Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

You Don't Need Carbs to Survive | Gut Health Q&A

19 Mar 2025 · 1 min

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0:37

Short transcript from a YouTube video (Aaron Hartman, MD) answering a viewer question about minimum carbohydrate requirements and discussing dietary deficiencies. Main claims: the minimum carbohydrate requirement to survive is zero; fats and protein are required; many Americans are deficient in potassium (claimed 90–100%) and magnesium (claimed 8%); meat and bone broth are cited as good potassium sources.

Questions this video answers

You don't need any — it's zero.

90 to 100% (depending on the study).

8%.

Meat (bone broth specifically mentioned).

Chapters

What's the minimum amount of recommendation for carbohydrates to survive? You don't need any. There's. It's zero. There's reason. You do need fats, you do need protein. You don't need carbs. You'll get them from meat and other things. So what happens is you're getting a lot of protein, you detoxify better. But we also have massive deficiencies in trace minerals in our diets. We've done these hugely processed diet, you know, up to 90, depending on what study you look at. 90 to 100% of Americans are potassium deficient. 8% of Americans are magnesium deficient. What is one of the best sources of potassium? Meat. You know, bone broth is a great source of potassium. What are you doing? You take meat, you boil it out and you get potassium in it.