Man Develops “Yellowish Nodules” And Soaring Cholesterol Level On High Fat “Carnivore Diet”

Medical science primarily advances through scientific trials, but now and then we get to learn things in other ways, for example through the publication of medical case reports. It’s unlikely scientists would seek to conduct a trial of the diet of this patient, and more unlikely still any ethics committee would give approval – however, the patient went ahead and did it on his own.

The man in his 40s adopted the so-called “carnivore diet”, a fad that deliberately ignores everything we have learned about human history and nutrition in favor of eating little besides animal products like meat and dairy. This patient reportedly took it a step further.

“His dietary habits included a high intake of fats, consisting of 6 to 9 lb [3-5 kg] of cheese, sticks of butter, and additional fat incorporated into his daily hamburgers,” doctors at Tampa General Hospital and the University of Texas, Houston, report. Doctors became aware when the patient inquired about the yellow nodules on his palms, as well as on his elbows and the soles of his feet (luckily rather than after having a heart attack).

One comment on the case study has questioned whether it’s even possible to consume the quantity of dairy products that this individual self-reported, whereas another suggested an “underlying genetic predisposition” could be at play.

Although the individual spoke positively about the diet he’d been on for 8 months, reporting “weight loss, increased energy, and improved mental clarity”, his medium-term prospects appeared grim. His cholesterol was more than 1,000 mg/dL – that’s nearly equal to 26 mmol/L. This, the authors report, is “significantly higher than his baseline […] level of 210 to 300 mg/dL.”

Health authorities once tried to get people to lower their cholesterol in general, but now usually make a distinction between LDL, sometimes called “bad cholesterol” for its artery-blocking effects; and HDL, or “good cholesterol”. However, when the overall recommended goal is to be below 5 mmol/L, a fifth of this individual’s levels at the time, the HDL/LDL ratio is probably less important than getting the total down.

The man was diagnosed with a condition called xanthelasma, but this usually appears around the eyes, and not in such abundance.

Like the “Paleo diet”, the “carnivore diet” is promoted based on a misrepresentation of human pre-history. Our pre-agricultural ancestors ate a diverse diet, but meat’s contribution gets exaggerated in the paleontological record because bones with cut marks fossilize a lot better than root vegetables or mushrooms. Even a diet heavy in animal products probably contained a lot of vegetable material that’s not in the meat and dairy sections of modern supermarkets. 

Fad diets are often dangerous, but those that rely on distorted history are particularly bad. This patient was very lucky this was caught before anything more life-threatening occurred. Unfortunately, he’ll need surgery or liquid nitrogen if he wants to remove the nodules, even if he starts eating some vegetables.

The case report is published in the journal JAMA Cardiology.

[H/T Medical Xpress]