Dr. Anthony Chaffee addresses common concerns about the carnivore diet's impact on microbiome diversity and blood sugar regulation. Research on traditional populations like the Inuit reveals that meat-only diets produce extremely healthy and diverse gut bacteria, contradicting conventional wisdom about fiber requirements. Multiple practitioners including Dr. Shawn O'Mara have documented dramatic microbiome improvements after switching to carnivore, with one experiencing such exceptional results that a testing company's president personally called to ask about his protocol.
The episode also explores why some individuals experience elevated blood sugar on carnivore diets, which Dr. Anthony Chaffee notes is extremely rare in his clinical practice. When persistent high blood sugar occurs, it typically stems from inadequate sleep (five hours or less for seven consecutive nights can induce pre-diabetes), chronic stress, or hidden dietary inclusions rather than the meat-based approach itself. The discussion emphasizes that our understanding of the microbiome remains limited, despite extensive research, making definitive dietary recommendations premature.
Key Takeaways
- Traditional Inuit populations eating only meat demonstrate extremely diverse and healthy microbiomes, proving that fiber is not necessary for gut bacterial diversity
- Multiple carnivore practitioners have documented dramatic microbiome improvements within three months of eliminating plant foods, including the appearance of beneficial bacterial species not present on omnivorous diets
- Persistent high blood sugar on carnivore diets is extremely rare and typically caused by averaging five hours of sleep or less for seven consecutive nights, which induces pre-diabetes through elevated cortisol
- Carbohydrates feed harmful oral bacteria that cause tooth decay, while carnivore diets promote healthy oral biomes that may contribute beneficial bacteria to the gut microbiome through swallowed saliva
- Carnivore Diet and Microbiome Diversity - Inuit Studies and Expert Findings
- Dental Health and Oral Microbiome - Why Teeth Rot on Carbohydrates
- Blood Sugar Issues on Carnivore Diet - Troubleshooting Persistent High Glucose
This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube and may contain errors or inaccuracies.
is the carnival diet enough to have a diverse microbiome what are your thoughts well you can you can ask the Inuit and uh people have done studies on them when they're eating just meat and they find out actually they have an extremely uh diverse and healthy microbiome in fact I've spoken to exerts on the microbiome and and they they say they love the carnivore diet because you get such a healthy uh gut bacteria and that that that's what a lot of people are finding you know moving to a carnivore diet um later in life not being born into to it like like some populations some some Lucky Bastards are and um and they're finding that they're they're massively improving the health of their microbiome um in fact there was um well we've seeing this just just all over the place and many people are publishing this you know Ken Dr kimberry has published this you know benaza has published this um Dr sha omara has published this and in fact Dr sha omara his microbiome was so good that the you know the president or whomever of the company they he used to test his microbiome personally called him and said you have the best microbiome our company has ever tested what the hell are you doing he's like all right I'll tell you and um benaza who's been doing a a clean omnivorous Carn ketogenic diet so high-fat meat-based but with vegetables fruits and vegetables and all that sort of stuff with all this lovely fiber and blah blah blah and he been doing it for years and so he checked his microbiome and it was he said it was good but it wasn't great and then the recommendations was was were that um he should uh eat less meat eat less red meat in particular and eat more uh fruits and vegetables in fiber and so he said he did the exact opposite and stopped eating all fiber and pretty much only ate red meat three months later his he said his microbiome was exemplary it had improved dramatically in every every uh category and that it actually showed up that had had six new species of microbe that were extremely healthy that showed up that weren't there before so he like okay explain that one where' those ones come from so you know we are seeing a lot of improvements the you know the other thing we should we should always remember is that is that our understanding of the microbiome is is still in its infancy I worked with um a an anesthesiology an intensivist here in um in Australia works in the ICU runs the ICU and um very bright guy very nice nice gentleman and um but his his main his main um work really is is studying the microbiome And he as of 2019 he had over 200 peer-reviewed Publications on the microbiome and speaking to him about that he said that once we figure out you know how the hell the microbiome works and how to improve it we will really um be able to do a lot you know with people's health and then we'll really know a lot about medicines once we understand right so this is this is a guy who's who's published over 200 papers on the subject and he's saying we don't understand this yet we don't know how to manipulate it we don't know how to improve it we don't even know what improved necessarily looks like we're just we're just figur this stuff out we're still it's still very much in his infancy so if that guy has the humility and the and the you know the knowledge to say look we we really don't know enough about this yet to make any definitive statements uh no one else should be making that statement either but you know what we do see in the studies that been done with Native populations like the Inu is that the microbiome is extremely healthy and that when people go to a meaton diet ours become extremely healthy which would make sense if we're eating what we're designed to eat we should have the microbiome and oral biome that we should have this is something we notice too when eating carbohydrates and we know about sugar but it's all carbohydrates all carbohydrates are sugars that's the carbohydrates are sugars right complex sugars or simple sugars Etc but they're sugars and the bacteria that eat sugars are the ones that cause cavities in humans okay so if your teeth are rotting out of your head probably not eating the right thing I mean what animal in nature has rotten teeth typically none because if you lose your teeth you lose the ability to eat and you die right you you can't fight off Predators you can't defend yourself you can't you know get mating rights NE necessarily you can't eat is the main thing right you lose your teeth you lose the ability to eat and uh you die so koalas for instance they don't regrow their teeth and so they they grow their teeth once and then they get worn down to little nubbin and it's very tough fibrous plant eucalyptus and so eating this their whole life they they typically don't you know just die of old age and fall over and and and whatever they they go until they they wear their teeth down to nothing and then they starve to death it's it's not really a nice way to go so when you when your teeth don't work and your teeth rot out of your head you're done and and teeth and the teeth of animals even though they're dirty they don't have dentists they're you know crocodile just sitting there in in swamp water with its mouth open you know I mean like come on if their teeth are going to rot out they're done okay so why are our teeth rotting out why are we having so many dental problems um because we're eating the wrong things and so we have the wrong oral biome as well and so you know by extension we probably have the wrong microbiome because the bacteria in your mouth get into the food that you chew up and then swallow and some of that can possibly bypass the the the noxious stomach acid that we have and and get past into your your lower intestin so that's probably where Ben's six new microbes came from which is probably from his oral biome and um you know so that makes sense what you eat is going to feed the bacteria in your body either in your mouth or in your intestine and so if you're eating the food that you're designed to have you should be feeding and promoting the bacteria that you are designed to have as well so it makes perfect sense that uh that would be the case I want to ask you about blood sugar some people have a persistent increase in blood sugar when they do a carnival diet some people's blood sugar drops which is normal and fine why is it that some people have an increase in blood sugar persistently 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 a 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 I would have to sort of see them Case by case because it it is extremely rare and it also depends on how you're you're testing these sorts of things I've actually never had a patient and I I test hundreds of people's blood te Bloods all the time uh when going on a carnivore diet you know do preliminary blood work when they come in then we we look at this often they're diabetic or pre-diabetic and saying okay look this is this is something that is going to be really important to you looking into therapeutic carbohydrate restriction and and you know the um they may have other sorts of things where say well actually I think that it be really important to actually exclude plants as well especially with autoimmunity Etc and we have large clinical trials in humans showing that ketogenic diets um high fat meat-based ketogenic diets they reverse diabetes so I've never seen anybody actually have persistently high blood sugar um I've seen people's hb1c not go down as much as you would as as other people would and there can be reasons for that um such as uh you know persistence stress poor sleep um stress these sorts of things um they could also just not actually be doing a ketogenic carnivore diet they could be including other things in their diet that would be my first guess you know um but you know my my patients I've never seen that um if that if that word happen to mean people should understand as well that that we do know from clinical data that if you average five hours of sleep or less a night for just seven nights in a row you will actually give yourself pre-diabetes so you'll elevate your blood sugar and this is this is due to the cortisol um that's released and the massive amounts of cortisol that's released and that that deranges your metabolism and and you get pre-diabetes so I would have to take all of those in a caseby casee basis but the first thing I'd be looking at are you actually eating the way that we we discussed and what and I always ask what exactly are you eating quite often you'll find some things in there that just like okay well those are you need to take those things out and you take those out and problem goes away if it's a big if they're actually only eating fatty meat and water um and they're still having persistently high blood sugar I'd be looking at sleep I'd be looking at stress as the as the main uh focal points but again I really haven't seen that in in anybody uh clinically and they're finding that they're they're massively improving the health of their microbiome um in fact there was um well we're seeing this just just all over the place and let many people are publishing this you know Ken Dr kenberry has published this you know Ben aadi's published this um Dr Shan omara has published this and in fact Dr sha omara his microbiome was so good that the you know the president or whomever of the company that he used to test his microbiome personally called him and said you have the best microbiome our company has has ever tested what the hell are you doing he's like all right I'll tell you and um benaza who's been doing a a clean omnivorous car ketogenic diet so