Dr Shawn Baker: Going carnivore has cost me millions of dollars
Unfiltered sat down with Dr Shawn Baker, MD, author of The Carnivore Diet, to discover the real reasons he so passionately promotes a meat-only diet and how his decision to forgo his highly-lucrative career as an orthopedic surgeon to champion the carnivore way of life has cost him many millions of dollars in lost earnings. Does he ever have any regrets? We asked him to find out.
This transcript has been taken from our video interview with Dr Shawn Baker, MD. It has been edited for clarity and brevity. You can watch the full video interview here.
A common criticism of you, Dr Baker, is that you are such a passionate advocate for the carnivore diet because of your business interest in Revero [Dr Baker is a co-founder of the personalised care provider for metabolic and autoimmune conditions]. Does that not represent a clear conflict of interest? What’s your response to that criticism?
Let me be very clear, Revero is not a carnivore company. We do use a carnivore diet for selected patients, but we use many different types of diets.
I’m passionate about the carnivore diet – I wrote a book about it – and I enjoy seeing people get healthier. That is my reason for doing this. And I like eating meat.
Is it true that you are significantly worse off financially since leaving your medical career?
I made far more money as an orthopaedic surgeon than I’ve ever made doing any carnivore stuff. In the years since I’ve left I’ve probably lost myself $6-$7 million (£4.7-£5.5m). That’s how much I’ve lost by advocating this diet.
But honestly I have more satisfaction in my life now. Back when I did surgery I’d replace somebody’s knee and they’d come back, three months after they’re healed up, and say ‘thanks Doc, I feel great” and pat me on the back. And their wife would’ve baked me a cake. Something like that. And yeah, that’s nice. It’s a good feeling. I appreciated it.
But it’s nothing compared to what I see today. I get people telling me they were ready to commit suicide. That’s how miserable they were. And now they’re saying that they’ve got a new job, or had a new child, and life is working out really good.
That’s such an order of magnitude difference in the rewards I get [for doing my job]. If I were in it for financial reasons I would have never done this. I still have an active medical license and could’ve gone back at any time.
