Should Hockey Players be eating Animal Based?

Hey Hockey Hacks Community

Some of you know my opinions on diet, and what I do for my diet. Some of you think I’m crazy, and you have every right to think that!

But this article details my motivation to trying it out, and some cases for why I think it would work very well for hockey players.

Disclaimer: I am NOT A REGISTERED DIETITIAN OR NUTRITION COACH. Check with your doctor before making any dietary changes
(well, I *legally* have to say this. I did not check with my doctors before trying this.)

I’ve been on what’s called an animal based diet since late September of 2022. I had tested it out, slowly eliminating many foods I used to eat starting from May 2022, and this has completely shifted how I view nutrition and food in addition to contributing to changing my physique.

Meat. Fruit. Honey. Raw Dairy. That is what makes an “animal based” diet. And that’s the general base of my current diet.

But wait! Is it not true that red meat causes colon cancer and heart disease? Is it not true that fruit, honey, and excess sugars causes diabetes? Is it not true that raw dairy can kill you (according to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, yes this is true)?

If I listened to the US government’s metrics for nutrition and health, I should be setting myself up for a life of absolute misery with my current diet. But that doesn’t appear to be happening to me.

Some background is needed.

The first mention I heard that, contrary to popular belief, red meat is actually healthy, was an interview with Jordan Peterson. Apparently, an all-meat diet cured major autoimmune diseases in himself and his family. Actually it was his daughter, Mikhaila Peterson, who discovered that an all-meat diet cured her problems, and then she shared her results with her father (she calls this a Lion Diet). Jordan detailed in JRE #1139 that he lost over 50 pounds, stopped snoring, started waking up properly in the morning, had his depression cured, and most weird of all had a complete reverse in gum disease symptoms which is supposed to be incurable.

Now neither of these two are renounced dietary experts. But as Jordan states, “After you talk to a thousand or more people with the same anecdote, you no longer have an anecdote. You have a hypothesis.”

This story initially got me interested in changing what I ate to only meat and greens, primarily chicken and broccoli. What I did differently was kept condiments like Frank’s Hot Sauce, Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbeque sauce, and Ranch Dressing, all of which are terrible for you and not part of the diet. But this matters for me because this was the start.

Another turning point that got me interested in meat and fruit/veggies approach was Ben Patrick’s diet, which he details out in Mark Bell’s Power Project #672 and JRE #1766. “I’ll have a coffee in the morning, because I want to get working and not have to think about eating. Once we finish our workout, I go to a local place and get a steak and eggs or a rotisserie chicken. Then I’ll have another serving of the protein for dinner. But I also study to see what fruit is in-season, and I’ll fill a whole bowl like a king for dessert. So I basically eat meat and fruit.”

In March of 2022, I met about 10 fellow ATG Coaches, or people associated with ATG including Ian Irby, Patrick Bell, Andres Rodriquez-Story, Max Hernandez, Wade Houchin, Jason Lane, Cory Dean (who was the host at his gym), and many others I’m sorry to say I forget. We had a dinner together that was exclusively steak, eggs, and fruit to end the weekend. A month later, the first time I met Ben Patrick and many other ATG coaches for a 2 day expo in April 2022, we were served steak with avocado and fruit. All 150–200 of us! Eating this way with many other people who were doing the same made me want to continue.

When I got back home, I began to look at where I could start. I bought anything that was grass-fed beef and bought more fruit and honey than I ever had before. Over the next couple months, my stove started to get covered in beef fat from all of it that splashed over my pans I forgot to cover up.

But I had a problem. The gyms I was going to were more than 30 minutes away from my apartment. I was working out for about 2 hours at least 5 days of the week, and starving when I walked out. So I ended up still eating at places like Chipotle, Qdoba, Popeyes, “home prepped meals” from a convenience store called Kwik Trip, and then drove home. Then at home, I would drink half a gallon of Nesquik chocolate milk, extra chocolatey; and I’m not ashamed to say that I would also pour scoops of that powder like I was doing the cinnamon challenge every day.

I’m probably missing some other details, as I don’t have a camera on me 24 hours of the day to tell you what exactly I ate, not to mention I don’t have any food logs and add the fact that the United State is notorious for unethical chemical management in their food products. So I won’t be able to get every single detail.

However, here is what started my change over the months from May 2022 to October 2022. Over this period, the only constant was my food at home — beef, fruit of my choice, raw honey, and nesquik chocolate milk.

My first food swap was changing my Chipotle and Qdoba burrito’s paired with queso and chips into bowls with queso and chips. I continued that for a couple weeks, and just ate more at home if I felt hungry.

Next was swapping the condiments I had at home and in my bowls, which I include the Hot sauces from both Chipotle and Qdoba, for more honey.

Then I stopped going to Popeyes (I went once every month for 3 years).

Then I eliminated beans from my bowls.

Then I did something I heard from one of my Texas friends, I think either Andres or Cory — eating Wendy’s patties. I swapped Wendy’s patties for every time I craved chips and queso. Within a week, the chip cravings went away.

Then I got rid of rice from my bowls, and swapped extra meat. For about 1 and 1/2 months, I would get a double meat bowl at either Chipotle or Qdoba, then get 3 patties from Wendy’s on my way home.

So during this time, I was eating the steak and chicken from Chipotle or Qdoba with cheese and sour cream, and adding Wendy’s patties with cheese on my way home from the gym, which I remind you was over 30 minutes away from my home.

This was how I started Animal Based. Simple swaps over a period of time.

But at the time, I knew this wasn’t sustainable. My lunches cost over $25 EACH! I just could not get myself to eat at home with how far away it was.

This all changed in September 2022 when I moved to where I currently live now. My gym is now less than 5 minutes away. A perfect spot and a perfect time to cook everything from home. A perfect time to go as full animal based as I could.

In October 2022, I eliminated my last major craving — nesquik chocolate milk. That was a 20+ year craving, so it basically dates back to when I was an infant. My final food swap was low-temp-pasteurized milk with honey. I was officially Animal Based.

My initial start on Animal Based was interesting. I had a lot of heart burn, very likely due to the massive spike in fat intake. I had to take an antacid every other day for a month while my body adjusted. Occasionally I had to use the restroom more often than not, although compared to others who’ve had worse restroom experiences I was doing okay.

But my energy remained increasingly elevated compared to where I was over a year previously. My workouts in the morning when I intermittently fasted were still up to par. I was still much more clear-headed and I could do tons of work during the day. And aside from the pressure I put on myself, nothing seemed doomy and gloomy.

Aside from the extra energy, the first physical change I saw with my body was an elimination of acne. We know acne is an autoimmune condition, and not something that angsty teens deal with because “their hormones are changing.” I don’t believe that. If I can get rid of acne with a change in my lifestyle, when it was supposed to go away for me when I reached age 17 but continued until age 22, then these teenagers can change too. My skin also started to look darker, even without sun or extra vitamin D that I could’ve had. Granted, I still had eczema on my elbows and knees, but they were also much much better than years and years before. In March of 2023, I added raw milk to my diet, and have not looked back. If you want to know what cured my life long eczema problem, look no further to my success here. Along with my meat, fruit, and honey, raw milk and raw cheese and other raw dairies have been overall incredible for me.

Now, I should note some caveats. I have tested different fruits, and have landed on mangoes, pineapples, and frozen chopped bananas as my go-to fruits. I find I don’t do well with berries, including blueberries and strawberries which I’d eat more if they didn’t cause me heart burn. I ate avocados for a long time, but eliminated them in February 2023 at the same time I had a reaction to a medication I took for a staph infection on my thighs, which affected everything else I ate at the time. Aside from this medicine disaster, I feel like avocados make me very bloated. But the foods I had supposed problems with are probably due to me eating too much of it, although the only food I can eat a lot of and feel okay is any kind of meat. I have also re-introduced rice and gotten rid of it a number of times. White rice in small quantities seems manageable for me at the moment. Also, I drink 1/2–1 cup of coffee every morning, which is not part of an animal based diet. Overall I do okay with coffee and am aware of both sides of how it’s good for you and how it’s not good for you.

So my current diet consists of 85–15 beef, about 2–3lbs per day, raw milk, raw kefir, occasionally raw parmesan cheese, mangoes, frozen bananas, raw honey, coffee, bio-available supplements like creatine, Surpo Amino Hydrate, Heart and Soil’s Whole Package (desiccated organs), lime and lemon, and salt. On emergency bases, I will eat patties or steaks from restaurants if I’m eating out, and ask about the oil they’re cooked in.

No, I don’t eat vegetables.

So what does my nutrition story mean for hockey players like you? You don’t have to believe me on anything I’ve written here. Like I mentioned earlier, there are likely MANY details that I’m missing. But the very fact that I can list out 99% of everything I’m eating tells you the most important takeaway — there’s no question you need to pay attention to what you’re ingesting if you want the best performance.

I believe an animal based diet is very manageable for hockey players. For one, meat is very very difficult to have problems with, and those who do likely have had an artificial circumstance happen to them, rather than an evolutionarily consistent circumstance. It gives you the energy and recovery you need, with so many bio-available nutrients. And it tastes great! Honey is tasty too, fruit equally so. If you can tolerate vegetables, that’s okay to have and definitely WAY better than the SAD standard american diet. In my opinion, there’s a reason broccoli and spinach taste bad without seasoning and cooking, and it’s because they don’t want you to eat them. But if you’re okay with them, go ahead and eat as you please.

Also, eat as much as you want. I believe restriction is not the way to go, and leads to less compliance. I personally don’t track my calories for this reason. I eat until I’m full, prioritizing the meat to fill me up first.

But imagine you’re getting ready for a big game. Would you perform better with less stomach weight or more stomach weight? I align with a common suggestion that eating a meal 3–4 hours before either your workout or game is most optimal.

If you do decide to commit to this, it may take a while, possibly way longer than me. I will mention that I attribute this now extreme awareness of what I eat to my peanut allergy. I believe my peanut allergy awareness made it easier for me to try different ways of eating, because with that allergy I’m primed for the approach that I don’t want to eat anything that would kill me.

For each of you reading this, you will have a different path. The simplest way to dietary change is one swap at a time. There is no need to rush. Even adding an extra egg to your breakfast so you eat 3 eggs instead of 2 is enough of a change. Take microsteps. And when you take enough, you’ll have the radical shift in your life and performance you’ve always desired.

People I follow on the Animal Based / Carnivore Diet:

Paul Saladino MD

Anthony Chaffee MD

Shawn Baker MD

Mikhaila Peterson

Yours in Hockey Hacks,
Mason