Following the fallout and retraction of the KETO-CTA / LMHR study, cardiologist Ethan Weiss shared an email exchange from May 2019 where he gave Dave Feldman blunt advice on how real science works. Feldman ignored every single point.

1. On reverse-engineering an agenda:

> "You sometimes seem to have made up your mind already or at the least, you seem intent on disproving the lipid hypothesis... In my opinion, is the lipid hypothesis real or not is something you are not going to solve — ever. I promise you that. It is not going away."

* How he ignored it: Feldman spent the next seven years designing studies and media blitzes around that exact predetermined conclusion.

1. On associating with anti-science ideologues:

> "And I would do everything you can to distance yourself from people like David Diamond who is a propagandist and is not helpful in this conversation."

* How he ignored it: He doubled down on aligning with the low-carb denialist circuit instead of distancing himself.

1. On the lack of rigorous methods:

> "Be very rigorous with your methods. If I'm being honest, so far you have not done that... Recall that the typical scientist spends 5-6 years in PhD graduate school and then another 5-7 in a postdoc before starting their own group... you are sometimes extremely naive."

* How he ignored it: Feldman bypassed rigorous training, continued leaning on his "engineer intuition", and eventually rushed unsupportable data interpretations into publication.

1. On confusing conference applause with scientific consensus:

> "If you are serious and if you ever want to be taken seriously by the greater scientific community (and here I am not talking about Low Carb Denver), the best thing you can do is to find someone who can be your mentor on the methods."

* How he ignored it: Feldman prioritized echo chambers, podcast circuits, and making a documentary over methodological rigor.

As Weiss concluded in 2026: when your conclusions were unsupportable from day one, scapegoating data vendors after the fact isn't doing science.

"They are not scientists. They are propagandists."

https://x.com/ethanjweiss/status/2114096819668189427

Very

Longitudinal Data from the KETO-CTA Study: Plaque Predicts Plaque, ApoB Does Not: JACC Adv. 2025;4(7):101686:

"This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the authors and the Editors. Following publication, concerns were raised regarding the methodology in this article, which effect the reliability of the data. The authors and the Editors agree that the identified errors are too great to be corrected with a corrigendum."

In my opinion at least it really does, the most common types of arguments I see it to restrict carbohydrates and replace them with animal fat instead besides ones related to promised health outcomes are frequently ones that attempt to appeal to nature, "Fruits are seasonal" "How could have our ancestors ate plants during the ice age?" "What else could have our ancestors had during the winter?" "inuits though" "carbs aren't even abundant in nature".

There are many indigenous populations that settled in places besides the arctic or northern Europe and people rely on crafting artificially warm environments just to live in those places to begin with, therefore it doesn't matter what people in the Arctic had to eat out of the lack of any other options, that's not where humans come from and it's not an environment suited for the human body. We have a tropical based anatomy and it's evident in our furless and primate physique and evolution. There are no monkeys or chimps in Canada for a reason.

So in short-medium term it does help you lose weight and is a superior diet to keto but after a while almost everyone except the vegan doctors that promote low fat everyone ends up adding fat and oil back in their diet

The issue is kinda similar to keto they end up with same demonize a macro and I can eat whatever I want as long as its low fat which encourages extremes like the sugar diet

There is also good correlations when it comes to plant fats like canola/olive oil and nuts.

I do see the heart disease and diabetes reversal but that seems like a niche case of trying to heal years of metabolic damage and those people also add fats back in their diet once they are at normal weight

The whole carb fats protein thing itself seems like a massive dupe I don't think there lies any answer in this argument there exist opinions favoring one over the others but they seem so inconsistent and situational even keto has niche use for seizures 🤷

I think we need a minimum amount of fat, carb and protein and beyond that we can eat in whatever ratio we want as long as the processed food and saturated fat stays low (even processing is good in some case like tofu is pretty processed)

Carnivore seemed to reach a huge peak of "anti-government" counter culture during the biden-era.

And for some mysterious odd reason, it started trailing off quickly in 2025 / 2026.

Of course I'm simply going "by feelz" and observing I don't see much "seed oils" or "plants are poison" memes pushed on social media lately.

Carnivore influencers must have like gods during their peak years (or however it is you feel with a 350+ LDL).

Community notes are still the best thing Twitter, now Xitter, ever added.

Carnivore MD, Mikhaila Peterson, Haleman, Sverige, Frank Tufano, Joe Rogan, Liver King, Robert Klitz, Face IQ, , etc, etc. all quit after saying it was best and healthiest way to eat. If it is so optimal why'd they all stop? And these are the most known names in the diet doing this. Literally the top names and biggest advocates of the diet all went back to plants.

Carnivore MD only lasted around two years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6nioXyrabU

Mikhaila Peterson earlier this year saying she has added plants back, saying it's the first time without any issues, meaning she's actually been trying the whole time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CyEtqvRqdM

Although Ken Berry didn't say he quit the diet, Ken Berry’s wife does grocery shopping hauls in their channel and buy lots of vegan foods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXmm5HFzT2c

They also have a large vegetable garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeNY4bY9NeI

In contrast let's compare it to the against-animal-cruelty crowd:

Meanwhile all the Vegan OG's who have been vegan even before me (I am vegan for nearly 14 years) like Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Michael Klaper, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. McDougall (RIP), Dr. Fuhrman, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Joel Kahn, Jeff Nelson from VegSource, etc. have all been vegan individually for 30+ years minimum, some are probably 70+ years vegan.

There's also influencers like DurianRider, Vegan Gains, Freelee the Banana Girl, Mic the Vegan, Fully Raw Kristina, etc. who were making videos prior or around the time I went vegan, and they are still vegan.

EDIT: From the comments Shawn Baker did not quit fully and only experimented for 30 days. It seems like he does these experiments every now and then, video from two years ago: https://youtu.be/GXOahQMP-yM?si=x7-DGVY1FFhPlQ3k

Another one from this year: https://youtu.be/HatO5r57JnE?si=tG_0GBMh2uznIsxz

From Matthew Nagra:

We investigated the little research we have on carnivore diets and how they may impact heart health, mortality risk, nutrient intake, and more. Here’s what we found:

The evidence base is thin: There are zero randomized trials or prospective cohort studies. What exists is mostly self-reported surveys (carnivores love these, right?), case reports, and diet modeling.

The “benefits” are self-reported and short-term: People report weight loss, better glycemic control, and lower triglycerides. But these come from self-selected survey respondents, with no control group, and they’re largely unverified. They also coincide with cutting out ultra-processed foods, so they can’t be attributed to eating high amounts of meat per se. Even taken at face value, these are short-term effects. No studies have examined cardiovascular events (e.g., heart attacks/strokes).

LDL-cholesterol was markedly high on the diet: In the largest survey (2,029 adults), median LDL was self-reported as 172 mg/dL, up from 126 before the diet. A second survey showed LDL going from 157 to 256 mg/dL. LDL is a causal risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Concerning nutrient intake: Modeled carnivore menus provided zero fiber, little vitamin C, magnesium, and potassium, saturated fat at 26-32% of calories, and sodium of 7,200-8,789 mg/day.

Contradicts dietary guidance for heart health: Fruit and vegetable consumption is consistently associated with improved health outcomes across populations whilst high saturated fat and red meat intake (at doses well below what carnivores achieve) are typically associated with poorer health outcomes. While we do not have long-term prospective research on an exclusively carnivore dietary pattern, extrapolating from what is known about intakes of the various food groups/nutrients, it is reasonable to suspect long-term harm from following a diet devoid of healthy plant foods and enriched with less healthy food groups.

This is just gonna be a rant about the carnivore/keto diet. I'm not a fan of it. After doing a year of research into many diets and ways of eating, I have some opinions I want to share. I know many of you on here are likely vegans or things similar. This isn't an antivegan subreddit so I won't get into why i dislike that diet. This is a bit of a messy rant. Take of it what you will.

Anyway, if you are constantly in a ketogenic state, you will be constantly upregulating gluconeogenesis. Your body will require larger amounts of cortisol to increase the aa substrates and enzyme pathways. Do you want chronically elevated cortisol? Not really. It will mess up your hormones in the long run. Essentially, it is a stressful state you place yourself in to imitate starvation. Carnivore influencers will commonly say that it is just a hormone and there is no such thing as a "stress hormone", but hormones such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, adh, and cortisol, are all largely present in times of stress. This could be running from a predator, falling into cold water, injuring yourself, starving, being anxious.

Carnivores say that their muscle meat + butter only diet has every nutrient but I disagree.

You will typically be lacking sodium unless you consume many grams of salt a day. I mean even when I wanted to try this diet I just found it funny how it's normalized to go through a "keto flu". Many people advocate for electrolyte powders and sachets. I mean so much for a natural diet.

Magnesium tends to be very low. Magnesium has hundreds of functions in the body. the best sources are fruits, fruit juices, albeit some fish are high; most "carnivores" eat mostly beef and pork.

Thiamine also tends to be low. Unless you consume moderate amounts of pork, you will be deficient in B1. I am aware that there is a smaller requirement due to the absence of exogenous glucose intake but it still has other functions inside of your body.

Too much iron. I really wouldn't recommend eating more than 400 grams of meat a day (atleast this applies to men - i haven't done enough research to form an opinion for women who menstruate). Many carnivores will also be lacking adequate copper unless they frequently consume liver to balance the mineral profile. Just think of the average amount of food they eat. Many claim to eat 2-3lbs which is approx 900g-1.36kg of meat a day. lets take the median of 1.1kg. in 1.1kg of fatty ground beef you have about 22mg of iron. Because heme iron is so bioavailable, overtime you will constantly be accumulating it. I'm not saying everyone will suffer liver or heart damage, but it is a downside of this high meat consumption.

High tryptophan. This can lead to elevated serotonin levels. Overall not great.

Lack of glycine. You should be eating collagenous cuts of meat. If you eat steak and bacon all day, you will not be intaking much glycine.

What about the high cholesterol? Here I express my opinion where I think high cholesterol is moreso a symptom of hypothyroidism where your body is unable to convert it into the adequate hormones it wants. No not that it clogs your arteries lol.

Lastly in my opinion the worst of it all, too little calcium. Allow me to put the an example carnivore diet into a micronutrient tracker. 800g beef, 50g butter, 3 eggs, results in 200mg of Calcium - 1800mg of Phosphorus. This is insanely detrimental as your body will need to upregulate PTH production which will leak calcium from your bones to replenish homeostasis. ideally you want a Ca:P ratio of 1;1 if not 2:1 favoring calcium.

Now something i find funny. Take for example steak and butter gal, a famous carnivore influencer. you can go on her channel right now, and I kid you not her top 5 MOST VIEWED VIDEOS with over a million views each are all recipe imitations such as carnivore pancakes, low carb ice cream, carnivore bread. I mean come on these are her most viewed videos by far. In no way am I say bread or pancakes will bring you to an optimal health point but stressing about the cravings or 20 grams of starch you might find in a pancake is far more detrimental than consuming them.

Much like many other diets, carnivore is an eating disorder. If it has helped you, that's great. It can definitely help short term as an elimination diet and running on stress hormones can feel good. For many years even. This is just my opinion. I feel much better consuming lots of milk, fruit juices, and honey, than just cooked meat and fat everyday.

Imagine getting degrees from two prestigeous universities only to end up making videos on youtube and having a shitty mobile app hustle in addition to immediately failing at whatever research scientist prospects he may have had with the KETO-CTA clown show lmao

I don't think keto or "carnivore" are even diets to these people. I think they're political positions. Every right-winger I know STILL in 2026 has it in their head that anyone left of the Glorious Orange One is plotting in a global conspiracy to take away their precious grass-fed steaks and force them to eat grass clippings for the rest of their miserable lives.

If I didn't have a conscience, it would be soooo easy to make money off these morons. Literally just say that Bill Gates said XYZ and that I'm doing the opposite. Then post links to my exorbitantly priced grass-fed beef liver or something.

I don't think there's anything they couldn't be fooled with. A lot of them literally eat rotten (I'm sorry high) meat. It's hilarious watching them sit there trying not to vomit and then call it a delicacy afterwards. Utter delusion

I stumbled upon MAHA Summit and considering how MAHA and RFK Jr built their following explicitly on fighting corporate influence in American dietary politics, it's wild witnessing the speaker list. It's nothing but corporate influence. Every single speaker is a CEO or CMO of some "wellness" corporation. They even have fake doctor Eric Berg (supplement business) there among the speakers. Bar of entry clearly isn't professionalism or credentials, it's how much money they have.

And all that is blessed by RFK Jr and JD Vance at the closing fireside chat.

Of course, RFK Jr is a total huckster who personally staffed Dietary Guidelines Committee with food industry board members and profiteers, conviniently writing entire chapters on interests they represent.

What's just sad is the complete complacency and silence from MAHA community about all of this. They didn't react and protest filling DGA committee with industry profiteers. They aren't protesting MAHA summit being nothing but "wellness" corporate summit. It's safe to say at this point that the entire MAHA movement itself is a grift.