This Week in Carnivore Life — June 2, 2026

A peer-reviewed scoping review landed this week, Bikman explains why your ketone meter can mislead you, and a viral cancer study complicates the standard advice on plant foods. Five stories worth your time.

1. A Scoping Review of the Carnivore Diet Lands in a Major Journal

A 2026 paper in Nutrients, a peer-reviewed nutrition journal, compiled nine studies on the carnivore diet and synthesised their findings. The authors noted metabolic improvements across multiple studies, while flagging that the body of evidence is still small and study quality varies. A scoping review maps the existing research rather than settling debates definitively. Still, having the diet taken seriously enough for peer-reviewed synthesis matters. The metabolic findings align with what practitioners routinely report. Read the full review

2. Ben Bikman: Your Ketone Readings Are Not What You Think

Metabolic scientist Dr. Ben Bikman posted episode 152 of his podcast this week, tackling a question that trips up most strict low-carb eaters: why do blood ketone readings fluctuate so much, even on a clean diet? His explanation centres on fat adaptation. As your body becomes more efficient at using ketones, it may produce fewer detectable ones in the blood. A lower reading does not mean you have fallen out of fat-burning mode. If you have ever adjusted what you eat based on a ketone meter number, this is worth your time. Watch episode 152

3. Dr. David Diamond on 27 Years of LDL Evidence

Dr. Ken Berry brought on researcher Dr. David Diamond for a long-form conversation on LDL cholesterol and cardiovascular risk. Diamond has spent close to three decades documenting why elevated LDL, on its own, is a weak predictor of heart disease, especially for people eating low-carb diets. The more informative markers, he argues: triglycerides, HDL, insulin levels, and inflammatory indicators. Elevated LDL is the single most common reason people abandon carnivore after bloodwork, and Diamond's work is among the most thoroughly documented arguments against using it as a standalone number. Watch the full conversation

4. Anthony Chaffee MD: Why Some Long-Term Carnivores Are Adding Carbs Back

Dr. Anthony Chaffee, a physician who has practised carnivore for years, posted a frank video about why some experienced practitioners are reintroducing small amounts of carbohydrates. His framing matters: this is not failure or backsliding. For some people, years of strict elimination reveal that a small amount of honey, fruit, or root vegetables sits fine. He is not abandoning the approach. He is being honest about individual variation after long-term practice, which is more useful than pretending the edges of the diet are universal. Worth watching if you are several years in and questioning your protocol. Watch the video

5. A Viral Cancer Study and What It Actually Found

A study went viral this week after finding that young people eating diets higher in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains had higher exposure to certain pesticide contaminants than those eating less conventionally 'healthy' diets. Oncologists weighed in with context, and the nuances matter: the study has methodological limits, does not establish causation, and should not be read as a blanket case against plant foods. But it does put pressure on the assumption that more plant food automatically reduces risk. Follow the primary source rather than the headlines on either side. Watch the oncologist breakdown

Follow the primary sources, not the summaries. That applies to every item above, including this one.