Shawn Baker

Shawn Baker is an American former orthopedic surgeon, anti-vegan activist, bodybuilder, carnivore diet advocate, cholesterol denialist, pseudoscience promoter, and internet troll. Baker claims that if people are afraid of red meat or avoid it in their diet, then this is a sign of mental weakness and such people have been "programmed" by a secret cult that wants to control them.Let’s talk about eggs!! In December 2022, Baker posted that on average he eats 3 steaks a day and in total has eaten 7,000 steaks in the last 7 years.Shawn Baker on Twitter. Shawn Baker.
Baker is often cited by the carnivore diet community as being a strict carnivore who only eats animal foods, however, he has admitted to eating berries and also enjoys birthday cakes on occasion.Dr. Shawn BakerHow much French toast can I have on a Carnivore dietShawn Baker. Twitter.
Baker's social media followers have noted that in his videos, apples and bananas can be seen in his kitchen.Shawn Baker admits a lot of fruit is in his kitchen Baker has responded to this by claiming that they "probably" belong to his son and that he lives with four other people. Baker claims to to eat a 99% animal-based diet but the real figure is probably around 80%.
In February 2024, Baker admitted that he doesn't know the long-term health effects of a carnivore diet.Opposing views: shawn baker (debates expert plant based doctor). youtube.com. Despite this admission he spends much of his time on social media making health claims about the diet. He has also admitted that his social media posts are "for entertainment purposes only in many ways", meaning that most of the content he posts is not to be taken seriously. Baker charges $150 for a 30 minute online consultation about the carnivore diet.Dr. Shawn Baker, MD. carnivore.diet.
Baker is the Chief Medical Officer and Director of Revero Inc, a virtual care company which aims to "reverse autoimmune and other chronic diseases by addressing the root causes".[https://web.archive.org/web/20240312005312/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1878261/000194328623000003/reveroformc-ar.pdf UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION]. sec.gov. The Revero Treatment consists of a low-carb diet (less than 30grams of carbohydrates daily), primarily sourced from animal fats with some fruits and vegetables.Frequently Asked Questions. revero.com. A monthly subscription including access to the app costs $199.Get the personalized care you need to address the root-cause of your chronic disease. revero.com. 
==Overview==
In 2018, reports circulated that Baker follows a dangerous all-meat diet,Please do not try to survive on an all-meat diet. Popular Science is nicknamed the "Carnivore King", and has a cult following on social media platforms.Olivia Solon, They mock vegans and eat 4lb of steak a day: meet 'carnivore dieters'. The Guardian, 11 May 2018. An online interview featured Baker eating sixteen fast-food burger patties; he described this as a "normal meal" that he eats.Behind the Scenes with Dr. Shawn Baker
Baker believes that anecdotal evidence is more important than scientific research. He makes stupid anti-scientific YouTube videos claiming that vegetables are bad for health and that there is bias to believe they are beneficial.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_WIdI26dKQ He spends much of his time trolling vegans on Instagram and Twitter for a reaction as well as a roundabout way to promote his business, MeatRX, which he has chosen to focus on rather than practice medicine. As of November 2022, Baker had a net worth of $250,000 as a result of his MeatRX business, which has changed its name to Revero.Shawn Baker Net Worth. networthpost.org.
Baker, despite having practiced medicine (as a surgeon no less), is actively against mask mandates for the COVID-19 pandemic, despite having claimed he's not anti-mask.SBakerMD on Twitter, 15 December 2020.BustaArmov on Twitter, 17 December 2020. He argues people should be free to make their own choices, even if their choices adversely affect their community by spreading the COVID virus.SBakerMD on Twitter, 24 November 2020. He even tweeted relating the mask mandate in response to a pandemic to a totalitarian government in the book 1984.SBakerMD on Twitter, 23 February 2021. He also posted an Instagram post comparing Vietnam's low obesity rate to low COVID cases, even though the reason for Vietnam's low cases is because they initiated a strict lockdown when the pandemic began.shawnbaker1969 on Instagram, 22 February 2021.Manisha Mirchandani, How Did Vietnam and Cambodia Contain COVID-19 With Few Resources? brinknews.com, 27 December 2020.
===Not on a strict all-meat diet===
Several websites reported in 2018 that Baker was eating a strict all-meat diet. This has now been disproven as Baker consumes dairy, eggs and fruit. In a 2020 interview Baker stated that he is not dogmatic about a 100% carnivore diet and that "Most people end up eating what we call carnivor-ish, so they eat meat about 90 percent of the time and they have other foods they enjoy the other 10 percent, and it works pretty well."Dr. Shawn Baker On The Carnivore Diet/ thefancyrancher.com, 3 February 2020. The idea that Baker only eats red meat is not true. In his personal life, Baker eats lots of cheese and eggs, sometimes with his steaks.shawnbaker1967 on Instagram, 1 July 2021. Baker also allows his children to eat dairy, fruit and minimal processed sugar:
A strict carnivore diet is not sustainable long-term, Baker doesn't eat only meat. He is known to eat up to 18 eggs per day. He also eats fish and yoghurt.
Baker has admitted to eating berries, birthday cakes and also uses spices, so he is not a strict carnivore. He describes his diet as 99% animal-based but the real figure is probably around 80%.
In February 2024, Baker admitted in a video on his YouTube channel that he had experimented with fruit on his carnivore diet.I added fruit to my carnivore diet, here’s what happened!. youtube.com. This contradicts his claim from March 2023:
===Debates===
Baker has spoken at many events and on podcasts to debate the carnivore diet. In May, 2023 he was a speaker at a panel discussion "Do we need to eat plants?" at the seventh Public Health Collaboration (PHC) in Sheffield, UK.Panel Discussion - Do we need to eat plants? The Scientific Advisory Committee of the PHC are personal friends of Baker such as Chairman David Unwin (a well known low-carbohydrate diet advocate), so the charity is hardly a neutral source.Scientific Advisory Committee
In Febrary 2024, Baker debated plant-based doctor Garth Davis. In the debate Baker stated that he does not know the long-term health effects of a carnivore diet:
==Medical license==
The New Mexico Medical Board ordered the "voluntary and permanent surrender" of Baker's medical license in 2017. "This action was based on failure to report adverse action taken by a healthcare entity and incompetence to practice as a licensee."Actions taken between July 1, 2017 through September 30, 2017. In the Matter of the Application of Shawn Mark Baker, M.D. New Mexico Medical Board. Baker claimed the reason he lost his license was because he opted to help his patients through lifestyle interventions rather than perform profitable surgeries for the hospital where he worked. As a result, the hospital where he worked did a review of his cases, which he called a "sham". The files related to Baker's license case are sealed, so there is no way to corroborate or counter his claims.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA7OnnjLGcshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VulXNKzjc44Stipulation and order for voluntary surrender of license and permanent restriction on reapplication, In the matter of Shawn Baker, M.D. New Mexico Medical Board, Case 2017-038. However, Baker himself has never publicized the files related to his hearing, despite claiming to be the one wronged by his state's medical board. Baker's license was reinstated with stipulations in 2019.Dr Shawn Baker - the state board voted to reinstate his licence by u/Eleanorina Reddit. However, despite his license being reinstated, Baker has yet to find employment as an orthopedic surgeon.
==Inconsistent criticism of epidemiological studies==
Baker is known for his opposition to epidemiological studies but in 2021 started supporting such studies if they are being done on the carnivore diet (see below). In 2017, Baker dismissed epidemiological studies as leading to "massive bias and poor assumptions".SBakerMD on Twitter, 28 October 2017. In 2019, he gave a lecture "Evidence Based Nutrition?" for the Low Carb Down Under event. Baker stated that epidemiological studies are useless because they cannot assert causation and have potential confounding factors. He said that no long term randomized controlled trials have ever been done on human diets and that anecdotes of people eating meat-based diets are more reliable than epidemiological studies.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g38-oGgQPrY
In February 2020, he again criticized such studies for being inaccurate: 
===Carnivore study===
In November 2021, a Harvard study based on self-reported data from 2029 adults was published for the first time on the carnivore diet. The study is essentially useless by Baker's own criteria as it was self-reported (taken from a social media questionnaire among adults self-identifying as consuming a carnivore diet up to 6 months). It was not a long-term study or controlled. Questionnaires are a commonly used tool in epidemiological studies which Baker has criticized but he had no problem with it being used in this case because the study was on the carnivore diet.
Baker has since promoted the study on Twitter and his YouTube channel as making carnivore diet history and advertises it as some kind of scientific breakthrough.Harvard Carnivore Diet Study is now Live!! https://academic.oup.com/cdn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cdn/nzab133/6415894 84-100% elimination of diabetic meds, well tolerated with minimal side effects, LDLUpwards arrow, HDL Upwards arrow, Trig Downwards arrow, weight Downwards arrow, avg CAC score Downwards arrow, 6 months to 28 years! Well tolerated and high level of satisfaction by Shawn Baker (6:06 PM · Nov 8, 2021·) Twitter (archived from 9 Nov 2021 21:55:08 UTC).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLjG2HxxvOw Baker also claims he had personally pushed for the study to be done and was waiting for 3 years for it to happen. Baker has not talked about any of the limitations of the study but continues to criticize epidemiology studies being done on plant-based diets as biased and useless. Baker's bias and contradictory beliefs about epidemiology studies were noticed by some of his Instagram and Twitter followers.shawnbaker1969 on Instagram, 8 November 2021.
An alarming result of the study was the elevated LDL-C and coronary artery calcification (CAC score) increase by almost 50%.The_Nutrivore on Twitter, 8 November 2021. However, Baker had misrepresented the results of the study on Twitter as decreasing CAC. Baker has since deleted his tweet.
====Conflict of interest====
The Harvard carnivore diet study in the "acknowledgements" section thanked "Shawn Baker and Travis Statham for input in developing the survey instruments, online distribution of the survey, and critical review of the manuscript", yet on his social media accounts when advertising the study, Baker does not reveal this.Belinda S Lennerz, Jacob T Mey, Owen H Henn, David S Ludwig, Behavioral Characteristics and Self-reported Health Status Among 2029 Adults Consuming a “Carnivore Diet”. Current Developments in Nutrition, 2 November 2021. So Baker has conflict of interest with the study. The social media questionnaire that was given out to its participants were from "(World Carnivore Tribe, Facebook, 23%; Instagram, 18%; r/Zerocarb, Reddit, 7%; Zeroing in on Health, Facebook, 5%; Twitter, 5%; other, 42%)". World Carnivore Tribe is a Facebook group operated by Shawn Baker.#66: The Carnivore Diet – Broadening the Discussion with Dr. Shawn Baker. adapnation.io, undated podcast. Not only was the data self-reported it came from entirely biased sources.
==Personal health==
===Cholesterol===
In 2018, Baker reported some of his blood work test results in an interview with paleo diet advocate Robb Wolf.Episode 385 – Dr. Shawn Baker – Carnivore Diet and Dr. Baker’s Blood Work. robbwolf.com, 13 March 2018. However, he conveniently did not mention his LDL-C level. With the traditional Friedewald equation his LDL-C was estimated as a whopping high 149.2 mg/dl.All Meat Dieter's Blood Test Results The optimal guideline level of LDL-C is less than 100 mg/dl.https://medlineplus.gov/cholesterollevelswhatyouneedtoknow.htmlhttps://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/16866-cholesterol-guidelines--heart-health High levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) increase the risk of atherosclerotic disease, this is a scientific fact that Baker denies.LDL-C: lower is better for longer—even at low risk
Baker argues that cholesterol levels vary between days of the week, even though cholesterol is typically measured from fasting blood in order to account for such variation.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17mIHpZ5iMQ
===Testosterone levels===
Baker's blood work showed his testosterone levels were abnormally low. Baker claimed this is because his testosterone receptors are extremely sensitive so he doesn't need as much testosterone to maintain his muscle mass. However, in 2021, Baker's blood work showed his testosterone levels were normal and he since made up a new reason, that testosterone levels vary depending on the time of day you get your blood work done, even though the normal range of testosterone is pretty wide (270-1070 ng/dL) to account for such variances.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0-TN2MiPe0&t=1s
===Pre-Diabetic===
In the same interview with Robb Wolf, Baker's hemoglobin A1C were in the pre-diabetic levels range. Baker once again made an outrageous claim: that his red blood cells live longer than the normal 3 months for most people, which leads to an overestimation of his hemoglobin A1C levels and that he is not actually prediabetic.
Baker's fasting glucose was 127, also in the pre-diabetic range. Baker claimed he's extremely "insulin sensitive" even though insulin is responsible for removing glucose from the bloodstream. He then referenced "Adaptive Glucose Sparing", which is a concept used in the low-carb community about insulin insensitivity rather than insulin sensitivity.
==Twitter ban==
Baker was banned from Twitter in July 2021.Shawn Baker Banned on TwitterKevin Bass vs. Shawn Baker He has since created a new account and is back on Twitter daily.ShawnBakerMD on Twitter, 27 September 2021. His original account has since been reinstated.
==Views on LDL cholesterol==
Baker has said that high LDL cholesterol is not problematic on the carnivore diet as evidence shows that high-LDL reduces all-cause mortality.Carnivore Diet Raises your LDL Cholesterol? Typical followers of his diet have claimed their LDL-c is between 250 and 300 mg/dl which is dangerous and likely to increase risk of CVD events. Baker ignores the strong evidence that LDL-c causes atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). The European Atherosclerosis Society have stated:
The medical consensus to reduce heart disease risk is that optimal LDL-c should be less than 100mg/dl and those with heart disease or many risk factors, below 70 mg/dL.Cholesterol Numbers and What They MeanLipid Panel 
Baker ignores the fact that normal LDL-c is actually 20-40 mg/dl.There is urgent need to treat atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk earlier, more intensively, and with greater precision: A review of current practice and recommendations for improved effectiveness There is no atherosclerosis below 40 mg/dl. A 2022 review in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology reported:
The lower the LDL-c, the lower the risk and fewer complications of atherosclerosis.How Low Can You Go? New Evidence Supports No Lower Bound to Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Level in Secondary Prevention Studies have found that people with LDL-c of 150 to 160 mg/dl have a significant increased risk in the prevalence of atherosclerosis.Normal LDL-Cholesterol Levels Are Associated With Subclinical Atherosclerosis in the Absence of Risk Factors
Baker's claim that low LDL-c increases all-cause mortality is more likely to be a case of reverse causality. Baker dismisses this explanation but there is a lot of evidence in the medical literature that supports it. Alan Flanagan who has reviewed many studies concluded:
Baker is known to cherry-pick from studies, for example he dismisses reverse causality but some of the papers he cites comment that "we cannot rule out the possibility of reverse causality".Association of change in total cholesterol level with mortality: A population-based study
==See also==
*Bodybuilding woo
*Jordan Peterson
*Paul Saladino
==External links==
*ShawnBaker.com
*Shawn Baker Twitter
*Shawn Baker Youtube
*MeatRx website
==References==
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Category:Carnivore diet promoters
Category:Cholesterol and statin denialists
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