Paul Saladino “Fruit is Majority of My Diet”

Shawn Baker's 'Don't Get Fat' Advice 0:00

Hey everyone, this is Klaus from Plantbase News. What we're going to talk about today is Shawn Baker who's just given some advice to his younger [music] self. He said, "As I approach 60, my advice to my younger self would be to never get fat and never stop training." What are your immediate reactions, Sarah and Shabnam? Good lifestyle advice to combat disease or are these not reflections you are likely to have when you're his age? I think being focused on aesthetics versus the predeterminants of health are very common with the younger crowd.

Shawn Baker is now 60 and so this obsession and ego around diet culture, meat as protein is a really juvenile and selfish approach to how we should eat and live. What do you think he would say to that? Are we just taking ourselves too seriously here? What do you mean? Taking ourselves too seriously. Do I think Shawn Baker looks great at 60? Yes, absolutely. Do I think that he lives daily values of like physical activity and other variables that impact someone's well-being and fitness? Probably. As a clinical exercise physiologist, understanding how hormones change over time, do I know that people as they age start to do other things like hormone replacement therapy and not announce it? Yes. I also know people do that. So, I think there are lots of potential variables that impact the outcome that we see on screen as Shawn Baker at 60. But, being someone who has experienced a life of great health, success and his advice to our younger selves, I almost see this is like the ego of diet culture. It really kind of represents that ultimate selfishness, individualistic, personal thriving and my question to my younger self is, "Does your plate represent compassion? Does the way you live represent selflessness or is it selfishness?" Because compassion starts on your plate and I

Critiquing Diet Culture and Aesthetics 2:00

think we have a very different advice to our younger self given [snorts] the life experience we have had on this planet. >> Yeah, I'm trying to think what I would tweet if I was tweeting or Xing or whatever you call it at age 60, what I would say. I think it would be very different to to Shawn Baker. Maybe along the lines of, you know, life without purpose is worthless, something like that, you know, talking about contribution, serving others, connecting with others. It's like my advice to my younger self would be to never get fat.

It's just I saw it and I was like, "Whoa." It's almost like it's from the Manosphere documentary on Netflix. >> [laughter] >> I haven't watched it, but I know it does make me angry. For me, like I know for a fact that the least interesting thing about me is how I look. I'm not going to get to the end of my life and be like, "Oh, I wish I hadn't gotten fat." Or, you know, it's like I just wouldn't consider those to be like important things. Like the sort of things I hope I'm going to be thinking about at the end of my life are like, "What impact did I have on the world? Like, was I a good person? Was I kind? Did I leave the world a better place than when I got there?" Like those are the things we should be focusing on, not like the whole aesthetics of the carnivore movement. Like I just think that's ridiculous advice. And like sure, it's on X, so it's a short tweet. But, I hope at 60 I'm going to be thinking more about like me as an authentic person and doing good rather than literally just physically what I look like.

>> I agree. I think our obsession with thinness is a just a values disconnect. And for Shawn Baker to be this person still at 60, I would just emphasize Tupac who in his 20s said, "It's time for us as a people to start making some changes. Let's change the way we eat. Let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other." Powerful. It's interesting though because I mean the guy claims that he helps a lot of people giving diet advice to people that are struggling with their microbiome and I guess there's the whole debate around, you know, the carnivore diet not actually doing that, but you'd think if he was being authentic with that opinion and that experience, you'd think his advice as a result to his younger self would be to help others. If you do care about helping others, it's like what you said, Shabnam. We're in such a individualistic society that we're not thinking about the wider picture. We're not thinking about the world or being kind or generous or any of that stuff. It's just like me, me, me. Me physically, how do I look? It's It's strange. The intellectual bankruptcy of don't get fat. What? With that exclamation mark. While again, don't get fat is is great physical and nutrition advice, it ignores so many factors, right? So many factors. I mean, how many of you know someone who's thin on the outside and fat on the inside? Skinny fat. How many of you know someone that may look physically fit or thin, but is 35% body fat? They don't exercise. They don't do

Health Markers, Community, and Carnivore Debate 5:00

any cardiovascular work, right? They Their diet may be exclusively carnivore, but their LDL levels are through the roof. Their apoB levels are through the roof. And when we're thinking about like apoB, right, the apolipoprotein B, this is a large marker for cardiovascular risk, right? We're looking at atherosclerosis. So, you can look however you want, Mr. Baker. It doesn't tell us metabolically how you are. And what we do see longitudinally over time is that a diet high in saturated fat coming from say meat and dairy has a greater risk of all-risk mortality, right? We're talking about cardiovascular disease, obesity-related diseases, all of these things that come from not having a lot of fiber in your diet, a healthy gut microbiome. They're all interrelated. And so, what are you risking in your youth to build up what's going to happen in your older age? So, you may not see it in your 20s and 30s, but years and years of pursuing a diet that only facilitates a external appeal will have serious internal repercussions. And we also know it just decimates our environment and we love animals. So, it's really hard for me to to like say, "Yes, eat a diet that's selfish and kills things." I mean, the training aspect, Shabnam, I would agree cuz you know, even in the blue zones, it was small levels of physical activity daily that helped them to stay healthy.

Not saying you have to go to the gym every day or anything like that, but like staying active would maybe have been a better way of putting it. Like stay active, eat well, be kind, don't harm the environment. Those are the sort of things I would hope I'd be hearing from a 60-year-old, you know? I mean, the one thing that we did see consistent across all blue zones is that consistent physical activity, right? Chronic daily walking, gardening, a great social health, right? Great community. When you think about the carnivore diet, they're starting to fit those some other elements, right? Like they have a great community. A lot of them are working on it.

>> So, I'm going to come in there, Shabnam. I know I don't want to derail your point cuz I kind of agree, but I just want to come in out of pure anger. I think their community stinks. Meaning they have a great community. Like they're they're bound. They're bound together in their mission. They benefit from them all being angry that carnivore is the only way. So, it's like we bound together in fear and anger which can also, you know, minimize life expectancy. So, let's not go there either. So, like your community is also killing you. There are better ways, the research shows. It's just a diet that is so entrenched in ego and not in ego. And I don't think that that's how long-living communities live.

And so, when we examine blue zone cultures, it's an eco-friendly way of living, not an ego-friendly way of living. >> Yeah, and the community is more like we go gardening together or for a walk down to the bakery or you know what I mean? You don't bond over like anger and meat-fueled arguments. That was a video in 2019 by a YouTube channel called Humane Hancock. He's a vegan animal rights activist and that was at the time when the carnivore movement in London was peaking. So, there was all these meetups. This guy pretended to be a carnivore, so joined the Zoom call where the people vetted cuz the carnivore community when they meet up, they vet everybody so that they know there's like 100% carnivore. On the video, the carnivore was like, "Okay, if you're going to join our meetup, you know, just go to have some meat." And already gets a a vegan burger, but wraps it in a real burger wrapping. So, has it and is like, "Oh, I just got this, man. Like, you know, I'm not not as healthy as you. I should be going for the organ meat, but just for the sake of like showing you, I'll have the the burger." So, then the guy, the organizer called Sparage, was like, "Okay, cool, cool. You passed the vetting test. You can come to the meetup. We're meeting on Portobello Road in Central London." So, then Humane Hancock goes to Portobello Road in Central London, meets up with them, has like two people filming and then just records this epic debate around how the carnivore movement stinks. There's no evidence behind it. Hilarious. >> [laughter] >> So, he basically trolls them. Yeah. I love it. Oh, wow. Just for

Paul Saladino's Carb Pivot 9:00

entertainment purposes. This is what I eat in a day, 2026 edition. I'm going to be honest with you. I've added some new stuff to my diet recently [music] that I'm going to show you in this video. Stuff that you might not expect me to eat. >> Paul Saladino. He's got salad in his name, so I was always, you know, is this guy going to go vegan or more plant-based? He's Carnivore MD, at least that's what he used to be known by. He now has said the majority of his calories come from fruit. >> So, I feel better with carbohydrates.

For most of the last 4 and 1/2 years, I've eaten exclusively fruit for carbohydrates, fruit and squash. Squash is technically a fruit. >> Ugh, I was just waiting for this to happen. I knew it. All along. I've got something like uh raw Greek yogurt and I put in some banana. Uh I've got some uh watermelon here for some fruit at dinner. >> You know human physiology breaks down without carbohydrates since it is the energy currency of the cell, but I thought as a doctor he would know better, but he doesn't. because the brain is an organ that needs carbohydrates to function. Welcome to the club, Paul. I can't wait for him to go full vegan, you know. He probably actually will when he realizes. Remember we did the video button where he was saying like he actually showed his markers and everything and showed his test results. That's some really bad test results and then had to eat some carbohydrate. And I hate that for it.

Like I don't want anyone to ever have bad test results. I don't want anyone to ever have to deal with a medical issue, a health issue, a health scare. I think all of us have probably been in those situations and we know that no one should have to live in that fear ever. But I think the great thing is with the privilege of having science and being able to test your metabolic panels, he can also pivot and I think pivoting was probably something he needed to do for longevity and life saving measures. That's why we change. I really hope he sees the light. I'd love to interview him. I'd love to talk about the transition without there being a gut punch of a reaction. And I think when you can talk without there being so much emotional tie, you can really get to the nitty-gritty of something. But Paul Saladino is so flagrant. He loves to incite, I feel like. >> Yeah, but I feel like that energy, if you change the direction of it a little bit, it could be used in a really positive way. He likes the banter, like gives it some. We've exchanged voice notes of him where we did a video of him in 2020 and then he's like Instagram DMing us. He's sort of saying, "Come at me, bro. You don't have any carnivore sauce because and I'm like what I can take it." If that's his current That's his language. I'm sure it appeals to a lot of people, which is why he's popular. I mean, he's a psychiatrist, right? So like he does something well in the sense of talking to people in a way that gets into the way they think. New business idea for him, salad brand. Come on. Bring it on, Paul Saladino. It's perfect.

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