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Yellowish Nodules on a Man Consuming a Carnivore Diet
- addicted 2y agoNothing to see here. It’s just Oxalate dumping. /s
- cebert 2y agoOr, if you prefer, local Florida news that links to the journal article: https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborough-county/tgh-patients-hands-ooze-cholesterol-after-he-ate-6-9-pounds-of-cheese-butter-for-months/ https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborough-county/tgh-patients-h...
- draw_down 2y ago[dead]
- ravenstine 2y agoNote that the abstract (since I can't read the full article; not on sci-hub) mentions that he has hypercholesterolemia, and doesn't specify whether this was actually caused by diet alone or because of genetics. I've likely had orders of magnitude more cheese and butter than this guy, and I've yet to have yellow nodules or the 10 heart attacks I apparently should have had by now. Both of us are N=1 case studies, so basically meaningless outside of identifying a particular clinical condition.
- Rumudiez 2y agothe rest of that sentence is > …significantly higher than his baseline of [sic] level of 210 to 300 so they measured before and 8 months after the diet change to find a 4x increase in cholesterol
- goosedragons 2y agoYou eat 6-9 lbs of cheese a day plus sticks of butter and meat on top of that?
- kcplate 2y agoI am calling BS on this as a daily consumption diet, you would have to have a helluva constitution to pull this off and definite competitive eating levels of body control. You would need to completely override your brain’s satiety center. I eat a keto diet and it’s impossible for me to eat even a tenth this amount daily.
- vincnetas 2y agoHe was having 3kg of cheese per day. You saying that you were having 30kg (orders of magnitude) or more of cheese per day? I don't believe you.
- causi 2y agoSomething is fishy. How is it physically possible to eat 12,000 calories of cheese per day plus hamburgers and lose weight? Somebody here is lying.
- bobmcnamara 2y agoYou could give yourself rabbit starvation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_toxicity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_toxicity
- tmerc 2y agoThere should be enough fat in 12000 calories to avoid rabbit starvation. I did not consider the load of metabolizing all that protein and assumed the body would eliminate what it didn't need. They're might be something in protein toxicity here.
- cpach 2y agoNot sure if cheese and butter counts as meat…?
- chongli 2y agoThey’re calling this a carnivore diet but it’s really an animal fat diet. Should more properly be called lipivore diet. The man wasn’t consuming mostly meat.
- xattt 2y agoI’m curious how this diet compared to traditional diets of Inuit people. These diets are also known to be high in animal fats and proteins. (1) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/004896979290249R https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/004896...
- ethbr1 2y agoThey also live in an environment where you burn substantial calories maintaining body temperature. I was going to make a joke sbout how I'd bet this gentleman lived in Florida... ... but it seems like 2/3 authors are in Tampa, with the other in Houston. Florida Man is a thing. (So glad I don't live there anymore)
- cies 2y agoOften included in carnivore diets. But obviously they're not.
- chneu 2y agoThroughout history, the stick of butter was a main prey of the human carnivore.
- noja 2y agoHe ate three kilograms of cheese per day?!
- abtinf 2y agoHuh, so the only side effect of eating more than 6lbs of cheese every day for almost a year is a minor painless cosmetic issue?
- venv 2y agoUntil the cardiac arrest.
- abtinf 2y agoThe abstract did not make that claim.
- mdaverde 2y agoBut others do
- vallode 2y agoThe abstract mentions the patients cholesterol level is 1000mg/dL which is at least 4 times more than the "highly dangerous" bracket. Evidence seems to show that xanthelasma (the nodules seen on this person) can have a link to a higher risk of atherosclerosis, which is linked to high cholesterol in the first place. This will not be "asymptomatic" for ever.
- Hnrobert42 2y agoAnd his cholesterol was 5 times normal.
- TypingOutBugs 2y agoGreat comment on the medical site: RE: "6 to 9 lb of cheese, sticks of butter, and additional fat incorporated into his daily hamburgers" This implies a daily intake of hamburgers (presumably ground meat only if it's a strict carnivore diet) with 6-9 pounds of butter and cheese extra per day? Is that time frame correct? Is there an approximate daily kcal for that? A pound of butter is 3200 calories, while a pound of mozzarella is 1200.
- yesbabyyes 2y agoA good friend of mine did this; not so much cheese I think but loads of cream, butter, and meat. He ended up with cardiac arrest, followed by sepsis due to an operation. He's mostly ok now though.
- cies 2y agoWe're primates, biologically. We have GI systems very similar to those of the Bonobos, Chimps and Utangs. They are classified as "onmivores", but more specifically "frugavorian omnivores", which means: they prefer to eat the bulk of their calories from fruit, but are also observed to eat animals. In normal situations (enough food to be found) that means they eat some bugs on a daily basis. In bad situations (not fruit to be found), they are known to hunt for small vertebrates. Besides fruit they eat a lot of green leaves, but due to the low caloric content of leaves this is often left out. We humans probably have a similar species diet to them. But we also have tradition, and moved to colder climates by using a technologies know as "grain" (domesticated grasses with artificially large seeds) and "cooking". Every species can find their food in nature. It will look tasty to them and they can eat it without cooking. This man's symptoms are not so weird. We're not meat+dairy eaters (no animal takes dairy after the weaning stage, that only mammals have).
- imtringued 2y agoHumans aren't specialized for eating plants and especially not green leaves. That requires a wholly different type of metabolism. Meanwhile a lot of humans have no trouble subsisting of just a carnivore diet without any negative symptoms. It's pretty accurate to call humans omnivores.
- cies 2y ago> It's pretty accurate to call humans omnivores. As said: all primates are omnivores. And what you eat is up to you. But biologically we are very close GI-wise to the "frugavorian omnivore" primates mentioned. > Humans aren't specialized for eating plants and especially not green leaves. That requires a wholly different type of metabolism. Where's your research? I mean we are not grass eaters, like cows. But we do really well on tender green leaves. If you dont eat tender green leaves 2x per day you are advised to take a magnesium supplement. > Meanwhile a lot of humans have no trouble subsisting of just a carnivore diet without any negative symptoms. Where's the long term research? Many claim this, but the populations that have many centenarians are not carnivores. Populations with really high meat intake (Inuit), do not get very old. Many biologists agree our intestine is too long (ans several other reasons I forgot). You seem to have no case here. Are you sure you are not falling for the diet fad wrt carnivoreism?
- vincnetas 2y agoAny images of the hands?
- zaruvi 2y agoYou can see them here: https://www.wfla.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/71/2025/01/hei240010f1img1.jpg https://www.wfla.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/71/2025/01/hei...
- thatguy0900 2y agoOther articles have pictures https://www.livescience.com/health/viruses-infections-disease/carnivore-diet-caused-yellow-lumps-to-grow-on-mans-hands-and-feet https://www.livescience.com/health/viruses-infections-diseas...
- atemerev 2y agoWhy Americans are so fond of strange diets instead of eating some simple balanced food and not caring much? Raw, carnivore, paleo, whatever. Here in Europe, we tremble in horror about the though that somebody can consume "raw milk", and there's a market for it. And, simultaneously, the same people have some issues with harmless blue cheese!
- ethbr1 2y agoFor the same reason that management consultants are fond of the Next Big Thing: $$$$. Pushing a new diet drives a ton of revenue. Advertising, TikTok, talk content, experts, books, etc. There's a financial reason Dr. Oz was always on about some batshit crazy new one.
- kragen 2y agoOne reason is that, about 50 years ago, a global obesity pandemic began in the US, and nobody knows why exactly, but it seems to have something to do with their diets. Since then, it has become a worldwide public health crisis, responsible for a few percent of all death and disability. It's a bit later at affecting Europe, but it's happening there too. So people are trying all kinds of things to see if they can get better. Another reason is that for about 300 years people in Europe who did things that made their neighbors tremble in horror† had to flee for their lives, and a lot of them fled to parts of America including Argentina and the US. Consequently the US is rather full of people who are inclined, culturally or possibly genetically, to put whatever crazy ideas they happen to believe into actual practice rather than following tradition or majority opinion. Diet fads in the US go back at least 200 years. Myself, I dropped 17 kg on a carnivore diet starting a couple of years ago, and I've kept it off on a much more mixed diet since then. ______ † Quakers, Puritans, Anabaptists, Old Believers, Jews, etc.
- cogman10 2y ago70 years ago meat was strictly rationed and 50% of calories came from victory gardens. If the thesis is that obesity came from removing saturated fat from the diet, why is it that there wasn't problems with obesity during WWII when saturated was strictly rationed out of the general populations diet? I mean, FFS, magazines sold magic powders to woman to help them become fatter. (Being too skinny was seen as unattractive). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden?wprov=sfla1
- M95D 2y ago... and it's not gout!
- gnabgib 2y agoPrevious discussion (88 points, 7 days ago, 88 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42798051 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42798051