Hi everyone,
Apologize in advance for the long post, but I'm getting started after reading through all the literature and mostly all of the forums over the course of 12-18 months. I wanted to discuss the approach the way I understand (at a very basic level), and then throw some specific questions out for you guys in hopes that you might have some answers. Truth be told, I've been slowly moving to this style eating over those 12 months, but I'm looking to get more rigid about it.
First, my understanding of the approach:
- Stress hormones are a necessary part of your body, but keeping your body under a constant state of stress will lead to an exhaustion of adaptation energy, and eventually, death. So, the approach is to control the release and buildup of stress hormones and their residual elements in your body.
- The indicator for determining your level of stress is your metabolism, which can be diagnosed most simply using body temperature and pulse.
- Your body's method of creating energy from fuel and food is, in order of preference: glucose, glycogen (glucose stored in the liver), fat, and then protein. If you're at the point of burning glycogen, you're going to be releasing some stress hormones. If you're burning fat or protein, you're going to be releasing a lot of stress hormones.
- The approach is then to keep your body running on high quality glucose, keep your glycogen store full, and then be full of fat that your body prefers to burn (saturated instead of PUFA.)
- If you can accomplish this, your metabolism is going to increase, and so, the demand for nutrients and protein will increase. So Peat suggests nutrient dense foods like egg w/ yolks, milk, oysters, liver, coffee and chocolate (instead of, say, a manufactured multi-vitamin). He also suggests gelatinous high quality animal protein (or gelatin as a supplement when eating muscle meats to avoid a stress response.)
- He also has some tips about how to take care of your gut (the raw carrot, coconut and vinegar salad), because that’s going to be the physical source of a lot of stress hormones (I view this as sort of 'maintenance' of your hardest working part.) There are some other scattered ‘tips’ as well – coffee after a meal to inhibit iron absorption, etc.
- The result should be a body that is not in a sustained stress response, and thus, does not do things like shut down non-essential functions (like hair growth, sexual function, etc.)
Now that I've rambled on what I believe the approach is, here are some questions I have as I've tried to implement things:
- Do you guys take your gelatin before, during, or after consuming muscle meat? I just use the powder because I'm not thrilled with the extra ingredients in packaged things like Harabo gummi bears.
- I view vegetables as somewhat neutral, by which I mean, as long as I make sure that I'm not relying on them for energy ("just have a salad for lunch") and they aren't stressing my digestive system and they don't contain a lot of PUFA, they're OK.
- My pulse and body temp 1 hour after eating are always good, or at least, better than before the meal. I'm going from 55-65 bpm to 70-75 bpm and low 97 F to mid to upper 98 F. What's the end state goal? Waking up with an 80 bpm and 99 F after 12 hours of not eating? I'm jotting down all my temps and pulses and I can plot them in Excel pretty easily, but I'm looking for a desired end state. I *think* it's a high average without a lot of volatility - that to me means that I have a high metabolism and its being sustained.
I appreciate anyone whose taken the time to read this far and can confirm or correct my understanding and help me with the questions above.
Thanks!
Apologize in advance for the long post, but I'm getting started after reading through all the literature and mostly all of the forums over the course of 12-18 months. I wanted to discuss the approach the way I understand (at a very basic level), and then throw some specific questions out for you guys in hopes that you might have some answers. Truth be told, I've been slowly moving to this style eating over those 12 months, but I'm looking to get more rigid about it.
First, my understanding of the approach:
- Stress hormones are a necessary part of your body, but keeping your body under a constant state of stress will lead to an exhaustion of adaptation energy, and eventually, death. So, the approach is to control the release and buildup of stress hormones and their residual elements in your body.
- The indicator for determining your level of stress is your metabolism, which can be diagnosed most simply using body temperature and pulse.
- Your body's method of creating energy from fuel and food is, in order of preference: glucose, glycogen (glucose stored in the liver), fat, and then protein. If you're at the point of burning glycogen, you're going to be releasing some stress hormones. If you're burning fat or protein, you're going to be releasing a lot of stress hormones.
- The approach is then to keep your body running on high quality glucose, keep your glycogen store full, and then be full of fat that your body prefers to burn (saturated instead of PUFA.)
- If you can accomplish this, your metabolism is going to increase, and so, the demand for nutrients and protein will increase. So Peat suggests nutrient dense foods like egg w/ yolks, milk, oysters, liver, coffee and chocolate (instead of, say, a manufactured multi-vitamin). He also suggests gelatinous high quality animal protein (or gelatin as a supplement when eating muscle meats to avoid a stress response.)
- He also has some tips about how to take care of your gut (the raw carrot, coconut and vinegar salad), because that’s going to be the physical source of a lot of stress hormones (I view this as sort of 'maintenance' of your hardest working part.) There are some other scattered ‘tips’ as well – coffee after a meal to inhibit iron absorption, etc.
- The result should be a body that is not in a sustained stress response, and thus, does not do things like shut down non-essential functions (like hair growth, sexual function, etc.)
Now that I've rambled on what I believe the approach is, here are some questions I have as I've tried to implement things:
- Do you guys take your gelatin before, during, or after consuming muscle meat? I just use the powder because I'm not thrilled with the extra ingredients in packaged things like Harabo gummi bears.
- I view vegetables as somewhat neutral, by which I mean, as long as I make sure that I'm not relying on them for energy ("just have a salad for lunch") and they aren't stressing my digestive system and they don't contain a lot of PUFA, they're OK.
- My pulse and body temp 1 hour after eating are always good, or at least, better than before the meal. I'm going from 55-65 bpm to 70-75 bpm and low 97 F to mid to upper 98 F. What's the end state goal? Waking up with an 80 bpm and 99 F after 12 hours of not eating? I'm jotting down all my temps and pulses and I can plot them in Excel pretty easily, but I'm looking for a desired end state. I *think* it's a high average without a lot of volatility - that to me means that I have a high metabolism and its being sustained.
I appreciate anyone whose taken the time to read this far and can confirm or correct my understanding and help me with the questions above.
Thanks!
