Best Carnivore Diet Books | Top 3 Reviewed and Revealed

The carnivore diet hit the mainstream in 2018 after Dr. Shawn Baker appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast. Since then numerous articles and books have been written and I have consumed most.

My bookshelf is stacked with health and nutrition books but my Carnivore Diet books receive the most attention. I’ve been in and out of these books in order to help explain the diet to friends and family as well as ammo against vegans and vegetarians!

The point is I believe an all-meat diet to be the most nutritious for your body as well as the environment which all three of my top carnivore diet-related books explain.

Without further ado here are my top 3 carnivore diet books ranked:

1. “The Carnivore Diet” by Dr. Shawn Baker (BookShop.org Link)
2. “The Carnivore Code” by Dr. Paul Saladino (Amazon Link)
3. “Ancestral Indigenous Diet” by Frank Tufano (Amazon Link)

Top 3 Rankings

Even though the carnivore diet is probably the most simple diet on the planet, (meat, water, and salt), each of the three books being reviewed is very different in tone and presentation.

A few points on my review technique:

1. Each author has their own unique personality and writing style. That means one book may resonate better than another which hopefully this article will help identify so you can make an educated purchase.
2. The amount of scientific research put into each played a role.
3. And finally aesthetics…you know the design, the paper, and the overall execution and organization of photos, illustrations, info-graphics, tables, and guides.

First Place: The Carnivore Diet by Dr. Shawn Baker

The big winner is The Carnivore Diet. Dr. Shawn Baker started me out on this carnivore diet lifestyle and his book knocks the message out of the park!

This book is easy to read, concise, and has a style that is non-apologetic and accompanied with great wit and humor. Face it, science and nutrition books can lack personality but this one doesn’t.

The organization and flow is great. It starts with his story and how his health wasn’t optimal for the sports he was competing in. When he switched up his diet to all meat he was able to see major improvements.

He also mentions his time in the military and his success as a surgeon. It’s nice to know he comes from a place of wanting to really help others.

There is a section on the history of the human species and how we began to et meat and the hypothesis on how our specie was able to progress to the ultimate alphas of the world. (Yep fatty meat most likely did it.)

Dietary myths, fake news, big agriculture propaganda, and the connections of money and the food supply are exposed as well. Just about any knee jerk assumption, you have about meat and how it’s bad for you gets addressed. His rebuttals are precise.

For example he handles these types of questions with his research and the experience of working with many patients.

• What about kidney health?
• What about cancer?
• What about maintaining proper nutrition?
• What should I eat and drink?

Those are just a few of the questions answered but you get the point. If you have questions about the carnivore diet they are most likely answered in his book.

Plant Food

There is a large section of the book dedicated to the science behind plant food. It shows how plants are designed to not be eaten and how their way of survival is focused around their self-produced and self-protecting pesticides.

When eaten these pesticides can be dangerous for us humans and even deadly.

Motivation Factor

There is a section dedicated to character studies, you know, the before and after part.

This section is cool because it’s focused on the transition of poor health to good health. A lot of the stories are about having chronic health issues, weight challenges, and an overall lack of well being.

I’m pretty sure most of us can relate to them in one way or another.

Either way their stories are inspiring and show that health improvements don’t have to be overly difficult or require a prescription, if you know what I mean.

Vegans

Have you ever debated a vegan? Dr. Baker has and he leaves a section dedicated to the rebuttal of vegan myths and arguments. Good stuff!

Environment

The brainwashed believe that cow farts are attributing to climate change and global warming. Dr. Baker destroys this idea as well with some atmospheric research and data.

In fact regenerative agriculture may save the planet due to carbon sequestering as a result of properly farmed cattle. It’s an eye-opener chapter.

The Aesthetics

The book design and chapter layouts are beautiful. The font size is perfect and easy to read. I really like the paper used as well, it’s the thick, smooth high-end, weighted paper.

Overall

This book is perfect for the beginner dieter or veteran. If I was to gift one carnivore diet book to a friend it would be this one just because it covers everything and it’s just so easy to read that there isn’t an excuse to stop reading it.

If you want to buy this book I would suggest buying through Bookshop.org as it’s a lot less monopolistic as Amazon.

“Bookshop.org is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores.”

Here is the Bookshop.org link:

• The Carnivore Diet

If you prefer Amazon here is that link:

• The Carnivore Diet (Amazon Link)

Second Place: The Carnivore Code by Dr. Paul Saladino

Coming in at a very close second place is, “The Carnivore Code.” However, I’d say it’s basically a tie as this book is by far more thorough with the arguments, studies, and data being used to support the benefits of a carnivore diet.

Let’s talk about how awesome this book is.

Personal Story of Healing

Dr. Saladino shares his health challenges growing, his attempt at raw veganism, and his journey to a full-on health recovery as a result of the carnivore diet.

You can see his enthusiasm seep through the pages as a result of his success on the all-meat diet!

I enjoy the way he writs too. It’s a more personal and uplifting tone mixed with strong scientific data. You can tell he put serious hard work into finding, evaluating, and articulating the benefits associated with eating meat.

Chemistry 101

He dedicates a whole chapter to plant chemistry and breaks down how plant food could be causing so many problems for us humans. He especially dissects the correlation between the decline of mental health and plant-based diets.

High Cholesterol

The disinformation of statins and the agenda behind them is examined by Dr. Saladino. He has a whole section dedicated to high cholesterol and resorts to using scientific studies to support his hypothesis which is essentially high cholesterol is not always bad.

If the idea of eating meat and having high cholesterol scares you then this book will surely open your mind to the idea that perhaps you should be more scared if you have low cholesterol and not enough meat in your diet!

Bed & Manipulated Science

Both Dr. Baker and Dr. Saladino point out the challenge of diet science. they mention how most of it is garbage and based off epidemiology which is essentially food questionnaires given to people so they can use their faulty memory to answer them

It’s also noted how the numbers are easily manipulated and click bate loving newspapers are able to sensationalize that data with crazy and less than true headlines.

Research

Talk about going above and beyond! The research used for this book is absolutely insane. He references hundreds of studies. In fact the index takes up 36 pages! (No joke)

If you are a data and research geek then this book is for you!

FAQ Section

Toward the end, there is an easy to read FAQ section which I find to be very useful. He’s had many patients and friends to get the most asked questions answered.

Next Level

This book is set up very similar to Dr. Baker’s book but it just takes the research to the next level.

I would give this book 5 stars and so does Dr. Mercola as he says, “Dr. Saladino, is the rare physician who is completely committed to finding the truth and challenging traditional diet paradigms. He has used his scientific training to scour the medical literature to support this approach and dispel the many myths and concerns.”

Dr. Saladino’s book is a lot longer book but just as fun to read. If an abundance of research turns you on this is your book.

However I would suggest buying both! For real.

Here is the link to order through Amazon.

• The Carnivore Code

Third Place: Ancestral Indigenous Diet

Our third-place finisher is Frank Tufano’s, “Ancestral Indigenous Diet.” I found Frank on YouTube and liked some of the content he was putting out on the Carnivore Diet.

He has been on a predominant meat diet for the past 7 years or so. His book also cover’s nonmeat foods as well.

Food Quality

Frank really drives home the importance of eating grass-fed non-Big Agriculture/Industrialized foods. He advocates “high-quality” food above everything.

Chronic Inflammation

I liked one of his chapters on the silent killer, “Inflammation”. He hammers down this concept that inflammation is behind a lot of the chronic diseases plaguing mankind.

He also brings home the point that all the expensive vitamins we consume are essentially useless if you are eating a high-quality meat diet.

Ancestors

The book is appropriately named as Frank ties in the wisdom we can take from our ancestors’ diet. They ate a primarily all-meat diet and that was one of the main reasons we were able to climb the food chain.

He essentially states that if we do what they did we should be on a path to better health.

The Challenge

My only problem with Frank’s book is that the font was small and the indents were too close to the book spine making it hard to read.

The other issue is that there isn’t an index and he doesn’t resource studies to try to back up what he is saying.

Oh yeah, the book cover design/illustration is not exactly appealing or wanting me to open it up. Of course, you can’t judge a book by its cover!

I’d recommend this book for a read on the ancestral topic and potential benefits of eating high-quality meat yet it’s not executed nearly as well as the above-mentioned books.

You can buy Frank’s book through Amazon here.

• Ancestral Indigenous Diet

Conclusion

Al three of these books are helping the cause which to me is the need to stop vilifying meat, add more to our diet, get healthy as a nation/world and expand our regenerative agriculture practices.

That’s why I would say if you buy any of these you are helping with that mission. All three authors appear to practice what they preach and back it up with their knowledge.

Let’s push back on the evil forces of Big Pharma and Big Ag and take our health and environment back in our hands. Support these guys, buy their books, spread the word, and get healthy!

If you are new to Wild Lumens please take some time to search our site for other exciting articles on all things meat-based. Thanks for reading!

Check out:

• Can You Drink Alcohol on the Carnivore Diet? Why and Why Not?
• 16 Perfect Snacks for People on a Carnivore Diet
• What’re The Science, Facts & Myths Behind the Carnivore Diet?

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor or dietician or nutritionist. Consult with and ask your doctor about any diet or medical-related questions. No information on this site should be used to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease or condition.