Since I get questions about this crackpot Saladino all the time, I might as well do another article on him and the complete nonsense about “needing” carbohydrates. A few weeks ago, he made a video called “Why you need carbs in your diet,” so let us go through some of his opinions in that video and once again explain why this is a very bad and unhealthy idea.
Funny enough, he starts his video by saying, “Let’s actually start with why you would want carbohydrates.”
Well, what you ‘want’ and what you ‘need’ are two entirely different things, and this is either his subconscious correcting him by using the word ‘want’ instead of ‘need,’ or he is simply covering his ass, as he knows that he is about to lie straight to your face.
The first thing he mentions is ‘hormonal health,’ which is solely based on getting all the nutrients you need, especially saturated fats and cholesterol, but also minerals. It has absolutely nothing to do with ‘carbohydrates,’ as in sugar, as in excess glucose.
Then he claims that you get better sleep with carbohydrates, which is also complete nonsense. Sleep is mostly governed by how you prepare and wind down before bedtime and most importantly, when you have your last meal. If you eat late, and it is big meal, then yes, your sleep will be compromised. Unfortunately, a lot of beginner carnivores adopt a stupid ‘intermittent fasting’ protocol or OMAD (one meal a day) where they eat late in the day instead of early in the day as you should, so these people might very well experience decreased sleep quality by having one or two large meals in the afternoon and evening, as digestion is still taking place when they go to bed.
Also, a carnivorous meal will give you a lot of nutrients and energy, giving you a real boost, priming you for activity and using your mind to solve problems, as in surviving the day, and that is not ideal late in the day when sleep time approaches. Such meals should be consumed early in the day. It’s simple logic.
Personally, with hundreds of clients (actually in the thousands since I started in the 90’s,) I never had one single client who complained about his or her sleep getting worse, only the opposite.
He also mentions ‘muscle cramps,’ which is solely based on your electrolyte balance as in lack of either sodium, potassium, or magnesium. That can only happen if you change your diet too suddenly, without transitioning slowly (4 to 8 weeks,) or if you overcook your meat and do not add in extra sodium and potassium, or if you do something retarded as in consuming mostly lean meat and not getting enough fats, thus relying a lot more on glyconeogenesis for energy, which will overtax your kidneys and gall bladder in the long run.
Again, this is not remedied with carbohydrates, although some few plants might give you some electrolytes and you might eat less protein, giving you a better fat ratio — it is fixed by approaching animal-based foods logically and not falling into some fad-diet version of the carnivore diet presented by money-hungry charlatans or controlled opposition.
Then he mentions insulin, and this is where his ignorance really reaches new unbelievable heights. Normally, when you consume our species-appropriate diet of only animal-based foods, your body will mostly run on fats and ketones, and the tissues that require the fast-acting glucose will get their needs filled in perfect balance though glyconeogenesis, the conversion of fats and protein into glucose. This is managed perfectly by the body and insulin, who help to shuttle the glucose into the appropriate cells, are kept at perfect healthy levels. Problems only arise when you add glucose from an external source, like in carbohydrates, as glucose is a potential toxin and elevated levels of glucose (blood sugar) is very damaging to all cellular tissues it comes in contact with. That is why insulin is spiked when you consume carbohydrates, to quickly try and dispose of that extra glucose by shuttling it into the liver- and muscle cells to avoid damage.
Now, such elevations of insulin on a daily basis will cause a lot of damage in the long run. As humans, although we can tolerate carbohydrates with the help of insulin, every time glucose levels get elevated, a little bit of damage is done. A healthy body might be able to keep up for a while with repairs, but eventually it will lead to what “scientists” call diabetes, but more correctly cardiovascular deterioration, as in damaged blood vessels, arteries, and surrounding tissues (visually present in diabetics.)
With that said, another factor is actually vegetable/seed oils, as those are extremely damaging and in combination with carbohydrates, they will destroy your cardiovascular system and accelerate you towards diabetes and similar diseases.
Consuming a mixture of carbohydrates and fats/oils will cause a lot of problems, as they will compete for utilization, keeping blood glucose levels elevated for longer, causing more damage (read about the Randle Cycle.)
Also, insulin will help with storing amino acids, as in the building blocks of protein and muscle tissue, and that is why protein also triggers a small increase in insulin levels. That is the true anabolic- and anti-catabolic response. However, consuming protein with fats will only increase insulin slightly, to the levels needed to support cellular repair with help of shuttling amino acids. That is a healthy and natural response. Increasing insulin manyfold from carbohydrates (glucose,) as in preventing us from dying of toxicity, is not a healthy response. Again, quite logical and easy to understand.
Saladino also mentions that you need some insulin for signaling the kidneys for the preservation, as in reabsorption, of electrolytes. Yes, and that has nothing to do with severely increased insulin levels as a survival response from consuming toxic carbohydrates. That is perfectly managed by consuming some protein, preferable in two or at most three meals during the day. That increase in insulin from meals giving you at least 1.75 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight a day (0.8 grams per pound,) is all that is needed. That is the minimum requirement, and most eat a lot more than that. And reaching that minimum requirement on animal-based diet is quite simple. That is only 122 grams of protein a day for someone weighing 70 kg (154 lbs.) That is how we as humans are constructed. Those with insulin resistance from previous dietary abuse might need either a longer transition phase, or a slightly higher protein intake until healed. That’s it. Again, logical and simple.
Then he mentions the old Nazi quack Walter Kempner who made diabetic and obese people lose weight by feeding them only rice and fruit. And yes, you can lose body weight by any kind of starvation protocol while eating whatever crap you like, but that has absolutely nothing to do with health and what is happening inside our bodies. By not consuming any fats, your body will try to keep up its need for fats for a while by using its own fat stores, as seen in any kind of fasting. However, doing that for too long will destroy your hormones, deplete you of stored nutrients, and possible inflict irreversible damage, especially with a diet as retarded as the Nazi Kempner diet. Simply the fact that Saladino mentions this quack shows how ignorant and/or stupid/desperate he is.
And at the end of all that nonsense, he actually says that, “we should not fear these blood glucose spikes,” which is an extremely dangerous and ignorant thing to say, as it’s been proven, over and over again, that glucose levels over the normal range, as what happen when you consume carbohydrates, causes tissue damage. And as for fructose, which he recommends (honey and fruits,) it actually causes 7 to 11 times more tissue damage than glucose. What an idiot!
And that damage is very visual as seen in vegans, fruitarians, and even in Saladino himself who seems to have aged 15 years or so in only the last 2 to 3 years.
Towards the end he also makes excuses for himself claiming that he surfs and skates for hours every day and that is why he can allegedly eat as much carbohydrates as he claims he does – hinting to the fact that most people should probably not consume as much, and that it’s based on activity levels. Still, that does not change the fact that every time you spike your blood sugar by consuming carbohydrates you cause cellular damage.
At this point, I’m already tired by his extreme lack of understanding, and him only voicing his opinions and not a single fact. Not one thing he has mentioned has been physiologically explained and backed up. However, I think I covered some of the most important points I usually get questions about, so I will end it here, or the article would be way too long for most people to read. Also, check the related articles below for much more information and deeper explanations, as I’ve written tons about all this throughout the years, spread over many, many articles.
So, why has Paul Saladino sold out and started lying? It’s really simple. He tells gullible and weak-minded people exactly what they want to hear. He wants to sell them an easy “middle road,” something that is easy to adopt, as most unhealthy people are sugar junkies. In short, his message is, “keep eating your toxic carbohydrates, just add in some more animal-products.”
He wants to sell his courses, books, and consultations to as many people as possible, he wants to monetize his videos and reach as many people as he can, and that is not possible if you tell them the harsh truth. It’s all about the money. Also, he might very well be a paid gatekeeper, trying to bring in as many ‘carnivores’ as possible, and keep them from getting truly healthy; to keep them within the system and eventually in need of medical care.