Twenty-one-year-old Marcelo suffered from bothersome and often embarrassing symptoms from poor gut health, and also struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) from age 14.
Before he discovered the carnivore way of eating, Marcelo followed vegan and later a raw vegan diet, which resulted in horrible bloating, constant gas, and overall digestive distress. “I couldn’t tolerate carbohydrates very much,” he recalls. “I would immediately bloat up and become gassy.” For two years, Marcelo adopted a ketogenic diet, which resolved most of his gut issues, but he still suffered from poor mental health, acne, and lack of mental clarity.
Finally, he switched over to a carnivore diet, which eliminated the “keto sweets”, plants, and high quantity of nuts he had been including in his diet. “I noticed when I ate a lot of almonds, I would get a bad headache, and if I ate a lot of plants my throat would hurt.” Eliminating these foods seems to have been the key to his turning point. “Even more so than with keto, my mind is more clear and my OCD has almost entirely gone away.” Marcelo shares that he now has better control over his thoughts and feelings, and he describes feeling calm and no longer hyperactive.
While some may find the carnivore lifestyle to be boring, Marcelo feels quite the opposite. His diet consists mainly of burgers, which he cooks from frozen to help eliminate the histamine reaction to ground beef. “I eat two times a day now,” he explains. “I’m happy eating my burgers, and I’m satiated and can always wait until the next meal. I can easily skip a meal if I need to.” For the sake of variety, he also includes some bacon, other cuts of pork, and cream into his regimen.
With this simple eating plan, Marcelo has found it easier to build muscle and recover in between workouts, noting that his strength improved after the initial transition phase to full carnivore. “Once I was eating enough to become satiated, my muscles no longer hurt so much when I trained at the gym. I am now gaining muscle and losing fat more easily.” He also noticed his skin tolerates the sun, and no longer burns as easily. “I never expected a diet to work so well like this!”
Marcelo became interested in learning more about nutrition, and how changing what he eats could provide healing for issues that had plagued him since childhood. “Now my gut feels very clean and very healthy. I’m very happy to solve my issues with nutrition. My gut issues were such a big part of my life, and now I can say that was all in my past.”
Today, Marcelo is a coach and enjoys helping others along in their carnivore journey. “So many people don’t even know this is an option,” he says. “It’s really mind-blowing how much things can change with this diet, even things you didn’t notice before that are better now.”
