Dr. Anthony Chaffee addresses questions from healthcare practitioners and carnivore dieters about implementing nutritional interventions in medical practice. A pediatrician with diabetes shares how achieving normal hemoglobin A1c after four months on carnivore is transforming their approach to patient care. Dr. Anthony Chaffee explains how ketogenic diets are now standard care for diabetes in Australia, upgraded to best practice in 2024, and provides resources for medical professionals to access evidence-based research on low-carb interventions.
The episode covers practical challenges including insurance coverage for fasting insulin testing and interpreting cholesterol panels on carnivore. Dr. Anthony Chaffee explains why children need to be in ketosis for proper brain development, noting that disrupted cholesterol metabolism and removal from ketosis contributes to developmental issues. He addresses the historical context of ketogenic diets as the primary diabetes treatment for 150 years before insulin discovery, and explains why higher LDL cholesterol correlates with better health outcomes despite medical establishment recommendations for statins.
Key Takeaways
- Children require ketosis for optimal brain development since fetuses are naturally in ketosis and breastfeeding maintains this state, but modern sugary formulas and processed foods force them out of ketosis causing developmental delays
- Ketogenic diets are now standard care for diabetes treatment in Australia and upgraded to best practice in 2024, with thousands of high-quality studies supporting meat-based ketogenic approaches for major medical conditions
- Fasting insulin testing is more predictive than blood glucose alone, catching insulin resistance 10-15 years before blood sugar elevation, though insurance may not cover it requiring out-of-pocket payment of $10-20
- Higher LDL cholesterol correlates with increased life expectancy and lower rates of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and cardiovascular disease, while statins only prevent healthy LDL production without addressing damaged particles
- Pediatrician with Diabetes Transforms Practice with Carnivore Diet
- Brain Development and Ketosis in Children - Why Kids Need Fat
- Fiber Myth and Antinutrients - Why Vegetables Block Nutrient Absorption
- Getting Blood Work When Insurance Won't Cover Fasting Insulin Tests
- Cholesterol Numbers on Carnivore - Why Statins Don't Work
This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube and may contain errors or inaccuracies.
[Music] I am a pediatrician who had diabetes Now with normal hemoglobin A1c after four months on a carnivore I feel amazing and I'm trying to decide how to let this knowledge affect my pediatric practice well I'm really glad that you're doing so much better that that's amazing and and I I think it's um really great that you're thinking about how this can affect your practice because of course this is going to make a massive difference in the lives of your patients um look into the the studies and the work on just ketogenic diets in general so carnivore diet is a ketogenic diet say I've heard it termed a plant-free ketogenic diet and uh but there are literally thousands of high quality studies on high fat meat-based ketogenic diets showing you know explicit benefits for many major medical issues I mean diabetes I that's that's in the guidelines now for in Australia of um using ketogenic diets to treat diabetes so that that's actually standard of care um and in fact it got upgraded to best practice this year and um because it works you know and so you know look you know immerse yourself in in that literature and um you go to uh the Youtube channel low carb down under where I have a few talks on um they have amazing amazing lectures it's it's a medical conference you know know it's it's it's you know CME CPD medical conference here in Australia and um they have you know some really really amazing people you know talking at these things and um I'm not just saying that because I was I've spoken there I'm I'm the least of all of these uh videos I've got a couple good ones you my plants are trying to kill you one that sort of went viral there but it's um there there are amazing amazing amazing talks there and so just immerse yourself in that I mean there there's there's this whole world of medicine that that we just weren't taught in medical school or residency because there's no product at the end of it right you know so it's it doesn't get into the curriculum it's not you know there's no drug reps or anything like that coming around telling us how great ketogenic diets are for you know um you know uh for for childhood diabetes and things like that um you know because there's no there's no product right so you know only products have a marketing budget and so you know um we have to find this stuff ourselves but it is there it is absolutely there and um you looking at you know Dr Paul Mason has a ton of great talks there um there are cardiologists there there are cardi Thoracic Surgeons there are psychiatrists there are pediatricians there are many many many many many different you know Top Doctors um you know giving excellent uh lectures and um and there are plenty of studies available so this is evidence-based medicine it's just we have to go look for it it's not going to be spoonfed to us so think about that immerse yourself in in the literature and the data um and then you know you can talk I mean we've been using ketogenic diets you know for well over a century for epilepsy um in the late 1700s and 1800s and early 1900s the only treatment for type 1 and type 2 diabetes was a ketogenic diet that was the only thing that would keep people alive when they stopped making insulin and um and then we got insulin and it was like okay no problem anymore you know we just forget about everything that we did for the last 150 years but that was the treatment for diabetes for 150 years was a ketogenic diet and you know fasting has been used uh in in you know in medicinal uh context since you know going I mean there's records of it going back to like 500 BC you know so you know these are these are working on the same principles and also you know looking at you know childhood development I mean think about it you how many studies are there showing that um if you disrupt the normal cholesterol metabolism of the brain um you'll get very serious neurological uh conditions and um and mdev of the brain like you need cholesterol for the brain and you know we're eating things that lower cholesterol and interrupt the normal cholesterol metabolism of the brain and so obviously that's going to be a big big deal when you're talking about it in the Pediatric population um you know kids need to be in ketosis you know because they need ketones across the blood brain barrier and reconstitute into fatty acids to build the physical structures of the brain also the neocortex and two-thirds of the brain optimally primarily run on ketones if you you know I mean we learned this in Biochemistry at least those of us who um you know had had the undergraduate degree and took took you know college level biochemistry that you know when you have ketones available even if you have an abundance of glucose your those parts of your brain will only run on the ketones it's only when those ketones start dropping that you start replacing you know filling in the gaps with glucose and so it's very very important for a kid to be in in ketosis fetus is you know fetus is in ketosis in the womb and breastfeeding children are in ketosis because they need to be in ketosis and then we give them a bunch of sugary formula and nasty mushed peas with a ton of sugar and and it forces them out and they don't develop properly um you know we've seen the brain size uh in humans drop precipitously at about 10,000 years ago dropped 11% for adult males dropped 177% for adult females and that's a developmental issue that didn't take hundreds of years or thousands of years that wasn't like a you know um you know an evolutionary process or anything like that that's a developmental delay and we saw this in real time with the Native Americans and Australians they shrunk and their health got seriously affected um I don't know if they've ever done um you know you know head circumference and you know calculating that but you know if you look at the skulls of pre and post agricultural humans massive difference massive difference that's a developmental issue and so part of that is that you're not in ketosis and you're not getting the right nutrients up to the brain so we have all that information like we know that that happens and of course that's that's the most important in a pediatric population if you have kidss with autoimmune issues they're getting rashes they're getting sick all the time you know God forbid they're getting diabetes you know these are these are interventions that are that are very important to think about and uh and you talk to the parents about it you get informed consent say listen you know this is this is something you know that that could help you know and then and uh this could help in these conditions and X Y and Z and you know it's not going to hurt them meat's not going to hurt anyone and eliminating out carbs and being keto certainly won't hurt them because kids are supposed to be in ketosis so their brains can grow and you're not missing anything by cutting out vegetables in fact you're gaining a lot by cutting out vegetables you're getting rid of these antinutrients that block out the absorption of um of the nutrients even in meat you're stopping the digestion you're blocking protease and lipase and stopping your body from breaking down the nutrients that you need fiber will bind a bile and eliminate that so you can't absorb the amount of fat that you need and your brain needs and so on and so on and so on so you know then you can start you know once you get confident enough that this is not going to hurt anyone first Do no harm meat does not do harm um and uh you know and you and you've seen the data in the literature and on ketogenic diets carnivore diet is a ketogenic diet it's a plant-free ketogenic diet which has that next layer of benefit because now you're getting rid of these toxins and these antinutrients and even fiber it's an nutrient it blocks out 30% absorption or up to 30% of the absorption of the food that you're eating so that's fine if you're eating garbage you know and you and you don't absorb 30% of the garbage but what if you're not eating garbage well then you're blocking out 30% absorption of things that are good and so you know once you understand that and and you sort of and and you really you've seen it in yourself but now you know looking into the literature and um once you're confident enough and you start talking to patients about it you will see results like you've never seen before in your entire life and you know that's why I I have I use diet and lifestyle as a as a major part of my practice because it works you know and we have medicines that can fill in the gaps but so many things just go away and stop being a problem long before you you ever get to medications and so you know I I still will prescribe things for people but I the amount that I have to do it's it's it's vanishingly small compared to what um you know people would normally have to do or what you know I would have done historically you know because just like oh here's this problem here's this pill that's how we're taught you know but now you change their diet in their lifestyle and all these things just improve improve improve and I always say like look I'd rather not do medications why don't we see how you go and they're feeling better and they're doing better and you're months on and you're seeing their blood work all improve and their blood pressure improve diabetes go away and their autoimmunity goes away like okay yeah we don't we don't even need to start medication you know someone's really bad then okay you you get them on the medication while they're transitioning but then you can decribe and so I think you'll find that once you are are confident enough to make that step you will you will see better results than you've ever seen in your entire in your entire career and that's really exciting you know because it's um it's pretty amazing and like my friend Dr Gary fi says once you see it you can't unsee it like you you know this is there and you can't stop recommending this to people because you know it works and it works better than anything else doing so it's great to hear thank you for U for sharing that and glad to have you on team carnivore and I'm really looking forward to hearing about your experiences uh with your patients in the future because I'm sure it'll be great hey guys just want to take a second to thank our sponsor at carnivore bar I don't promote many products because honestly all you need to be healthy is to just eat meat for those times that you're out hiking road tripping or stuck at work and you want nutritious snack that is just meat fat and salt if you want it the carnivore bar is a great option so I like this product not because it's just pure meat but also because I want the carnivore Market to thrive as well and the more we support meat only products the more meat only products there will be available in the mainstream so if this sounds like something you'd like to get behind check it out using my discount code Anthony to get 10% off which also applies to subscriptions giving you 25% off total all right thanks guys primary care provider said he won't order certain blood work tests when I asked for it uh for things like fasting insulin and more which were recommended by you and others because insurance won't approve it annoyed me how do I get around this um you look that that that actually is the thing you know some of these things you you might just have to pay for out of your own pocket you know if the insurance won't pay for it then um then they won't pay for it you know and um but it can still be it can still be useful you know you want to have that on the on the lower end um and uh and if you have just massively elevated insulin you show that you have insulin resistance um you know that that can be a good piece of information you leptin is another one leptin takes a lot longer to normalize than insulin does but you know at the end of the day if you're on a ketogenic carnivore diet or a plant-free ketogenic diet your insulin is going to come down and so it's it's it's a good tool um to assess people that are eating any old Witch Way and and then you can use that and say look L listen you're massively insulin resistant this causes a lot of problems because insulin affects over you know 100 different processes in your body and this is this is a big deal we need to get this down the only way to get it down is a ketogenic diet um and so you know that that's what that's used for you know but if you're already doing the intervention your insulin is going to be normal eventually anyway and usually usually well it usually takes a few months for people that are that are insulin resistant if people are exquisitly insulin resistant you know it could take several months but it will come down and um so you I don't think you you absolutely have to have a fasting insulin test it's a good piece of information and it's also very reassuring because you look at this okay my insulin is 36 and now you know six months later it's five okay well that's great you know it's a proof of concept that this is actually working but you're gonna you're going to get down to a good healthy level eventually anyway so it just depends you know if if you want it for a reassurance and just to be able to track things you know then you know paying for it out of pocket might be worth it probably not that much you know 10 20 bucks maybe I I don't know maybe not even that much um and um you can check your leapin while you're at it and you have leapin resistance it's very difficult to lose weight typically but you know you don't strictly need it as as long as you don't need it for motivation to stay on track if you're just happy to just keep going with it they're all going to come down and normalize anyway if you want to see that in real time then you may need to pay for it out of pocket because yeah the insurance may not cover it which is stupid because you know fasting insulin is is way more important than um just blood sugar alone because your blood sugar can be completely normal but your but you can have insulin resistance and fasting insulin be elevated for 10 15 years before your blood sugar ever comes up so it's you know it's it's catching it early a lot earlier you're catching diabetes a lot earlier and I would consider that really pre-diabetes and then diabetes is when your blood sugar starts coming up but they call that pre-diabetes and then when it's floridly elevated then you get full diabetes I think that that's not quite right but that is what what it's termed as um but you know it is important to check fasting uh insulin even if you're you have normal blood sugar right but if you're on a ketogenic diet is going to get better anyway if you're on a ketogenic carnivore diet it's G to get even better even faster and so you know um I wouldn't worry about it too much but if you want it for your own reassurance then um you know I would look into um you know private testing centers that can pay to get whatever test you want hey everyone really happy to announce a new sponsor for the show and for everybody down in Australia Stockman Stakes who are delivering highquality grass-fed and finished pasture raised beef and other meats flash frozen and vacuum sealed to Ador something that I've been enjoying a lot of myself recently as well they also have a great range of specialty items such as high fat keto mints and carnivore beef and organs mints with liver kidneys and beef art as well so use code chaffy today for free preorder of beef mints or another specialty gift along with your order at Stockman steaks.com and I'll see you over there thanks guys total cholesterol 211 HDL 42 triglycerides 156 LDL 139 um should I be concerned uh doctor is hounding me about a Statin well you know there are over 100 different particulates of LDL and um you know even the ones that are damaged sdldl the damaged glycated oxidized ones that you know could cause an issue maybe or they could be in indicating that there is damage going on in your body that is damaging the the LDL and also damaging other things that could precipitate AOS cerotic plaques I think it's probably the latter that that the sdldl doesn't cause anything that it's just um you know it's it's a symptom it's not the disease it's the smoke it's not the fire it's a sign that something's going wrong but it's not the cause of it going wrong if that makes sense also if you have all this sdldl and and damaged particulates statins don't reduce those statins prevent your body from making the large buoyant healthy LDL molecules in the first place so you know is that really is that really of benefit um I don't think that that it is it's also treating a a problem that doesn't it hasn't never been proven to exist because because we've never proven that there's a cause and effect relationship between any form of LDL or apob or total cholesterol or anything else and cardiovascular disease in fact the only experimental Studies have ever been done on the subject have shown the opposite have shown that um you improve um you improve patient Health U well you get improved outcomes with higher animal fat and cholesterol and um and so when they lower saturated fat or lower animal fat replacing with unsaturated veget oils lower LDL cholesterol in three of these studies that conferred no benefit to cardiovascular disease and then the two larger um better design studies actually lowering um fatty or animal fat and cholesterol actually caused more heart attacks and strokes and more deaths from heart attacks and strokes so it's it's treating a problem that doesn't exist um I wouldn't worry about your LDL typically you know population studies show that the higher LDL and total cholesterol the higher um your life life expectancy is um there are also a lot of um U you know there's a lot of suggestions that you know if you have cholesterol under 200 you know you actually are are worse off you're more susceptible infectious diseases cancers other sorts of uh very serious issues you know higher LDL um is associated with lower rates of Alzheimers and Parkinson's and dementia um it's also associated with lower rates of heart attacks and strokes in fact um it's just that you know they try to sort of hide that and um or lie about it and change the data around like they did with Framingham study they misrepresented the data from the Framingham study American Heart Association misrepresented it and said that you know higher cholesterol equals higher cardivascular disease mortality in fact it was a lower cholesterol correlated with higher cardiovascular disease mortality rates so you know that was a lie um you know as you go it looks like you're probably early on in in a carn well I'm assuming you're on a carnivore diet or why else are you here um you know asking me but um if you're not on a carnor that you should be and what that will do is it will raise your LDL your HDL and it will continue to lower your triglycerides and then you'll get that ratio of HDL to triglycerides will be more favorable so you you want you don't want more than double your trig double your HDL in triglycerides and uh and eventually if you stay on a ketogenic carnivore diet um your HDL will Eclipse your triglyceride you actually have higher levels of HDL than triglyceride and being extremely low risk of of heart disease um regardless of what your LDL is so yeah so good luck with that um but um no I don't I don't get concerned over that you know my my main thing would be your HDL and triglycerides I want to see your triglycerides down further and your HDL up more and and being on a you know a ketogenic carnivore diet it will once you're confident enough and you start talking to patients about it it you will see results like you've never seen before in your entire life and you know that's why I I have I use diet and lifestyle as a as a major part of my practice because it works you know and we have medicines that can fill in the gaps but so many things just go away and stop being a problem long before