Paul Saladino recently pulled back the curtain on his daily eating habits, tracking every meal through nutrition software to reveal the full micronutrient breakdown.
The results might surprise anyone who assumes animal-based diets fall short nutritionally.
In a detailed YouTube video, Saladino walked viewers through his typical 3,300-calorie day—complete with raw dairy, organ meats, fruit, and honey—while comparing his nutrient intake to a well-constructed vegan diet.
What emerged was a fascinating contrast in bioavailability, protein quality, and micronutrient density that challenges common assumptions about plant versus animal nutrition.
Jump to:
- Breaking Down An Animal-Based Day
- The Macro Breakdown: Numbers That Challenge Conventions
- Micronutrient Analysis: Where Animal Foods Shine
- The Vegan Comparison: Nutrient Gaps Emerge
- Chronometer’s Limitations: What Gets Missed
- Practical Takeaways For Your Own Diet
- The Bigger Picture: Bioavailability Matters
Breaking Down An Animal-Based Day
Saladino starts his mornings with approximately 300ml of raw goat milk mixed with honey and 5 grams of creatine before surfing. He’s a strong advocate for raw dairy, citing evidence suggesting it’s associated with lower rates of asthma, eczema, and allergies in children.
If you are eating more than 2 pounds of meat per day you probably don’t need as much creatine or any creatine, but for those of us who are getting less than 2 pounds of meat per day and now that I’m incorporating a few more foods in my diet like fruits and maybe some squash from time to time, I often don’t eat two pounds of meat so I want to make sure that my creatine stores are topped up.
Post-surf breakfast includes four scrambled eggs cooked in tallow from his company Lineage Provisions, watermelon juice, mango, and avocado. He’s particular about salt quality, favoring Diamond kosher salt or Jacobson sea salt after testing revealed high heavy metal levels in Celtic Sea salt and Redmond Real Salt.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
The Lunch and Dinner Formula
Midday meals typically feature skirt steak—chosen specifically for its higher collagen content—alongside Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and fresh-squeezed orange juice. He also incorporates rambutans (mamones) and crucially, about half an ounce of beef liver with peeled cucumber.
This is all you need for liver is about half an ounce per day that’s like a multivitamin.
Dinner rounds out with fatty ground beef (80/20 ratio preferred), more goat milk with honey, dragon fruit, and watermelon juice. The variety ensures nutrient density while keeping meals relatively simple and consistent.
The Macro Breakdown: Numbers That Challenge Conventions
At 5’9″ and approximately 165 pounds with around 10% body fat, Saladino maintains visible abs year-round while consuming a substantial caloric intake. His daily macronutrient distribution looks like this:
- Calories: 3,300
- Protein: 170 grams (22% of calories)
- Carbohydrates: 255-278 grams (31% of calories)
- Fat: 175 grams (48% of calories)
Despite being highly active—surfing 1.5 to 2 hours daily plus bodyweight exercises—he doesn’t gain weight on this substantial calorie count. Saladino attributes this partly to eating zero processed foods and maintaining metabolic flexibility.
Defending Carbohydrates From Animal-Based Sources
One aspect that surprises many people is Saladino’s carbohydrate intake, primarily from fruit, honey, and occasionally squash. He’s adamant about dispelling fears around fructose in whole food forms.
There is no good evidence these are harmful for you at all. I’ve done previous videos defending fruit defending fructose in a food form it behaves totally differently in a food form than it does when it’s isolated in the gut or when you’re looking at rat models or mouse models.
His position: scale carbohydrates to activity level, but don’t fear them. He suggests a minimum of 100-150 grams daily to avoid unnecessary physiological stress, with active individuals benefiting from higher amounts.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Micronutrient Analysis: Where Animal Foods Shine
Using Chronometer software, Saladino demonstrated impressive micronutrient coverage across his eating pattern. Several nutrients deserve special attention.
Leucine: The Muscle-Building Amino Acid
Saladino consumed 10.5 grams of leucine daily, primarily from meat sources like skirt steak and ground beef. Research suggests approximately 0.05 grams per pound of body weight is needed for optimal muscle protein synthesis—putting him well above requirements.
This becomes significant when comparing bioavailability. All protein sources came from animal foods, which contain complete amino acid profiles in highly absorbable forms.
The Vitamin A Advantage
Just half an ounce of beef liver provided over 100% of vitamin A requirements as preformed retinol—not beta-carotene. This distinction matters tremendously.
Many people carry genetic polymorphisms that impair conversion of plant-based beta-carotene to active vitamin A. By consuming retinol directly, Saladino bypasses this potential bottleneck entirely, ensuring adequate intake for night vision, hormone production, and immune function.
Vitamin K2 Versus K1: A Critical Difference
Chronometer flagged low vitamin K in Saladino’s diet, but he dismisses this as a limitation of the tracking software. The database only measures vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) from plant foods, not K2 (menaquinone) from animal sources.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
The Rotterdam study consistently associates the consumption of fatty animal foods with better longevity, lower mortality, lower morbidity in terms of cardiovascular morbidity and lower calcification of the aortic valve.
Vitamin K2 from meat, cheese, and dairy showed protective effects against cardiovascular disease and aortic valve calcification in research, while K1 showed no such associations. The body doesn’t efficiently convert K1 to K2, making dietary sources crucial.
Omega-6 Fatty Acids: Minimal Intake
Saladino consumed only 9.9 grams of omega-6 fatty acids, none from seed oils. This low intake reduces potential oxidative stress and inflammatory burden compared to standard Western diets heavy in refined vegetable oils.
The Vegan Comparison: Nutrient Gaps Emerge
To provide context, Saladino analyzed a day of eating from vegan YouTuber Phil Coffer using identical tracking methods. Phil’s diet appeared well-constructed with intentional food choices, yet several deficiencies became apparent.
Protein Quality and Quantity
Phil consumed approximately 50 grams of protein daily from plant sources—dramatically lower than Saladino’s 170 grams. More concerning was the leucine content of only 2.8 grams, falling well short of recommendations for muscle protein synthesis.
Plant proteins also showed inadequate lysine levels even by USDA standards, and bioavailability remains questionable due to anti-nutrients like phytic acid that bind minerals and reduce absorption.
Omega-6 Overload
Phil’s diet contained 26.2 grams of omega-6 fatty acids—nearly three times Saladino’s intake. Much came from avocado oil used for deep frying, which Saladino strongly opposes.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
I think deep frying in avocado oil is a horrible idea and I would not do that. Most avocado oil is cut with seed oils and a lot of avocado oil is already rancid before you get it.
He warned that high omega-6 consumption creates oxidative liability by incorporating these unstable fatty acids into cell membranes where they’re susceptible to damage.
Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies
Several critical nutrients were completely absent or poorly represented in the vegan diet:
- Vitamin B12: Zero—supplementation absolutely required
- Vitamin A: Only as beta-carotene, not preformed retinol
- Vitamin K2: Zero menaquinone, only K1 phylloquinone
- Bioavailable minerals: Questionable absorption due to phytic acid and oxalates
Saladino shared personal experience as a former raw vegan, noting he developed significant magnesium deficiencies despite tracking showing adequate intake—highlighting the bioavailability problem with plant-based minerals.
Chronometer’s Limitations: What Gets Missed
While useful for basic tracking, Saladino pointed out several shortcomings in nutrition databases like Chronometer that may misrepresent animal-based diets.
Vitamin E in Animal Fats
The software flagged low vitamin E intake, yet when Saladino tested his blood levels on a pure carnivore diet, vitamin E came back above reference range. He suspects the USDA database has never properly assayed vitamin E content in animal fats.
Missing Amino Acids
Chronometer only tracks essential and non-essential amino acids, completely ignoring beneficial compounds like:
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
- Taurine: Absent from plant foods, associated with longevity
- Carnitine: Critical for fat metabolism and energy production
- Anserine: Antioxidant properties in muscle tissue
These nutrients don’t appear in vegan diets and receive no tracking attention despite mounting evidence of their importance for human health.
Practical Takeaways For Your Own Diet
Saladino emphasized individual variation throughout his analysis, repeatedly noting “if you’re thriving, don’t change anything.” However, several principles emerged for those experiencing health issues or seeking optimization.
Prioritize Protein Quality
Aim for 0.8 to 1 gram per pound of goal body weight from bioavailable animal sources. Track leucine intake specifically, targeting around 0.05 grams per pound for muscle maintenance and growth.
Don’t Fear Carbohydrates From Whole Foods
Fruit, honey, and squash provide quality carbohydrate sources without the anti-nutrients found in grains. Scale intake to activity level, but consider 100-150 grams as a reasonable minimum to avoid unnecessary metabolic stress.
Incorporate Organ Meats Strategically
Just half an ounce of liver daily provides exceptional micronutrient density, particularly preformed vitamin A and bioavailable copper. Fresh sources are ideal, but desiccated supplements offer convenient alternatives.
Be Selective About Fats and Oils
Minimize omega-6 intake, especially from refined seed oils. Choose animal fats like tallow and butter for cooking. If using plant oils, quality matters tremendously—many olive and avocado oils contain concerning levels of forever chemicals and may be adulterated with cheaper seed oils.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Consider Salt Quality
Not all salts are created equal in terms of heavy metal content. Diamond kosher salt and Jacobson sea salt tested favorably, while Celtic Sea salt and Redmond Real Salt showed problematic lead levels in Saladino’s testing.
The Bigger Picture: Bioavailability Matters
Saladino’s detailed breakdown reveals a fundamental truth often overlooked in nutrition debates: nutrient content on paper doesn’t equal nutrient absorption in the body.
Plant foods contain anti-nutrients like phytic acid, oxalates, and lectins that actively prevent mineral absorption and may trigger inflammatory responses in susceptible individuals. Animal foods provide nutrients in forms the human body readily recognizes and utilizes.
His personal labs consistently show low inflammatory markers (CRP), high testosterone, excellent insulin sensitivity (low HbA1c), and healthy body composition—all while consuming substantial fruit and honey alongside animal foods.
I don’t gain weight and I also surf one and a half, two hours a day and I’m pretty active. I have about 170 grams of protein per day. I think in terms of macro breakdown in terms of protein you want to be getting about 0.8 to one gram of protein per pound of goal body weight.
Whether someone chooses Saladino’s animal-based approach or another dietary pattern, tracking actual intake through tools like Chronometer provides valuable insights—with the caveat that bioavailability and nutrient forms matter as much as raw numbers on screen.
