Photo: Alyse Parker/ Youtube

Today in vegan-blogger drama, beloved (former) raw vegan influencer Alyse Parker declared that she was going full onnn carnivore. Meaning, not only would she begin eating meat, but she would only eat animal products a.k.a. only meat, seafood, + eggs for a full 30 days as she adopts the so-called carnivore diet. She made the announcement with an Instagram post; in it, shes posing in front of an uncooked slab of steak.

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By this point, you probably know that I looove trying new things, running little experiments, and diving into challenges of all sorts. Some of the experiments I have run in the past... - 30 days without shampoo - 1 year without deodorant - 21 days of only fruit juice - 30 days without social media - 3 YEARS of not shaving my armpits, not wearing makeup, not using heat on my hair.. Etc. etc. you get da point Yehhh some may call me crazy.. But Im a firm believer in experiencing things first hand + getting a real feel for what something is all about before I form a personal opinion on it. The Carnivore Diet first came into my awareness when a close friend shared with me all of the benefits that he was experiencing by eating this way. Coming from being vegan 4.5 years, I was hellla resistant to the concept of eating ONLY animal foods (aka only meat, seafood, + eggs) I didnt make ANY sense to me. It actually sounded pretty f*cking ridiculous. But oddly enough, I started to hear story after story from my fellow vegan friends jumping ship, testing out the carnivore diet and experiencing amazing health transformations. I was so confused. But I had my own fair share of health struggles and eventually reached a breaking point where I was willing to try anything to function properly again. With an online community of 800,000 people ~ many of which were primarily showing up for my vegan related content... I was a bit conflicted to say the least. But I knew I needed to make decisions based on what was in the best interest for my health. I swallowed my pride + decided Id give it a shot. Full onnn carnivore. I woke up the next morning feeling more mentally clear, focused, wholesome, and healthy than I had felt in years. God bless. But also, WTF? My vegan identity crumbled immediately. This past year of my life has been a journey of remembering who I am separate from what I eat. In hopes of challenging others to step out of their current perspective ~ I documented my newest challenge of eating only meat for 30 days. Video launches next week. Whos ready? Comment below!

A post shared by ALYSE PARKER (@alyseparkerr) on Nov 29, 2019 at 2:22pm PST

Parker, who between her YouTube and Instagram profiles has over a million followers, built her social-media kingdom on her raw vegan lifestyle, including a website raw-alignment.com where you could purchase apparel, sign up for her alignment accelerator (a sort of online life-coaching program), and vegan retreats. Her YouTube channel also includes her not-diet-related lifestyle videos, such as using a fertility tracker as birth control, the pros and cons of dreadlocks, and shooting down rumors that she doesnt shower.

Her status as a vegan paragon had recently gone up for debate, though, after her followers found that she was pinning recipes of egg-based dishes on Pinterest. And this past March, Parker herself confirmed that she had quit veganism in a video titled I am not vegan, claiming it had caused her health issues because of mold exposure. In a follow-up video, she explained that shed begun eating meat again, and in an August video titled Goodbye Raw Alignment. HELLO Alyse Parker, Parker completed her rebrand from raw vegan influencer to a straightforward lifestyle influencer.

The March announcement caused extreme backlash amongst her followers, who accused her of holding off on going public so that she could continue monetizing her audience; specifically, she didnt announce it until after running a vegan retreat in Australia. That criticism has only intensified since her announcement last week that she would exclusively be eating animal foods. Her audience as accused her of hypocrisy, and being so out of alignment its ridiculous, among other things.

So far, though, Parker still has a massive following on social media, and is only the latest in a long list of vegan influencers who have defected from the diet. She, at least, seems to have gotten ahead of any rumors and managed to rebrand to without much fallout. A worst-case scenario recently unfolded when vegan blogger Yovana Mendoza Ayres (Rawvana), was caught eating fish in another persons vlog. The vegan influencer community was shaken by the scandal, and Rawvana faced an onslaught of vicious criticism for her crime.

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Oh No, a Vegan Blogger Has Pivoted to Carnivore Diet - The Cut