Can You Have Stevia on the Carnivore Diet? Pros, Cons, Consequences

When I first began a diet of consuming only meat and animal products (aka the carnivore diet), there were some foods that I wondered about, such as stevia; a natural sweetener that contains zero carbohydrates. Is stevia allowed on the carnivore diet?

Strictly speaking, the carnivore diet officially includes animal products only. Therefore, foods such as stevia and other artificial sweeteners are not part of the diet. However, while the basic principle of the carnivore diet is to exclude all plant-based foods, some people make an exception for stevia.

The reason being, that it doesn’t contain any carbohydrates (which we’ll get into later). But the decision to include it is definitely not going to be the right one for everyone. In this article, we’ll discuss:

• How does stevia affect a meat-based diet?
• When it is and isn’t a good idea, to introduce stevia on carnivore.
• How will stevia affect your progress on the carnivore diet?
• Is there a limit to how much stevia you can have without negative consequences?

Is Stevia Part of the Carnivore Diet?

The carnivore diet, also known as the meat-based diet, or the zero-carb diet, consists of eating only meats and animal products, with emphasis on fatty meats in particular. This means not having anything else, i.e. excluding:

• processed foods
• sugars
• grains and legumes
• vegetables
• fruits
• plants of any kind

The idea being, that the most bio-available, nutrient dense foods (meats and other animal foods) are included in the diet, and everything else is excluded.

Stevia is a natural sweetener derived from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant.

Because stevia is from a plant, not an animal, it is considered a non-carnivore food. However, some people do include it as part of their meat-based diet and there are some valid reasons for this.

It’s important to understand these reasons in order to decide whether it is right for you to include or not. Let’s dig a little deeper…

I mentioned earlier on, that the carnivore diet is sometimes known as the zero-carbohydrate diet. And this gives you an indication as to why some people may include it as part of their carnivore lifestyle.

Stevia is a natural, zero-calorie, zero carbohydrate sweetener.

One of the major benefits of the carnivore diet, is that it contains very little, to no carbohydrates whatsoever. This helps keep you in a state of ketosis, which helps regulate your blood sugar levels and hinder cravings for sugary foods.

And because stevia contains no carbs, technically speaking, it shouldn’t affect you if you included it as part of the carnivore diet. And this may be true for some, but there are nuances that are important to be aware of.

NOTE: The carnivore diet doesn’t always keep you in ketosis. Check out my article here to learn about ketosis in the context of the carnivore diet.

Why Include Stevia as Part of the Carnivore Diet?

If one of the main reasons you came to carnivore, is because you want to stay in a deep state of ketosis, then stevia is not going to get in your way. Stevia:

• doesn’t spike your blood sugar
• doesn’t spike insulin levels
• doesn’t have any calories
• does not affect ketosis
• doesn’t affect energy levels

Therefore, if using stevia will help you stay on the carnivore diet and avoid going for other foods that will have a negative effect on you, then it may be worth considering including it.

Especially in your first year of being carnivore, where you are still trying to adjust to the new lifestyle, and may want to consider using stevia during your transition into a carbohydrate/sugar free life. However, this is not right for everyone. Here are some of the reasons why you may want to avoid stevia at all costs!

FUN FACT: Stevia is 30 times sweeter than sugar, while containing no calories and no carbs!

Why Exclude Stevia from the Carnivore Diet?

If you want to be a purist when it comes to carnivore style eating, then stevia may be out of the picture completely, as it is a plant, and all plants are off limits on the carnivore diet.

But another super important reason why you may want to avoid stevia, is because of the sweet taste. Some people can be affected simply by the sweet taste in their mouth, regardless of whether there are any carbohydrates present or not.

Particularly for people who are addicted to the taste of sweet foods, eating something made form stevia, can have a huge impact on carb cravings and set you off on a snowball of slowly increasing the sweet foods you start to eat.

TIP: If you’re struggling with sugar cravings on the carnivore diet, check out my article here for some effective strategies.

So, although I mentioned earlier that stevia may be useful as a stop-gap between transitioning from sugar to zero carbs, it will really depend on how you personally react. You may find that the sweet taste will keep you needing to have sweet tasting things. In which case, stevia can be detrimental to include in the carnivore diet and should be completely avoided.

Aside from that, many people come to the carnivore diet for health reasons, especially autoimmune or gut issues. If this is you, then it’s quite possible that you are sensitive to all plant foods, including stevia (like me).

If you notice any adverse effects after consuming stevia on the carnivore diet, it might be best to eliminate it from your food plan. At least until you have some significant time to heal.

TOP TIP: If you do include stevia into your diet during a carnivore lifestyle, look for the most natural form that doesn’t contain any other artificial sweeteners in it, such as this one available on Amazon.

Pros & Cons of Including Stevia on the Carnivore Diet

Here’s a useful summary of what we’ve learned so far to help you decide if stevia is right for you or not on the carnivore diet:

Pros of including Stevia	Cons of including Stevia
Can help alleviate sugar cravings	Can trigger sugar cravings
zero carbohydrates	Plant based food (non-carnivore)
zero calories	Can trigger food reactions

Looking at the table above, it’s up to each individual to decide what’s right for them. If you find that the sweet taste triggers you, then avoid it. On the other hand, if it helps satisfy your sweet tooth and stay on carnivore, and you don’t react to it, then it may be something you can enjoy as part of your diet.

NOTE: Stevia is unique because it is a natural sweetener made from a plant. There are other sweeteners that contain no calories and no carbohydrates, but unlike stevia, they are artificial, and can have negative side effects for some people, such as digestive issues.

How Much Stevia is Too Much on the Carnivore Diet?

If you’ve decided that stevia is ok for you whilst on the carnivore diet, the next thing to do decide is how much. Is it ok to consume it on a daily basis, or should you consume it only on occasion?

This is again going to be down to individual circumstances, and it will depend on how you react to stevia in your diet. Some important questions to ask yourself are:

1. Is my diet still overwhelmingly meat based?
2. Am I able to stay on carnivore even if I have stevia?
3. Is stevia helping or harming my carnivore journey?

These questions, answered with brutal, non-judgemental honesty, will help you decide not only whether stevia is ok for you to have, but also how much you should or should not be having.

If you are using stevia as a way to replace the way you used to eat before carnivore, you might want to reconsider. As this behaviour/relationship with food is perhaps what impacted your health in the first place, and it won’t help to continue the same behaviour even on a carnivore diet.

If you are using stevia at times when it means if you don’t, then you might cave and give in to sugar, then this may be ok under those circumstances.

• Some people may be completely fine staying on a meat-based diet while having a daily coffee with some stevia in it.
• Others may need to keep stevia intake to those special occasions where they want to celebrate with something sweet while maintaining a healthy state of ketosis.
• For others, they may need to completely abstain from stevia in order to stay on track.

It will also come down to how you physically react to the stevia too. Some people will have a certain tolerance level. Assuming that the stevia is not encouraging further cravings, then you can decide your tolerance level according to how you feel.

One important thing to remember though, is that the carnivore diet should be overwhelming meat based, regardless of whether you include stevia or not.

My Personal Journey with Stevia on the Carnivore Diet

If you know me, you’ll know how much of a sweet tooth I had (and still have sometimes, as I’ve only been carnivore for 5 months so far!). I was the one that would always order desert at restaurants no matter how full I was, and couldn’t keep away from sugary treats even when I was ‘eating healthy’.

For me personally, I finally accepted that I was a sugar addict and once I did this, it was easy to accept that I couldn’t moderate sweet tasting foods. Not to begin with anyway. So, I decided not to include anything sweet to help me get over the addiction.

However, after the adaptation period into carnivore was over, and I stopped cravings sweet things for over 3 months, I changed my course of action as I felt ready to test things. Here’s what I do now…

Occasionally, if I’m really really craving, and at least a month has passed since the last time, I may make myself an egg pudding and spread a super thin layer (1/4 teaspoon) of raw, unpasteurized honey over the top. I prefer to use honey over stevia, as I find I don’t react to it compared to stevia.

But I am fully aware that I need to watch out in the following days after eating honey! So far, it hasn’t made me crave more, as long as I keep it few and far between. But if I ever find that it is making me crave more, I would probably skip it completely until I was ready to try again at a much later date.

That’s the compromise I’ve come to and it’s working for me so far. If you’d like help dealing with sugar cravings, check out my article here. It’s got lots of effective strategies that may help you.

It’s always a work in progress when it comes to these things and it’s up to each individual to decide what’s right for them. My top tip here is to be brutally honest with yourself without judgement as to what is really going on when you want something sweet. This, and understanding how you personally react to something like stevia, may help make a decision that is best for you.