The Carnivore Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Optimal Health by Returning to Our Ancestral Diet

Read this book ONLY if you can consider an idea while holding a very different one! I'm a type 1 diabetic and it is important to me that I maintain normal blood glucose. I already know how to do this. However, it's also important to me to avoid acquiring any additional autoimmune conditions for which I'm at high risk and if plant foods are potential triggers for another condition, I certainly want to think long and hard before maintaining triggers in my environment. This was my primary motivation for reading this book. Second to that was the concern that I may need to incorporate different parts of the animal into my family's meat-based diet. Dr. Saladino makes a compelling case for doing so. I don't have the scientific or medical knowledge necessary to properly review many of Dr. Saladino's scientific arguments. I'm certainly going to follow any criticism of the book closely. All I have to go on is my experience, which sounds a lot like the purported benefits Dr. Saladino has seen with meat-based diets. Here's what I've observed over the years regarding the power of food choices: a) my health dramatically improved when I lowered blood sugars with a low carb diet b) continued improvements were observed when I dropped all grain consumption entirely, c) no more kidney stones since severely reducing oxalates (tests confirmed I was making the calcium-oxalate kind), d) When I ate carnivore (plus coffee) for 3 months, joint pain greatly decreased, skin improved (eczema), energy increased, mood was the most stable it's ever been, and more. e) I have since been eating mostly meat with limited plant foods over the last 3 years and tendonitis and frozen shoulder have almost disappeared, f) menstruation cycle has normalized for the first time EVER. f) digestion is good for the first time ever and stomach pain which used to be frequent is completely gone. g) Depression is gone. (This is a biggie). h) normalized lipids, lowered bp and heart rate, and normalized liver enzymes and weight. My family has done better, too. My husband has cured his severe sleep apnea and gained muscle. Our son has had a marked improvement in his mood and he is no longer underweight, and our daughter, who recently was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, has been using a small amount of insulin and keeping normal blood sugars. It appears she still is maintaining some beta cell activity of her own, which is an asset to any diabetic. We particularly hope to maintain that in the case future therapies work via that route. All this improvement stated above is admittedly severely confounded by improved blood sugars and metabolic health during the same time period which undoubtedly make an impact on one's mood as well as many numerous bodily functions. I don't know how much can be attributed to anything outside of improved blood glucose, actually. Though it may just be that blood sugar is among more critical factors compared to plant toxins and other health nagging agents. Either way, I'd recommend a carnivore-ish way of eating to anyone with diabetes, excess weight, or metabolic dysfunction in a heart beat because we've got rampant metabolic disease going on and a ton of autoimmune conditions making people suffer greatly with no adequate relief other than medications with high costs and serious side effects and if a carnivore or carnivore-ish diet can help one or both of these issues, I say this book deserves a chance. Yes, you have to weigh so much against what you've been programmed to believe, but there's nothing dangerous in merely hearing Dr. Saladino out. (Some will say there is and you should be veryyy suspicious of these types.) In the book, Dr. Saladino walks you through the biology, chemistry, and human physiology so you can follow along to the best of your ability. His tone is like man's best friend, super enthusiastic and positive but straight forward and honest. If you're worried about getting through this large book, don't. It's an easy, pleasant read. I can't wait to observe the wonderful debates this book will surely spark. I think we're going to keep learning a lot!! As for me, I'm going to try refining my diet a bit more using this book as a guide. Because if you've been really sick as I have in the past, trust me, nothing tastes as good as healthy feels and experimenting with food has paid off for me. And funny thing about humans is that when we reach a goal, we tend to make a new, higher one. So I'm far from done with my health journey. I want to get better and better. Good luck in your health journeys.

I don't say that a lot of diet books are thought-provoking, but Dr. Saladino managed to write a book that is both informative and thought-provoking. Personally, having followed a vegan diet (6 months), paleo diet/keto (1 year), and the standard American diet, I have always felt better on a paleo diet, full of vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts, and seeds. When I heard about the carnivore diet about a year and a half ago my skepticism was high and I thought that all carnivore dieters were fad following crazies, until I read this book. I don't agree with 100% of what Dr. Saladino hypothesizes and I believe that our body's more than capable of handling some plant foods; I do not think they are this evil thing that is wreaking havoc in our bodies. However, below are the reasons why I believe this book is one of the best books towards honest discussion towards optimal human health and wellbeing. 1) Dr. Saladino promotes a holistic view of the human body. He says that the current medical establishment's paradigm is to treat only the symptom and never addresses the root causes of chronic disease. Do you have high blood pressure? Here are some beta-blocker. Do you have acne? Antibiotic and Accutane. Do you have eczema? Steroid cream. Dr. Saladino's journey to writing this book was to find the root cause of chronic illnesses and how we may be able to address those illnesses through diet (point of this book) and exercise. 2) Focus moe on interventional studies, rather than epidemiology. Dr. Saladino prefers to cite interventional studies rather than making his correlation claims from epidemiology. Most of our health advice comes from epidemiology which is never a good source of causative thinking. An example in the book uses the consumption of margarine to divorce rate: lower the consumption of margarine, lower the divorce rate. So can we say that consuming less margarine leads to a lower divorce rate? Of course not, but most of the health advice out there utilize this logic to come to the conclusion: X is good for you. Interventional studies, however, apply the interventions and measures the outcome and Dr. Saladino does an excellent job in providing both epidemiological and interventional data to justify his claims. 3) Not too dogmatic. Let's be clear, Dr. Saladino probably has a natural bias towards carnivorous eating, but he is never dogmatic about it. He makes his claims, cites studies after studies, and lets us, the audience, a chance to scrutinize his resources for our own evaluation. This amount of transparency, over 300+ studies cited is rare amongst the dieting book genre. His book is about him telling us why he thinks we should eat animal products, and encourages us to think for ourselves. 4) Addresses the ethics of eating meat. This is huge. He addresses the impact of agriculture and meat consumption when it comes to ethics and climate change. It doesn't matter which camp you are in, but Dr. Saladino does an excellent job to be as objective as possible here. For example, according to 2016 (before Trump, so Obama) EPA report, agricultural livestock only accounted for 3.7% of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Followed by agricultural crops (plants) accounting for 5.2%. The top two GHG emissions came from transportation and electricity generation, 26.4% and 30.3%, respectively (p. 274). I had no idea, I though agricultural livestock would be way more than 3.7%. Dr. Saladino also states that he advocates for humane, pasture-raised animals and how this can be sustainable and scalable. In many of his talks, he dives into ethics such as why do humans think that a bigger animal's life is worth more than smaller animals, microbes, and insects that are killed for crop farming? I appreciate Dr. Saladino writing about this subject, it is definitely rare in the diet books genre. All in all, this is one of the best books I've read on topic of optimal human health and diet. I don't agree with 100% of the things Dr. Saladino states, but I appreciate his work and his passion to look at health holistically. This book will not preach at you, but it will teach you, guide you, and make you ask questions so that YOU can decide for YOURSELF what diet and lifestyle is best for YOU. Highly reccomend. Approach this with an open mind, it may change how you view a lot of things other than diet.

I've previously gone paleo and felt great for a few months. Then tapered off and never knew why. This book gives a comprehensive overview of what we need to be eating if we are going to switch to a meat (and fruit) diet. ORGANS. You have to have organs to complete the nutritional profile for your body's needs; this is what I missed when I went paleo- plus I was eating spinach which wreaked havoc on my guts. When DR Saladino wrote the book he focuses on the nose-to-tail of the animal. However, if you follow him on social media he has included seasonal fruit (without seeds), Raw Honey and Raw Dairy. Hopefully he'll update the book with these at a later date. But this book covers the most important aspect of an animal based diet. One thing I found out from my own research, that I'd love to see added to this in an update, is that a whole cow harvested breaks down to 50 percent muscle meat and 50 percent ground beef. Then organs and bones and tallow. That helped me design my meal plan. So that I got a good balance of fat and blends in the ground beef and didn't overdo it on all muscle meat. That helped. I'd love to see a chapter on that in an updated edition, too. Switching to animal based w fruit and raw dairy and honey changed my health radically. My energy levelled. I stop peeing through the night. Zero bloating, gas and unpleasant gut issues. Healthy stool. Better mood and outlook. Clear head and stamina. Zero cravings. Far more in touch with my actual hunger and what my body wants. It took me 2months to get my meals balanced to cover all nutrition for the day. I used the organ supplements (heart and soil) during that time whilst I sourced local suppliers. Once you get past that the rewards speak volumes to better and transformed health. Grateful that a medical doctor made it his life's work to bring this to ppl. I can't recommend this book enough. This is the longest review I've ever written. Because it works and hopefully this will sway you to give it a try.

Four and half stars if Amazon would let me! So Carnivore, a variation of the Caveman diet, has been around "forever" and is intuitive, right? Wrong. This is where the doctor's advice comes in handy as he explains with great depth his thought, approaches and research on so many topics. Being completely new to this way of eating for health issues, not for athletic performance, has left me with some serious questions about how will this diet affect me as a female, especially as one who has hormonal issues outside of PCOS realm. Weight loss? I wish ... let's heal first and then we'll see if I can loose that last 15 pounds later. Despite the scales being stuck, my body shape continues to change and improving. FYI: I am working with a weight-loss clinic that advocated I try this diet approach. It's not a cookbook which I appreciate - its research-based information. Wish he would give more information on what I needed to know to get started from a practicality point of view (how much meat will a woman eat?) and more on how to survive the first 30 days (surviving mentally, that is!! The cooking is so simple!) and what to expect from a hormonal point-of-view. He literally answered my laundry list of every other question and when my coworkers look at me shocked and start bombarding me with questions about carnivore and fasting, I am more than ready to give them answers (the irony is we work in cardiology!) The book was very helpful regarding the digestion questions and how to address nutritional issues. This author is very particular on NO VEGETABLES and WHY. It is the first time I have seen a reasonable explanation of oxalates since I started that transition, hence the lack of vegetables is not a dealbreaker and I am really surprised at how much digestion has improved. It was this author's advice that helped me formulate early an approach that included more fats and organ meats as I transitioned into this diet (I never had organ meats until this year so this is all new). I attribute to my early success and reversal of gut health problems to this author's advice despite wondering if it was too extreme at first. I see and hear other "famous" carnivores on the internet eating muscle-meat-only and I do not think I would have transitioned so well if I used that approach alone. Lastly, I have learned a great deal about the value of salt. The author does not promote raw foods in the book but he has some interesting things to say on podcasts that I am not interested in trying at this time. The advice he gives in the book follows the same sound advice I hear other physicians promoting from the wellness community and this middle-of-the-road approach helped me wrap my head around this big change in eating. I miss the veggies but am so happy living IBS/pain free and am now waiting for rest of the body to heal. Already making remarkable progress and will continue this for another month to see if more improvements come. It may be a lifestyle I integrate and cycle through on a regular basis in the future as I work towards a continuum of healing. (Yes, I've tried just about every other elimination diet prior to this one; it is the only one that has eliminated all of my gut problems and did so in a matter of days. I've not had the usual transition issues that I read about).

This book is AMAZING. Dr. Saladino doesn’t mind challenging “accepted truths” in the nutrition world—and his argument/rational to support his beliefs is scientifically sound, with plenty of supporting data. I love his “voice” too, as he makes his arguments—he presents ideas with a peaceful heart, acknowledging whose feathers he is ruffling at any given moment—and this beautiful trait also comes through in his podcast interviews, which are also outstanding. Be sure to look him up, you will not be disappointed!! As a dietitian, I can say he steps on many toes as he paints a picture of the reasons we may NOT need all that dietary fiber that society believes is mandatory for gut health; that the phytonutrients we seek out are actually pro-oxidants (thus the spike in glutathione isn’t quite what it seems); that there are many anti-nutrients in plants that cause far more harm to us than good as they bind up minerals, prevent us from absorbing micronutrients, and causing other toxic effects in us. These ideas don’t jive with what a typical dietitian is asked to promote—and yet they make absolute sense, particularly when you consider his “operating system” analogy. Personally, I follow a Keto diet, but after reading this book, am moving toward “Carnivore-ish”, which is one of the 5 tiers that he so nicely describes in the latter chapters. I love the information he provides re: the least toxic vegetables (and fruits) too. For me, this means I can still include some avocado, olives/olive oil, lettuces, cucumber, and berries in my diet while being primarily meat-based. That means I can have avocado with my bacon and eggs for my first meal, and perhaps a salad (with minimal veggies) on occasion, particularly when eating out, when my options may be more limited and I don’t want to order just a steak or burger. That said, planning and cooking meals at home becomes SO much easier!! I really love how this simplifies things! I also agree with his advice to cook foods gently, not always pan-searing your meats (toxins are produced), so we also need to boil, steam, poach, use the crockpot, or find other low-temperature cooking methods to balance out the times when we do pan-sear that salmon fillet. Eating grass-fed, quality proteins and fats is also a must! A McDonalds burger without the bun is NOT on the menu. And how about nut milks and flours? I couldn’t agree more, that making tons of “look alike” processed food items by simply using “acceptable” ingredients is not a path to health. It’s not that we can NEVER have a treat like that (as he says in the opening pages, we must always be cognizant of what our “highest quality of life is” at any given moment)—but that doesn’t mean whipping up a batch of low-carb/Keto cakes, muffins and cookies on a frequent basis. These items are TREATS and must be used in moderation, even if you want to loosely interpret his carnivore approach. For anyone, reading this book will call into question many of your beliefs about which foods are healthy—and even if you don’t adopt a carnivore approach, I bet you will make some adjustments to your current plan. Bravo!!! -Julie Cottrell, MS, RD, LD

I started my keto journey in the fall of 2016, after reading Taubes, Teicholz, Phinney & Volek, Lustig, and many others. I also read longevity books by Gundry and Longo, all of which were informative, science-based books. I had no intention of going carnivore, but despite my high energy levels and vastly improved health, I still had niggling, persistent inflammatory issues. Saladino’s book absolutely blew me away with its unimpeachable arguments that nose-to-tail, highish-fat, nutrient-dense carnivore eating is how the human evolved into what it is, and how returning to our millenias-old ancestral diet can and does return us to the strong, vibrantly healthy humans we are meant to be. He addresses, in convincing detail (with references), how paleontologists know what the ancients ate, what their health (and disease) states were, and how our digestive systems evolved many millennia ago from plant digestion to meat digestion. He agrees with Gundry on the lectin/inflammation connection, but differs on all other aspects of plant toxins and antinutrients, which he shows are wreaking havoc inside of us through inflammation and the blocking of nutrient uptake. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Even if you don’t go carnivore, this book will amaze and educate you, eliminate your fear of too much protein (the mTOR argument, etc.) and if you still eat plants, help you avoid the ones that are messing you up the most. This book is so well-researched and well-written, it just needs an index for those of us who want to reference it again and again. Great job Dr. Paul. (PS: I don't know Dr. Saladino, and was not paid to write a review. I am a well-read 64 yo with a layperson's interest in nutrition and the relationship between soil health and human health.)

“The Carnivore Code”, by Paul Saladino, MD, is one of the very few books (4 to be exact) in the past 5-6 years that kept me up at night reading. I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. I wish they taught this in college or in medical school. After 40 some years in medicine, I was always thinking the way I was taught at med school, until 5-6 years ago, when I began to search how to stay healthy. Before all this time, as an MD, I was taught and thinking how to treat the sick. MDs never really received much education nor training on nutrition or diet. But we all know we are what we eat. In recent years, the rampant metabolic diseases and diabetes in particular made me to look into low carb/ketogenic diet. Diabetes is due to too much sugar intake. So the easiest and straight forward solution is to cut the sugar in our diet. This is not that difficult to understand. So a couple of years ago, I took up ketogenic diet myself and advised my patients/clients on this. It really helped myself and many of my patients. But I still emphasized on veggie eating and never really looked much into this. That‘s until I read The Carnivore Diet. The Carnivore Diet is a must read for anyone who cares about his/her own health or that of his/her loved ones. One of the most striking lessons I learned is that Dr. Saladino systematically analyzed the key differences between the plant world and the animal world and that the reason plants exist is not for us to eat as food. Plants, like us in the animal kingdom, exist for their own right and they also want to reproduce and propagate. In order to survive in this tough world, plants produce toxins to protect themselves to be eaten by animals like us humans. Now this caught my eye. We all know some plants that are toxic. But I never systemically thought of this as a universal phenomenon. Plants ain‘t meant to be our food. This explains why low carb/ketogenic diet (which cut out most of the carb rich plants) doesn’t solve all the health problems. I have been paying particular attention to eating more veggies and plant based antioxidants. Well, am I doing it right? If you are like me, health conscientious, you should read this book and judge for yourself. The messages in this book are so important that i decided to devote a big portion of my next few months to translate into Chinese and introduce to my Chinese readers. Richard Cheng, M.D., Ph.D.

I wanted to love this book. I really did, but the further I read, the more frustrated I became with repeatedly getting lost in the scientific minutiae. Unfortunately Dr. Saladino does not yet possess the rare and subtle art of translating complex data into an engaging forensic narrative. If Dr. Saladino's purpose for writing this book was to impress other highly educated professionals in the health care fields with his intelligence and research capabilities, mission accomplished. If, however, his intent was to convince the general public to switch from the plant based SAD (standard american diet; Quite possibly the most appropriate acronym ever) to a very low / zero carb diet, he has missed the mark. This book is far too technical for the average person to grasp fully. Anyone with less than a master's degree in bio-chemistry will most likely feel like they are stumbling around in the dark, trying to make sense of the nutritional maze Dr. Saladino has constructed. A cliffs notes version would be much more helpful to most people, without making the reader feel like an uneducated fool. It is really a shame, because I agree with his premise. I've been eating keto for two years and carnivore for the last three months, and I'm sold on the health benefits. At 64, I feel amazing, because I've finally found the optimal diet for me. However, this book is not for people who are just beginning their journey to reclaim their health. I would recommend those interested in learning about the carnivore diet start with Dr. Shawn Baker's book . It is a much easier read. Then they might be ready to tackle Dr. Saladino's work. For the record, I am a college grad, but I graduated 43 years ago. About the only thing I've retained from my college education was that statistics can be manipulated to support any side of any debate. A valuable lesson indeed. I hope this review helps.