Followed By Mercy

Meat & Mercy: How the Carnivore Diet Changed Everything

• W. Austin Gardner

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Could eating only meat really change your life? For missionary mom Katie Gardner, the answer was a surprising yes.

After years of feeling unwell, exhausted, battling hormonal chaos, and hearing the phrase “your tests look normal” from doctors who had no real answers, Katie stumbled across a radical idea online: the carnivore diet. At first, it sounded ridiculous. But with nothing left to lose, she took the leap.

Those first three weeks weren’t easy. Doubts and withdrawal symptoms nearly sent her back to her old habits. But then something shifted. Sleep came easily. Energy returned. The mental fog and emotional rollercoaster faded, and the constant preoccupation with food disappeared. Katie found herself not just surviving, but living in the present with her family, freed from cravings, and feeling well for the first time in years.

In this episode, Katie sits down with her father-in-law, podcast host Austin Gardner, a missionary and cancer survivor who has his own reasons for embracing this way of eating. Together, they open up about what it’s like to eat ground beef, eggs, and bacon every day, why butter in your coffee isn’t as weird as it sounds, and how this simple approach brought unexpected healing.

If you’re tired of chasing answers that never seem to help, or if you’re curious about metabolic health and the link between food and faith, you’ll find hope and honesty here. Katie’s story is proof that sometimes the answers come from the most unexpected places.

Listen in for a candid and practical conversation about healing, freedom from food obsession, and how changing your diet can impact not just your body, but your soul.

Next week, join us as we explore how the carnivore diet affects emotional well-being and spiritual life, with stories from others who’ve found freedom on this path.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Austin Gardner:

Well, this is Austin Gardner, your host of, followed by Mercy, and today I am joined by one of my favorite people in the world. She probably got really stuck when God gave her a father-in-law, but this is Katie Gardner. She's David's wife, and David and Katie have three fantastic children, especially Chloe, who's sitting here right now giving a big thumbs up, and so they're all here visiting. David is down in Peru, he is at the Youth Congress, and so, katie, why don't you just give a word to the other sort?

Katie Gardner:

Well, hello, as my wonderful father-in-law said my name already. I walked into his house a few minutes ago and he decided to hook me up to a microphone, so we're about to see what happens. I was not expecting this, but always happy to have a conversation and hopefully be able to help some people. I don't know, we'll see. But yeah, I'm just going to kind of see what we dive into and what we talk about. But, yeah, looking forward to it.

Austin Gardner:

Well, first I think maybe it wouldn't hurt to give just a little bit of a background on who you are. You and David have been married. How long now?

Katie Gardner:

Almost 20 years. March will be 20 years.

Austin Gardner:

March will be 20.

Katie Gardner:

Yep, it's a big one.

Austin Gardner:

You're an old lady.

Katie Gardner:

I know. You're an old lady Getting on up there.

Austin Gardner:

And you have three children and they are. How old are they?

Katie Gardner:

Three wonderful kids Chloe just turned 15, Allie's almost 13, and James is nine.

Austin Gardner:

And what's really dangerous is Chloe now has a learner's permit. Hmm, All right. Now where do y'all serve? Tell them just a little bit about that.

Katie Gardner:

We are currently in the United States on our furlough we got back at the end of May but we live full-time in Peru, south America, in a city called Arequipa. It's a pretty big city in the southern part of the country, the second largest in the country, um, of about 2 million people ish, and, uh, we have the privilege of living there, uh, working in churches. Um, my husband is a pastor at Omega Baptist Church and is also the director of Macedonia um seminary there in Arequipa, and so we stay pretty busy between that, the church, kids and any other opportunities that present.

Austin Gardner:

They've got a lot of things You're fixing to try to start a Christian school right.

Katie Gardner:

Lord willing. Yeah, we would like to be able to do that in the coming future, in the coming days.

Austin Gardner:

Well. So there's a lot of exciting things going on and Katie has become more Peruvian in a lot of ways, I think, and she's a fantastic missionary wife. I really wanted to bring her on here today to talk to you because this is Followed by Mercy, and maybe the reason I'm still living with the cancer and all the stuff, and maybe the reason I'm as healthy as I am, is I changed my diet and so two years ago, this October, I was in Adikipa and Katie had just recently started, three or four months before that, the carnivore diet. And so, katie, after all, I really want to talk about. I really think, if you're listening and you'll let, if Katie will loosen up and tell the truth and just share her heart, it changed me, I think it's changed her and it's changed other people we know, and so and I think it has really a mercy that came my way. So, katie, tell us why did you go on to carnivore diet?

Katie Gardner:

So, for a lot of my life, I think, I struggled with a variety of health issues, some not so severe, some more severe.

Katie Gardner:

But in the last couple years leading up to that extreme change, I was really frustrated with how I felt, my energy, my sleep, um, I felt like I had hormonal imbalances, just, uh, I mean so many different things and I realized that there were actually more things than I knew.

Katie Gardner:

Uh, once I started feeling better, I realized that some of the things that I just thought were normal and just a part of you know, I don't know, I guess, getting older, um were actually things that weren't normal and could be reversed. And so, um, I had become really frustrated with my doctors. I'd had so much blood work done, um, I had even gone and checked for, um, a rare disease that my brother might've had, um called hemochromatosis. Uh, just to make sure that wasn't a thing. So I was really like grasping at straws, seeing a lot of different doctors, different specialties and every single bit of blood work. I got back basically told me that everything was in normal ranges and they didn't really know what to tell me and basically just kind of threw their hands up and were like you look good and I was like well, I don't feel good.

Austin Gardner:

So you already had two problems that we knew of that were pretty established right Gluten Right, I had discovered I had a sensitivity to gluten, unfortunately, and a thyroid condition.

Katie Gardner:

That all started probably in my teenage years, but was diagnosed and treated when I was about 24, I think.

Austin Gardner:

Now, you had just had a baby, wasn't it?

Katie Gardner:

Yes, right after Chloe was born, so I knew.

Austin Gardner:

I had the problem. Was it Chloe?

Katie Gardner:

Yes, I knew I had the problem with Chloe.

Austin Gardner:

She brought on the problem.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, it was all Chloe's fault. No, I had it before Chloe, but after Chloe was born I was able to no, I had to.

Katie Gardner:

I was able to be treated, but I had to be treated with radioactive iodine, um, and so, yeah, I was basically radioactive for a few days, is what that meant. Uh, but my thyroid was so crazy overactive that that's that's how they treat that. And so, yeah, when Chloe was about three months old four months old-ish I had that done and had to be like isolated for a few days, and then since then that's been pretty well controlled, haven't had any problems. So, yeah, those two things have been like long-term things.

Austin Gardner:

But those were actually pretty easy solutions compared to taking a drastic step. So why did you jump on? What made you say carnivore you could have?

Katie Gardner:

gone vegetarian or vegan, or you could have. Uh, you could have tried something else.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah Well, first of all, you, um, I said first of all ew, um, but no, I um okay. So social media is ridiculous and there's so many things about social media I don't like. But I was on social media and came across a page of a girl that was doing some bizarre diet and I thought it was the carnivore diet and I thought it was so strange and couldn't believe that someone would eat that way. I thought this is absurd, it's not balanced. How do you get what your body needs by just eating, basically, meat and animal products? It just seemed really strange to me and, for whatever reason, I saw her a couple of times on my page and I decided to investigate just for like sheer curiosity, because I just thought it was weird and bizarre. So the more I dove in, the more I realized like a good amount of people seem to be doing this for a variety of reasons, including autoimmune disorders, hormone imbalances, problems with skin like eczema, psoriasis, acne, anything skin related other chemical imbalances.

Austin Gardner:

I was talking to somebody this week that had done the carnivore because of us, and right now they're off again and they said boy, when I look back at my pictures I can even tell my skin was so much better.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, yeah, people have told me that I look my skin years different.

Austin Gardner:

It was a lady that told me that.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, so but yeah, there's a ton of different reasons that a ton of different people were doing it, but I just thought it was really odd. So, because I was kind of at my wits end, uh, very disenchanted with the medical field at that point and the lack of help I was getting. Uh, I started looking into it and listening to doctors who were big advocates of this diet, like, um, not just like health people, but like actual doctors, who were explaining to me why they liked this diet, why it worked and why people were seeing results. And so I talked to David, my husband. I was like I think I'm going to try this for a month and just see how it goes, because you can do anything for a month and not mess yourself up too bad, right? Um, you can drink diet Coke and eat Wendy's for a month and probably not kill yourself. So I was like you know I can always. So, yeah, I started my experiment and it was pretty rough. I'm a very black and white in and out type of person.

Katie Gardner:

I don't tend to ease into things as you are, so you can't chuckle too hard at me because you're the same way. But I cut everything off. Basically from one day to the next I went from eating your typical standard Western diet all the carbs, all the sugar, all the whatever. I felt like Western diet. You know, all the carbs, all the sugar, all the whatever. I felt like um to nothing, but mostly red meat, eggs, some cheese, um, I mean, I eat chicken and pork. I really had no idea what I was doing and what I needed to be eating, but I was like I'm going to do it. So it was pretty rough. For about three weeks I was very sick, low energy, uh, hungry a lot because I didn't know what I was doing.

Austin Gardner:

Some people get diarrhea for a whole month.

Katie Gardner:

Oh yeah, Well, I did that too. It was really rough.

Austin Gardner:

I don't think I had that problem. I got constipated.

Katie Gardner:

Well, I was struggling To the point I told David. I said I said I'm going to give it a month. I'm going to give it a month If I get to a month. And I still feel like this. I'm done, like I can't keep living this way. Because I was irritable with my kids, I was tired all the time, I didn't feel like doing anything ever.

Austin Gardner:

It was just rough. I think Andrea did this and she had no energy.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, it was rough.

Austin Gardner:

She couldn't stand it.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, it was horrible, and so I felt worse than I did before. I went on, and they call that you know that cute little name keto flu. I didn't think it was keto flu, but I was online, I was looking stuff up, I was like how long is this supposed to last? And people were like, oh, it lasted five days, lasted a week, and I'm like I'm almost at a month. What's wrong with me?

Katie Gardner:

So, um, after a month, though, I began to notice some changes in my sleep and waking up in the morning and not feeling like groggy and like I could sleep another two hours like getting up, and then I would stay up all day. I didn't need like my afternoon nap, like I was like, oh, I can. Just, you know, I can keep doing whatever I don't, I don't feel like I need to go lay down. And then, um, I began to feel better, and just a variety of different ways. The first initial ways were my energy and my sleep. I noticed a difference, and I really liked that. I had like really good sleep at night. It felt like a really good energy during the day, and so, from my one month experiment, I told David, I said I think I might go for three months and see what happens in three months, since I'm starting. So I don't really want to cut it off yet because I'm starting to feel better and that was now over two years ago and I'm still running the experiment, I guess.

Austin Gardner:

So so what? When did you start?

Katie Gardner:

I started on July 6th I think August, september, october, so three months, in July 6th.

Austin Gardner:

I got in there three months later.

Katie Gardner:

Yep.

Austin Gardner:

And by then you were feeling good.

Katie Gardner:

Yes, by then I was like.

Austin Gardner:

And you'd learned.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, I'd learned some stuff because I was eating a lot more lean. At first I didn't realize that if you're not eating carbohydrates, you've got to have the fat if you're going to have energy, and so I learned that eating a lot of butter, the more fatty cuts of meat, not such lean chicken when I ate chicken I don't need a ton of chicken, but yeah, and cooking and good healthy fats also was like a big deal. But initially I didn't know anything. I was just like fumbling around in the dark listening to stuff, reading stuff, trying to figure it out as I went along.

Austin Gardner:

I'm going to be doing this with her maybe two or three episodes, and so we'll talk about it in just a minute. But since this is even our first one, why don't you tell them a couple, three people they ought to look up that they might want to consider, because they can get them on YouTube. They're everywhere, right?

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, so some of the people that I listened to initially that I really liked were Ken Berry. He's a family doctor.

Austin Gardner:

Ken K-E-N Berry B-E-R-R-Y.

Katie Gardner:

Yes, Ken Berry.

Austin Gardner:

You may find him easily on YouTube.

Katie Gardner:

Yes, he's mostly on YouTube. He doesn't have an actual podcast like some of the other doctors, but Ken Berry is a really good one.

Austin Gardner:

I really like him and you know he's from Middle Tennessee, he's from Tennessee, yeah, so I really like him. He's a country boy.

Katie Gardner:

Yes, I like him a lot, but he made everything that seemed like it should be really complicated, like he put it down at a level where I could understand it and made you know, gave really simple instructions on how to start and how to maintain, so he was really good. I also listened to a guy named Anthony Chafee, who is another uh doctor. He's a brain surgeon actually and he's a really big uh. Anthony, and then C, h, a, double F, e, e, if I'm not mistaken. Not mistaken Dr.

Austin Gardner:

Anthony Chafee, I think it's.

Katie Gardner:

Chafee he's another good one, someone else that I listened to initially.

Austin Gardner:

You don't listen to Sean Baker.

Katie Gardner:

Sean Baker. I have some, but I never really listened, Not for any particular reason, just didn't ever really.

Austin Gardner:

For a guy that's thinking you'd be weak sean baker's like 50 something years old goodness, he's like a record-setting machine too.

Katie Gardner:

He does all this weightlifting, competitive stuff.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah, he's crazy and he's uh, he's, he's uh, only uh, carnivore yes, he is very strict, like he doesn't.

Katie Gardner:

I think he only eats steak, if I'm mistaken, so he doesn't dabble in a whole lot of anything else, even like the cheese and the eggs and all that.

Austin Gardner:

And they can also look up. If they were interested, they could go. Uh, jordan Peterson.

Katie Gardner:

Oh, jordan Peterson and his daughter Michaela both have very interesting stories about what the carnivore diet did for them. Um, and that was really interesting to me to listen to, especially Michaela, who had her lifelong health struggles and surgeries and things from the time she was a child and how she maintains good health.

Austin Gardner:

She had a bunch of joints and bones.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, it was some kind of arthritis, but it was, I think, degenerative and so it was going to affect her.

Austin Gardner:

the rest of her life. It was destroying her life.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, yeah, basically. So, yeah, they're both really good people to listen to. They both talk about it. I think she does more than he does. She's a really big advocate, because it really changed.

Austin Gardner:

He has a little bit. You can find him on YouTube also.

Katie Gardner:

Oh yeah, he's everywhere, I think I. I think she is. She's pretty easy to find as well on social media, youtube, you know. If you Google her name, she's a pretty big deal, I think so she's easy to find.

Austin Gardner:

So before we get off, tell them what. Give us somebody listening. You know I want you to understand it helped, and we'll talk about the things that maybe Katie got victory over later. I will say this for any of you listening I've got cancer and you know what feeds cancer more than anything is sugar, mm-hmm, and everything turns to sugar. But that's how your body operates, except protein, and so your body is trained to live off of protein. Can you give them a couple of minute explanation of the difference? Because you're using protein and ketosis.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, you're mostly because of the high fat and the high protein. You're mostly in a state of ketosis pretty much all the time. I mean you can come in and out of it. It's not like I'm probably not constantly 100% of time in ketosis, but I spend a lot of time in ketosis and because there's no sugar and starches going into my body, my body is fueled by, you know, fat, my fat, my fat reserves and the fat that I take in and um, there is some.

Katie Gardner:

I don't have all the articles here in front of me right now, but I have seen there's some interesting articles and doctors studying this in reference to different cancers and seeing how the lack of sugar and, uh, the state, a state of ketosis, is very beneficial for different cancers, different illnesses. I think they know this in children with epilepsy. They've for a long time now recommended a ketogenic diet for epileptic seizures and seeing great results. But now the field seems to be spreading a bit more and looking into therapeutic benefits for other diseases like cancer and even prevention of Alzheimer's and brain degeneration, neurodegenerative diseases and things like that. So it's very interesting, but I think it's probably more in early stages.

Austin Gardner:

I would like to say to any of you listening, you know, the one interesting thing is, if you check out, there's a guy on the web. It's got Chris Beat Cancer, I believe it's called, and he's a vegan or a vegetarian, one or the other. But the one thing that everybody that I read after that's beaten cancer would tell you no refined foods and no sugar.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah.

Austin Gardner:

And I would just say this to you, After you've listened to us just chew the fat. If you say I'm not interested in being a carnivore, at least consider how much sugar you're putting in.

Katie Gardner:

Yeah.

Austin Gardner:

Because I'm eating up with cancer and you don't want to be there. Any further things on this particular episode, Katie.

Katie Gardner:

I don't know, I don't know if you have anything else you want to know.

Austin Gardner:

Okay, I'll tell you what we will talk on the very next one, but could you give them a rundown what you eat?

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, so I eat a lot of ground beef. I make burgers, I make meatballs.

Austin Gardner:

It's so expensive if you're a carnivore, yes, I mean it can be, especially if you're eating steak all the time.

Katie Gardner:

So I'm the only one in my family that eats strictly this way. I do feed my family a more meat heavy diet now and less, definitely less sugar, less junk food and all that. Sometimes my kids complain they're like you just want us to be a carnivore and I'm like I wish. But I do try to feed them healthier. But I mean, there's a lot of recipes out there but I would say I eat a lot of ground beef eggs. I love bacon. I still drink coffee.

Austin Gardner:

That's your one sin for the carnivore right. I love my coffee, but to be fair, three different times.

Katie Gardner:

I've gone off of coffee to try to see if I felt any different, because I'm willing to give up whatever if I can feel better and I saw no difference. And these were spans of one week to three weeks. I would go off one time a month, I think, and just never really felt the difference. So, um, but yes, my coffee is loaded full of butter and heavy cream and that is how I like to drink it.

Austin Gardner:

Everybody listening Is that. Does that sound weird to you? Cause it sounds weird to me. You've taught your mother-in-law to do the same thing, so why don't you, would you say. But so you just take a stick of butter and stick it in your cup.

Katie Gardner:

No, if we're talking a stick of butter, I'd say about a fourth of a stick, maybe.

Austin Gardner:

Can you believe that? A fourth of a stick melted into your coffee.

Katie Gardner:

I love the butter, but see, when I get up in the morning, that's like my first boost of energy, like I can drink that and, because it's so much fat, like I have energy for forever after that. A wonderful thing about this that I feel like I just absolutely love eating. This way, my blood sugar stays so stable that even when I'm hungry I don't feel an urgent need to eat. I can wait. For the first time in my life, I don't deal with hypoglycemia.

Austin Gardner:

So you don't have hangry.

Katie Gardner:

No not anymore. I used to oh yeah, I used to oh yeah, I used to big time Like I've got to eat now or I'm going to kill you or die or something. But now I have the stable blood sugar. So I get up in the morning, I have my coffee with my heavy cream and butter and I'm good for a while.

Austin Gardner:

For breakfast you'll put on a bunch of eggs.

Katie Gardner:

If I do eat breakfast. I love eggs and bacon. Yes, eggs and bacon are a staple in my house, along with ground beef. I don't eat a ton of expensive steaks. I do like pork and chicken Also. I love chicken wings and I love pork belly, but I would say most of what I consume is red meat and just a lot of ground beef cooked a lot of different ways Tacos, meatballs, burgers Um, what else have I done? I don't know. I can't different like soups and different things. I don't know. I have a whole list of recipes I follow, but it's not super expensive, it's not outrageous, uh, to eat this way either. I mean, if you're going to eat filet mignon every day, yes, but there are definitely ways to do it where you're not breaking the bank.

Austin Gardner:

Let's be honest, though. What do you spend on sodas for you? Oh my goodness.

Katie Gardner:

I don't drink sodas.

Austin Gardner:

But they do. I don't keep sodas in the house. I'm talking about regular people listening or saying it's really expensive.

Katie Gardner:

I have no idea what people spend on sodas in a week.

Austin Gardner:

Okay.

Katie Gardner:

Or chips or cereal?

Austin Gardner:

Yeah, I don't know they're going to have cereals.

Katie Gardner:

Cereal is expensive, though Pop tarts, pop tarts. It all adds up. It all adds up, and I know for a fact that I eat less times a day than everyone else in my family because I'm not hungry. I eat well, I eat usually twice a day, no snacks, and I'm not hungry. I'm not hangry. I'm not having blood sugar issues. I'm not even thinking about food, I'm just living my life.

Austin Gardner:

Well, I think what she just said there, it's not about food anymore, right?

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, it's not.

Austin Gardner:

It's always been about food for me. I mean I've lost probably 80 pounds from my height, and I mean it's always been about food for me. Yeah, I mean I've lost probably 80 pounds from my height, yeah, and I mean it's always been about food. When I found out my cancer was back in it, they didn't think there was much hope. I told Betty. I said, well, I'm just going to enjoy it until I die. And so I gained a lot of weight, mushroomed up. And then Katie goes hey Dad, what about it?

Katie Gardner:

Yeah, well, so yeah, well, it is nice for me. I was definitely someone that thought about food a lot. I love food, I like all kinds of different types of foods, flavors, fusions, textures, like all of it, and so I think for me it was really difficult to wrap my head around being so what some people would consider restrictive, but at the end of the day, what I found was freedom from like obsessing over it, the blood sugar, the being the hungry all the time, the not feeling well after the bad sleep, the low energy, and so now I get to do a lot of things that I love, and I thank God that you know I have good energy to be able to spend time with my kids, to enjoy being around my husband and not feeling like, you know, I'm moody or crashing or need a break from everyone or whatever. So I traded my love for food for a more energetic and content life, I would say.

Austin Gardner:

Okay, I want to talk about all that and I want to talk to them about I mean, I really think it should be. This is followed by Mercy podcast, and that's what I'm calling it now. I think that learning the diet really changes your life in more than diet, and so I now would say I eat to live. I used to live to eat. I think that's totally changed. It's like, honestly, you're not tempted with some of that, but anyway, we'll get to that next time and I thank you for listening and I want to challenge you to consider the idea of the carnivore diet. If you'll come back, we're going to talk about what it does to your emotions. We're going to talk about what it does to your spiritual life and then we're going to talk about some of the different things that we've seen change in people's lives because they went on the carnivore diet.

Austin Gardner:

And you know, honestly, I believe I've done a whole lot on here about the Lord is my shepherd and I would just say to you I believe he leads us and shows us where to go. I believe God used, he worked in Katie's life, one of the most wonderful ladies I've ever known. He worked in her life, but then God used her to show me and I thought she was crazy. But because it was Katie, it was like my daughter. I said, no, I'm going to do what she says. I did it for a month and now it's been a year and well, it'll be two years in October, so you come back. I really think it'll be good Share this with somebody and we'll talk about it again tomorrow. God bless you.

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