Health Benefits of “Animal-Based” Watermelon! @Paul Saladino MD

Animal-Based Food Label Debate 0:00

This is how to make watermelon sorbet with only three ingredients and it's completely animal based. Watermelon, honey and lime. So now watermelon, lime and let's not forget spaghetti squash. And look at that. It's like animal-based spaghetti right there. Are all animalbased. Now I know all the Paul Saladino fanboys are going to comment saying you don't know what an animal base diet is because that's what they did on the spaghetti Squash video. No, I understand that an animal-based diet is one comprised largely of animal foods and can include some plant foods, just like a plant- based diet could be predominantly plant based with some animal food.

What's particularly hilarious here is that he's calling the food themselves, whether it be spaghetti squash or watermelon, animal based. He just so badly wants to hold onto that label after abandoning the carnivore diet because he believes it made him ill.

Watermelon and Honey Nutrition Claims 0:49

That would be like me introducing small amounts of animal products into my plant-based diet, sitting down for a steak that was sliced out of the muscle tissue of a cow and calling it a plant based steak. So a genuine question for the Paul Saladino defenders, would you consider that a Plant-Based Steak even though it came from a Cow? Comment yes or no down below. And if you answer no, well then you seem to get why this is so ridiculous. Now on to the actual nutrition claims he made. If you're worried about watermelon and your blood sugar, there's tons of good research showing that fruit juice, fruit actually improve glucose tolerance.

And the same goes for honey. Lots of studies on honey showing it actually improves metabolic functions. Now I want to be clear that watermelon is a healthy food and watermelon juice can certainly fit into a health diet. But how he tries to support his claims here is just unbelievable. He cites two studies on watermelon juice to the claim that it improves glucose tolerance, but neither study actually showed that. he even flashed these study results on screen to suggest that they somehow support this claim, But they actually don't.

The study suggests that people who had watermelon saw some improvements in arterial function after a glucose challenge compared to placebo. which could very well be a good thing, but it's not a measure of glucose tolerance. I honestly just suspect that he doesn't think his viewers are actually going to read it or try to fact check him.

Critique of the Evidence and Conclusion 2:01

And as for Honey, he cited a narrative review of almost entirely animal studies, yet he has previously said this. The studies suggesting that fructose is harmful for humans are almost exclusively looking at animal studies, which do not translate to humans. So he understands that it's not good evidence, but it is fine to cite when it supports his claim, I guess. And if he wanted to specifically point at the few human studies that were included in the review, the results are not at all impressive.

I would recommend looking elsewhere for evidence-based nutrition information, and I'll link some of my favorite accounts down below.