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Paul Saladino

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Paul Saladino (born 1977[1]) is an American psychiatrist and health influencer who promotes pseudoscientific claims regarding human health and diet.[2] He has been a leading advocate of the carnivore diet, i.e. a primarily or exclusively meat-based diet,[3][4] a fad diet that lacks scientific evidence for its effectiveness.[5] His book The Carnivore Code is described by The New Yorker as the closest thing the Paleo diet movement has to a manifesto. In The Carnivore Code, Saladino described plants as "poison".[6] He also advocates for raw milk,[4] despite the lack of evidence for any health benefit, and the risks of bacterial infection.[4][7]

He posts on social media under the name carnivoremd2.[8] As of late 2024, his Instagram account has around 2 million followers[9] and his TikTok channel over half a million followers.[4] He often appears shirtless in his videos.[3] He has said his Instagram and TikTok accounts have each been banned once.[10]

Saladino is the founder of Heart & Soil, an Austin, Texas-based company[11] producing food supplements.[9] Saladino co-owns it with fellow carnivore diet influencer Brian Johnson, known as Liver King.[6] Heart & Soil sells bottles of encapsulated organ meat-based supplement products and liver pills.[10][12]

Biography and education

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Saladino earned a chemistry degree from the College of William and Mary, followed by 6 years spent traveling in North America and New Zealand. He later became a physician assistant and later did training in cardiology, gaining a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Arizona in 2015, and completed his residency at the University of Washington in 2019. Saladino has board certification in psychiatry and is a certified "Functional Medicine" practitioner.[13] As of 2022, his license to practice medicine in California was "delinquent" due to not paying fees.[10]

Advocacy

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He promotes the consumption of animal organs, claiming they help immunity, gut health, weight loss and bone strength.[11] Saladino urged his followers not to use toilet paper, claiming that they are "filled with hormone disrupting compounds" and that he avoids contact with them to "protect" his "hormonal health".[14]

According to Vice.com, during the Coronavirus pandemic, he was increasingly dismissive of the efficacy of vaccines contrary to mainstream scientific opinion, although saying they "may help avoid some severe Covid complications." However, he asserted that "metabolic health" and "natural immunity" are more effective, also against medical consensus.[10]

He described in a 2022 viral video a hygiene regime that eschews the use of shampoo, soap, deodorant and toothpaste in favor of simply water.[8]

He posted a video to his X.com account in May 2024 that promoted feeding "raw dairy" to infants. The post received over 90,000 views and sparked strong backlash before it was removed the following day.[4]

He abandoned an all-meat diet in 2025 after two years, citing "persistence of unpleasant symptoms". He reported experiencing sleep disturbances, heart palpitations, muscle cramps, and a drop in testosterone levels. He said: "I started to think, maybe long-term ketosis is not great for me" and "probably not a great thing for most humans".[15][16][17] He conducted an interview with United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr in the White House in May 2025. In the promotional video, the two men are shown drinking shots of raw milk mixed with glyphosate-free honey.[18][19][20]

Collaborations

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Saladino describes himself as an "adventure buddy" of another carnivore diet influencer, Anthony Gustin, founder of online food store Perfect Keto. The pair visited the Hadza people of Tanzania in 2022, promoting them as a dietary model; Saladino said "The Hadza are the closest thing we have to a time machine." According to science writer Dorsa Amir, "the idea that the 'correct' diet is an ancient one is also the backbone of fads like the paleo diet, [and] Saladino's carnivore Diet."[21]

He collaborated with California luxury grocery store Erewhon Market in 2023 on the store's Raw Animal-Based Smoothie, which mixes kefir (fermented milk), beef organs, "Immunomilk" (a product made of freeze-dried cow's colostrum), raw honey, blueberries, bananas, lucuma fruit sweetener, coconut cream, sea salt and maple syrup, with the beef organs and Immunomilk provided by Heart & Soil.[11] The smoothie retails for $19.[22] The raw milk was supplied by California-based Raw Farms, until it switched to pasteurization after tests of its milk turned up positive for H5N1 influenza A virus.[22] Consuming raw animal meat poses a risk of bacterial infection.[11]

Influence and reception

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Saladino influenced low carb diet entrepreneur Dave Asprey and celebrity Heidi Montag.[10] He has appeared on Joe Rogan's show,[1][8] the first time in 2020,[23] which brought him a large expansion of his audience and profile.[10]

According to science communicator Joseph A. Schwarcz, "Fearmongering has become an industry, and Saladino is a head honcho in this arena. The usual technique [for Saladino] is to pick a scientific study that finds some risk and then exaggerate it without taking into account type and extent of exposure." Schwarcz says that Saladino "thinks that lamb testicles and raw liver are healthy, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, chard and kale are 'bulls–t.' These, Saladino says, should be avoided because 'once chewed they produce sulforaphane, which is toxic to humans.' Actually, sulforaphane has been shown to be an anti-carcinogen.", describing Saladino's health claims as "laughable".[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b Usher, Tom (August 17, 2022). "The Strange Allure of Extreme Alpha Male Influencers". VICE. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  2. ^ a b Schwarcz, Joe (May 10, 2024). "No, Eating French Fries is Not the Same as Smoking Cigarettes". Office for Science and Society. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Why the carnivore diet is popular right now". ABC News. August 12, 2022. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e Doan, Laura (May 13, 2024). "Influencers promote raw milk despite FDA health warnings as bird flu spreads in dairy cows". CBS News. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  5. ^ Dennett, Carrie (May 2019). "Popular Diet Trends: Today's Fad Diets By Carrie Dennett, MPH, RDN, CD". Today's Dietitian. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Singh, Manvir (September 25, 2023). "Is an All-Meat Diet What Nature Intended?". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  7. ^ Nutrition, Center for Food Safety and Applied (August 12, 2021). "Consumers – The Dangers of Raw Milk: Unpasteurized Milk Can Pose a Serious Health Risk". www.fda.gov. Archived from the original on June 3, 2009.
  8. ^ a b c Beresford, Jack (June 22, 2022). "Internet Retches at Man Who Doesn't Use Shampoo or Toothpaste: 'Rancid'". Newsweek. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  9. ^ a b Allem, Jon-Patrick (2024). "The Need for Research on the Wellness Industry's Impact on Health Decisions". American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 67 (4): 627–630. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2024.05.010. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Merlan, Anna (June 23, 2022). "Why Are the Weirdest People Online Obsessed With Organ Meats?". VICE. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  11. ^ a b c d Vankin, Deborah (July 18, 2024). "'Who is buying this?!' Has Erewhon's Raw Animal Smoothie taken L.A. health food too far?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  12. ^ Reiss, Sami (February 16, 2023). "A Unified Theory of the Trad Health Food Influencer". GQ. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  13. ^ "Paul Saladino M.D." Psychology Today. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  14. ^ Maddalena, Kate (December 11, 2024). ""Smart drugs," Gender, and the Rhetorical Turning". Poroi. 18 (1). doi:10.17077/2151-2957.33739. ISSN 2151-2957.
  15. ^ Jenne, Ellen (January 12, 2025). "Man who followed 'carnivore diet' warns it's 'not great for most'". Bristol Live. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  16. ^ Jenne, Ellen (January 12, 2025). "Health expert abandons carnivore diet after suffering heart issues". Surrey Live. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  17. ^ Jenne, Ellen (May 8, 2024). "Alarming side effects of 'carnivore diet' as man left with heart issues". Wales Online. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  18. ^ Dickson, E.J. (May 30, 2025). "RFK Jr. Did Raw-Milk Shooters in the White House". The Cut. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  19. ^ Madarang, Charisma (May 28, 2025). "Why Are Health Influencers Drinking Raw Milk and Honey Shots at the White House?". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 28, 2025. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  20. ^ Kimmins, Leigh (May 30, 2025). "RFK Jr. Chugs Raw Milk With Crackpot Doc at White House". The Daily Beast. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  21. ^ Amir, Dorsa (April 22, 2022). "A Viral Twitter Thread Reawakens the Dark History of Anthropology". Nautilus. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  22. ^ a b Brueck, Hilary (December 5, 2024). "The man behind one of the buzziest raw milk farms explains why they are going pasteurized". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 5, 2024. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
  23. ^ Zaleski, Andrew (October 14, 2021). "Seed Oil Is the Latest Thing We're Being Told to Eliminate from Our Diets—Here's Why". GQ. Retrieved June 1, 2025.

Further reading

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