Matt has always led an active lifestyle in Sydney, Australia, and tried his best to follow the changing nutrition guidelines over the years. In his early fifties, Matt’s joint pain left him unable to enjoy his favorite sport, surfing.
“The mainstream demonization of animal fats left me scared of animal products for most of my adult life,” Matt shares with Revero coach Brooke. “I ate so much spinach in my twenties, and all the oxalates led me to have to use crutches.” Spinach contains over 500 mg of oxalates per serving. High levels of oxalate can bind to calcium, making it more likely for someone to develop kidney stones and inhibiting the body from proper mineral absorption. It’s quite common for those on a carnivore diet to experience “oxalate dumping” once vegetables are removed from the diet. This process can take weeks or months, or even longer, depending on how much oxalates a person has built up over time.
“I had no idea that possibly could be from anything that I was eating, so I continued to eat massive amounts of lectins through chickpeas and salad,” Matt recalls. Suffering from joint pain in his shoulder, hips, and knees, Matt was looking for ways to keep up his active lifestyle. “Two years ago, a friend of mine mentioned the keto diet, and I had never heard of it. I was around 250 pounds at the time, and I lost about 20 pounds my first year or so with keto.”
Matt was learning more about the effects of lectins from plant foods, and came across a carnivore diet. “It sounded nuts!” he recalls, but he noticed his joint pain quickly went away once he made the switch. “It’s been ten months now, and I feel great. I’ve started to shrink my body fat, and at 53, I can wear the clothing size I used to wear in my thirties.” Matt lost an additional 20 pounds since following a meat-based diet, and no longer has shoulder pain. “I can surf again!”
Matt keeps his meals very simple, and admittedly doesn’t like cooking. He started with oxtail and biltong, a type of jerky common in Australia, and began making his own bone broth. “I cook steak and three eggs in my bone broth, it’s next-level amazing!” Matt aims to eat nose-to-tail, and includes oxtail, liver, heart, and fatty cuts of steak. “I eat three meals between 6am and 2pm.” Matt is an outdoor laborer, and finds he has plenty of energy throughout the day. “I’m more calm, and I feel strong and nourished.”
For those new to a carnivore diet, Matt recommends doing what he did, and try a 30-day challenge. It’s a good way to commit to the lifestyle (without cheating!) and see what meat can do for the body. He felt so good after his first 30 days, that he decided to continue on with it ever since. “I’d like to thank everyone, including Dr. Shawn Baker, who has gotten the word out about this secret to nutrition,” Matt says. Now, as a certified Revero coach himself, Matt enjoys surfing and is looking forward to helping others get their health back!
