BBBE - Beef, Bacon, Butter, Eggs

BBBE stands for Beef, Bacon, Butter, Eggs - the four-ingredient template that most carnivore beginners start with. It's simple, affordable, and widely available, and nutritionally complete. You could eat nothing but these four foods and thrive.

Why BBBE Is the Best Starting Point

When you're new to carnivore, the temptation is to overcomplicate it - exotic meats, elaborate recipes, organ blends, raw dairy protocols. Resist that impulse. BBBE works because:

It's dead simple. Four ingredients, every grocery store has them, no recipes required. You can't screw it up.

It covers your nutritional bases. Red meat provides complete protein, heme iron, zinc, B12, and all essential amino acids. Eggs add choline, selenium, and vitamin D. Butter provides fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K2, and butyrate for gut health. Bacon adds variety, fat, and salt.

It's highly satiating. The fat-to-protein ratio in this template naturally regulates appetite. You'll eat when hungry, stop when full, and go hours between meals without thinking about food.

It's a clean elimination baseline. If you have food sensitivities, this template gives you a pure baseline. Eat nothing but BBBE for 30 days, then add foods back one at a time to identify triggers.

The Ingredients - What to Look For

Beef

This is your foundation. Prioritize fatty cuts - the more marbling, the better.

Best cuts: Ribeye, ribeye, ribeye. It has the ideal fat-to-protein ratio for carnivore (~70-80% calories from fat). NY strip, sirloin cap (picanha), and chuck roast are excellent too. Ground beef (80/20 or 73/27) is your budget-friendly workhorse - buy in bulk and freeze.

Avoid: Lean cuts like eye of round, top sirloin, or 93/7 ground beef. They're too lean and will leave you hungry, sluggish, and constipated. Fat is fuel on this diet - don't skimp on it. Fat also helps regulate bowel movements, too little and you'll be pushing out rocks.

If you can afford it, grass-fed and grass-finished beef has a better omega-3 profile. If you can't, conventional grain-finished beef is still excellent food. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

Bacon

Bacon is your fat-delivery vehicle. But not all bacon is created equal.

Go streaky, not short cut. Streaky bacon (American-style, from the belly) has a high fat-to-protein ratio - roughly 70% fat. Short cut / back bacon (Canadian-style, from the loin) is too lean and often has sugar added. You want the fatty, melt-in-your-mouth stuff, which tastes better and cooks crispier.

Check the label. Avoid bacon cured with sugar, dextrose, or maple syrup. Many commercial bacons are loaded with sweeteners. Look for "uncured" or "no sugar added" options. Better yet, find a local butcher who makes their own.

Cook it low and slow - render the fat gently, don't burn it. Save the rendered bacon fat (tallow) for cooking your eggs and beef. It's liquid gold. Air-fryer is also a great option if you're in a pinch.

Butter

Butter is your primary fat source for cooking and finishing dishes. It's also a nutrient-dense food in its own right.

Go for grass-fed. Grass-fed butter has higher levels of vitamin K2, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and a better omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. Kerrygold is widely available and excellent. If you tolerate dairy well, you can eat butter by the pat - many carnivores do.

Cooking tips: Butter burns at high temperatures. Use it for low-to-medium heat cooking, or finish a steak with a pat of butter after searing in tallow. Ghee (clarified butter) has the milk solids removed and can handle higher heat - great for frying eggs.

If you react to dairy: Some people are sensitive to the milk proteins in butter (casein, whey). If you notice issues, try ghee first (most dairy-sensitive people tolerate it), or substitute with beef tallow, lamb fat, or duck fat.

Eggs

Eggs are nature's perfect food - a complete protein with all essential amino acids, plus choline, selenium, vitamin D, and B vitamins.

Pasture-raised is best. Pasture-raised eggs have 2-3x more omega-3s, more vitamin D, and a darker, more nutrient-dense yolk than conventional. If budget is tight, conventional eggs are still good - just prioritize pasture-raised when you can.

How many? Don't limit yourself. Many carnivores eat 4-8 eggs per day. Your body will tell you. Some people are sensitive to egg whites (avidin can affect biotin absorption in large quantities, and some react to the proteins). If you suspect a sensitivity, try eating only yolks for a few days and see how you feel.

Cooking methods: Fried in butter or bacon fat, scrambled in tallow, hard-boiled for meal prep, or raw in a "carnivore smoothie" (eggs blended with water and salt). Raw yolks are highly bioavailable - many carnivores eat them raw for the enzymes and heat-sensitive nutrients. Try not to overcook the yolks if you can avoid it, whites should be cooked through.