A man who told doctors he ate nothing, but 6–9 pounds of butter, cheese and hamburgers every day for eight months ended up at Tampa General Hospital with yellowish lumps of cholesterol developing on parts of his body.
The backstory: According to JAMA Cardiology, a man, who is only identified as being in his 40s, told doctors that he got diet advice from the internet and began following an extreme carnivore diet.
For eight months, he only ate 6–9 pounds of butter, cheese and hamburgers a day. He stopped eating all carbohydrates, such as bread and sugar.
At first, he said he felt great. He lost weight, became more energetic and had more mental clarity.
But after about eight months, he started developing yellow lesions on his eyelids. Over the next month, the yellow lesions appeared on the palms of his hands, the soles of his feet and his elbows.
Doctors diagnosed him with xanthelasma, a rare condition that impacts about 1% of patients with high cholesterol.
Dig deeper: Xanthelasma is yellow raised deposits of cholesterol that appear under the skin because the body cannot process it.
A genius at work, folks
As someone with some chronic health conditions and managing them with diet and exercise… I can tell you that the internet is a much better source of dietary advice than your GP or even a nutritionist in the vast majority of cases.