It causes plaque to form in arteries that leads to cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes. The answer is that LDL itself is not harmful, but in certain situations, it can be involved in the process of responding to injury and inflammation– making it look like it’s a bad actor when it’s merely present at the scene of the crime. The Carnivore Code states that “epidemiology studies of… Asians do not show associations between total cholesterol and or LDL levels and incidence of heart disease or all-cause mortality” (p. The Carnivore Code states confidently that we evolved as carnivores, but there is a lot of uncertainty about the diets of our distant ancestors.

Yet the bulk of the currently available evidence doesn’t point in the direction of our distant ancestors consistently being carnivores and only relying on plants as occasional “fallback foods”. Page 189: “If we are insulin resistant, higher levels of LDL may very well contribute to plaque formation and progression, but if we are insulin sensitive, higher levels of LDL are not associated with increased atherosclerosis and are likely protective.Honey features in many recipes here such as One-Pan Honey-Glazed Brisket with Celeriac, Squash and Apricots. The rest of the ancestry of Europeans comes from farmers who migrated northward into Europe, and herders who migrated westward from the Eurasian steppe, both after the ice age. Whether the same would happen on a carnivore diet is unknown (and we note that changes in fasting insulin are not a reliable indicator of changes in insulin sensitivity in the context of low-carbohydrate diets).

The book’s most emphatic claim is that the diet will help the reader “kick as much butt as possible”, “kick more butt”, “kick a whole lot of butt”, etc. It states or implies that the diet is able to prevent or treat a wide variety of diseases, including obesity, diabetes, depression, and diverse autoimmune diseases. Featuring satisfying mains like One-Pan Honey-Glazed Brisket and Grilled Mediterranean Lamb Chops, recipes for every craving like the Real Meat-Lover's Pizza, White-Sauce Zucchini Lasagna, and Carnivore Waffles, and even decadent desserts like Yogurt Cheesecake with Blueberry-Lemon Compote, this cookbook is sure to please every palate. This often comes as a surprise to people since less accurate but more common measures like HOMA-IR suggest the opposite (due to a decline in fasting insulin, which doesn’t necessarily track with insulin sensitivity in the context of carbohydrate restriction). We haven’t deeply evaluated these meta-analyses, but it seems that there is at least some evidence that fiber is beneficial for constipation.

There is abundant anecdotal evidence that the carnivore diet is helpful for various health problems, and we think this may point toward areas where science still has something to learn. As previously discussed, there are several strong lines of evidence supporting the idea that high LDL increases cardiovascular risk. The book describes the diet as containing “muscle, liver, kidney, brain, marrow, salt, and fat”, and includes a quote from the paper stating that the two men did well on the diet. I was expecting this book to have a lot of different meat recipes (there are great ones) but it's mostly about the diet/lifestyle.

The citation does suggest that a ketogenic diet may be helpful for PCOS, although it was a very small study with a 55% dropout rate and no control group so it must be taken with a large grain of salt. Contrary to the technical nature of Saladino's first book, The Carnivore Code, this is a much more accessible book that anyone can understand. The conclusion: “a genetic predisposition to high LDL-C levels contributes to mortality throughout life, including in the oldest old, and a beneficial LDL genetic risk profile is associated with familial longevity. This was only observed in 3 of 100 women, but was also associated with other types of pre-cancer in 6 others.Some genes cause people to have higher lifetime LDL, others lower, and we can see how those genes correlate with risk in older people. The book’s references in support of this claim received a score of 1, meaning that they generally don’t support the book’s claim that high LDL on a carnivore diet is not harmful. The citation is a pilot study testing the impact of a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet on signs and symptoms of PCOS. In support of the idea that fiber is not beneficial, The Carnivore Code cites a 2012 meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in which people with constipation were given fiber as a treatment.