7 Reasons Paul Saladino Quit The Carnivore Diet

There's no question that the carnivore diet is popular. Largely attributable to social media influencers, the prevalence of the diet transformed it from a mere eating plan into something of a lifestyle. It's so widespread, in fact, that the meat-eating community even has a few "meatfluencers" — among the most well-known of whom is Dr. Paul Saladino, M.D. The board-certified physician nutrition specialist earned quite a reputation for his negative view of traditional Western medicine.

In fact, it was his belief that there was a better way to both prevent and treat chronic disease that led him to adopt a carnivore diet. Dr. Saladino believed so much in this eating plan that he became a go-to source for the many who followed the same diet. So it came as a tremendous shock to those followers when he announced that he was quitting his carnivorous ways. Giving up meat entirely didn't seem to be in the cards for the man who essentially made a living out of promoting the lifestyle. He was so committed to the all-meat, no-carb diet that he wrote books and promoted plans in support of it.

That all changed in 2023, when he experienced a health wake-up call that forced him to stop and reconsider. At the root of it all was a series of symptoms that Dr. Saladino attributed to his meat consumption. Here are just a few of the reasons why he decided to give up the carnivore diet.

It's not something that people always consider when switching to a new diet, but meat in particular warrants some consideration about digestion — a lesson that Dr. Saladino learned the hard way. He experienced disruptions to his sleep because he was solely eating meat. Difficulty digesting the protein was likely to blame. When a food takes longer for the body to break down, it naturally requires more energy.

Per Johns Hopkins Medicine, the digestion process slows by as much as 50% when you're asleep. Many kinds of meat also contain tyramine, a compound that occurs when the amino acid tyrosine breaks down. Increased tyramine intake can lead to a host of significant health problems, including high blood pressure and migraine. Plus, tyramine could induce your nerve cells to release the hormone norepinephrine, which is known for increasing both blood pressure and heart rate. When this reaction occurs, it can be difficult to get quality sleep.

Per WebMD, reducing intake of hot dogs, bacon, pepperoni, salami, and smoked fish could help. They spike tyramine, which in turn makes sleeping that much more challenging. Dr. Saladino also experienced another issue. "I had something called hypnagogic jerks where I would fall asleep but jerk myself awake like I was falling multiple times. That was very stressful and very traumatic. It led to very poor sleep for a little while," he stated in his "Why I Quit the Carnivore Diet" YouTube video.

Another symptom Dr. Saladino reported was the onset of heart palpitations. This can be a distressing sensation when it happens a handful of times, but when it becomes persistent it can be especially disruptive to quality of life. That's because palpitations leave the heart feeling as if it's racing or fluttering. While stress is a common culprit, few people would think to link meat intake with palpitations.

Yet that's likely what caused Dr. Saladino's discomfort. The link between consumption of meat and a fluttering heart is, unfortunately for carnivores, rather common. Some suggest that it's a "temporary" adjustment phase as the body grows accustomed to the new eating plan and the sudden decrease in electrolytes. This occurs because the diet eliminates carbohydrates, which in turn causes lower insulin. As a result, the kidneys flush more sodium out of the body, a process which then affects the vital balance of potassium and magnesium in the body.

For those who are committed to staying on the carnivore diet, drinking enough water and replenishing the lost electrolytes is vital. It's crucial to seek a doctor's guidance, though, because heart palpitations could be linked to a variety of other health problems, like hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and arrhythmia.

Dr. Saladino reported that he experienced muscle cramps as a result of consuming a full carnivore diet. In a post on X, he said that adequate intake of minerals like magnesium, calcium, and potassium was crucial to avoiding cramps. In his video, Dr. Saladino explained that plant-based mineral sources weren't bioavailable enough to provide optimal benefit, explaining instead that animal foods were the way to go.

But when he began to experience muscle cramps as a matter of routine while on the carnivore diet, Dr. Saladino began to think twice about the diet. "I started to think maybe long-term ketosis is not great for me," he confessed on the More Plates More Dates podcast, stating that it's "[p]robably not a great thing for most humans."

Cramping can be a debilitating side effect, largely due to the imbalance of electrolytes and minerals — namely potassium, sodium, and magnesium. Carnivores suggest adding more salt to the food to increase sodium intake naturally and to drink enough water. However, when cramping becomes so intense that it affects your ability to sleep, work out, or your general quality of life, it may be time to join Dr. Saladino in reconsidering the all-meat diet.

Consuming a strictly meat diet could have an impact on testosterone levels, which Dr. Saladino learned after committing to it as a way of life. After a year and a half of following the diet, he said, he began experiencing assorted symptoms. "My testosterone at the beginning of the carnivore experiment was about 800 total, and after about a year, year and a half, it was about 500," he stated in an interview shared on Instagram.

Maintaining optimal testosterone levels is critical to overall wellness, affecting everything from muscle mass to strength levels. People with chronically low testosterone may be more likely to develop serious issues, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and osteoporosis (via Healthline). The problem occurs when the diet shifts to consuming excess levels of protein. All of this can spike inflammation levels in the body and trigger hormonal imbalances that then force the decline of testosterone, according to research published in a 2022 study in Nutrition and Health.

The leader of the study, Joseph Whittaker, MSc, said, "[w]hat data we have strongly suggests going above 35% protein leads to all sorts of nasty effects. Our study adds low testosterone to this list" (via Forks and Knives). While paying a visit to your doctor is smart if this situation affects you, increasing carbohydrate intake while lowering protein consumption can be a step in the right direction.

Because he largely omitted carbohydrates from his diet save for a small amount of fruit, Dr. Saladino developed low blood sugar, explaining on his "Why I Quit the Carnivore Diet" video on YouTube that he had "very low insulin because I wasn't really eating any carbohydrates, and the protein I was eating probably wasn't as insulinogenic as it needed to be."

Although some people who have diabetes say that the carnivore diet has helped them lower their blood sugar, the effects vary based on each individual's unique blood chemistry and needs. For example, those who are hoping to bring down their blood sugar by eating more meat would need to consider the type of meat. "We know from extensive research that people with diabetes are at a much higher risk for heart disease," says Toby Smithson, RND, CDE, to Healthline. "We also know that a diet high in saturated fat can lead to heart disease." To see any type of positive effect from a carnivore diet, all meat varieties would need to be of the lean variety.

While a decrease in blood sugar can benefit diabetics, hypoglycemia can be a serious issue for others. It can cause many side effects, including racing heart, confusion, lightheadedness, dizziness, and, in more severe cases, seizures and even coma. Fast-acting carbohydrates like juice and hard candy can reverse some symptoms, but once hypoglycemia reaches a more serious stage, medical intervention may be required.

Any dramatic dietary change could greatly affect lab values. That's especially true if the diet involves omitting an entire food group. Dr. Saladino explained that it wasn't just his testosterone levels that nosedived in response to his strict consumption of meat. He also had other poor values, including low magnesium and high binding globulin.

The change to magnesium levels can be especially disruptive, leading to issues like numbness, tingling, lethargy, nausea, headaches, and the aforementioned muscle cramps. Because those cramps often affect the legs at night, low magnesium can even impact quality of sleep. Some people may think to supplement magnesium, but it's important to avoid taking too much. Doing so could cause other disruptive symptoms, like nausea and diarrhea.

While a doctor should make an assessment to determine the best solution for an individual case, making a few dietary changes could be helpful in the case of an all-carnivore diet. Introducing leafy greens, avocados, lentils, beans, nuts, and yogurt can be helpful in promoting a more balanced, magnesium-rich diet. Elevated binding globulin, meanwhile, is a sign that there's too much protein in the blood. It can increase the chances of developing heart disease, osteoporosis, and depression, among other conditions.

When electrolytes are imbalanced and the metabolism is disrupted, it's understandable that it may even affect your body temperature. That's exactly what Dr. Saladino experienced, as he reported in his YouTube video that he was "always cold" while on the carnivore diet. What does feeling cold all the time really mean? Upon checking his thyroid levels, he found that his total T3 and free T3 levels were "not ideal." That was revelatory, as the body's metabolic rate relies on a functional thyroid to convert food into energy.

It's possible that this change to the thyroid could occur if the person consuming the carnivore diet loses a significant amount of weight. That can reduce thyroid activity while slowing down metabolism (per Nutrition with Judy). Individuals who already have hypothyroidism should avoid the carnivore diet, as some fattier meats could disrupt hormone production.

If you're like Dr. Saladino, though, and had normal thyroid function before switching to a full meat plan, it may be worth consulting with your doctor and a nutritionist to determine whether you need to add more carbohydrates to your diet.