Background and context

• Sports and exercise medicine focus; work expanded from athletes to public metabolic health.
• Metabolic syndrome in 30s despite low-fat diet, sodium counting, heavy exercise, high carbs/sugar intake.
• Metabolic syndrome defined by 3 of 5: central adiposity, low HDL, high triglycerides, high blood sugar, high blood pressure.

Plant only vs carnivore

• Plant only diet benefit often comes from leaving heavily processed “SAD” eating.
• Research comparisons often use a low baseline and exclude plant-only junk-food intake.
• Many nutrition studies group “red meat” together with junk food and other confounders.
• Food-frequency questionnaires are a core data source, with major recall limitations.

Carnivore

• Carnivore movement includes high-profile advocates; diet sits at the extreme end of dietary change.
• Pure carnivore marked as extreme; question raised about maintaining optimal health on it.
• No research cited that proves optimal health on pure carnivore is impossible.
• People on pure carnivore can be extremely healthy; early support is largely anecdotal and observational.
• Personal contacts and patients on carnivore show very good health; some reversed chronic issues after switching.
• Population and historical patterns (Maasai, Inuit, other cultures) include predominantly animal foods with minimal plant food.

Animal foods, growth, and brain nutrients

• Cross-country child stunting aligns with low animal-food intake; economics and availability drive intake.
• Ecuador intervention: giving children one egg per day prevented pathological stunting.
• Red meat, dairy, and eggs support child growth and development via nutrient density.
• Developing brain needs DHA; plant omega-3 converts poorly to DHA; algae is a potential exception.
• Dietary DHA availability links to cognition and measured IQ differences in children.

Evidence quality

• Study design and confounding control determine reliability; avoid cherry-picking supportive papers.

Cholesterol, LDL, and carbohydrate damage

• Excess carbohydrate drives damaging changes to LDL; LDL level alone is a weak signal without metabolic context.
• Older-adult evidence synthesis: 19 cohorts; LDL inversely associated with all-cause mortality in 16 cohorts.

Practical blood tests and interpretation

• Triglyceride:HDL ratio and HbA1c are practical, widely available predictors of cardiovascular risk.
• HbA1c reflects average glucose exposure via sugar attachment to red blood cells over ~120 days.
• Lab “normal” ranges mirror population distribution and can drift as population health worsens.
• Liver enzymes help flag metabolic dysfunction; interpret toward optimal health, not the average.
• Homocysteine can reflect malabsorption and B-vitamin/folate insufficiency.

Fatty liver, connective tissue, and pain

• Fatty liver raises matrix metalloproteinases, increasing connective-tissue breakdown and arthritis pain risk.
• Early weight loss often comes from the liver and reduces these enzymes.
• Around 10% body-weight reduction links to ~30–50% pain reduction in obesity-related arthritis.

References

• [00:12] Eggs in Early Complementary Feeding and Child Growth: A Randomized Controlled Trial — https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-3459
• [00:43] Lack of an association or an inverse association between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly: a systematic review — https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010401