Max Lugavere

Genius Foods Lugavere's personal research culminated in his first book, Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life which debuted in March 2018. The book, co-authored with Paul Grewal, M.D.discusses the link between diet and brain health. Lugavere promotes a low-carbohydrate diet of grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and pasture-raised or omega-3 enriched eggs with low-carbohydrate fibrous vegetables, extra virgin olive oil and salt. Genius Foods became a New York Times bestseller and was followed by a podcast hosted by Lugavere, The Genius Life. Jarry noted that "Lugavere appears like a proponent of common-sense solutions to ill health—better nutrition, exercise and sleep—but it’s only when you start to trust him that he reveals himself to be a naive believer in anything that has a study behind it. His book has received endorsements from people like Dr. Oz and functional medicine proponent Mark Hyman, and this company is telling." and three years later he began a documentary project, initially launched on the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter. After a decade of development, Little Empty Boxes was released in April 2024. The film chronicles his mother’s struggle with dementia and also explores Lugavere's fringe ideas about nutrition. Alex Rudolph of Movie Jawn commented that the documentary lacked empathy for Lugavere's mother and concluded "I felt like I had watched somebody use their loved one's death to sell supplements".

Make America Healthy Again

Lugavere appeared as a panelist in a 2024 roundtable discussion led by Senator Ron Johnson titled "American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion," which Jarry described as "a masquerade". Other panelists included Jordan Peterson and Vani Hari. The chosen speakers criticized the food pyramid, pharmaceutical industry and seed oils. Lugavere is an opponent of seed oils and ultra-processed foods.

Lugavere suggested that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was the most qualified candidate as the new head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Opposition to veganism

Lugavere has been described as an "anti-vegan activist" by Joseph A. Schwarcz. He promotes a high-fat, meat-heavy diet and has been described as spending his time on social media complaining about "vegan propaganda". Lugavere has blamed plant-based and vegan diets for increasing risk of dementia and mental health problems. He has argued that eggs have been unfairly demonized by governments, despite containing choline which he says has been linked to lower dementia risk. Lugavere also recommends regular consumption of red meat for mental health.

Selected publicationsGenius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life (HarperWave, 2018) The Genius Life: Heal Your Mind, Strengthen Your Body, and Become Extraordinary (HarperCollins, 2020) Genius Kitchen: Over 100 Easy and Delicious Recipes to Make Your Brain Sharp, Body Strong, and Taste Buds Happy'' (Harper, 2022)