May 2, 20194 min read

Paul Saladino, MD: Everything You Thought You Knew About Food Might Be Wrong

Updated: May 22, 2019

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Wow. Get ready for this one, everyone. Paul and I have been talking constantly for weeks and we have something special for you. This is a 2 part, 4 hour series that covers everything you can imagine on plant and animal foods.

If this is your first time listening, make sure to go back and start at episode 1. To catch people up I’m Brian Sanders and I’ve quit my job and dedicated my life to studying health and nutrition. I’m trying my best to be unbiased and to simplify the conflicting advice out there and distill down concepts into something anyone can understand. I’m not a doctor or nutritionist. I’m a mechanical engineer and I’ve lost both of my parents to chronic disease and have set off on my own path for the last 4 years to study this topic and make sure I don’t fall to the same fate. My role is the curator, the communicator, the curious mind collecting and spreading this information. I’ve interviewed over 100 of the top scientists, doctors, nutritionists, fitness experts, and other health professionals and have come to find some simple truths that I’d like to share.

Today I’m talking to Dr. Paul Saladino who received his MD from the University of Arizona and is also a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner. He has quickly become one of the leading voices and experts on animal-based diets and nose to tail eating. He’s a good friend and a wealth of knowledge. We just got back from Paleo f(x) in Austin and are getting ready to shoot the final interview for the Food Lies film. You guys are in for a treat.

But first I have to ask for your support. I’m working almost every night until midnight these days trying to keep up with all my projects and content creation. So far I’ve done this all for free and it’s taking a toll on me and definitely my non-existent bank account. You can support me directly by joining my Patreon - you can go to Patreon.com/peakhuman, or search for Peak Human on Patreon, or of course click through in the show notes. A couple dollars a month goes a long way. You can also support me through the Food Lies film which is still on Indiegogo. We have all kinds of great perks like your name in the credits, the Eat Meat shirt, and the Real Foods coin. Thanks so much, I really appreciate it, and it’s not possible without you. Now please enjoy the wise words of Dr. Paul Saladino.

Preorder Food Lies: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post

Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman

SHOW NOTES

Food directly contacts our body everyday
Food is a signal to the body and affects us on a cellular level, it is so much more than calories and macros
If your blood markers improve on a vegan diet your doctor would praise you, if you told them you did it with a carnivore diet they would tell you to stop
People have a very difficult time believing that plants could be bad
High D15 nitrogen values in the bones and collagen of neanderthals and early humans confirm humans were eating primarily animals
Studies referenced:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6421459/
https://www.pnas.org/content/106/38/16034
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41033-3
Humans evolved as facultative carnivores
Plants were our fallback foods during times of starvation
“Thriving vegans” would probably thrive more if they ate animals
If you enjoy plants eat them but animal foods are the ideal foods for humans
Study showing male height is associated with high quality animal proteins
Eating nose to tail is basically a multivitamin for humans in the most bioavailable form
There are no unique nutrients in plants that we can’t get from animals
The history of fiber and how it got associated with health
No real evidence to suggest fiber protects against colon cancer
Meat does not cause colon cancer
Major flaws in the fiber deprived mice study showing mucosal layer in the gut degraded in the absence of fiber but with no symptoms or association with disease or inflammation
Fiber and health is based on epidemiology and confounded with healthy user bias
Asian countries show opposite association between meat and all-cause mortality than western countries
Plant sources of vitamins and minerals are either in a non-bioavailable form or bound to other minerals that inhibit their absorption
Vitamin C requirements are a lot less than we think
Polyphenols are plant defense molecules
What are free radicals?
Polyphenols trigger our own antioxidant defenses but we can get these same responses with less damaging stressors like exercise, cold therapy, or sauna
Sulforaphane can be harmful even if it does trigger a hormetic response
Sulforaphane inhibits iodine absorption and can lead to hypothyroid
Herbivores co-evolved with plants and have different strategies to deal with plant toxins than humans
Fruits and vegetables have never actually been shown to have any benefit in humans in controlled studies
Curcumin shows results in a test tube but there are no double blind placebo controlled clinical trials to show that it is beneficial
When curcumin enters the body it is immediately detoxified and excreted
Black pepper inhibits the detoxification of curcumin
We should actively avoid black pepper
Plants are not going to create the ideal micronutrient or antioxidant status in humans
Where to find Dr. Paul Saladino
Email: paulsalidinomd@gmail.com
Instagram: @paulsaladinomd
Website: www.paulsaladinomd.com
Twitter: @mdsaladino
Facebook: Paul Saladino MD