TLDR: The Carnivore Diet Review — This book belongs in the pantheon of high quality carnivore literature. Can’t recommend it enough. Highly recommended. Buy it!
Baker is one of the OGs of the carnivore movement, and he has a bit of a different take. He’s more confrontational and a little less diplomatic than Dr. Paul Saladino.
He’s not as high on intermittent fasting as Dr. John Jaquish, though he sees benefit.
He’s not as dogmatic about the type of beef you eat: grass fed versus grain fed. Or the way it’s served: raw vs. cooked.
It’s refreshing. Shawn’s approach is very beneficial especially when you’re first starting out. Switching your diet to all meat is a big enough hurdle. You don’t need to muddle your thinking and weaken your resolve with the minutiae.
Eat meat when you’re hungry and don’t worry about the details until you have that mastered.
Shawn’s book is more accessible as well. Look, he’s smart and references many studies, but he keeps it lighter than the other books on the topic. He explains the results of a carnivore diet in layman’s terms. Anybody can understand it.
He also offers a ton of resources, including books and websites, for when you’re ready to go deeper or need support.
As with Jaquish and Saladino, Baker is a doctor, who experiments on himself and is willing to report his findings. This is an amazing combination. He has tons of success stories from patients and members of his website that are finding relief with a carnivore diet.
I recommend The Carnivore Diet.
Dr. Shawn Baker’s Carnivore Story – The Fight Against the Regime
Dr. Baker is a very accomplished dude. His account of how he got into carnivore was fascinating and also telling. The current climate in medicine and science research is pathetic. Evil and money-grubbing are more apt.
Baker is an athlete. He competed in strength competitions and high-level rugby. He’s over 50 and still setting records, including recent rowing feats. Watch some of his workouts on Instagram. He’s big, strong, and athletic. Box jumps with weight. Lifting a 200-pound medicine ball for reps.
He was successful in school and running a medical practice. The trouble came when he started sharing positive results from his personal keto and carnivore personal with his patients.
“Soon I started seeing that many of the orthopedic conditions I commonly had treated with drugs, injections, or surgery started to resolve with just the diet.”
Baker started spending more time with his patients:
“Instead of the usual eight-minute visits, I was spending forty minutes in the room with my patients. Instead of booking loads of surgeries every day, I began to suggest that perhaps we should hold off on surgery and try diet and other lifestyle modifications … The hospital administrators told me that there wasn’t much appetite for all this lifestyle stuff in the orthopedic department. But, as the head of the group, I didn’t much care what the administrators thought, and I continued to move forward.”
The trouble was he wasn’t cranking out as many surgeries or doling out as many drugs. This did not make the bean counters happy.
He got put on permanent leave on feeble grounds. How dare he heal patients and endanger the profit model.
He said that the biggest issue an independent reviewer found was that Dr. Baker was giving his patients “too much choice.” Guess you don’t want to give patients the idea that they should take charge of their own health.
He brought his expertise and skills to a carnivore community and the world is better off for it.
It’s a typical story for any professional that dares to question the status quo, particularly in medicine. They are not there to heal anyone. The system is set up to keep you sick and stupid, while the money flows into the medical cartel and pharmaceutical company coffers.
Baker is an extreme threat to the regime. He’s articulate, brave, and outspoken. He’s in great health and wants to share what he’s learned with as many people as possible.
Their petty suspension of him back in the day besmirches his reputation and is a black mark they point at to discredit him without actually listening to his story or the information he has collected. Disgusting. But, thank God for guys like Dr. Shawn Baker, who fight back!
Baker describes the stories written about him after his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. All of them started with a version of … “Dr. Shawn Baker, who had his medical license revoked…”
The Medical and Pharmaceutical Cartel
Sometimes whistleblowers and brave men and women, who have a conscience, stand up against nutritional research subterfuge. Research institutions come to the conclusions preferred by the highest bidder. It’s making these mega-corps, processed food purveyors, and Big Pharma massive profits while making us unhealthy.
“Much of human nutritional research has been a heaping pile of garbage on which we’ve wasted gazillions of dollars. The result is that everyone is fat, sick, weak, tired, and depressed, or they’re running around with calculators to track every morsel of food they eat. That’s the politest way I can describe it. More people probably have been killed, injured, or psychologically damaged because of stupid nutritional advice than in the combination of all the wars that have happened in the last century.”
Marcia Angell: Dietary Conclusions For Sale
Former interim New England Journal of Medicine editor-in-chief Marcia Angell, MD is a hero for saying this:
“It is simply not possible to believe much of the clinical research that has been published or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.” – Marcia Angell
In Angell’s article “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption,” she states that research and study results are not organic. Rather they crafted to fit the narrative of the highest bidder.
Dr. George Lundberg and Dietary Fat
Dr. George Lundberg, a former editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, stood up for truth as well.
He said the prevailing nutritional advice is backward, and that dietary fat shouldn’t be demonized. The real data never supported that hypothesis, which morphed into settled science behind the power of the propaganda machine.
Dietitians Are Wrong
You can trace back much of modern nutrition to ideology. Lenna Cooper founded the American Dietetic Association in 1917, which is now called the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She was a Seventh-day Adventist, which promotes vegetarianism. Lo and behold, the research and recommendations always leaned toward fewer animal foods and more plant-based foods.
“The dietitians say that if it doesn’t kill you immediately, you surely are condemning yourself to a future of cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, and diabetes. They pay no attention to the results showing that essentially every risk factor for those issues tends to go away when a person follows the diet, and they ignore the fact that societies that eat meat-based diets are free of those diseases.”
Longevity and The Carnivore Diet
As par for the course, the research and reporting on longevity studies are misleading. Blue Zones for example. Cherry-picked data. They ignore other factors of longevity and cohorts within the Blue Zones, who do eat meat and live a long time.
“…we don’t know what the truth is because we consider the ‘truth’ to be whatever we’ve heard the most. We see this in religion, politics, and nutrition.” – Dr. Shawn Baker
You never hear about Hong Kong in these studies. The residents there eat the most meat in the world and they live the longest. Might be worth noting!?!
Yes, there are always other factors to consider like the relative affluence of the population, but this is a remarkable stat that changes the complexion of the meat argument.
India eats the least meat per capita and has high rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Iceland has less access to fresh fruit and vegetables, yet is among world leaders in men that live to 100+ years old per capita.
Those stories don’t fit the narrative.
Carnosine, which is abundant in meat, reduces oxidative stress. It also prevents advanced glycation end products. Researchers associate these with aging.
Researchers believe telomeres, the bits at the end of DNA strands, indicate cellular aging. The longer the telomere the less aging. There’s only one food that helps lengthen telomeres? You guessed it … red meat.
Humans Are Designed to Eat Meat
“What if, by some crazy, lucky coincidence, human beings were also animals, and there exists a diet they could eat that doesn’t involve obsessive planning, calculating, and tracking? What if you could just eat when you feel hungry? What if you could get what you need to stay healthy from the food you eat, and you could forget about taking a bunch of supplements to survive and thrive?” – Dr. Shawn Baker
Healthy humans have a gastric pH of 1.1 to 1.5. This is very acidic, which helps digest meat. Primates that have plant-based diets have a 4.0 pH.
Herbivore mammals have a much larger percentage of their digestive tract dedicated to fermenting plant material to extract the nutrients. These include ruminant animals like sheep (83%) and cattle (75%). Only 17% of a human’s digestive tract is dedicated to fermenting plant material. This is a closer percentage to cats and dogs.
Humans are the top predator of all time. Not because of strength, speed, sharp claws, and teeth, but because of our brains.
It’s natural for humans to eat the flesh of other animals. It doesn’t matter what your blood type is. People are all the same species and thrive on the optimal diet: animal foods.
“The end goal of nutrition has a simple two-pronged explanation: It provides us with energy, and it gives us structural components to build and maintain our animal-based cells. We don’t need anything from a plant to accomplish either of those goals. Anything your animal cells need is found in other animal cells. It’s as simple as that. You don’t need a bunch of indigestible plant fiber or chlorophyll. Plant antioxidants, which we can barely absorb, aren’t necessary, either. You only need animal cells—that’s it!” – Dr. Shawn Baker
Meat Heals
“One of the most striking patterns that I see when people embark upon a carnivore diet is a reduction in blood pressure, insulin resistance, inflammation, and body fat.”
On his website, Dr. Baker has collected a tremendous amount of stories about meat healing different maladies and chronic conditions. the FDA has not approved the material, so the information is anecdotal.
“The top three issues I’ve observed being improved by a carnivore diet are joint pain, digestive health, and mental health.”
His list of conditions an all-meat diet helps is impressive. My son healed himself of a very severe case of Crohn’s, an autoimmune disease, by eating meat only. My chronic IBS is gone. So, I believe the diet has the power to help people with all sorts of issues.
Here’s the list:
| ADHD Alcohol dependence Amenorrhea Anemia Angina Ankylosing spondylitis Anxiety Arthritis Asthma Athlete’s foot Atopic dermatitis Autism Bipolar disorder Boils Bulimia Candidiasis Carpal tunnel syndrome Cholelithiasis Chronic bronchitis Chronic fatigue syndrome Cocaine dependence Colitis COPD Crohn’s disease | Dental caries Depression Dermatofibroma Diabetes mellitus Diverticulitis Diverticulosis Dupuytren’s contracture Eczema Ehlers-Danlos syndrome Epicondylitis Epilepsy Erectile dysfunction Fatty liver Fibromyalgia Floaters Gerd Gingivitis Gout Hashimoto’s thyroiditis Headache/migraine Hemorrhoids Hidradenitis suppurativa Hypertension Hypertriglyceridemia | Hypothyroidism Insulin resistance Irritable bowel syndrome Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis Keloids Lipoma Lyme disease Meniere’s disease Narcolepsy Nephrolithiasis Neuropathy Parkinson’s disease PCOS Psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis Quadriceps tendonitis Rheumatoid arthritis Rosacea Sciatica Scleroderma Synovitis Systemic lupus erythematosus Tinnitus Trichotillomania Trigger finger Ulcerative colitis |
That list is amazing. The carnivore diet is a very powerful health tool.
There’s a lot of talk about the microbiome these days. Many promote the use of probiotics. Baker has seen little success with this method without a shift in diet.
Baker also says that he sleeps 15% less on a carnivore diet but feels rested. He postulates that his sleep is higher quality because his food provides better nutrients for the body to repair itself, and he’s putting less stress on his body with the diet.
Many carnivores discover they have an increased tolerance for the sun. They don’t burn as easily. This is fantastic, allowing you to soak up more of the life-giving, vitamin D-packed rays.
Some people on the carnivore diet, who have overcome cravings for addictive foods, also discover they’re less inclined to indulge in other addictions like alcohol and cigarettes.
Baker isn’t sold on intermittent fasting. He says carnivores gravitate to fewer meals per day, but pushing to get to 24+ hours of fasting seems counterproductive.
“When we’re eating suboptimal or potentially toxic foods, it’s often helpful to give our bodies a break. But the carnivore diet doesn’t include those types of food. So, if you’re no longer consuming potentially harmful foods, then the benefits of extended fasting are likely diminished except in unusual cases.”
More benefits include: Insulin sensitivity improved. Thyroid function improved. Iron deficiencies cleared up. Less inflammation. Red and white blood cells move into normal ranges.
Don’t Believe the Anti-Meat Hype
“My teeth haven’t fallen out because of scurvy, my heart hasn’t clogged up, and I’ve been going to the bathroom just fine. In fact, my digestion has been the best it’s ever been. How can all this be true? I wondered the same thing. It was almost as if a lot of the modern nutritional teachings were wrong!”
The Carnivore Diet and Scurvy
There’s plenty of vitamin C in fresh meat to avoid scurvy. And you need less of it as you limit carb consumption. Amber O’Hearn discovered this when she fact-checked the USDA’s claim that meat has no vitamin C.
Diabetes
Red meat does not cause diabetes. The garbage that tends to get consumed with red meat, like alcohol, sugar, and cigarettes are the real culprits.
Cholesterol
High cholesterol is not always bad. The body needs both LDL and HDL cholesterol to function. Every cell in your body carries cholesterol. Your brain uses 25% of your body’s cholesterol. Testing with high levels is not bad if you don’t have inflammation or high insulin markers.
“We have a mounting pile of evidence that shows that heart disease risk is more influenced by other factors, including things like hyperinsulinemia, inflammatory status, and triglyceride levels than it is by cholesterol levels.” – Dr. Shawn Baker
Did you know that cholesterol rises by about 36 percent in people who have fasted for a week? So, losing weight must be bad right? Don’t be suspicious of the anti-cholesterol vitriol, just because cholesterol drugs are a billion-dollar market. That’s a coincidence.
“You can literally walk into your doctor’s office after having lost every ounce of fat on your body, feeling the best you have in decades, sporting excellent blood pressure and otherwise perfect metabolic markers, but if your annual blood test reveals high cholesterol, you’ll still leave the office with a prescription for some medication without any further discussion. In my view, that’s unacceptable, and it’s a sign of systemic laziness. We have to remember that our physiology is an incredibly complex system with far more going on than we can hope to find out with a snapshot of what’s traveling in our blood at one particular instant.”
“I recently had my coronary arteries tested with something called a coronary artery calcium scan, which many believe is one of the best tests to determine cardiac risk. My score was a perfect zero even though I’ve had elevated LDL and total cholesterol for many years and have been eating an average of four pounds of red meat per day for several years.” – Dr. Shawn Baker
Fiber
We don’t need fiber for healthy digestion. Humans can’t digest fiber. Our digestive tracts weren’t designed for it. Researchers pushed the “fiber is good for you” narrative after analyzing notoriously weak epidemiology studies.
More gas and higher rates of diverticulitis don’t sound positive. Dr. Baker has witnessed patients with improved digestion once going carnivore, including no more constipation, which goes against the prevailing narrative about fiber. Plus, he’s seen IBS and inflammatory bowel disease sufferers get better.
Excess Protein Doesn’t Damage Kidneys
Damaged kidneys leak protein. This does not mean that protein damages kidneys. There’s no scientific support for this assertion. Dr. Baker has seen chronic kidney dysfunction get better for several people once they went carnivore.
Gout
Not caused by meat. Alcohol and fructose are the culprits.
Red Meat Declared Carcinogen
In 2015 the WHO (World Health Organization) classified red meat as a class 2 carcinogen and processed meat as a class 1 carcinogen. This declaration was not a consensus and many scientists were critical of the findings after looking over the shoddy studies used to base the classifications.
Guess what … Dr. David Klurfeld, who was on the panel, found that a large percentage of the panelists that pushed this classification were vegan or vegetarian. Hmmm.
Colorectal Cancer
When I tell people about my carnivore diet, some shake their head and say “I can’t imagine what your colon looks like.”
In Asia eating meat has no connection to colorectal cancer. There are 4.5 billion people in the region, so it’s worth paying attention to that data.
North America has more colorectal cancer but most likely has more to do with the bun, shake, and fries that tend to come with most meat-eating.
Antioxidants
Human bodies produce antioxidants. And, studies have shown that low-carb diets help us upregulate our production of endogenous antioxidants. You don’t need plant antioxidants, which work well for plants but are useless for humans.
Impotence
PETA claimed decreased sex drive and compromised sex organ function compromised by eating meat. Anecdotally, Dr. Baker found the opposite. Maybe for those that combine meat with junk, PETA’s claims hold merit, but pure meat-eaters often experience increased libido and improved sexual function.
Eating a Predominantly Meat Diet is Not New
The Maasai people, who have been eating nothing but meat and drinking blood and milk, show no signs of deficiency.
In ancient times people called the guardians of English royalty Beefeaters because of their meat diet.
The men in the Lewis and Clark expedition across North America ate up to nine pounds of meat every day.
The Mongols, led by Genghis Khan conquered lands in Asia and Europe fueled by meat.
More recent examples include Dr. James Salisbury, who stated that humans were healthiest if they avoided fruits, vegetables, and starches.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson explored the arctic and lived off an all-meat diet with natives of those lands.
Dr. Blake Donaldson said he used a meat-based diet on his patients for decades and it worked wonders.
Dr. H.L. Newbold wrote about the positive effects of a carnivore diet in his 1991 book, Type A/Type B Weight Loss.
Dr. Robert Atkins promoted a mostly meat diet that gained popularity 20 years ago.
Carnivore Case Studies
The stories are amazing. Ravaging conditions cleared up in a matter of weeks or months. Folks so devastated by chronic pain and suffering and beat down by trying and failing with everything their doctors suggest take the big leap into a diet that sounds absolutely crazy.
We’ve been so conditioned by “nutrition” education to believe that red meat is bad for you and that fruits and vegetables are essential for good health. The carnivore diet sounds insane to many.
But, many of these folks are at the end of their ropes and willing to try anything. It helps to have a confident and experienced mentor like Baker guiding and reassuring you.
It’s heartwarming to read the stories and the sheer gratitude for finding relief and health after years, decades, and even lifetimes of suffering.
Nutrients You Get From Meat That Are Scarce in Other Foods
- Carnitine – better sexual function and helps with anemia.
- Carnosine – mitigates the development of Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, and renal disease.
- Creatine – improved cognitive function and glycemic control.
- Taurine – reduces anxiety.
- Heme iron – the best bioavailable source of iron. Helps with anemia. Helps the formation of red blood cells, transport of oxygen, support immune function and cognition.
- Vitamin B12 – deficiency connected to dementia and depression. Helps the nervous system.
Ease Into the Meat Only Diet
I like how Baker understands going carnivore is not a simple undertaking. There are mental, physical, and social hurdles.
Don’t make it too complicated by counting calories, figuring out macros, fasting a certain number of hours, worrying about meat sources and cooking methods.
As you are transitioning eat meat when you’re hungry and stop eating when you’re full. Easy as that. It’s going to be more meat than you think. Oftentimes, people eat a ton at the beginning, because they’re so depleted.
Once you get accustomed to eating meat only, and your body has had time to adapt, then you can start going deeper and figuring out more of the details of the diet.
I like this approach. It gets you where you need to be but in a more relaxed fashion.
Baker recommends not cutting out coffee and tea until you’re established with carnivore, then gently weaning yourself, because those beverages are not beneficial to your health. I’m still drinking a lot of black tea at this point, which I’ll address after I finish this amazing bag of loose leaf Rishi.
As a rule of thumb, males should eat around two pounds of meat per day while females should eat around 1.5 pounds.
Baker also says that weight loss should not be the primary objective of the diet. Optimal health should be what you are looking for. Weight loss often comes with the carnivore diet, but don’t get stuck on a body fat percentage. If you’ve eaten a typical modern diet for years or decades, you have a lot of catching up to do. You’re most likely very depleted, so eat the meat when you are hungry. You can refine what you are doing once you’re no longer malnourished.
“Eat meat like it’s your job.”
Dr. Baker provides a six-week carnivore transition plan that looks solid and will help you move into the diet while minimizing the pain and suffering your body goes through while adapting.
The Vegan Cult
Most vegans are useful dupes for a larger agenda and don’t know it. Some are shrewd and evil businessmen. Others are members of an ideological cult. And, finally, there’s a cabal that wants to keep the masses weak and dumb for easy manipulation.
Once Baker announced he was trying a carnivore diet the vegans came out in force.
He asked them: “Would you eat meat if it would improve your health.”
They always answered “no,” which he took to be pure irrationality in service to an ideology.
“I’ve heard several prominent vegan proponents state that humans should have an average of three bowel movements per day and should expect to fart fairly frequently because it’s a normal state of affairs. They contend that early humans didn’t mind passing gas because they spent a lot of time outdoors. As far as I can tell, they pulled this theory out of their vegan asses. You will receive zero prizes at the end of your life for having had the largest bowel movements (in either size or quantity).” – Dr. Shawn Baker
Marco Springmann, a vegan, published an article in a vegan-founded journal, PLOS ONE, stating that there should be a meat tax “to save lives.” Patrick Brown, who is the CEO of Impossible Foods, the manufacturer of fake, plant-based meat, founded PLOS ONE. Conflict of interest? Objectivity?
EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Plant, Health was a three-year collaboration of vegan activists LARPing as scientists. Processed food and pharmaceutical companies, and Dr. Gunhild A. Stordalen, the vegan wife of a billionaire hotel mogul, Petter Stordalen, funded the commission.
They suggested a maximum of 7 grams of beef per day, which is about a half-pound a month.
The documentary Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret claims that animal agriculture creates 51 percent of worldwide greenhouse gases. This is an outright lie.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations did a study that claimed 18 percent, but this too was an inflated number derived from suspect methodology.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that animal agriculture accounts for less than 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Beef is 1.9 percent.
The propaganda is abundant and strong. Makes you wonder why.
In reality, there are regenerative agriculture operations that are net-neutral or even net-negative in carbon emissions. This is the most “sustainable” form of food production.
Plants are Poison
People often have early success when they switch to plant-based diets if they stop eating processed foods. It’s not the omission of meat. However, over time, even a whole foods plant-based diet starts to fail because of a lack of nutrients and a whole host of anti-nutrients.
Professor Bruce Ames found in a 1990 study that 99.9 percent of pesticides consumed by volume come from the plants themselves. Not sprayed on chemicals. How’s that for organic?
Oxalates are a common antinutrient found in leafy green vegetables and fruits, nuts, and seeds. Some connect oxalate crystals in the body to leaky gut syndrome.
Lectins, found in grains, nuts, corn, quinoa, fruits, nightshades, vegetable oils, legumes, and squash, can lead to leaky gut.
More plant toxins that cause myriad health issues include:
- Glycoalkaloids
- Goitrogens
- Cyanogenic Glycosides
- Phytic Acid
- Protease inhibitors
- Flavonoids
- Saponins
- Salicylates
Some of the conditions they cause include:
- Leaky gut
- Autoimmune disorders
- Thyroid problems
- Neurological issues
- Mineral deficiencies
- Protein digestion interference
- Free radical production
- Red blood cell damage
- Asthma
- Gut inflammation
- Diarrhea
Carnivore Diet Resources
Dr. Baker references a lot of books and has a list of websites for more information. Here’s a list of most of the resources:
Websites, Groups, and Other Links
- Meatrx.com (Dr. Baker’s site)
- Cholesterolcode.com (Dave Feldman)
- Diagnosisdiet.com (Dr. Georgia Ede)
- Drmalcomkendrick.org (Dr. Malcolm Kendrick)
- Thefatemperor.com (Ivor Cummins)
- Justmeat.co
- Ketotic.org (Amber O’Hearn)
- Proteinpower.com
- World Carnivore Tribe
- Zeroing in on Health (Charles Washington)
- Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption by Maria Angell, MD (article)
- Joe and Charlene Andersen
- Dr. Csaba Toth
Books
- Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
- The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz
- The Fat of the Land by Vilhjalmur Stefansson
- Type A/Type B Weight Loss Book by Dr. H.L. Newbold
- The Plant Paradox by Dr. Steven Gundry
- Arctic Village by Robert Marshall