Vegetables and Fruit Are Toxic and Should Be Avoided
Paul Saladino, known as the 'carnivore doctor', claims that plant foods contain toxins and antinutrients that seriously harm human health and should be eliminated from the diet. Decades of nutritional epidemiology show the opposite: high consumption of vegetables and fruit is consistently associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality.
What we know
Paul Saladino is an American physician who established himself in alternative health circles by promoting an extreme version of the carnivore diet and claiming that plant foods actively harm human beings. His book The Carnivore Code argues that antinutrients in plants - oxalates, lectins, phytic acid, tannins - are evolutionary plant defence mechanisms that cause inflammation, leaky gut, autoimmune diseases, and a range of chronic conditions.
While it is true that plants contain antinutrients that can reduce the absorption of some minerals, the epidemiological evidence from dozens of long-term studies involving hundreds of thousands of participants consistently shows that high consumption of vegetables and fruit is a protective factor - not a risk. The Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet, and similar plant-rich dietary patterns have the strongest evidence base for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health regularly updates its review of that literature and in every version concludes that plant foods are a fundamental pillar of healthy eating.
After years of promoting an exclusively meat-based diet, Saladino himself began eating fruit in 2022, causing significant confusion among his followers. Some interpreted this as a tacit admission that his previous position had been excessive. Saladino explained it as an 'evolution' of his approach, claiming that certain sugars in fruit do not activate the same metabolic pathways as sugars from processed foods.
Beyond the direct health risks, there is a systemic concern: Saladino and the Petersons, by promoting the carnivore diet, undermine public health messages that rest on robust evidence. Any person who eliminates vegetables and fruit from their diet on the basis of these claims is exposed to a real risk of chronic diseases that are otherwise preventable. Dietitians Australia has described these claims as 'dangerously wrong.'
Common claims
- Vegetables and fruit actively harm health because of their toxins.False - antinutrients are present but do not cause the described harm in normal consumption
- Plant foods should be eliminated from the diet.False - contrary to all nutritional consensus guidelines
- A carnivore diet is evolutionarily optimal for humans.Not supported - palaeontological and anthropological evidence points to an omnivorous diet