The Carnivore Diet Grift: Platforming Pseudoscience

Joe Rogan’s episode 2069 features Dr. Shawn Baker, a former orthopedic surgeon whose medical license was revoked in 2017 for “failure to report adverse action” and “incompetence to practice.” While his license was later reinstated in 2019, Baker has not returned to practicing medicine. Instead, he’s become a full-time promoter of the carnivore diet, charging $150 for 30-minute online consultations and selling books advocating an all-meat diet.

The Guest’s Credibility Problem

Baker presents himself as a medical authority on nutrition, but his qualifications and track record raise serious red flags:

Medical License Revocation: The New Mexico Medical Board revoked Baker’s license in 2017 due to concerns about his ability to practice medicine safely. While he characterizes this as a dispute over “a single patient,” medical boards don’t typically revoke licenses without substantial concerns.

No Nutrition Credentials: Despite positioning himself as a nutrition expert, Baker is an orthopedic surgeon with no specialized training in nutrition, dietetics, or metabolic health. He lacks the PhD in nutrition or registered dietitian credentials that would qualify him to provide dietary advice.

Questionable Health Markers: Baker’s own medical tests have shown abnormally high LDL cholesterol (149.2 mg/dl) and pre-diabetic blood glucose levels - concerning results for someone promoting their diet as optimal for health.

Pseudoscientific Claims Unchallenged

Throughout the episode, Baker makes numerous scientifically questionable claims that Rogan fails to challenge:

Cholesterol Denial: Baker claims that high LDL cholesterol isn’t problematic and suggests that “people with high cholesterol who are lean and healthy otherwise have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.” This directly contradicts decades of cardiovascular research and medical consensus. The link between elevated LDL cholesterol and cardiovascular disease is one of the most well-established findings in medicine.

Fiber Dismissal: Baker characterizes fiber as only “conditionally beneficial,” contradicting extensive research showing fiber’s importance for digestive health, cardiovascular health, and disease prevention.

Anecdotal Evidence Over Science: Baker promotes the mantra that “anecdotal evidence is still evidence” while simultaneously dismissing epidemiological studies - the very type of research that establishes population-level health patterns - as “inaccurate.” This selective approach to evidence allows him to cherry-pick data that supports his predetermined conclusions.

Conspiracy Theories: Baker promotes the claim that “the sugar industry paid researchers to demonize fat and protect sugar” - a conspiracy theory that oversimplifies complex nutrition science history and ignores the legitimate concerns about saturated fat intake. He also suggests the body positivity movement is “funded by the processed food industry” without evidence.

The Long-Term Effects Unknown

Perhaps most damning is Baker’s own admission in February 2024 (after this episode aired) that he doesn’t actually know the long-term health effects of the carnivore diet. Yet he continues to promote it aggressively and charge people for consultations about adopting this extreme dietary approach.

The carnivore diet eliminates entire food groups - fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes - that provide essential nutrients, fiber, and beneficial plant compounds. Registered dietitians and nutrition scientists warn that such extreme restriction may lead to nutrient deficiencies, increased cardiovascular disease risk, kidney problems, and increased cancer risk.

The Monetization of Medical Authority

Baker’s trajectory is concerning: a physician who lost his license to practice medicine now monetizes his medical credentials by promoting an extreme, unproven diet. He sells books, charges for consultations, and builds a following by making bold claims that contradict mainstream nutrition science.

Notably, Baker doesn’t even strictly follow his own diet - he’s been documented eating fruit, berries, and birthday cake. This hypocrisy undermines his claims about the necessity of an all-meat diet.

Rogan’s Failure to Push Back

Throughout this episode, Rogan fails to challenge Baker’s pseudoscientific claims or ask critical questions about:

• Why Baker’s own health markers show concerning results
• What peer-reviewed research supports the carnivore diet’s safety
• Why virtually no registered dietitians or nutrition PhDs recommend this approach
• The ethical implications of promoting an extreme diet without long-term safety data

Instead, Rogan provides an uncritical platform for Baker to promote potentially harmful dietary advice to millions of listeners.

The Bottom Line

This episode exemplifies everything wrong with Rogan’s approach to health content: platforming a discredited physician with no nutrition credentials, failing to challenge pseudoscientific claims, and allowing conspiracy theories to go unchecked. Listeners who follow Baker’s advice may be putting their health at risk based on one man’s unsupported beliefs rather than established nutrition science.

When someone charges $150 for diet consultations while admitting they don’t know the long-term effects, and when their own health markers raise red flags, that’s not expertise - it’s a grift.