigue). She developed a rash associated with Celiac disease and decided to turn to a change in diet to help her problems.
She started with what nowadays would be similar to a restrictive paleo diet and eventually made her way to an all-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 wrote on the Lion Diet website.
Peterson has been on the diet for five years, is now “healthy” and hopes to show people that “they can improve their life themselves.”
According to Healthline, supporters of the diet claim it decreases inflammation, improves moods and relieves issues such as headaches, insomnia and allergies. However, others have said it’s unsustainable, unhealthy, ineffective, overly restrictive and extreme.
“The Lion Diet eliminates all foods except salt, water, and meat from ruminant animals,” researchers said. “In addition to being high in saturated fat, it’s unsustainable and likely to lead to nutritional deficiencies.”
It’s also nearly impossible to dine out, the health information company warned.
“In addition to being potentially very unhealthy, the Lion Diet is difficult to follow and unsustainable in the long term.”