Until five years ago Derek Nance couldn’t stomach any foods and was very sick. Doctors told Derek he must have an allergy of some sorts and advised him to try various diets in order to determine the cause of his illness. He tried every kind of diet out there and was even a vegan for a while until he discovered the only thing that cured him – raw meat.

While researching the mysterious affliction that no one knew how to cure, Derek Nance stumbled upon a guy with a similar condition who told him  that the only way he could stay healthy was by following a very strict diet consisting only of raw meats. This regime was created by a dentist called Weston Price who was very interested in raw food. According to him, primitive humans who lived on a diet based on raw foods were much healthier, so it’s logical to assume that eating raw was more natural and thus healthier. Although skeptical, Nance had tried so many diets and was so desperate that he thought he’d give this one a try as well. The first raw meat he ate was that of his goats, which he had become tired of milking, and soon enough, he was only eating raw muscles, tendons, organs and fat. At first he suffered from diarrhea and had a strange irony taste in the back of his throat as a result of blood consumption. He calls this his body’s adaptation period to him becoming a carnivore, but he soon got used to the bizarre eating habit, and now he actually loves the irony taste and is healthier than he’s ever been.

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All of Derek’s meals consist of chunks of various meats, fat, organs and connective tissue as well as clotted blood which supplies his body with plenty of much-needed vitamin C. Since he began eating raw, Nance discovered his stomach lacked the enzymes needed to process starchy foods. To help with his faulty digestion, he eats rotten meat, a natural probiotic. He’s so pleased by how much this diet has helped him that he even brushes his teeth with animal fat. As he sees it, there’s really no downside to this lifestyle except for the social stigma. His friends and family have completely different views on his food preferences, but he embraces his choice and everything that comes with it.

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Furthermore, tired of having to always “hunt” for the tastiest animal and struggle to get it back to his house, Nance became a butcher. He loves his job and is very open and comfortable talking about cracking skulls, eating brains and other such things that seem morbid to most people, including his vegetarian girlfriend Joanne, who owns a vegan juice bar. Fortunately for him, she’s very understanding of his eating habits.

Source: VICE.com