Notes Toward An "Optimal Peat Diet"

[Lucy]

Ah, I see you live in the UK, that's very interesting... I spent quite some time and know a lot of people there, and among them are some of the unhealthiest people I ever met

 

[narouz]

The only ones who are going to get Peat are the ones who really want to, and also, those whose lives have led them here, through their own hard work and also through destiny (the hand of God possibly even). The Peatian types are those who have been searching and trying things, sometimes for decades (but not always, this group also has a lot of really bright young people), learning what they can and gleaning whatever insight they can get out of what little has been offered in the mainstream.

Those who don't care, who haven't really sought the truth, are not able to understand Peat. You can send them to his website, e-mail endless numbers of supporting blog posts, interviews, and info, and none of it will register. They aren't totally ignorant, nor are we rarified. They don't understand because they don't want to. They don't have the ability to. If they wanted to understand, they would find a way to. Ignorance is a choice.

Some people don't need to do a Peat diet at least in the short term. Most people I know have no obvious healthy issues (no hypo symptoms) and look healthy. No matter what junk they eat, they have more energy, don't have any issues with sleep, digestion or skin. They are basically healthier than me, and their thyroid is probably better, yet I do a strict Peat diet taking thyroid and other supps. So I don't blame them really for not caring so much about a science based diet. They just don't need it as much as I do, at least for now.

jyb-
This is an interesting post.
There is some truth in what you say, I think.

When I was healthy, or at least when I "thought" I was healthy--
I felt okay as far as I could tell, I didn't have obvious diseases--
I somehow never really made contact with Peatism.
I brushed up against him in passing at various websites like Mercola's
where he would occasionally refer to Peat in regard to coconut oil.

It wasn't until I was diagnosed as hypothyroid, felt bad, had obvious symptom,
got treated by regular docs for that,
still felt bad...
it wasn't until then that I began the process that would lead me in about a year or two to Peat.
That process was at first focusing on thyroid troubles in an isolated way
and reading a lot of books and articles of an alternative nature on hypothyroidism and treatments.

Dr. Karazzian's (sic?) book was one I remember as one of the more impressive ones.
Still, even after trying many of his 21 possible permutations of possible thyroid problems,
I didn't feel better, so...
...it wasn't too long after that--maybe another year--that I really made contact with Peat.

One of my big leaps came when I pulled the microscope back, so to speak,
and--instead of just focusing monomanically on the thyroid--
I began to see the whole endocrine system and hormonal system and the whole general organism
in a more wholistic way.
That seemed prepare me for Peat.

As I say, I had brushed up against his stuff in the past,
but I always thought of him as: oh, that nutty guy who thinks potatoes have great protein
and who loves coconut oil.
In other words, a very superficial and misleading impression.
And I hadn't even run into his views on sugar at that point!

In short, I had to feel bad, feel sick, feel dissatisfied,
research in new and alternative directions,
try different "radical" or "weird" treatments,
have those fail multiple times...
it took all that for me to kinduv "be ready" to open up to Peat's ideas.
Some might more cynically say I had simply become desperate.
Well, I guess I was a bit desperate,
but...I see it more as having become serious
and less brainwashed and docile.

So jyb...
I think there is some truth in your view that people who at least seem healthy
or who seem to themselves to be healthy
don't tend to get into Peat.
It follows a kind of logic.

 

[kiran]

I think of it as similar to convincing someone to replace their engine when their car is running fine (for now).

 

[charlie]

Good analogy.

 

[narouz]

Incidentally, but relatedly--since we've been talking about weight gain,
I was just watching the lead-off segment on The NewsHour, the PBS news show.
It was on the results of a big new study on national obesity.
They had a couple of experts: an author of a book on the subject,
and a former leader of the CDC (I think that's right).

The CDC guy said the results might not reflect a positve trend.
On the surface, the results could be viewed positively
because in the study the total calories consumed had declined
in a small but significant way.
However, the weights of the subjects had barely budged,
ticking down only very slightly.

The same expert said the only way they could account for the data
was to suppose that physical activity had declined in the subjects.

It occurred to me that another possible explanation could be decline in the subjects' metabolisms
due to all the anti-metabolic agents in our modern diet and modern environment.

 

[Birdie]

Yes, I think that's right narouz, about the metabolism.

And that fits with the interview where RP talks about people on a 500 cal diet, in a closed,
watched hospital setting, being unable to lose weight because of slow metabolism.

 

[narouz]

Since we were talking about Cron-O-Meter and its place in conceiving "A Starting Point Peat Diet,"
I saw this posted by Danny R. over on his Facebook page--
a quote by Chris Masterjohn, who seems very Peatish.

"It is clearly time to move beyond viewing each vitamin in isolation. The fat-soluble vitamins not only synergize with each other, but cooperate with many other nutrients and metabolic factors such as magnesium, zinc, fat, carbohydrate, carbon dioxide and thyroid hormone.

This paradigm has two important implications. At the level of scientific research, a study about one vitamin can easily come to false conclusions unless it takes into account its interactions with all the others. We should reverently and humbly bow before the complexity of these interactions, realizing how little we know and recognizing that we are always learning..." - Chris Masterjohn

While Peat does make recommendations in some contexts
for isolated vitamins or nutrients,
his typical approach is to recommend a food which contains a lot of different vitamins and nutrients,
like liver or seafood.
I think this is because Peat prefers to see the role of those substances in relationship and interaction.

 

[Birdie]

Another aspect of the OPD is probably mindful eating.
When Ray was asked about meditation, he referred to mindfulness.

I find it takes mindfulness to care about the food ratios and food types to find what works.

 

[Birdie]

Forgot to say that I agree with your last post, narouz.
This more holistic approach.

People ask what effect a certain nutrient, or vitamin or drug had on me.
Answer, it's all of it.

 

[narouz]

"A Starting Point Peat Derived Diet"?

You guys (and gals!) will note that I've been trying out a new-ish possible title
for the Peat diet chart:
"A Starting Point Peat Diet."

Let me amend that to "A Starting Point Peat Derived Diet."

You will note:
-the article "A" introducing.
I do that to avoid the article "the" and its possible implications of "The Only" or "The One True," etc.

-the term "Starting Point" to suggest that the chart would be intended as
an approximate general guide for the "average" person
for use as a beginning or entrance into the world of Peat dietary ideas, contents, and proportions.

-the term "Peat Derived" to indicate
1. that Peat did not create it or even necessarily endorse it, and
2. that it is meant to be an attempt to accurately reflect Peat's ideas--not impose our own.

I still kinduv hanker for a word like "optimal,"
just because I sometimes feel that we need to make clear that the chart
would represent not just any food that Peat would strain to say
might be safe for most people,
but rather the foods that Peat would say are very good or great or excellent.
I guess we might have another chart for "okay" Peat foods?
(And even an extremely inclusive chart called "Crappy Peat Diet"! )

But anyhow: what do you think?

 

[gretchen]

^^I hope this doesn't sound stupid :----) , but can't most people, once they've decided to go Peat, figure out what optimal is? You go buy the food from the list then start counting grams of this and that, and note whatever happens next. You get in a groove, feel totally amazing (at least until the weather changes), but start gaining weight like crazy, and eventually have to go to the mall to buy a new wardrobe.

I still haven't thawed the liver.

 

[jyb]

A question on getting gelatin while eating a tryptophan rich meal: wouldn't the gelatin protein powder get digested much earlier than the meat proteins, leaving tryptophan unopposed by the time it gets digested? I read that certain foods stay in the stomach for digestion a long time, and that's the case for beef.

 

[kiran]

The opposition is later: BCAAs block cellular uptake of tryptophan and thus reduce serotonin synthesis. Meat protein digests pretty quick too.

 

[Jenn]

Protein digestion is dependent on the levels of HCL in the stomach of the individual and the levels of pepsinogen.

 

[Rayser]

Does that mean the amount of stomach acid can be influenced by anything other than thyroid function?

 

[Jenn]

I'm sorry, I don't really understand the question.

 

[4peatssake]

Protein digestion is dependent on the levels of HCL in the stomach of the individual and the levels of pepsinogen.

Does that mean the amount of stomach acid can be influenced by anything other than thyroid function?

I'm sorry, I don't really understand the question.

Not to speak for Rayser, but as I read her question, I understood her to mean that if thyroid function was good, then the level of HCL acid in the stomach would be optimal and protein would be well digested.

Hence, her query about whether something other than impaired thyroid function can influence the amount of stomach acid.

Make sense? I'm sure Rayser can confirm if my interpretation is correct - or not.

 

[Rayser]

That's exactly what I meant, thank you, 4peatssake!

 

[Rayser]

^^I hope this doesn't sound stupid :----) , but can't most people, once they've decided to go Peat, figure out what optimal is? You go buy the food from the list then start counting grams of this and that, and note whatever happens next. You get in a groove, feel totally amazing (at least until the weather changes), but start gaining weight like crazy, and eventually have to go to the mall to buy a new wardrobe.

It sound real smart to me, gretchen.
Only I can wear my old wardrobe again. I have lost the Peat-pounds after a year.
At the beginning I overdid the fats.

 

[4peatssake]

^^I hope this doesn't sound stupid :----) , but can't most people, once they've decided to go Peat, figure out what optimal is? You go buy the food from the list then start counting grams of this and that, and note whatever happens next. You get in a groove, feel totally amazing (at least until the weather changes), but start gaining weight like crazy, and eventually have to go to the mall to buy a new wardrobe.

It sound real smart to me, gretchen.
Only I can wear my old wardrobe again. I have lost the Peat-pounds after a year.
At the beginning I overdid the fats.

Good grief this is me now - over doing the fats and gaining weight. pffft

Being perimenopausal doesn't help! Good news at least is that I'm on to this and have banished my beloved haagen dazs to the occasion rare treat.