In 2013, I identified Matt Buschmann as a man with the capability to lead a baseball organization both nutritionally and from a training perspective. My assessment is informed by his devotion to trial and error, willingness to devour new information and apply data. Of course, he is also an elite athlete with the mental strength to grind through years of minor league baseball, hurdle after hurdle. His brain is unlike most pro pitchers. Listen up:
As a professional athlete, finding the optimal nutrition for my body is one of the most important things I can do. Most of the time, I’ve needed to experiment on my own to discover the different ways food and nutrition affect my life. This situation plays out almost identically every time I sit down to breakfast with a friend.
Friend: You put what in your coffee?!
Me: Grass fed butter.
F: How much butter do you use? That can’t be healthy.
Me: 4 tablespoons
F: What?!! So you just crush fat every morning? That’s insane.
Me: Yeah, like 750 calories of fat, and I beg to differ…
I feel like I need a support group. “Hi everyone, my name is Matt Buschmann and I put butter in my coffee.” I also used to eat five eggs with fermented cod liver oil, twenty almonds, 5 Brazil nuts and more grass fed butter right before bed because I read that it was supposed to boost testosterone. Who doesn’t need more testosterone, right?
I came to this point out of a combination of necessity and curiosity. I turned 30 this year and am in the middle of my 8th full season of professional baseball with my fourth organization. That’s a long time to spend in the minor leagues, riding buses, and I’ve been forced to learn a lot.
I went to Vanderbilt University, and it was starting to become a factory for big league talent while I was there. It produced names like Mike Baxter, David Price, Pedro Alvarez, Mike Minor, Ryan Flaherty and Sonny Gray, just to name a few. Our program was vaulted from “have not” status to “have.” We had a brand new locker room, a state of the art weight room and 6 training table meals a week where an awesome chef named Magic designed meals specifically for Vanderbilt athletes. There was an unwritten contract between the players and our coach, Tim Corbin. He asked a lot of us as players and as people, and it wasn’t easy, but our work was rewarded with better facilities, better equipment and better food.
This makes sense. If you’re asking for time and energy out of someone, you have to provide the fuel for your athlete to meet these expectations. If I want to drive my car 300 miles, I have to give it 300 miles worth of gas. This is the kind if logic I took into professional baseball when I was drafted as a senior in 2006. This is not the kind of logic I found in professional baseball. Logic and common sense were nowhere to be found, almost as if both were minor characters in the Game of Thrones, beheaded and shot full of arrows and then burned so they could never rise again.
The minor leagues all suffer from a chronic lack of funding. There are too many priorities and not enough resources. My biggest beef (definitely grass fed!) is with the nutrition. I see feeding and fueling the athletes on the field as an essential function. The powers that be do not. A good food spread, as far as the front office is concerned, does not equate to healthier players or, more importantly, to people in the seats.
This is one thing when you’re in your early 20s. I left college at 6’3”, 195 lbs. and wanted to be 215. I needed calories and didn’t care what form they came in. I’d come in off the field from batting practice at 5pm and eat way more than my share of the enduring icon of the minor leagues, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was trying to educate myself but never got much further than “protein is important.” I was working hard enough in the weight room to offset any damage I was doing at the dinner table.
Unfortunately, I learned the lesson everyone has to – what works at that age doesn’t give the same results as you get older. The more seasons I played, the more in tune with my body I became. I started to notice slight differences in how I felt every day. I would feel more or less sore in between starts, even though I stuck to a similar routine. Some days, I would have a ton of energy when I woke up, but very little on other days. I knew the importance of sleep, so what else could it be? The only other explanation was my diet.
The off-season for a baseball player is like lab time for a scientist. A player is able to really experiment with and tweak their lifestyle for better results next season. I started to read about nutrition after my 2012 season. I’m not talking about mainstream ideology either; I was searching the fringe. I’ve always felt the edge of mainstream thinking on most subjects is usually where you will find the most up-to-date information. I quickly realized what I thought I knew was really only the tip of the iceberg.
I learned that what we know about nutrition is constantly evolving and evolving quickly. The more we learn about the human body and how it works at a molecular level, the more we understand how food affects it. That means to stay current on all of this information, you have to do your own homework. The carrot that lured me down the rabbit hole? Fat.
Now we come full circle to the butter coffee. Fat is to be avoided, right? Fat makes you fat; it seems like a logical conclusion. Heart disease was on the rise after World War II and we needed something to blame. Obesity was public enemy number one, and what was the cause of obesity? On the basis of a few questionable scientific studies, we decided to strip fat from our diet. It has more calories than carbs and protein, and everyone loved counting calories. Pointing the finger at fat was easy, and it made sense to the average American. The nation bought in; fat intake declined across the board. The food industry bought in, inundating the market with low-fat or non-fat alternatives. For the next half century, people switched from fatty red meat to lean chicken and turkey, from butter to butter substitutes. Everything was being processed to contain less fat.
Decades have gone by and what do we have to show for it? A decline in obesity? A healthier average American? Nope. The exact opposite in fact. We have the dubious honor of being the most obese nation in the world and have gained a type II diabetes epidemic. Marinate on that for a moment. I think it’s safe to say we sentenced the wrong calorie source to prison.
My homework taught me that fat is an essential part of my body, and consuming dietary fat can help to burn off stored body fat. I learned that our brains are about 80% fat, and starving your body of fats starves your mind of fuel. I never would have known this had I not taken it upon myself to do my own research.
My hope in this post was to give some insight into what caused me to ask questions about how my body works and perhaps inspire you to do the same. For me, it was ignited by necessity (one can only take so much peanut butter) and curiosity (how can I use this to become a better pitcher every fifth day). Now it has exploded into a full on passion. The more I uncover, the more I realize the most important part of my day is deciding what to put in my body. I have the ability to control not only my physical state but my mental and emotional states as well.
The relationship between your mind, your body and what you put into it is a powerful one. The type of food you ingest can control the type of person you are. Next time you’re looking to better yourself, maybe pass by the self-help books and the pharmaceuticals that only mask problems and pick up a nutrition book or a science podcast. You may find that simply drinking a big glass of water in the morning can have a more profound effect on your ailments than anything else you have tried.
Ben says
Good info. Thanks Matt.
Gabe Kapler says
Thanks for stopping by, Ben.
billstraehl says
I have a question. Accepting the importance of fat, are there sources that we should still avoid? I’m also assuming that regardless of the source, it would still be important to manage the amount that you take in. Thanks.
curtis99802 says
Stay away from hydrogenated fats like margarine, soybean and vegetable oil and use coconut, olive oil and bacon grease. And try to eat a variety of cuts of grassfed beef, pastured chicken and pork and wild caught seafood.
Dave says
Great post. I wish the Federal dietary guidelines would take note of this and present a My Plate/Food Pyramid that isn’t run by lobbyists so people who aren’t as well informed of the actual facts can lead a healthier life through their food. Thanks again Kap for spreading truth:)!
Gabe Kapler says
Thanks, Dave. And huge thanks to Matt, for dropping knowledge on us.
Ryan Ross says
Wow, what a great post. Thank you Matt for the information and outlook.
Kap- I have been reading the book “Grain Brain” and it talks a lot about what Matt is eluding to here, high intake of fat and protein and trying to eliminate gluten. The book is very educational by breaking down scientifically why fat is healthy and gluten is detrimental to the body. It goes into explain how gluten causes the molecules within the body to become free radicals and inhibit the digestive process of nutrients. I was wondering your take on gluten and how much you personally take in? It seems like the book that I am reading has a very strong belief that gluten should be eliminated from diets because it is toxic to the brain and body. I am trying to get a balance between the two so I can have the healthiest diet and lifestyle possible.
Gabe Kapler says
It’s a tough world to navigate, huh? Keep reading, studying, trying new things. I still eat two slices of sprouted grain bread every morning but am currently toying with the idea of going zero grains for a while to see how my brain responds. Stay tuned, brother.
kbeyazdancer says
Very good post. The public’s misconception of fat and what it means to the body as a whole is greatly misunderstood. Speaking as a scientist who has researched for over a decade-don’t deprive your body of it. Always ask questions and be curious-That is essentially the nature of this blog.
Thank you Matt for your insight and thank you Kap for inspiring people to change.
-Kelebek
Gabe Kapler says
And thank you, for your consistency and warmth.
Kelebek says
It’s my pleasure love. Your blog has really impacted my life. I’ve recommended to my students and friends.
curtis99802 says
Well done, Matt. I’ve come to the same conclusions since February. I’m love my diet of high fat, lots of organic veggies and greens, quality meats, etc. I feel more excited about food now than I ever have. Thanks for the look at your way of eating and how it’s fueling your success.
Gabe Kapler says
See Matt? Curtis is on board. I told you he would be.
Alex Beer says
Great post! Thanks Matt for sharing your experience. Keeping spreading the message and eventually it will stick.
Gabe Kapler says
Appreciate you, Alex.
Tyler says
Did my own homework…and holy crap, drinking a boatload of water when you wake has ridiculous benefits. Adding that to the repertoire (glad you have spell check in the comments, I butchered the hell out of the spelling of that word).
Gabe Kapler says
Spellcheck will make you laugh and make you cry.
Chris says
Loved this post. Kap, I think you need to have Matt back for a part 2. Or at least dive into to butter in coffee. I’ve read a little about it, but have seen mixed opinions on both the health benefits and the quality of taste.
Gabe Kapler says
Thanks, Chris. I’ll make sure Matt hears your request.
Duane says
Excellent post Kap. Thanks for allowing Matt to keep the education going. I’ve been using avocado oil more than olive oil lately to get my fat on! Thanks for the post Matt.
Gabe Kapler says
How does avocado oil impact the flavor of food for you? You’re cooking with it, I assume?
Duane says
Assumption correct. I tend to use less of the avocado oil and my food doesn’t have that oily feel to it but still cooks well. To me the avocado oil makes my food have a smoother, creamier taste. Excellent for pasta as shrimp scampi. Love it! Thanks for the post about it.
Richie says
Awesome article / post! I had to give up coffee since it effects my Crohn’s disease too much, but damn it sounds interesting with butter! Keep up the excellent, honest work!
Gabe Kapler says
Yessir, Richie.
Kyle G. says
Matt making an entire post about what Kap subtly says in nearly half his post. Still good community post, always like these.
Gabe Kapler says
Always appreciate it, Kyle. See you soon.
darby wright says
Great post . Ball players like that are straight up grinders.
Steve Hammond says
Always appreciate other ballplayers fighting the good fight. The more the word spreads about minor league food quality, the quicker change happens. There are so few players that pay attention to what/how they eat and train during the season, that it makes improving this part of the pro baseball culture difficult. At the end of the day it’s up to the individual players to seek out resources like this website to improve their daily choices, and hopefully, their performance on the field.