How to Eat a Meat-Based Carnivore Diet in Europe for Less Than $10 A Day
“If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.”
One of the criticisms of the carnivore diet is that it's too expensive. You may be looking at the title of this blog post thinking, "Well, $10 is still a ton of money..." But, I would argue, there are many factors to take into account.
Firstly, before even thinking about the practical side: you have to make this diet (or any diet — vegan, keto, low-carb — for that matter) a part of your identity. What does this mean? How do you make a 'diet' part of your identity?
I don't mean join the thousands of @carnivore_karen's of the world. There are thousands of carnivores who are virtue-signalling: posting photos with huge pristine grass-fed pieces of $20 steaks of how they have been liberated from all plant-based sins — paradoxically being no different to the very people they’re bashing *cough cough vegans.*
Making a diet part of your identity equals you deciding that your health is the number one thing in your life.
Diet is one part of health. Wealth is what you are after. Wealth is the integration of your diet into a larger framework of existence: it is being at total peace with who you are. But wealth is, not only a topic for another day, it is a concept that is so personal. Wealth is ultimately finding what will fulfil you in the long-term.
The Day-to-day Expenditure of Carnivore Is Expensive
Yes, daily living on carnivore is expensive on paper. And many cannot justify spending (or eating) the amount I do daily. But, the benefits far outweigh each days sunk-cost:
Being a better person because you feel better
You might never see your doctor again (unless you break a leg or something then go see her).
Less jittery, more creativity: carnivore unlocked some of the most productive hours of my creative life -- I have grown 10x in the past year.
No snacks needed: I marvel at how people knock carnivores price bracket, yet their pantries are filled to the brim with snacks that, when you add them up, all cost a shit-ton of money (and they are honestly the most innutritious pieces of food -- you may as well eat crushed grass with some sugar on it and call it a Natures Valley bar).
Once you’ve past justifying to yourself that you’re in this (read Kevin Stock’s 30-day carnivore start-up — it is a must-read for anyone starting out), then the adventure begins.
What To Buy and How To Cook Carnivore in Europe
It's really simple. I'm going to paint you two pictures: 1) the cook-at-home-yourself one (which is obviously less expensive) and 2) the "holy shit, I'm fucking hungry in the middle of Europe" one.
Cooking carnivore Yourself in Europe
You will need the basics — something that can heat a pan...and a pan. Once you have these, get yourself to a local shop -- in my case, being in Amsterdam: Albert-Heijn is my go-to.
My usual Europe carnivore shopping list:
Ground beef mince
Cheese
Yoghurt
Heavy Cream
Eggs
The ground mince is about $3.5 for 500Gg (I eat about 800g of meat a day and weight about 64kg). The cheese is about $3. The yoghurt and cream are optional -- I use cream because I'm a coffee drinker and the yoghurt is my dessert in most cases.
All this taken into account, your baseline expenditure is about $7 a day with $3 to play around with in terms of add-ons like cheese and coffee and cream and yoghurt.
"Holy shit, I'm fucking hungry in the middle of Europe"
The reason this diet works so well is you rarely get a sudden hunger crash. It's more like a gradual come on of hunger -- like a San Pedro come on.
In this rare scenario on carnivore, just find the local McDonald's or Burger King. I usually order 2x the double-quarter pounder without anything but the cheese.
I'm well aware that these are not grass-fed organic options for eating. For me and my budget right now, organic grass-fed meat is just not an option in Europe. I like to think of Kelly Hogan's mantra: eat the meat, save the humans. Eating a few factory-farmed McDonald's burgers occasionally is still better than me getting fat and sick from cheap filling snacks like croissants and bagels and muffins.
Some people can't justify spending the money I do on food. That's ok. At this stage in my life, I can't justify spending unnecessary money on overly priced beer that just makes you feel like shit the next day. I'm past that. Plus, if I wanted to throw up in my toilet every weekend I would rather order a kale smoothie from the juicing place that is below me.
If you have more money to spare (as I did while living in South Africa), there are a plethora of options available on a carnivore diet. There honestly is: you can cook meat a variety of ways to elicit different textures and taste sensations and you can buy a variety of animal-based products to give each dish a sense of accomplishment.
But, having done this for over a year now, I can safely say that beef is the foundation. When I try and get fancy with pork belly's and too much slow roast or get fishy with sardines — things get messy. Literally. I just think there is something in beef that unlocks the we're here to fuck shit up function in our DNA.
If you have not decided to change your life through diet, you will always find reasons you cannot make the commitment to the carnivore diet.
As mentioned above, your diet is one part of health that is one part of wealth — but your diet is the lead domino that influences your life. Having a good diet that gives you clean energy that will make you a better business partner, lover, and friend.
You Are Not Alone In Your Meat-Based Meanderings
I'm probably the worst example of what it means to be "carnivore." Sometimes I feel like I'm walking this path alone. When that feeling hits, I seek spiritual uplifting from the people below. Having resources like this is crucial. It reinforces your mission to heal knowing you are not alone.
MENTORS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON WHERE TO START:
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts. If you feel you have transformed and changed via meat-based eating, pop me an email hello@joshsnyman.com so we can connect. I'm always looking for people to come on my podcast to chat to.
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I tried reaching out to the Reddit community in the Netherlands to find like-minded people, but m post titled Carnivore / Keto Dieters in Europe? was deleted...
Since my Reddit post was deleted, I would love to hear how you maintain the carnivore diet (or keto or meat-based) in Europe?
See you in the comments.
Dank Je wel,
Josh - Amsterdam, Netherlands.