Shawn Baker’s Day Of Eating – Carnivore Diet Debunked

Shawn Baker just recently uploaded a video about his day of eating. And trust me, it is great.

Great in the sense of the possible promotion of life-threatening diseases.

Wait. This was probably too dark of a joke early in the article.

*Moment of silence*

So anyway, the first part of Shawn’s day of eating video is Shawn just repeatedly tooting his horn for a couple of awkward minutes.

Multiple times he’s presenting his athletic feats. Awesome.

But seriously, let’s not be a hater here. I mean Shawn is actually in great shape for being 52. He’s tall, strong and arguably attractive.

The question is just if he’s that way because of the nutrition he eats or despite of it.

The diet of Shawn Baker can be summarized in one word: Steak.

First of all I’m a huge fan of the concept of making your meals boring and your life interesting. I’m also a fan of getting your meals delivered so you don’t waste any time or willpower on cooking if it is not, what you truly want to do.

Yet a diet form like the carnivore diet sounds a little bit too extreme.

I mean one of the most common criticism of the vegan diet is it being too restrictive. Yet how should we then call a diet where you’re literally eating one food a day?

I think we can start by calling such eating behaviour restrictive.

1. Shawn’s diet is restrictive

I could understand if you’re eating a restrictive diet while being on a spaceship mission to Mars or if the diet would have been proven to be extremely effective and health promoting.

To some degree I understand people that eat a potato diet to cure themselves of food addiction.

But there’s a difference between the potato diet and a steak diet, the difference is health.

2. His eating behaviour is not healthy

There are three pillars of health when it comes to diet. One of them is providing sufficient calories.

2.1 Sufficient calories

Calories are essentially making sure that we’re not dying of starvation. And starvation used to be one of the biggest killers in historic and prehistoric times.

On a height of approximately 6 foot 5 and a body weight of 245lbs and an estimated body fat of about 16%, Mr. Baker needs to eat about 40 ounces of ribeye steak a day to get sufficient calories. If he trains a lot it probably will increase to 50.

So about 6 steaks a day. This is actually about 1.5 kilogram of pure meat.

While stuffing your face with bland steaks can provide enough calories, it’s nonetheless probably a painful thing to do. Remember, there’s no ketchup, tomato sauce and spices in this diet apparently.

Let’s take a look at the second pillar of health. Meeting your micronutrient and vitamin needs.

This pillar is called:

2.2 Maximizing your disease protecting effects.

If we’re going on Cronometer.com or if you’re signing up for our free trial at qualitygains.com by clicking the link in the description, you’ll get customized meal coaching to make sure that all of your nutrients are reached.

And trust me, the meal plan of Shawn is in deep need of optimization.

First of all there is only 18 grams of carbohydrates a day, which is way less than your central nervous system actually needs to function properly.

There is zero grams of fiber which helps with digestion and reduces the occurrence of constipation. Fiber also feeds the good bacteria in your gut to reduce brain fog, reduce inflammation and increase your mental well-being. Remember, Shawn’s diet contains 0 fiber.

The diet contains just 0.3 grams of Omega 3. Omega 3 could fight against inflammation, but not with Shaun’s intake.

And the diet is deficient in more than 50% of all micronutrients, meaning vitamins and minerals.

But what about the third pillar of health? This pillar can be classified as:

2.3 Minimizing disease promoting components.

Now which components of your diet can promote disease?

A high saturated fat intake, which Shawn has. A high cholesterol intake, which Shawn has. A higher intake of heme-iron, which Shawn has. A high intake of AGEs, advanced glycation endproducts, which Shawn has.

All these intakes are correlated with either clogging our arteries, as cholesterol does, or damaging our DNA, as saturated fat and the advanced glycation end products.

Clogging of our arteries or DNA damage increases the chance of our western killer diseases like atherosclerosis and cancer.

At least Shawn’s diet doesn’t contain any trans fats (it actually does, my bad!) or alcohol, so he got that going on for him, which is nice.

3. The dangers of the internet

Now why do I even make a video about that diet style? It is because of the dangers of the internet.

While just 20 years ago, a person following a diet such as Shawn Baker would have probably suffered a lower lifespan by himself. Or would have had an influence of about a maximum of hundred people of his tribe, Shawn so far has probably influenced more than a couple thousand.

Which means that Mr. Baker is not only hurting himself with his diet, but thousands of people online. On top of that he’s capitalizing on the carnivore movement by offering his carnivore training systems which apparently gives you a lifetime access for $49 a month?

Do you get it? A lifetime access at $49 a month? Why would anyone pay a reoccurring monthly fee if it is actually a lifetime access?

And apparently it is for men, women of all ages? Which is a weird word for describing essentially the entire population.

Wait, is it even called carnivore training systems now or “CTS – Steaks and sprints”? And where are the terms and conditions?

Anyway, what I want to get across is that if you want to follow a science free based diet on anecdotes and reduce your lifespan I’m fine with you doing that. That’s your choice of bodily autonomy.

But if you drag hundreds of people along your path of potential misery plus unsustainability – and then even have the nerves to capitalize on that movement which increases the net amount of suffering – this is just wrong in my eyes.

Conclusion – Shawn Baker’s Day Of Eating

The eating plan of Shawn Baker is restrictive to say the least. I mean it only consists of one single food, steak.

On top of that to our current knowledge of medical nutrition, there are only negatives associated with that eating behaviour. I mean it is lacking micronutrients and it is promoting disease by containing advanced glycation end products, saturated fats and cholesterol. There’s a reason not a single person of the 72 advisors of the 2020 dietary guidelines was carnivore and over a third were vegan.

I mean I don’t want to sound paternalistic by explaining that you shouldn’t follow Shawn’s eating plan. But please, just don’t.