The Health Benefits of the Reverse Carnivore Diet

I attended the Low Carb USA conference in San Diego back in August, 2023. At the conference someone did a presentation on a really weird diet.

Back in 1939 Dr Walter Kempner came up with a new diet at Duke University. The diet was pretty wild. It came about because one of his patients misunderstood his instructions. She had glomerulonephritis (kidney disease) and papilledema (eye disease). She was only supposed to follow the diet for about 2 weeks but she misunderstood and did it for 2 months.

When she returned for a checkup, Dr Kempner found:

• A dramatic reduction in blood pressure from 190/120 to 124/84 mmHg

• Resolution of all eye damage (retinal hemorrhages and papilledema)

• A noticeable decrease in heart size

• Improved kidney function

He started treating more patients with this diet and seeing dramatic results.

“He made tremendous strides treating patients for obesity. In one article the results of 106 massively obese patients treated as outpatients with the Diet, exercise, and motivational enhancement under daily supervision were reported. The average weight loss was 63.9 kg (141 pounds). Normal weight was achieved by 43 of the patients.”

What was the diet? It was called the Rice Diet. Here are the components:

• 250-350 grams daily of dried rice. It could not have salt, milk or fat

• 2,000-2,400 calories daily. Could be more or less depending on starting weight

• Some fruit and juice. Fruits should be dried. Nothing can be added except sugar

• Between 100-500 grams of white sugar

• No avocados, dates or nuts

• No vegetable juice

See what I mean about it being the reverse of the carnivore diet? This is how he illustrated the diet compared to a normal diet:

The diet also called for some exercise, restricting water intake, and medical supervision. Overall the diet consists of about 95% carbohydrates, 4-5% protein and 2-3% fat.

Seem like a tough diet to follow? It was. Kempner:

“Brow-beat, yelled at, and castigated them when he caught them straying. He also sometimes actually beat them. Later in life, Kempner admitted in depositions that he whipped patients to motivate them to stay on the diet.”

He did, however, produce results

There were some downside risks, as you might guess:

• Muscle loss

• Low energy

• Nutritional deficiencies (ya think?)

• Low essential fatty acids such as Omega 3

Then again, lots of people say there are risks with a carnivore or ketogenic diet, right?

By no means am I endorsing this diet. I’ve never tried it and don’t know anyone personally who has tried it. I’m a huge fan of carnivore and ketogenic diets. I bring this diet up to remind all of us not to dogmatically follow one health belief or another. It’s worth being open to other ideas.

My one criteria for assessing some kind of health protocol is:

“Does it work?”

‘Work’ means that it has the intended effect without causing lots of detrimental side effects. And it is sustainable. Not sure if the Kempner diet would be sustainable.

I find low carb diets in general meet my criteria.

They may not work for everyone. If you’ve tried them to help your health conditions and they haven’t done it for you, try something else. Maybe something even as radical as the rice diet? Who knows?

Of course I’m all for you working with a doctor you can trust (or several for different opinions), doing your own research, and finding what works for you.

I have no formal medical training. Yet I’ve assembled a team of experts around me and I implement their advice once I run it through my filter. It seems to be working. Hopefully you are doing the same.