The Carnivore Code
Paul Saladino, MD
By Joseph E. Scherger, MD, MPH
Should we be carnivores?
Authors Note: This article deviates from the plant based diet recommendations usually presented in Desert Health and followed by its readers. I follow a healthy Mediterranean Diet (without pasta) and consider many vegetables as superfoods. This book is committed to truth in nutrition science and has many valid references. To anyone open minded about changing nutrition science and recommendations, this book should be considered. I found it compelling and while not becoming a carnivore, I have done some shift in my diet. I still love broccoli and have nuts every day.
Paul Saladino, MD is a smart physician with an interesting background. His father is an internist and his mother a nurse practitioner. His college and medical school education are solid, yet he become frustrated that so much medical education was “what pill to give”. He trained in psychiatry but gave that up for the same reason, pill pushing. Along the way be became a vegan and even a raw food vegan. He suffered from debilitating eczema. After listening to a Jordan Peterson podcast about an animal based diet he gave it a try. His eczema disappeared for the first time and he gained muscle and felt well. He decided to dive into the science of animal versus plant foods and this book is the result. Well-known nutrition advisors Mark Sisson and Dave Asprey (Bulletproof) are advocates.
Dr. Saladino bases his argument on evolutionary biology. He states that plants and animals diverged their evolution 1.5 billion years ago. Life must eat life to survive and no form of live wants to be eaten in order to continue to exist. Animals use the defense of movement and evasion to avoid being prey. Plants are stuck in the ground or on trees so they developed chemical defense weapons to ward off predators.
Dr. Saladino argues that plants and animals have evolved different “operating systems” and are not fully compatible when merged through ingestion. Some animals are herbivores but he argues that over the past 3 million years we hominids evolved into being carnivores and thrived only on animal food, with plants being a survival food. He credits consuming animal foods for our large brain and narrow waist. When we eat plants there is a “chemical warfare” going on.
Here are some of the rather alarming, amazing and disrupting claims he makes, basing each one on science with references:
1. Broccoli and related vegetables are actually pro-oxidants and cause oxidative stress that damages our DNA.
2. Polyphenols are also pro-oxidants, including curcumin and resveratrol. All the positive data is observational and due to a “healthy user bias”. In today’s culture people leading healthy lives tend to be plant eaters while people who drink more alcohol and smoke tend to be meat eaters. Controlled studies do not show benefits of eating plants over animals. Just the opposite is true.
3. Flavonoids are endocrine disrupters leading to infertility and thyroid problems.
4. Green smoothies can lead to permanent kidney damage due to oxalate toxicity. Cases of kidney failure and even death have been reported. The same can happen with excessive peanuts. Oxalates have no role in the human body but are abundant in turmeric, spinach, beets and other vegetables. Oxalates may lead to Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and breast cancer.
5. He raises the same alarm about lectins as Dr. Steven Gundry (The Plant Paradox) who he often speaks with. Lectins from beans and other legumes damage the gut leading to auto-immune disease. Glutein is a lectin. Lectins may play a role in developing Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Saladino then dispels some common myths:
Myth 1. Plant Foods are Superfoods. None pass the test. Only animal foods have “magical nutrients” like creatine, choline, carnitine (for mental health), and carnosine. Vegans have higher rates of depression and anxiety. B12 is only the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to the important vitamins and other nutrients not well supplied by plants and abundant in animal foods
Myth 2. Fiber is necessary for a healthy gut. Plant fiber causes small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and auto-immunity. Plant fiber does not prevent colon cancer, cause weight loss or improve microbial diversity. Plant fiber harms sperm quality and leads to infertility. Daily healthy bowel movements are the norm when eating only animal foods.
Myth 3. Red meat will shorten your life. The opposite is true when controlled studies are done. Animal protein consumption results in longer life expectancy. The contrary observational research is contaminated by healthy and unhealthy user bias. He goes in depth discussing lipids and what LDL cholesterol is a “superhero” and not a “supervillain”.
Myth 4. The “plant slant” of the Blue Zones results in greater longevity. Dr. Saladino credits the lifestyle of the Blue Zone populations for their health and longevity and that author Dan Buettner was not accurate about the nutrition. For example in Nicoya Costa Rica only the men have greater longevity and eat lots of beef. The Okinawans eat more meat than the Japanese. In Sardinia there is a favorite “Sarda pig” that is treasured by the population. Hong Kong has one of the highest life expectancies in the world (85 years) and is the world’s third largest consumer of beef per capita. In the US, Mormon communities match the life expectancy of the Seventh Day Adventists and eat plenty of meat.
Myth 5. Red Meat Causes Heart Disease. The counters this with science and why the TMAO argument does not hold up. He goes in depth discussing lipids and what LDL cholesterol is a “superhero” and not a “supervillain”.
The last section of the book discusses what to eat on a carnivore diet. The emphasis in on eating only grass fed beef and wild caught seafood. More than muscle meat is required and organs, especially liver, kidney and bone marrow, bone meal and bone broth are important. Eggs are vital nutrition and he eats six daily, especially the yolks. He avoids dairy since that is not an animal food we should eat and has inflammatory proteins.
The Carnivore Code is bold and alarming. There is a lot to digest here (pun intended). My second reading of the book gives me pause in accepting all his arguments. He discusses five tiers for being carnivore with different degrees of intensity. The first tier is the “Carnivore-ish diet that includes what he considers the least toxic plants: non-sweet fruits such as avocado, squash and berries. Being a full carnivore means eating only healthy animals including fish and eggs takes some work and he gets meat and organs from as far away at New Zealand. He provides a guide and website for doing this and has a large number of followers and testimonials.
This book is the complete opposite of Michael Greger’s How Not To Die (2015) that blames only animal foods for causing all the diseases that lead to premature death. I’d love to see Drs. Saladino and Greger debate.
Is there common ground? Yes, Dr. Saladino like other authors condemns sugars and the processed carbohydrates that lead to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and the epidemic of overweight, obesity and type 2 diabetes. He reports evidence that 88% of Americans have insulin resistance, a very sad reflection of the devolution of our species.
The biggest weakness of this book for me is that he does not single out grains, carbs in general and sugar as causes of the greatest burden of disease and inflammation. He blames fat for insulin resistance and inflammation and then later promotes fat as our most desired food. Little mention is made of healthy fats and unhealthy fats.
I look forward to further analysis of the carnivore argument from other nutrition scientists who have an open mind for nutrition science outside their belief system. I will admit after reading this book I went out and had some ribs.
