Paul Saladino, the physician-turned-social media personality who built his brand on an uncompromising carnivore lifestyle, has a new message for his followers: ditch your toothpaste.
In a video that has circulated widely online, Saladino demonstrates how to blend five pantry ingredients into what he describes as a superior alternative to commercial dental hygiene products.
“Conventional toothpaste is a scam,” he wrote in the caption accompanying the clip.
The recipe he presents is simple enough. Three heaping tablespoons of coconut oil, two tablespoons of baking soda, two tablespoons of bentonite clay, food-grade hydrogen peroxide diluted to 3%, and a few drops of peppermint essential oil.
“Coconut oil has antimicrobial properties,” he explains in the video, while characterizing baking soda as “a gentle abrasive.” He also credits the bentonite clay with a particular benefit, explaining that it “has a negative charge, so it pulls out metals, potentially other toxins from your mouth and gums.”
He even cautions viewers against using a metal spoon to mix the paste, citing concern that the clay might “pull trace metals out of the metal spoon.” The irony embedded in that warning appears entirely lost on him.
According to sources, Bentonite clay and other natural healing clays have been found to carry meaningful concentrations of arsenic and lead. Research published in the Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science found that topical application of green clay paste resulted in the accumulation of lead in the liver and kidneys of test subjects, with the clay samples themselves registering elevated arsenic and lead levels.
The study concluded these products “should be used with caution,” particularly in contexts involving lead exposure or organ function. Rubbing a lead-containing stuff across your gums twice a day is hardly the detoxifying ritual Saladino is selling.
Then there is the matter of what his toothpaste is missing. Fluoride, the ingredient he implicitly dismisses when urging followers to abandon “garbage fluoride-filled toothpaste,” is not a scam.
It is one of the most rigorously studied and consistently effective tools in preventive dentistry, with decades of evidence supporting its role in strengthening enamel and reducing decay. Removing it from the equation does not make a dental product more natural. It makes it less effective.
For those who have followed Saladino’s career, the toothpaste pivot carries a familiar rhythm. He spent years as one of the loudest voices in the carnivore diet space, building an audience around absolute certainty.
Additionally, he wrote a book championing the carnivore approach as the optimal way for humans to eat. Then, quietly, the diet was modified to include fruit, without much in the way of explanation to the followers who had restructured their lives around his previous guidance.
His relationship with protein powder followed a similar arc. Saladino was previously unambiguous: “Why would you eat or drink a protein powder that is highly processed that is going to degrade so many of the vital nutrients in your food? Stop eating those bulls**t foods. Focus on real meat and organs. Whey protein, soy protein, beef protein isolate, they’re bulls**t.”
That video has since been removed from the internet, timed with the launch of his own whey protein product through his brand Heart and Soil, which he now describes as “the best whey protein powder on the planet.”
Fitness researcher and PhD Dr. Layne Norton has been among the more vocal critics tracking these reversals, noting not only the inconsistency of Saladino’s positions but also the selectivity with which he applies scientific skepticism.
Saladino has repeatedly dismissed epidemiological research as unreliable, particularly studies linking saturated fat or LDL cholesterol to cardiovascular disease. Yet he has been observed citing epidemiological data on Joe Rogan’s podcast when the findings aligned with his preferred conclusions. The credibility of a study, in his framework, appears to correlate with whether it supports his current stance.
Norton has been clear that changing one’s mind is not the problem. He has done it publicly himself, walking back earlier positions on intermittent fasting with a transparent explanation of what new evidence prompted the shift. What erodes trust is the pattern of declaring something categorically harmful or worthless and then marketing a version of that same thing without acknowledgment or accountability.
The toothpaste video closes with Saladino urging viewers to “send this video to somebody you know who’s using garbage fluoride-filled toothpaste and needs to make a natural one that is way better.”
Given what the research says about bentonite clay and what the evidence says about fluoride, that recommendation runs directly against the interests of the people he is asking his audience to reach.
