The Root Cause of Metabolic Dysfunction w/ Dr. Casey Means
What this video covers
This 104-minute podcast pairs Dr. Casey Means with Dr. Paul Saladino — the physician-influencer known for advocating an animal-based diet centered on meat, organs, fruit, honey, and raw dairy, and for selling related food and supplement products. The conversation covers Means’s personal story, what she calls the dark side of pharmaceutical companies, and her argument that metabolic dysfunction is the root cause of most chronic disease today.
Means discusses how processed foods break metabolism, and her framing is vivid: ultra-processed foods are “a science experiment invented by food chemists and food scientists” starting after World War II and accelerating in the 1970s — “a science experiment that has failed.” She lists four things she says make them disastrous, starting with far fewer micronutrients than real food.
What she believes people should eat is whole, unprocessed food. On seed oils, she makes the dose argument: you’d have to eat 70-plus years of corn to get the equivalent of the 5 to 7 tablespoons of corn oil the average American consumes daily across all seed oils — an “evolutionary inconsistency,” with omega-6 linoleic acid accumulating in cells and cell membranes. She points to human data showing soybean oil upregulates LPA2, that randomized controlled trials show oxidized LDL and Lp(a) rise when people eat seed oils, and notes that no seed-oil RCT has been run “in the last 70 years” — asking who would fund one.
The episode also covers sleep and sunlight as metabolic-health levers. One framing note for readers: Saladino’s strong dietary prescription — “make meat and organs the center of your diet,” in his words — is his own position and commercial territory, distinct from Means’s broader whole-foods metabolic framework, though the two agree on removing processed foods.
Key points
- Means argues metabolic dysfunction is the root cause of most chronic disease, and describes how processed foods break metabolism.
- She discusses correcting metabolic dysfunction through whole, unprocessed foods.
- She addresses seed oils and fruit within her metabolic framework.
- She covers sleep and sunlight as underappreciated levers for metabolic health.
- She recounts her personal and professional story, including her critique of pharmaceutical companies.
- Saladino advocates an animal-based diet (meat, organs, fruit, honey, raw dairy) as optimal — his position, not Means’s; he also promotes his own food and supplement brands in the episode.