A trio of cardiologists, two at Tampa General Hospital and the third at the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center, have reported an incident of an adult man developing yellowish nodules on his hands, feet and elbows after adopting a carnivore diet.
In their paper published in the journal JAMA Cardiology, Konstantinos Marmagkiolis, Jaime Caballero, and Cezar Iliescu, describe the symptoms of a patient who had come to Tampa General seeking aid after experiencing yellowish nodules appearing on various parts of his body, and their diagnosis.
The patient, a man in his 40s, told the doctors that the nodules had appeared three weeks prior to his hospital visit. After questioning, they determined that the patient had adopted the so-called carnivore diet approximately eight months prior to the appearance of the nodules.
The carnivore diet is a fad diet based on eating large amounts of animal fats and very little of anything else. The patient in this case reported eating nearly 10 pounds of butter, cheese and other fatty foods every day since embarking on the diet—even going so far as to add fat to the hamburgers he consumed daily.
Blood tests showed the patient’s cholesterol was approximately four times normal levels. The doctors diagnosed the patient with xanthelasma, a condition in which yellowish deposits of cholesterol build up in various parts of the body—in this case, on the palms, the soles of his feet and his elbows. His case had progressed to the point that some of the cholesterol was pushing through cracks in the skin.
The doctors advised the man to cut back on his fat intake. But they also noted that doing so would not get rid of the nodules—they required surgical excision or burning them with liquid nitrogen. They also reminded the patient that such high levels of cholesterol could lead to a host of other conditions such as cardiovascular disease, a greatly increased risk of stroke, and eventually, liver problems.
More information:
Konstantinos Marmagkiolis et al, Yellowish Nodules on a Man Consuming a Carnivore Diet, JAMA Cardiology (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamacardio.2024.5209
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Man on carnivore diet develops yellowish nodules on his hands, feet and elbows (2025, January 27)
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