Dr Shawn Baker, MD: The Carnivore Diet author on courting criticism, controversy and conspiracy theories

Dr Shawn Baker is used to criticism and controversy.

That’s because the former orthopaedic surgeon actively courts it. It’s hard not to have a target on your back when you spend a significant part of your waking life preaching the life-extending qualities of eating nothing but red meat - or the so-called Carnivore Diet, which is the title of his globally best-selling book on the subject.

He posts multiple times on social media - his Instagram and X accounts are a combination of videos of him tucking in to an enormous Flintstones-sized chargrilled steaks, anecdotes from people who claim they cured their ailments once they switched to an all-meat diet, and vegan-bating and -bashing memes that mock the ethical and environmental claims on the virtues of not eating meat and eschew the various benefits of eating vegetables. (Baker himself c ...