The Carnivore Code

The book provides compelling historical anthropology data that confirms that it is likely our early ancestors ability to hunt that caused them to evolve from earlier primates. It’s thought that the hominid lineage diverged from primates about 6 million years ago when our distant ancestors came out of the trees, and into the open grasslands of North Eastern Africa. The oldest fossils form our lineage are dated to 3.5 million years ago, and were discovered in what is now Ethiopia

About 2.5 million years ago our brains to rapidly grow, and our ancestors became more intelligent. No one knows for sure, but there are a couple of key clues in the archaeological records. A significant change in the rate of growth of our ancestors’ brains coincided with stone tools and hunting. We are the humans of today because we began eating animals.

We didn’t evolve to be the best gatherers, or the best farmers. We evolved to be the best hunters, and it was this hunting which provided us with the best food available, animal foods. The advent of agriculture only happened about 12,000 years ago which is a relatively recent event.

Well,if you have your thinking cap on your are probably concerned about all the phytonutrients”, fibers and polyphenols that are widely promoted as being healthy. The alternative view is that these molecules are in fact “phytoweapons,” meticulously designed by plants to discourage insects, animals, and fungi from having them for breakfast.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of chemicals produced in the plant kingdom that can harm us. Broadly speaking, we can divide the toxic compounds into a few categories. Plant molecules like phytoalexins, polyphenols, oxalates, and lectins, are like computer programs from a different operating system than ours. They are Android and we are iOS, and the programs aren’t very compatible.

When we try and use plant programs in our human operating system they generally just mess things up, sometimes causing massive problems akin to the “blue screen of death” on your computer. Plants have evolved these molecules for their biochemistry and metabolism, not for ours!

Intriguingly, but not surprisingly, humans and animals do not make molecules which are polyphenolic in structure within their biochemistry. Remember the concept of disparate operating systems? This is another illustration of the differences in the way that plants and humans work at a biochemical level. Polyphenols are like Honda parts which don’t work in our human Tesla bodies, and the Tesla factory surely doesn’t make Honda parts.

The good news is that there have been some interventional trials done with polyphenol rich fruits and vegetables, and invariably, these have failed to show benefits in terms of inflammation, DNA damage or immunologic markers with inclusion of lots of fruits and vegetables, and in one case the study showed that this intervention was harmful (green tea extract).

So which foods damage the gut, and cause “leaky gut” with its potential for downstream kindling of the immune system? Which foods are full of toxins, chemical weapons and anti-nutrients that are designed to do exactly this? You guessed it, plant foods! Do animal foods have similar sorts of toxins and weapons in them?

Nope, animals don’t need these, they can run away and bite. Sure, there are few very rare exceptions like poisonous frogs and puffer fish, but no one is eating those as a major portion of their diet. In the animal foods that comprise our diets, there are no chemical toxins intrinsically present. Additionally there are many nutrients that simply don’t occur in plants, or fungi at all, like vitamin B12, choline, taurine, carnitine, carnosine, vitamin K2 and others it is only animal foods

It is Saladino’s experience personally and clinically that plants are triggering most of the autoimmune illness we see today, including everything from SIBO, to psychiatric disease, and even skin issues like eczema and psoriasis. From this perspective, the fundamental way to treat SIBO is to remove the foods that are damaging the gut in order for it to heal, and to allow the immune system to gradually calm down.

In fact if you are suffering with an autoimmune condition, like thyroiditis and secondary hypothyroidism, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowl disease like Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis, it would be my highest recommendations do give this approach a try.

One of the most common other misconception about plant based diets is the need for fiber for its supposed lowering the risk of colon cancer. Sadly, this has been repeatedly proven to not be the case, and some studies have even suggested an increased risk of pre-cancerous growths, known as adenomas, with fiber supplements

Additionally, there’s no scientific evidence that we need plant fiber in order to achieve a diverse microbiome. There are studies that show a western diet is associated with a lower diversity, also known as alpha diversity, (western diet diversity), but claims that this is causally related to the low-fiber aspect of a western diet are premature. As we know, there are myriad inflammatory components of a standard American diet that could be damaging the gut, and negatively altering gastrointestinal populations.

Study after study has clearly demonstrated that plant fiber is not beneficial for constipation, diverticulosis, diabetes, weight loss, appetite, or colon cancer, nor is it necessary for a healthy gastrointestinal tract, or a diverse microbiome. Elimination of plant fiber from our diet will improve our health as demonstrated by research with a carnivore diet that has demonstrated unprecedented efficacy in reversing autoimmune, and inflammatory conditions.

Much of what you read will likely fly in the face of what you think you know about nutrition and health. If you can put aside your ego and biases and really look at his arguments and the research behind them, you’ll find information that could literally change your life as it has mine.

I’m already ready for Dr. Saladino’s next book on rejuvenative agriculture. Its probably the most important topic around food systems there is right now.

My own story regarding Dr. Saladino:

I knew Paul before he was on the carnivore path. I spent 12 years on a severely limited diet due to gut bacterial dysbiosis. Sparing you the details of that, Paul was the only person who offered a path to fixing it instead of treating symptoms. Having fixed my gut, I’ve been able to eat everything again, but like Paul, I’m also on a quest to be my optimal self, and I’ve followed him on his carnivore journey. It’s difficult to overstate how much this dietary change has made in my life.

I’m now 10 months into the carnivore diet at the launch of his book, having followed his principles. The brain fog I’ve had my entire adult life disappeared in the first week, my joint pain vanished, and my energy levels are insane. No need for caffeine here.

Friends and I (many of whom Paul has directly helped as patients) now suport local farmers, getting 100% REAL grass fed animals, eating nearly the entirety of the animals nose-to-tail. This diet has become not only easy to maintain, but the footprint is so much smaller and we save money. It’s exceedingly difficult to imagine going back to the SAD (Standard American Diet).

I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s written with humour and passion and apparently no agenda other than to share this information with an increasingly sick population.

I ordered his book right away. I’ve read through the introduction and his personal story which are very compelling. I skipped to
Chapters 12 & 13 as he stated we could do. What I’ve read thus far is so compelling I decided to write a review immediately. There are no dogmatic rules to follow. There are baby step suggestions given for wannabe beginners all the way to focused suggestions for long-term serious-carnivore special-forces type people.

I’m so convinced with the information within these pages, that I’m buying extra copies to share with extended family members. We all need these truths. Dr. Saladino’s work is a gift to mankind. It is written with grace in introducing new concepts. Science Is sprinkled with humor which makes this read very entertaining. This is a vital health resource … this is not a boring text book.

People should read this book if they are sincerely desiring healthier bodies, balanced emotions and soundness of mind. We humans are triune beings – spirit, soul and body – and food choices affect all three spheres of our humanity. I truly value the well documented wisdom presented in The Carnivore Code.

And by the way – I started healing my own autoimmune disease over 15 years ago by putting together the best ancestral diet I could with the information I had. I have a background in both anthropology and biology and what I came up with was a Carnivore-ish diet (Using grass-fed/pastured animals and organic veggies). I knew that our ancestors had eaten meat, fat, and organs primarily, but modern veggie-loving indoctrination runs deep, and I clung to a few remaining plant foods for some time. Over the years, though, I found that the more I shifted toward pure Carnivore, the more my health improved and the better my lab work got. I was very much a closet-Carnivore! Thank you, again, Dr. Saladino, for producing a book (and podcasts) that make it easier for us closet-Carnivores to finally come out and shamelessly flaunt our health!