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• Plant-based messaging is cast as the old low-fat campaign in new clothes and as pressure away from low-carb eating.
• Bread-centered stories about traditional Western diets are rejected; nineteenth-century meat markets, menus, and the Titanic menu are used as proof that meat was abundant before the twentieth century.
• The central practical rule is evolutionary: the diet that shaped human physiology is the diet human beings do best on now.

Clinical and trial bridge

• Blake Donaldson’s all-meat practice is a modern clinical echo of a much older human pattern.
• Mark Nathan Cohen’s warning is that medicine mistakes recent Western experience for the full range of human biology.
• Modern randomized trials are added to the anthropological record, and the low-carb side is the clear winner over low-fat diets.

Brains, guts, and energy

• Leslie Aiello’s expensive-tissue hypothesis and Max Kleiber’s metabolic work anchor the main mechanism.
• Humans have a metabolically expensive brain and a reduced gut, so the human body plan does not fit a bulky plant-based diet.
• Meat solves the energy problem by shrinking gut demands and freeing metabolic budget for a larger brain.

Plant bulk and scavenging

• Great apes carry large abdomens because low-density plant foods require a lot of gut volume.
• Early humans could move into a meat-heavy niche first by scavenging and later by hunting.
• Briana Pobiner’s lion-kill work shows that large carcasses left enough calories behind to make scavenging a realistic bridge.

Stable isotopes and trophic level

• Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios make long-term dietary reconstruction possible after soft tissue is gone.
• Neanderthals sit at or above the carnivore range in isotope comparisons and are placed at a super-carnivore level.
• Early modern humans also cluster at a very high trophic level, with animal food dominating protein intake.

Foragers, farmers, and degeneration

• The Kentucky comparison sets a meat-heavy hunter-gatherer population against a corn-bean-pumpkin farming population.
• The farming group shows more iron-deficiency lesions, enamel defects, caries, abscesses, periosteal disease, infant mortality, and shorter life.
• Agriculture turns intermittent stress into chronic degeneration, while the foraging group shows better baseline health.

Cariogenic plants and agriculture

• Severe dental destruction can come from heavy reliance on starchy or otherwise cariogenic plant foods even without refined sugar.
• Jared Diamond’s verdict fits the skeletal record: agriculture is a biological catastrophe rather than a health advance.
• A plant-focused side branch with massive chewing anatomy dead-ended, while the Homo line moved toward more meat and more brain.

Egypt as a natural experiment

• Ancient Egypt functions as a long-running wheat-based civilization trial centered on bread.
• Bread, fruits, vegetables, honey, seed oils, fish, waterfowl, and only occasional red meat create a pattern equivalent to a modern low-fat prescription.
• Egyptian statuary is read as evidence of abdominal obesity and male breast enlargement.

Egyptian disease burden

• Mummies and papyri put heart disease, catastrophic dental wear, obesity, and diabetes-like illness deep in antiquity.
• Marc Armand Ruffer’s autopsies, the Ebers Papyrus, CT scans, and the Horus study place vascular disease throughout ancient Egypt.
• Attempts to blame elite saturated-fat intake fail once isotope work shows similar diets across social classes and less than half of protein from animal sources.

Final synthesis

• Metabolic theory, scavenging ecology, stable isotopes, paleopathology, Egyptian mummies, and randomized trials all converge on the same answer.
• Human beings are built for a lower-carbohydrate, meat-heavier diet than agricultural and modern plant-centered orthodoxies allow.
• The practical prescription is blunt: cut the carbs.

References

• [05:35] Strong Medicine — https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp76101
• [06:59] Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) — https://phcuk.org/evidence/rcts/
• [08:16] The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis: The Brain and the Digestive System in Human and Primate Evolution — https://doi.org/10.1086/204350
• [08:43] Body Size and Metabolic Rate — https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.1947.27.4.511
• [16:00] New actualistic data on the ecology and energetics of hominin scavenging opportunities — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.06.020
• [20:32] Isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans — https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903821106
• [21:04] Stable isotope evidence for increasing dietary breadth in the European mid-Upper Paleolithic — https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.111155298
• [22:57] Nutrition and health in agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers: A case study of two prehistoric populations — https://research.si.edu/publication-details/?id=113591
• [28:48] Earliest evidence for caries and exploitation of starchy plant foods in Pleistocene hunter-gatherers from Morocco — https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1318176111
• [29:14] The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race — https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race-12157
• [38:53] On arterial lesions found in Egyptian mummies (1580 B.C.—525 A.D.) — https://doi.org/10.1002/path.1700150403
• [40:01] Ebers Papyrus — https://www.ub.uni-leipzig.de/en/about-us/exhibitions/permanent-exhibition/ebers-papyrus
• [42:40] Atherosclerosis in Ancient Egyptian Mummies: The Horus Study — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2011.02.002
• [43:36] Atherosclerosis and diet in ancient Egypt — https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60294-2
• [44:47] Diet of ancient Egyptians inferred from stable isotope systematics — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.03.005

• Years of diabetes care focused on glucose targets, medication adjustment, and newer drugs while patients remained under escalating medication burden.
• Standard advice about the gym, whole grains, lean meats, fruits, and vegetables did not get patients off medications.
• Type 2 diabetes can be reversed when insulin resistance is the root cause. Mechanism and diet
• Type 2 diabetes is the body reaching a limit with sugar and carbohydrate load.
• Carbohydrate removal removes the offending agent and diabetes fades.
• Carbohydrates are not essential nutrients because the liver makes the glucose the body needs through gluconeogenesis.
• A well-formulated low-carbohydrate diet is rich in natural proteins and fats.
• Blood sugar goes down, normalizes, the body heals, and medications are peeled away. Patient impact
• The first patient on the protocol lost 60 pounds in 6 months, dropped A1C from 10 to 5.4, and stopped every medication, including insulin.
• The deeper change is fear lifting, hope returning, and health no longer feeling like a personal failure.
• Seeing that change makes return to the earlier approach impossible.

Scaling and evidence

• Ketogenic diet use or therapeutic carbohydrate restriction reached about 4,000 patients before Ona Health was founded to scale the work, especially for Medicaid patients.
• This approach reverses diabetes at a fractional cost of traditional therapies.
• The country carries tens of millions of diabetes and prediabetes cases plus downstream costs from amputations, heart attacks, dialysis, depression, and the rest of the burden of type 2 diabetes.
• Ketogenic diets are therapeutic, medicinal, and curative.
• The evidence is strong enough that this approach would have received FDA approval long ago if it had been a drug.
• ADA consensus language puts carbohydrate reduction at the top of the evidence base, and Tracey Brown reversed her own diabetes with a ketogenic diet.

Policy and access

• A humane and affordable option already exists that targets root cause, gives energy, lowers sugar cravings, and creates lasting satiety.
• Federal and Medicaid pilots can spread this model across the country.
• Food as medicine can expand access to healthy food and reverse chronic disease at scale.
• The evidence is already in hand, the tools already exist, and the time is now.

References

• [01:40] Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids — https://doi.org/10.17226/10490
• [04:18] Nutrition Therapy for Adults With Diabetes or Prediabetes: A Consensus Report — https://doi.org/10.2337/dci19-0014
• [04:25] Podcast Episode 56: American Diabetes Association CEO Tracey D. Brown "A Low Carb Diet Worked For Me." — https://fastinglane.com/blog/2020/5/18/podcast-episode-36-american-diabetes-association-ceo-tracey-d-brown-a-low-carb-diet-worked-for-me

• Cancer deaths and projections remain severe enough that metabolic oncology needs organized bench-to-bedside research, education, and clinician support.
• The new nonprofit joins researchers, oncologists, and physician scientists to move metabolic oncology forward with rigor and integrity.
• Laboratory validation and patient care refine the same metabolic plan together. Finding a capable metabolic oncology clinician
• A strong clinician knows the mitochondrial metabolic theory, stays current with Seyfried and related research, and can explain the field fluently.
• Experience matters, but the key test is whether the clinician can individualize care for two patients with the same diagnosis.
• A one-size-fits-all protocol is a warning sign.
• Vague answers, defensiveness, overconfidence, and cure promises are reasons to leave.

Core metabolic oncology plan

• The press-pulse strategy is the working plan, and clinicians flesh it out in real patients while laboratory and clinical work keep improving it.
• Ketogenic diet or at least low carbohydrate intake is foundational for most patients, alongside stress reduction, exercise, careful nutraceutical use, repurposed drugs, and often hyperbaric oxygen.
• Nutritional ketosis is the platform, and the practical target is a glucose-ketone index around 2.0 or lower.
• Multiple restricted dietary patterns can reach nutritional ketosis, including Mediterranean, carnivore, pescetarian, and vegan diets.
• Time spent in the zone matters more than perfection, and flexibility matters because some patients feel tortured by chasing a perfect GKI.

Stress, patient agency, and education

• Stress management is a central part of cancer care because cancer-related stress raises corticosteroids and can make ketosis harder to reach.
• Music, massage, acupuncture, meditation, breath work, exercise, and other stress-lowering practices belong on the clinical menu.
• Patients do better when they take an active role in their care and come prepared to learn.
• Random internet protocols and self-experiment stacks create confusion, liver strain, contraindications, and wasted effort.
• Patients need a clinical guide who can choose the right tool, dose, and timing for the person in front of them.

Supplements, vitamins, and personalization

• Supplement quality is a major problem because many products are mislabeled, adulterated, or contaminated.
• More is not better with supplements or vitamins, and excess vitamins can also feed tumor cells.
• Supplement use needs a defined reason such as correcting a verified deficiency or exploiting a known vulnerability in cancer cells.
• Metabolic oncology is highly personalized because bodies, lifestyles, sizes, deficiencies, and response patterns differ. Finding clinicians and building standards
• The current clinician supply is small, so interim referral points include lists maintained by Seyfried and Dominic D'Agostino.
• The long-term goal is certification of clinicians, clinics, and labs that can apply metabolic oncology knowledgeably and without compromising standard of care.
• These practices also fit prevention and chronic disease risk reduction, not only advanced cancer care.
• Supplement effects and other adjuncts still need broader logging and study across diverse patients.
• People with cancer often arrive far from metabolic homeostasis, and bringing them back toward homeostasis improves the chances that repurposed drugs and procedures help.

References

• [00:00] Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management and Prevention of Cancer — https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118310311
• [00:07] Press-pulse: a novel therapeutic strategy for the metabolic management of cancer — https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-017-0178-2
• [00:07] Clinical research framework proposal for ketogenic metabolic therapy in glioblastoma — https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03775-4
• [00:09] The glucose ketone index calculator: a simple tool to monitor therapeutic efficacy for metabolic management of brain cancer — https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-015-0009-2

• The advisory committee handled narrow assigned topics and did not write the final Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Saturated fat was Brenna’s assigned topic in the 2025-2030 cycle, and he had also advised earlier guideline cycles.
• The committee’s scientific questions, methods, and evidence files were online for public review.
• The advisory committee delivered a circumscribed scientific document, and federal agencies drafted the final guidelines afterward.
• Brenna saw the final guideline draft only shortly before release and did not build the upside-down pyramid.
• The American Society for Nutrition backed the broad whole-food pattern while objecting to departures from the established review process.

Historical roots of the saturated-fat problem

• The butter-versus-margarine fight predates 1900 and sits behind much of the later saturated-fat story.
• Partial hydrogenation turned liquid oils into solid fats and created trans fats.
• Crisco came from partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil and became a major baking fat.
• Europe used partially hydrogenated whale oil and then partially hydrogenated fish oil in margarine through the mid-20th century.
• A 1940s margarine film on YouTube shows ingredient streams that include a drum marked "Hardened Whale."
• Many old diet trials that are used as saturated-fat evidence belong to that same era of hardened marine oils.
• One cited control-group example carried an estimated 40 to 50 grams per day of hardened marine oils.
• Those chemically altered fats were not ordinary butter or dairy fat and entered brain and retina.

Definitions, dairy, and policy contradictions

• "Saturated fat" became a code word for dairy in ordinary nutrition talk.
• Dairy evidence does not line up cleanly with the generic saturated-fat warning.
• The 10% saturated-fat cap stayed in place even while school-lunch law excluded fluid milk from the weekly saturated-fat limit.
• Whole milk in school lunch therefore sits outside the same saturated-fat budget that still governs the rest of the policy.
• Beef fat is not a pure saturated-fat block here because a large share of beef fat is monounsaturated.
• Fresh red meat and processed meat do not belong in one undifferentiated category here.

Mortality, stroke, and trial quality

• The 10% limit drives people away from nutrient-dense foods that carry zinc, selenium, and B12.
• Total mortality comes ahead of cause-specific endpoints in the evidence hierarchy used here.
• Randomized trials and prospective cohorts do not show an effect on total mortality in the 2025 review summary given here.
• What is called saturated fat shows a protective association with stroke in the prospective cohorts cited here.
• Cause-specific cardiovascular outcomes do not close the case when total mortality does not move.
• The old randomized diet trials were not double blinded, and participants knew which foods or oils they were getting.

LDL, triglycerides, and population context

• Sky-high genetically driven LDL is a real problem and sits in a different category from ordinary population shifts.
• The key open issue is whether moderate LDL reductions below 160 meaningfully change outcomes.
• Japanese population data serve as an example in which the cholesterol-heart disease pattern runs opposite the usual U.S. expectation.
• The share of the population above LDL 160 narrows to about 5% to 7%, not the larger number floated earlier.
• Elevated triglycerides above 200 reach a bigger share of the population in this exchange.
• Triglycerides here point toward carbohydrate load, insulin resistance, and low omega-3 intake.
• Fish oil lowers triglycerides here and becomes the example of a pseudo-pharmacologic intervention at very high levels.

Pregnancy, fish, DHA, and the developing brain

• Fish avoidance during pregnancy removes DHA during a period of rapid brain development.
• Children of women who eat some fish in pregnancy do better than children of women who eat none on most tests in this telling.
• The benefit curve rises and then plateaus across the intake range used here.
• The Seychelles example goes up to about 100 ounces of fish per week without a detectable mercury-harm signal.
• The people who eat the most fish in the world do not produce the iodine-deficiency picture that is contrasted with fish avoidance.
• Brain DHA accretion continues well beyond birth and runs to roughly age 20, with remodeling probably out to 25.
• Breastfeeding keeps delivering omega-3 and DHA after birth.
• DHA entered infant formula in the U.S. in 2001.

Omega-3, omega-6, and oil profile

• DHA is a 22-carbon, 6-double-bond omega-3 fatty acid.
• Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids use the same enzymes, so imbalance pushes one against the other.
• High linoleic acid intake acts as a metabolic suppressor of omega-3s everywhere in the body.
• The current U.S. diet sits on the high-linoleic side here.
• Some omega-6 is required, and the problem here is excess rather than zero intake.
• High-omega-6 oils create a larger metabolic demand for omega-3.
• Lower omega-6 intake makes a given omega-3 intake go farther.
• Monounsaturated replacement fats rank highest here, and high-oleic seed oils sit near olive oil in fatty-acid profile.
• Plant names no longer tell the whole story because modern oil crops were bred into multiple distinct fatty-acid profiles.
• Lower-omega-6 high-oleic oils also gained shelf-life and frying-life advantages here.

Precision nutrition, genetics, and special vulnerability

• Precision nutrition fits this field better than one number for everybody.
• Pregnancy, lactation, brain development, and later brain maintenance have different fatty-acid demands than a generic middle-aged adult target.
• A fatty-acid-desaturase-cluster insertion-deletion variant operates here as a requirement-shaping genetic signal.
• In the seAFOod work used here, 2 grams per day of EPA for 1 year cut colorectal polyps by about 50% in a certain genotype.
• Plant omega-3 sources such as flax, chia, and walnuts are not the same as long-chain omega-3 sources here.
• Vegetarian eating patterns that keep dairy hold omega-6 exposure lower than patterns that swap dairy fat for high-omega-6 oils.
• Feeding those oils to pregnant animals disrupts multiple brain measures in the offspring.
• Early human deficiency work in infants put babies on omega-6-deficient diets, produced skin lesions, and reversed those lesions when omega-6 returned.
• ADHD evidence remains unresolved here, and fish oil is not offered here as a fix.

References

• [04:21] Proposed Scientific Questions — https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2022-07/Proposed%20Scientific%20Questions_508c_Final.pdf
• [04:33] Part C. Methodology — https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/Part%2520C_Methodology_FINAL_508c.pdf
• [05:32] American Society for Nutrition Calls for Strong Science in National Nutrition Guidance — https://nutrition.org/american-society-for-nutrition-calls-for-strong-science-in-national-nutrition-guidance/
• [11:21] Food sources of saturated fat and cardiovascular disease: A systematic review — https://nesr.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/Food-sources-saturated-fat_cardiovascular-disease-2025DGACSystematicReview.pdf
• [16:49] Margarine From Oil (1940-1949) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWwhX-8-MsE
• [29:14] Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 – Implementation Requirements for the National School Lunch Program — https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/wmfhka-implementation
• [01:03] Prenatal methylmercury exposure from ocean fish consumption in the Seychelles child development study — https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13371-5
• [01:10] Fatty acid desaturase insertion-deletion polymorphism rs66698963 predicts colorectal polyp prevention by the n-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid: a secondary analysis of the seAFOod polyp prevention trial — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.06.004

• Iran can threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz with naval mines, and even a small number of laid mines can function like a toll booth by forcing ships to accept Iranian control over safe passage.
• No mine strikes are confirmed in the transcript at this point, but the mine threat alone is enough to deter commercial traffic because ships do not need proof of a live minefield to avoid the route.
• Mine clearance is slow, dangerous, and difficult, so reopening the strait after even limited mining is much harder than preventing the mining in the first place.

How mines are laid

• Naval mines can be laid from almost any vessel, including small boats, landing craft, merchant ships, helicopters, submarines, and in some cases rockets.
• A vessel does not need to be a purpose-built minelayer, because simple rails or improvised handling arrangements are enough to roll mines into the water.
• The large volume of Iranian-linked small craft and commercial traffic in and around the strait creates many opportunities to sow mines without relying on a specialized platform.

Moored contact and influence mines

• The Maham-1 is a traditional moored contact mine with horns that detonate on impact, and most variants carry about 120 kg of explosive while a smaller shallow-water version carries about 20 kg.
• These moored mines sink an anchor to the seabed and then float the charge body a few meters below the surface, where they are harder to see and well placed to strike deep-draft tankers.
• The Maham-3 keeps the same general moored arrangement but uses acoustic and magnetic influence fusing, so it can detonate without direct contact and can sit deeper beneath a ship.
• Influence fusing also allows delayed arming, long persistence, and ship counters that let a mine ignore earlier vessels and wait for a later target.

Bottom and specialty mines

• The Maham-2 is a bottom influence mine with a much larger warhead of roughly 350 kg, better concealment on the seabed, and greater resistance to old-style cable-cutting sweeps.
• Bottom influence mines are harder to certify as cleared because a live mine can remain on the bottom after multiple ships pass overhead if its counter has not yet reached its programmed number.
• Iran also has a self-propelled bottom-mine concept in which a torpedo-like propulsion unit carries the weapon 10 to 20 km before it settles on the seabed.
• A fiberglass-cased conical bottom mine copied from the Italian Manta adds another concealment problem because its nonmetallic body is harder to detect and it is suited to shallow water.
• Rocket-laid mines using a Fajr-5 type launcher trade warhead size and depth effectiveness for very long standoff placement, making them more useful for anchorages, coastal approaches, and gap-filling than for the deepest main channel.
• A Chinese EM-52 type rising mine would be the most dangerous system mentioned because it can sit deep on the seabed, sense a target, launch upward, and attack laterally from significant distance.

Clearance and operational impact

• Traditional wire sweeps can still cut the mooring cables of older floating mines, but they do not solve the problem posed by bottom influence mines.
• Counters, arming delays, mixed mine types, and uncertainty about where mines were laid all expand the time needed to reopen shipping lanes.
• A handful of mines is enough to almost paralyze traffic because every transit becomes a gamble and every clearance declaration remains open to doubt.

Other Iranian anti-shipping threats

• Mines are only one layer of the threat, alongside anti-ship ballistic missiles, USVs, drones, artillery, small-boat attacks, and anti-ship missiles.
• USVs are identified as the main immediate threat to ships, while mines are identified as the hardest threat to clear once they are in the water.
• Anti-ship missiles, drones, and small boats can damage or harass shipping, but mines have the strongest ability to keep sea lanes closed over time.

Strategic escalation beyond Hormuz

• Control pressure in the Strait of Hormuz changes the waterway from open international transit into a passage shaped by Iranian coercion over who sails and on what terms.
• The pressure can spread beyond Hormuz because Iran can encourage Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and thereby threaten both ends of the wider regional tanker route.
• Combined disruption in Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb, and the approaches to Suez creates a broader maritime dilemma than a single chokepoint crisis.

References

• [02:49] Guide To Iran's Naval Mines — https://www.hisutton.com/Iranian-Naval-Mines.html
• [10:54] Exploding the Mine Warfare Myth — https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1994/october/exploding-mine-warfare-myth
• [12:24] The Naval Show of Force That Wasn't — https://maritime-executive.com/article/the-naval-show-of-force-that-wasn-t
• [13:31] Strait of Hormuz - Mines — https://www.strausscenter.org/strait-of-hormuz-mines/
• [15:58] Leveling the Field: Iran’s Asymmetric Use of Conventional Military Capabilities — https://www.iranwatch.org/our-publications/articles-reports/leveling-field-irans-asymmetric-use-conventional-military-capabilities

• The Joint Maritime Information Center keeps the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and Gulf of Oman at critical risk.
• The running count reaches 21 attacks since 1 March, against a historical Strait of Hormuz flow of about 138 ships per day, with only one ship moving on 24 March and zero attacks in the prior 48 hours.
• Cargo traffic sits in single digits and tanker traffic remains extremely thin, and the eight to 10 tankers mentioned in the president's cabinet remarks do not show up in the count here. Iranian control over passage
• Iran keeps the strait open for vessels it does not tie to its enemies and blocks or pressures vessels linked to the U.S., Israel, or countries backing their operations.
• Trump pauses planned strikes on Iran's energy system until 5 April while negotiations remain unclear, and a strike on Iranian energy is a major escalation.
• Iran imposes a $2 million transit toll, and paying it can create sanctions exposure for companies that do business with countries restricting Iran.
• Passage now runs through a permission regime that can require crew lists, cargo details, voyage details, bills of lading, and routing near Larak and Qeshm before a ship gets through.
• A small containership sailing from the United Arab Emirates toward Pakistan is forced to reverse, and later larger vessels also turn back. Red Sea spillover and energy logistics
• The Houthis move back toward the Bab el-Mandeb and Red Sea picture, and even without new shipping attacks the threat hangs over the Yanbu export surge.
• Yanbu may be moving about 5 million barrels per day and possibly 7 million, but renewed attacks off western Saudi Arabia would turn that outlet into an expensive and fragile workaround.
• Fully loaded VLCCs cannot use the Suez Canal, so a Red Sea disruption would force shuttle movements, extra anchorages, and higher costs. Insurance, timelines, and economic pressure
• The U.S. political-risk insurance program with DFC and Chubb arrives late in week four, after traffic has already stalled and owners have already made other insurance choices.
• A crisis lasting weeks is already bad, months would be far worse, and the knock-on effects hit bunker fuel, aviation fuel, LPG, LNG, helium, sulfur, urea, DAP, MAP, and household fuel markets well beyond the U.S.
• Fuel stress is already spreading across countries such as Australia, the Philippines, Pakistan, and India, while the strait still matters to the U.S. because it affects both direct imports and global pricing.

Marine traffic over 26 to 28 March

• MarineTraffic shows a modest uptick in movement, especially for Indian LPG cargoes, with BW Elm and BW Tyr crossing for India while several bulk, crude, chemical, and gas carriers continue testing the route.
• Lotus Rising and Sapphira turn back, and the Hong Kong-flagged CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean head toward Larak, stop, and return to the UAE anchorage.
• The turnaround of the two large Chinese boxships is the clearest sign that safe passage is still unreliable even for ships tied to countries Iran calls friendly.

Military posture and near-term outlook

• The Tripoli amphibious ready group is in the area, and the southern Omani side of the strait and nearby islands are possible staging areas for Marines to screen traffic and counter Iranian pressure from the north.
• Abraham Lincoln remains relevant after replenishment, Ford stays delayed by major fire damage, Bush has not yet sailed, and follow-on Marine forces from Okinawa and Hawaii remain part of the possible next steps.
• The next U.S. move is still unclear, and the overall cabinet messaging looks confused and unsettled.

References

• [00:00] Update 023 to JMIC Advisory Note: 01 - 24 March 2026 — https://www.ukmto.org/-/media/ukmto/products/update-023---jmic-advisory-note-24-mar_final.pdf?rev=5ebdc361d56a4098b62b9c78b44d6d15
• [00:02] Iran Says Hormuz Open To All But 'Enemy-Linked' Ships — https://gcaptain.com/iran-says-hormuz-open-to-all-but-enemy-linked-ships/
• [00:03] Trump Delays Iran Energy Strikes as Confusion Swirls Over 'Productive' Talks — https://gcaptain.com/trump-delays-iran-energy-strikes-as-confusion-swirls-over-productive-talks/
• [00:03] Iran Imposes $2M 'Toll' on Ships Transiting Strait of Hormuz — https://gcaptain.com/iran-imposes-2m-toll-on-ships-transiting-strait-of-hormuz/
• [00:05] Iran Demands Crew, Cargo Details to Send Ships Through Hormuz — https://gcaptain.com/iran-demands-crew-cargo-details-to-send-ships-through-hormuz/
• [00:08] Trump Official Says Hormuz Ship Insurance Program to Launch 'Soon' as Tanker Traffic Struggles to Recover — https://gcaptain.com/trump-official-says-hormuz-ship-insurance-program-to-launch-soon-as-tanker-traffic-struggles-to-recover/
• [00:09] Chinese Boxships Abort First Hormuz Exit Attempt, Undermining Iran 'Safe Passage' Claims — https://gcaptain.com/chinese-boxships-abort-first-hormuz-exit-attempt-undermining-iran-safe-passage-claims/
• [00:13] Iran Signals New 'Permission-to-Transit' Regime in Hormuz After Blocking COSCO Vessels — https://gcaptain.com/iran-signals-new-permission-to-transit-regime-in-hormuz-after-blocking-cosco-vessels/
• [00:13] Two India-bound LPG tankers crossing Strait of Hormuz out of Gulf, data shows — https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/two-india-bound-lpg-tankers-crossing-strait-hormuz-out-gulf-data-shows-2026-03-28/

• Meat shopping gets easier when the cut name, the usable meat, and the price all match up.

Publix

• Chuck eye gives ribeye-like eating from the chuck at a lower price and looked like a strong buy at Publix.
• T-bone and porterhouse come from the same cut area; the T-bone has a smaller filet and the porterhouse has a larger filet.
• When porterhouse and T-bone cost the same, porterhouse gives more value; the shown T-bone had so little filet that it was mostly bone and strip.
• Ribeye at $17.99 per pound looked reasonable for Publix.
• Filet mignon at $32.99 per pound looked overpriced, especially with silver skin still left to trim.
• Petite shoulder tender is tender and good; chuck tender roast sounds similar but is tough and needs long braising.

Walmart

• Walmart meat arrives pre-cut and not from on-site cutting, which makes selection harder.
• Some New York strips include a top-sirloin end piece, so the package carries strip pricing for part sirloin.
• Porterhouse pricing looked high there, but mislabeled porterhouses can still turn up in the T-bone section.
• Ribeye at about $23 per pound did not look like a bargain.

Kroger

• A chuck roast with two grain directions and a fat seam through the middle can be split into Denver steak on top and chuck eye on the bottom.
• Flat iron is inexpensive, tender, flavorful, and a favorite cut.
• New York strips with a sirloin end piece are worth skipping.
• Tomahawk looks impressive but adds bone cost at steak pricing.
• Bacon-wrapped fillets looked like low-grade meat wrapped in bacon.

Target

• Target had a lot of ground beef, including lean blends and grass-fed options.
• Pre-cut ribeye at $18.99 looked acceptable against the other stores.

Costco

• Costco had the strongest beef value in the tour.
• Whole beef strip loin at $9.99 per pound beat pre-cut New York strip at $12.99 per pound and only needed simple slicing at home.
• Flat iron packs at $9.99 per pound and whole top sirloin cap at $8.99 per pound stood out as strong buys.
• Boneless pork butt works for barbecue and is very good for sausage.
• Costco ground beef is cheap and works well when vacuum sealed into one- or two-pound portions.

• I found carnivore through YouTube after putting a few reels aside at first.
• A six-month plant-based period was hard for me to maintain.
• Dr. Anthony Chaffee's material on day-to-day and athletic benefits made carnivore feel relevant to performance, not just weight loss.
• Zero-carb athletic performance was the question that pulled me in.
• Weight loss matters, but this became a lifestyle change.

Health background and why change was needed

• I had a small health scare after three "CO" jabs, recovered, and did not investigate it further.
• My bigger issue was an unhealthy lifestyle while chasing esports, which led me to neglect my health.
• Growing up in a large Filipino household with a giant rice cooker normalized overeating for me.
• Overeating became one of the habits I needed to break.

Starting carnivore and adapting

• I started around January 2024 and have stayed with it for about two years and some change.
• I went in cold turkey.
• The first two weeks were a real adjustment, with gut issues, frequent bathroom trips, and unstable energy.
• Milk stayed in because I love milkshakes and kept milk within how I was approaching carnivore.
• After that early adjustment, sleep, recovery, and general day-to-day feeling improved a lot.

Family response and longer-term view

• My siblings gave mixed reactions, but they understood the case for animal foods as nutrient-dense.
• They also warned me about cholesterol, how I was feeling, and possible internal damage.
• My brother Michael was especially supportive and kept checking in.
• He now eats mostly animal foods himself and feels great on that approach.
• I am taking this year by year, but I expect to keep eating far more animal foods because my energy stays consistent and I do not crash.

Work, fasting, and daily structure

• Carnivore plus fasting made me more productive at work because the afternoon dip largely stopped.
• I usually have coffee in the morning and wait until later to eat, and that helped regulate my tendency to overeat.
• Meat becoming less appealing once I have had enough feels like my body telling me to slow down.
• My weekly structure is 500-calorie coffee-and-milk days on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, with bacon, eggs, steak, side meat, and another egg on the other days.
• My eating days are about 2,500 calories, my lighter days are about 500 calories, and that is far below the 5,000-calorie overeating pattern I used to have.

Food noise, weight loss, and body change

• Food noise dropped sharply, and I can now watch a movie without constant thoughts about going to the kitchen.
• Chips and milkshakes used to make it easy for me to eat thousands of calories without noticing.
• I started at about 220 kg, sit around 150 kg now, and lost 70 kg over two years.
• I lost about 35 kg in the first year and about 35 kg in the second year.
• I want another 50 kg off and see carnivore as the best weight-loss tool I have used.
• Slower loss feels better for body adaptation, and so far loose skin is mostly limited to my stomach and love handles.

How I explain it to other people

• I tell people the first two to four weeks are hard, so they need to find a version they can actually sustain.
• My practical advice is to eat animal foods, lean hard on staples like beef, butter, bacon, eggs, milk, honey, and seafood, and take it one day at a time.
• I see the goal as changing your life, not proving something for 30 or 90 days.

References

• [00:30] Dr Anthony Chaffee — https://dranthonychaffee.com/