Does fruit belong in an animal-based diet?

Anthony ChaffeePhysician · strict carnivore, evolutionary framing

No. Fruit is out, berries included, at any activity level.

What it rests onHe argues a plant's fruit is aimed at a specific disperser rather than at humans, that lower defence chemistry is not zero defence chemistry, that sugar is an addictive substance whose benefit accrues to the plant, that modern fruit has been bred far sweeter than its ancestors, and that commercially picked underripe fruit does not shed its defence compounds on the shelf. He writes 'Several studies suggest' about the underripe-fruit point and names none.

Source: dranthonychaffee.com ↗

Paul Gregory SaladinoMD · physician and animal-based nutrition creator

Yes, and the amount is set by how much you train, not by whether fruit is allowed.

What it rests onHis published table sets carbohydrate from goal body weight and weekly training hours: goal weight times 0.7 to 0.9 g at under 3 hours a week, rising to times 1.2 to 1.7 g at 12 or more hours, with fruit and honey named as the sources. The page states 'My recommendation for carbohydrates is based on your goal body weight and activity level' and notes that guidelines may change depending on health status or goals. This is a position he arrived at by abandoning his own earlier strict carnivore stance, dated to Jul 2022 in sal-not-longterm-keto.

Source: paulsaladinomd.com ↗

Overview

Saladino is scaling carbohydrate to training volume, so his position is not 'eat fruit freely': a sedentary adult on his own table lands near the bottom of the range. Chaffee is addressing everyone, and specifically people using the diet to treat a condition, where his answer is stricter still. Neither is addressing people with diabetes on glucose-lowering medication, and both sides carry that flag.

Where they agree

Both hold that the diet should be animal-based, that industrial seed oils and refined grains are the problem foods, and that plants carry defence chemistry which matters. The dispute is whether fruit and honey are the exception to that chemistry or an instance of it.

What would settle it

For Chaffee: evidence that whole fruit intake at ordinary levels causes measurable harm in people already eating an animal-based diet, which does not exist in either direction. For Saladino: outcome data on people restricting carbohydrate to zero for years, rather than the ketogenic-adaptation and performance arguments both sides currently trade. Saladino's own position moved once already, which makes this the axis most likely to move again.

Does fruit belong in an animal-based diet?

What the experts say

Overview

Where they agree

What would settle it

Practice does not pick a winner here