What Is the Lion Diet, and Is It Safe?

Extreme, restrictive diets have long been touted as “cure-alls” for a number of health issues. Diet plans like keto, Whole 30, and intermittent fasting come in waves — or really trends — and according to Mayo Clinic, there’s not a lot of hard science behind claims to “detox” your body or improve your overall well-being.

TikTok’s latest diet trend is called the Lion Diet — consisting only of ruminant meat (meaning the meat from cattle, sheep, buffalo, and elk), salt, and water for 30 days or longer.

The diet was invented by blogger and podcaster (note: not a doctor or dietician) Mikhaila Peterson, who has been eating this way since December 2017. Per the Lion Diet’s website, Peterson says the meat-based menu has helped her heal from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, chronic illness, depression, and SSRI withdrawal.

“My neurological symptoms from SSRI withdrawal took 2.5 years to heal but they’re gone,” she writes. “I am not dying of scurvy. I’m healing. I hope in the future I’ll be able to eat plants again without neurological or autoimmune symptoms . . . Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t fix yourself.”

@mikhailapeterson

Drop Any Questions About The Lion Diet Below

♬ original sound – Mikhaila Fuller

Registered Dietitian and owner of UNstuck Nutrition Sarah Bullard says the Lion Diet is “a strict elimination diet with the end goal of less inflammation and elimination of food allergens. With any elimination diet, the main point is to eliminate potential…