Paul Saladino



"It's clearly trying to kill you, kale is bullshit". Paul Saladino a.k.a. CarnivoreMD is an American YouTuber, anti-vegan activist, cholesterol denialist, conspiracy theorist and former carnivore diet advocate who promotes an expensive "animal-based diet" consisting of grass-fed beef, organs, fruit, honey and raw dairy. In 2020, Saladino claimed to eat half a lamb testicle everyday and was recommending people to eat raw liver. Saladino makes pseudoscientific YouTube videos arguing that the defence chemicals in vegetables such as cauliflower, chard and kale are toxic and will kill people. Saladino also promotes beef organ vitamin supplements.

Saladino was on a carnivore diet for a year and a half or less but still sells copies of his book The Carnivore Code which advocates a strict "nose-to tail" carnivore diet. He has since argued that a ketogenic carnivore diet ruined his health by giving him heart palpitations, low testosterone and muscle cramps but after having a "carbohydrate jesus" moment he added fruit and honey to his diet and his health improved. Saladino is known to criticize certain foods but then add them to his diet. For example, in December 2020 he stated clearly that he cannot tolerate any dairy (pasteurized or raw) and all dairy "is out for him". In October 2021, he also said he cannot eat any dairy. However, less than a year later he was consuming raw dairy and promoting it on his YouTube channel without any explanation to his followers. As of 2023 he consumes raw butter, raw milk and raw cream on a daily basis. He tells people to consume raw cheese and "10 ounces of raw milk kefir (homemade)". He has also made contradictory statements about consuming honey, sweet potatoes and white rice. His diet is expensive and unrealistic for most people. Saladino became a millionaire by promoting his diet and says he spends up to 4 hours a day surfing in Costa Rica.

Saladino hosts the "Fundamental Health" podcast and has over 360,000 followers on YouTube. In Costa Rica, he spends his time walking around supermarkets with his t-shirts printed with "Kale is bullshit" and "seed oils are bullshit" to seek attention. Saladino also buys broccoli and kale, just to throw it around his luxury kitchen and call it "garbage" and "horrible bullshit".

In April 2023, Saladino removed CarnivoreMD from his social media accounts and is currently promoting fermented foods such as pickles.

Background
Saladino obtained his MD from the University of Arizona. He is Board certified in psychiatry. Saladino has stated that he is a "licensed physician in California, but he no longer practices in any state and does not see patients". He makes YouTube videos and sells nutritional supplements.

Saladino was educated in functional medicine, a type of alternative medicine pseudoscience.

Heart & Soil supplements
Saladino is the founder of Heart & Soil supplements, an animal-based supplement company based in Austin, Texas which has been supported by Dave Asprey and Joseph Mercola. His company sells a beef organ supplement for $52.00. All of the supplements have their bone and organ ingredients sourced from "New Zealand farms". This contradicts Saladino's dietary advice about eating locally.

The current director of Saladino's Heart & Soil supplement company is Brian Johnson aka The Liver King, a millionaire YouTuber who has publicly admitted to steroid use and lying to his followers.

Diet history
There were many times that I would wake up in the middle of the night with arrhythmias and I thought that I was going to die from this. Most of what Saladino has said about his diet history has been confusing and contradictory. He claims to have started on a paleo diet for 12 years but elsewhere said he was a raw vegan, then gone carnivore with honey but was apparently also on a strict "ketogenic carnivore diet" without consuming honey. He also excluded dairy on his "strict carnivore diet" because his body does not tolerate it to consuming it again without explaining why to his followers. He was also eating sweet potatoes and white rice and then apparently not eating them because he does not tolerate them at all.🇱🇮 He started consuming fruit and honey after two years of his carnivore diet (or one and half) but also says he was consuming honey from the beginning. Nothing he says makes much sense. Below is Saladino's dietary history which is strongly referenced to his own interviews and videos.

Raw veganism
Saladino says he was a vegan for seven months of his life. On this diet he said he was only eating raw fruit and vegetables and some nuts but was a "nightmare to be around" because he was farting so much. He says the diet gave him eczema and fatigue. He does not mention if he was supplementing or not but it is obvious that the diet was totally unbalanced. He concluded by saying that on his raw vegan diet he was so skinny that "he couldn't even get a date". He said that after his raw vegan phase he "transitioned to a strict carnivore diet". However, this is contradicted by his claim to have been on a 12 year paleo diet before his carnivore diet.

Paleo diet
In July 2019, Saladino said that before he started his carnivore diet he had been on a paleo diet for 12 years and was eating 100% organic and although the diet was good for him it did not help his eczema. He then said he went on a low-oxalate paleo diet and a bunch of other different types of paleo diets before finally trying the carnivore diet.

Carnivore diet
Saladino started a carnivore diet in late 2018. He said that after several months into the diet his electrolytes and kidney function were normal, he had more energy, strength in the gym and was sleeping well. He described the diet as a "very positive" experience and said it improved his eczema and mood. The type of diet he was promoting was the extreme "nose-to-tail" carnivore diet in which all parts of the animal are eaten, including muscle and organs meats such as the heart, liver, lungs, kidney, brain and skin. In November 2018, Saladino said that he eats every part of the animal as ancestral tribes did and this is a key point in getting the carnivore diet "right".

In July, 2019 Saladino said he doesn't consume any plants and he is sticking to his strict "nose-to-tail" carnivore diet. In February 2020, Saladino authored the book The Carnivore Code which promotes a strict "nose-to-tail" carnivore diet. The book tells people to adopt a diet of organ and muscle meats whilst avoiding all fruits, legumes and vegetables as these foods will apparently ruin your health as they are toxic. For example, Saladino authored chapters telling people to avoid flavonoids, lectins and oxalates which are found in plant foods. He also authored a chapter telling people that dietary fiber is a myth and why fiber is not necessary for a healthy gut. He has not removed any of these chapters since adding carbohydrates to his diet.

In May, 2020 he released a near 10-minute video entitled "What CarnivoreMD eats in a day!" which described his diet as consisting of bone broth, bone marrow, raw liver, muscle meats, heart, kidney and lamb testicles, egg yolks and honey. During this time, Saladino also claimed that a carnivore diet can heal many autoimmune diseases, including eczema but provided no scientific evidence.

In July 2020, Saladino debated several paleo diet advocates including. In the video, Saladino made the bold claim that he could get every nutrient on a strict "noise-to-tail" carnivore diet and he doesn't need to consume any plant foods. At this time, Saladino also claimed he doesn't eat a "typical" ketogenic diet but did not mention his honey consumption. He cited a website from late 2018 which listed his daily carnivore diet as consisting of large amounts of beef steak, kidney, liver, 8 raw egg yolks, bone meal powder, sea salt, suet and natural mineral water. His "nose-to tail" carnivore diet was put onto Cronometer (a nutrition tracker) and was found to be extremely low in vitamin C and manganese and low in Vitamin E and potassium. After his diet was publicly described as low in these nutrients, Saladino said that he takes magnesium and potassium supplements.

However, by this time, Saladino had actually given up the carnivore diet. He said in a June 2020 interview that he had spent "a few months" adding carbohydrates to his diet and had given up being a strict carnivore after one and a half years. In reality, Saladino was probably on a carnivore diet for less than that time.

Saladino advises people to avoid eating chicken on the carnivore diet which he claims is high in n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids and recommends his followers to eat and hunt ruminants such as bison, cows, elk and sheep as they are low in n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Carnivore diet with dairy
In July 2019, Saladino said that his body does not tolerate A1 beta-casein found in cow's dairy products so he tried consuming A2 casein found in raw goat and sheep milk but his body cannot tolerate this either as within four days it triggered eczema on his hip and wrists. He concluded by saying that he cannot tolerate dairy at all. In December 2020 he also said all dairy "is out for him" as his cannot tolerate it.

From 2021, Saladino has been consuming A1 dairy products and from 2022 has been promoting a diet high in cow's dairy including raw butter, raw milk and raw cream on a daily basis. He also tells people to consume raw cheese and make their own raw milk kefir. In March 2023, Saladino is promoting goat milk kefir in his video "Animal-Based at Trader Joe" but does not explain his previous comments about not being able to tolerate A2 casein.

Ketogenic carnivore diet
I wasn't actually ketogenic at all

Saladino's statements about being in ketosis on his "ketogenic carnivore diet" are contradictory. In a 2019 interview with Mark Sisson, Saladino said he "wasn't actually doing it in a ketogenic way" and that he had never done "full keto" in his life. He said that when he first started the carnivore diet he did not want to get keto flu so he did "carnivore with honey" from the beginning. This contradicts other interviews he has given where he claimed he added fruit and honey to his diet after two years.

The above comment was made by Saladino in August 2022. What he is claiming is clearly not accurate, and is contradicted from former interviews he had given (as cited above). Saladino claimed that he gave up the strict carnivore diet and had to add fruit and honey to his diet because he was suffering from muscle cramps, lack of sleep, heart palpitations, low testosterone, and sexual health problems.

In late 2022, Saladino came out against ketogenic diets and has said they are harmful long-term. Based on his own contradictory statements, it is unlikely that he was on a "ketogenic carnivore diet".

Joe Rogan podcast
In October 2020, Saladino was a guest on Joe Rogan's podcast where argued for a strict carnivore diet. In the podcast Saladino did not mention his personal fruit consumption and commented that "there are no nutrients in plants that you cannot get from animal foods", he also stated there is no benefit from eating fruit and vegetables and questioned why people eat plants. This was despite the fact by this time he had been consuming fruit for many months.



Honey, sweet potatoes and white rice
Saladino has made contradictory statements about consuming honey, sweet potatoes and white rice. Between April and June 2020, Saladino was feasting on honey, sweet potatoes and other carbohydrates. He stated:

Saladino had admitted to eating sweet potatoes for months in June 2020 and commented that sweet potato is "pretty good for me" and it is a "cool idea" for people to explore it. However, in November 2020 he stated that "some people might be able to tolerate sweet potatoes, I don't tolerate them at all".

In June 2020, Saladino admitted that he had been eating white rice with his "carnivore diet" for months and there "was no limit to the amount of white rice that he could eat". By November 2020 he changed his mind and said "white rice has not been so great for me". As of 2023, Saladino no longer mentions how he was consuming white rice for months and none of his followers seem to mention it to him.

In October 2021, Saladino said that he does eat sweet potatoes and squash and included them in his "grocery haul".

Animal-based diet
Since giving up the carnivore diet due to health concerns, Saladino promotes an "animal-based diet" which includes lots of fruit.

In September 2021, Saladino was eating a diet that consisted of bananas, papaya, rambutan, honey, salt, organs and ribeye steaks. In 2022 his diet contained dates, raw cow's milk, raw heart, raw liver, grass-fed beef, raw butter, raw cream, bananas, olives, papaya, pineapple, avocados and berries. Saladino says he does not eat fish, legumes, nuts, poultry, seeds or vegetables.

As of 2023, Saladino says he consumes orange juice, honey, raw milk, maple syrup, raw butter, heart, 8 oz burger, mango and cheese, ground beef and bone marrow. He also takes beef organ supplements. In a recent "animal-based" grocery haul, Saladino is promoting dozens of bananas, apples, apricots and grapes with two beef steaks and pasteurized cream. Although he does eat a lot of red meat, it is debatable if Saladino's diet should be termed "animal-based".

In April 2023, Saladino added fermented cucumbers to his diet and incorrectly claimed that "pickles are definitely an animal-based food".

Bloodwork
Saladino had a blood test in July 2020. In October 2020, he revealed publicly on the Joe Rogan podcast that his "LDL was very high, it was 533 mg/dL" and that any "mainstream doctors hearing this are wanting to throw daggers at me". There is a broad consensus in the medical community that an optimal LDL should be below 100 mg/dL. His total cholesterol during this time was 647 mg/dL. An optimal total cholesterol should be below 200 mg/dL.

Saladino in July 2022 disputed his 2020 LDL score by claiming the reason it was so high back then was because he did an intense workout a few days before his blood test and there was an "incident" were he was exclusively eating honey. 🇱🇮 It is unlikely he was exclusively eating honey. After incorporating more fruit, rice and sweet potatoes into his high-saturated fat "animal-based diet", Saladino's LDL dropped to 164 mg/dL (which is still high). Saladino claims this is the lowest his LDL has been in 4 years. In regard to his high LDL he said he believes "it is a very poor predictor of cardiovascular risk" and he doesn't worry about LDL. Saladino's LDL-P score (direct measure of low density lipoprotein particles) was also high at 1925 (an optimal LDL-P is below 1000).

Bizarre claims
Saladino argues against the scientific consensus on most nutritional topics and has made a number of bizarre and pseudoscientific claims unsupported by evidence-based medicine, including:

Lawsuit
In 2020, Saladino filed a lawsuit against another former carnivore diet advocate and YouTuber Frank Tufano after he made defamatory videos of Saladino that are alleged to contain "sexually graphic and homophobic" images. Tufano also registered a domain name in Saladino's name to divert traffic from his website. Saladino has accused Tufano of unlawful registration of a domain name, deceptive trade practices and defamation.