My Journey To Optimal Health

[lampofred]

Why not 1% milk? I think Dr. Peat said a bit of fat is necessary for full digestion and to prevent a cortisol increase.

That is pretty much exactly what I eat, OJ, maple syrup, milk, eggs daily with potatoes and oysters one or two times a week... If I drink OJ and milk within 1 hr of each other though I get gut issues, I can't mix them.

I heard many centenarians don't really have varied diets, they eat the same things every day because those foods are what work best for them.

 

[Cirion]

Hmm, well from my data only 15 gram of fat is all it takes to start depressing my metabolic rate. Also, I'm basically forced now to have some fat due to adding eggs back in the diet so trying to remove it wherever else I can and finally, I can't seem to find 1% milk that's organic anyway, and no way am I going to drink 1% milk that's not organic/pasture raised. So because of the eggs and a tiny bit of cheese (I'm making 2 egg omelettes w/ 2 oz of cheese, to get a little extra boost of protein and calcium and also make the eggs a little more tasty), I'm not on a zero fat diet even w/ 0% milk. Even the 2 oz of cheese boosts my tryptophan by 0.3 gram, so I may or may not keep it. We'll see. Mostly I wanted it to get extra calcium. I'm trying hard to save my teeth which have been dying on me, due to lack of calcium, so been trying to get like 3 gram of calcium a day.

Yeah that's pretty much my diet also but I can't find oysters lately and I ditched potatoes because they were causing me issues. I am now 100% starch free. My data suggests starch isn't helping me for weight loss anyway.

 

[Vinny]

Protein is the most important macronutrient period,

Why protein is the most imp one, redsun?
Why you put it before sugar? What does the protein do so much?

 

[oldmanthunder]

Given your excess weight and the massive amount of carbs you need to ingest to feel energized, you are likely very insulin resistant if not diabetic. You need to improve insulin sensitivity if you want to lose weight/improve energy levels.

I know it isn’t peaty but exercise and time restricted eating are great ways to improve insulin sensitivity. At the very least, carbs need to be lowered to meet energy requirements. If you’re sedentary and don’t do very cognitive work, you don’t need a whole lot of carbs. You should also focus on carbs that aren’t so quick to digest like simple sugars.

Sugar is probably the cause of your dental issues as well, oral lactic acid bacteria metabolize sugar into lactic acid which wears down your enamel. A baking soda mouthwash after a meal will neutralize the acidity. Make sure to keep well hydrated for your mouth to be moist, your spit naturally contains re-mineralizing ions.

If you want to improve your self-diagnosed protein deficiency, you need to improve your digestion. Again, giving your digestive system time to relax and heal will improve digestion, you might also want to look into digestive supplements like enzymes.

Considering that viewing things in a very rigid “Peat” paradigm has gotten you to where you are, you might want to relax your assumptions and stop fixating on other people’s theories so much. The stress caused by your obsessive analysis of everything you do isn’t doing you any good.

 

[Cirion]

Down more weight today and don't feel as drugged this morning, still hard time waking up but at least I don't feel like death. I think I am sold on milk. Temperature is also back up to 97.8F waking up, not fantastic but at least almost back to 98F again and out of the 96/97's. Taking high dose T3 probably messed up my T3 production and temporarily made me crash, so I won't be messing with it again probably.

 

[Cirion]

Given your excess weight and the massive amount of carbs you need to ingest to feel energized, you are likely very insulin resistant if not diabetic. You need to improve insulin sensitivity if you want to lose weight/improve energy levels.

I know it isn’t peaty but exercise and time restricted eating are great ways to improve insulin sensitivity. At the very least, carbs need to be lowered to meet energy requirements. If you’re sedentary and don’t do very cognitive work, you don’t need a whole lot of carbs. You should also focus on carbs that aren’t so quick to digest like simple sugars.

Sugar is probably the cause of your dental issues as well, oral lactic acid bacteria metabolize sugar into lactic acid which wears down your enamel. A baking soda mouthwash after a meal will neutralize the acidity. Make sure to keep well hydrated for your mouth to be moist, your spit naturally contains re-mineralizing ions.

If you want to improve your self-diagnosed protein deficiency, you need to improve your digestion. Again, giving your digestive system time to relax and heal will improve digestion, you might also want to look into digestive supplements like enzymes.

Considering that viewing things in a very rigid “Peat” paradigm has gotten you to where you are, you might want to relax your assumptions and stop fixating on other people’s theories so much. The stress caused by your obsessive analysis of everything you do isn’t doing you any good.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I do light walking almost every day, its the most I can tolerate exercise wise. I often do "fast" 12 hrs a day because that's how much I like to sleep every day, but if I'm really hungry I eat.

I don't think sugar is the main cause of dental problems at least not for me. My problem was I was eating too low protein and too low calcium. But I am also trying to improve my dental hygiene as well though.

Yeah with digestion, that's why I had to ditch hard to digest things like meat, starch. Sugar and milk seem to be the easiest things to digest for me now.

I'm not fixating on other peoples theories that much lately, lately I am using my own theories, which sometimes are based on other peoples theories but I experiment heavily, and track all my data (I've got almost 6 months of data now in a spreadsheet of various macros/micros etc. VS. metabolic rate, weight loss and other parameters) which has led me to the diet I'm currently playing with. It just so happens that my data proves Peat right on virtually everything he has said (I gain new respect for him daily for this reason, so far he is the ONLY nutrition expert that is right on at least 90-95% of things he says), but if my data disproved him, I wouldn't stress doing something counter to what he said is right. I crashed a couple of days ago due to being stupid with high dose T3, on top of being stupid with way too high fat intake and way too low carb intake.

 

[_lppaiva]

DAY 1 (of the log, not of Peating)
OJ, milk, and bananas so far today. I seem to have negative reactions to bananas even after the peel is spotty. I guess I should stop eating bananas from now on, too much serotonin.

You did not specify what bad reaction is it. Maybe it's not serotonin. I eat some bananas daily, but I usually mash them and allow them to sit at room temperature overnight. They brown a lot. I may then proceed to cook them or put them in a smoothie. I never felt any issues with bananas to begin with, but I'm young and "healthy", so the improvement was only slightly for me. Less digestive distress, less farting, etc. Bananas have starch, and are never allowed to fully ripen due to being sprayed with SmartRipe (it doesn't allow the fruits to ripen during transportation). I don't trust even rotten bananas, only cooked

 

[Cirion]

Lol day 1 that was so long ago =P But yeah I still don't eat bananas, maybe I'd tolerate them better now but I have no idea. I had tried waiting a bit longer to eat them and still no dice. Not sure why. I think Ray did say they could be a problem for some people, though.

 

[lampofred]

He said they are grown in stressful conditions which makes them high in serotonin + estrogen, produced as a defensive reaction.

 

[ExCarniv]

You did not specify what bad reaction is it. Maybe it's not serotonin. I eat some bananas daily, but I usually mash them and allow them to sit at room temperature overnight. They brown a lot. I may then proceed to cook them or put them in a smoothie. I never felt any issues with bananas to begin with, but I'm young and "healthy", so the improvement was only slightly for me. Less digestive distress, less farting, etc. Bananas have starch, and are never allowed to fully ripen due to being sprayed with SmartRipe (it doesn't allow the fruits to ripen during transportation). I don't trust even rotten bananas, only cooked

Yeah fully ripe almost black skin bananas cooked into pancakes doesn't cause troubles like yellowish raw bananas do. So cooking them seems to a better option.

 

[Cirion]

I just realized I'm a silly goose. Of course the higher fat days would hit me harder because I'm still taking Pyrucet (FAO blocker) lol duh.

I'm feeling libido return which is always a good sign. Of course part of that is I'm successfully on almost two weeks of #nofap without relapse and that is important. I don't tend to notice the full benefits until the 4-8+ week mark, and I have been relapsing a lot lately but doing good the last two weeks. In the past #nofap was always integral to my healing, I know people will argue with me but it's the truth. I never obtained health without it in the 2-3 times I actually got healthy. I theorize that prolonged #nofap starts to build up the androgens in the system, because I am abstaining and I always feel like I lose androgens when I relapse. The built up androgens then begin healing me. One of my friends agreed with me that #nofap is arguably the most important thing for a man to do, and he is now in optimal health and still says this.

I've relapsed a lot on #no tv and #no video games tho lol. But I think #nofap is more important, as I've been optimally healthy and still had some TV and video games in my life so I am not stressing these quite as much.

 

[redsun]

Why protein is the most imp one, redsun?
Why you put it before sugar? What does the protein do so much?

Protein is the most satisfying of all the macronutrients. Carbs are the 2nd most satisfying, and fat is the 3rd most. In other words, your hunger is satiated quicker with more protein. This is because every inch of you is proteins linked together. Protein is the raw material that is needed for everything. You are never going to rejuvenate and repair if your protein intake is just scraping bare minimum. You can read pages upon pages about the roles of amino acids in the human body. Peat has said the most common cause(keyword cause, not complication) of hypothyroidism or underfunctioning of thyroid is protein deficiency. We have a thyroid/metabolic slowdown epidemic that is getting worse and worse that was never before seen in our history as a species. Why now?

• Appearance of PUFA oils, whose consumption in the average diet is getting higher and higher.
• Very poor diets in general, filled with piss poor grains and junk food, 100% accessible high sugar/carb/fat, low nutrient foods aka high calorie malnutrition
• We have the worst protein consumption in history probably ever save for famines and times of scarcity.

This is not just protein quantity, but quality. Most people probably never eat at least 80g a day, the average male should have minimum 120g of protein if not very close(sex, height, and weight obviously apply). And high quality protein, aka flesh, seafood, eggs, dairy.

Animal flesh has been the center of the human diet for god knows how long. If we are to think about what a human would eat, the calories of natural living humans(hunter gatherers) were in large part or almost exclusively from meat and animal products. That's just facts, no amount of BS modern day reasoning can change this.

We evolved on calorie dense, high protein eating. Calorie dense meaning saturated animal fat was often the main source of energy as carbs were not so easily available. Of course, humans want sugar because it a preferred energy source for the brain and CNS and active muscles(muscles use fat at rest) but humans have adaptations to when carbs are scarce(not arguing in favor of low carb, just making a point). Carnivore dieters end up eating 200g+ protein a day almost always(not necessary btw, just follow along). The reason is the protein is converting into sugars as well as providing material. Humans were getting sugars from their protein intake if necessary. In other words, protein intake was always more than enough, so protein deficiency never existed in humans unless you didnt eat(bad hunter). Keep in mind I am not saying to eat only protein to satisfy glucose requirements, as just eating sufficient carbs is less stressful to the body.

Our body has mechanisms for when glucose in the blood is low, it will maintain it. When fat intake is low, it can make its own fat from carbs/amino acids or eat its body stores. When protein intake is insufficient, metabolism slows down to slow the use of protein for repair and maintenance.

We can maintain blood sugar levels from ketones and protein, and we have lbs of fat for energy if necessary, but we cannot synthesize protein in anywhere near the amounts we need daily internally. You would quickly start catabolizing and your thyroid would grind metabolism to a halt. Super high carb intake(and even increased fat intake) increases protein metabolism(by increasing thyroid) and can shut down the thyroid quicker because amino acids are being used too fast.

Eating lots of sugar without also having lots of protein is like putting a full tank of gas in a car without a pedal. It will not get you anywhere. Its only now in the modern age where we have humans eating abnormally high amounts of energy in the form of sugar and fat but are subsufficient in protein on a consistent daily basis. Sugar provides the energy, protein is the necessary part to actually heal anything.

If you don't agree with the appeal to nature argument, the science also proves the importance of amino acids. You can read seemingly endless amounts of information about the importance of amino acids(as a whole, and individual AAs) in every facet of human health.

 

[Cirion]

Yeah, my recent experiment with (too low) protein definitely shows that some protein is definitely necessary for sure. We both do agree on that now. Too much is just as damaging as too little though I still strongly hold to this belief from experience. Getting the amount correct is paramount to success.

I would not rely on gluconeogenesis for glucose though. It's a highly inefficient process and I know from experience that a pure meat diet with little to no glucose is a VERY bad idea lol (in fact, that's actually what destroyed my health in the first place and led me back here!!).

Keep in mind that proteins are recycled and not immediately discarded or otherwise "used up". So your protein needs are less than what the body actually uses on a daily basis.

 

[lampofred]

Protein is the most satisfying of all the macronutrients. Carbs are the 2nd most satisfying, and fat is the 3rd most. In other words, your hunger is satiated quicker with more protein. This is because every inch of you is proteins linked together. Protein is the raw material that is needed for everything. You are never going to rejuvenate and repair if your protein intake is just scraping bare minimum. You can read pages upon pages about the roles of amino acids in the human body. Peat has said the most common cause(keyword cause, not complication) of hypothyroidism or underfunctioning of thyroid is protein deficiency. We have a thyroid/metabolic slowdown epidemic that is getting worse and worse that was never before seen in our history as a species. Why now?

• Appearance of PUFA oils, whose consumption in the average diet is getting higher and higher.
• Very poor diets in general, filled with piss poor grains and junk food, 100% accessible high sugar/carb/fat, low nutrient foods aka high calorie malnutrition
• We have the worst protein consumption in history probably ever save for famines and times of scarcity.

This is not just protein quantity, but quality. Most people probably never eat at least 80g a day, the average male should have minimum 120g of protein if not very close(sex, height, and weight obviously apply). And high quality protein, aka flesh, seafood, eggs, dairy.

Animal flesh has been the center of the human diet for god knows how long. If we are to think about what a human would eat, the calories of natural living humans(hunter gatherers) were in large part or almost exclusively from meat and animal products. That's just facts, no amount of BS modern day reasoning can change this.

We evolved on calorie dense, high protein eating. Calorie dense meaning saturated animal fat was often the main source of energy as carbs were not so easily available. Of course, humans want sugar because it a preferred energy source for the brain and CNS and active muscles(muscles use fat at rest) but humans have adaptations to when carbs are scarce(not arguing in favor of low carb, just making a point). Carnivore dieters end up eating 200g+ protein a day almost always(not necessary btw, just follow along). The reason is the protein is converting into sugars as well as providing material. Humans were getting sugars from their protein intake if necessary. In other words, protein intake was always more than enough, so protein deficiency never existed in humans unless you didnt eat(bad hunter). Keep in mind I am not saying to eat only protein to satisfy glucose requirements, as just eating sufficient carbs is less stressful to the body.

Our body has mechanisms for when glucose in the blood is low, it will maintain it. When fat intake is low, it can make its own fat from carbs/amino acids or eat its body stores. When protein intake is insufficient, metabolism slows down to slow the use of protein for repair and maintenance.

We can maintain blood sugar levels from ketones and protein, and we have lbs of fat for energy if necessary, but we cannot synthesize protein in anywhere near the amounts we need daily internally. You would quickly start catabolizing and your thyroid would grind metabolism to a halt. Super high carb intake(and even increased fat intake) increases protein metabolism(by increasing thyroid) and can shut down the thyroid quicker because amino acids are being used too fast.

Eating lots of sugar without also having lots of protein is like putting a full tank of gas in a car without a pedal. It will not get you anywhere. Its only now in the modern age where we have humans eating abnormally high amounts of energy in the form of sugar and fat but are subsufficient in protein on a consistent daily basis. Sugar provides the energy, protein is the necessary part to actually heal anything.

If you don't agree with the appeal to nature argument, the science also proves the importance of amino acids. You can read seemingly endless amounts of information about the importance of amino acids(as a whole, and individual AAs) in every facet of human health.

If your theory is right that we are not consuming enough protein then why does restriction of methionine, tryptophan, and cysteine greatly extend longevity? Every single animal source of protein, except gelatin, has these three amino acids.

My opinion is that you are partially right, in that we do have a protein deficiency, but I don't think it's due to insufficient protein consumption. I think it's due to excess cortisol impeding protein digestion and rapidly breaking down existing protein stores. And I think excess cortisol is due to a stressful lifestyle, low sunlight exposure, glyphosate poisoning, pollution in the environment, etc.

Not trying to say I'm right, you're wrong. Just trying to figure out the truth of the matter.

 

[Cirion]

It's much easier to be deficient in the LNAA's Valine, Phenylalanine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Tyrosine. As well as Glycine, Proline, Taurine, and maybe a couple others. Unfortunately, to get the LNAA's you usually have to eat foods containing a disproportionate amount of cysteine, tryptophan, and methionine, histidine and these, especially cysteine and tryptophan, I have proven to myself to be detrimental. And yeah, it is the breakdown catabolism of protein that artificially inflates protein "needs". Improper digestion of protein further complicates the matter. This is where there is a balancing act required for protein where too little definitely is bad but too much floods your body with too much cysteine, tryptophan, methionine, histidine and ends up a net-negative for your body just as too low puts your body in a negative state. I would never have figured out my ideal amount without all the data tracking that I do, its super tricky to optimize.

 

[redsun]

If your theory is right that we are not consuming enough protein then why does restriction of methionine, tryptophan, and cysteine greatly extend longevity? Every single animal source of protein, except gelatin, has these three amino acids.

My opinion is that you are partially right, in that we do have a protein deficiency, but I don't think it's due to insufficient protein consumption. I think it's due to excess cortisol impeding protein digestion and rapidly breaking down existing protein stores. And I think excess cortisol is due to a stressful lifestyle, low sunlight exposure, glyphosate poisoning, pollution in the environment, etc.

Not trying to say I'm right, you're wrong. Just trying to figure out the truth of the matter.

It is quite a stretch to argue longevity studies that have only been done on lab rats who live a few years max are applicable to humans who are supposed to be living well over 100 easily but because our diet and lifestyle is way off compared to what we need diet and living wise for health, most never get that close.

We are supposed to get every amino acid, even the "harmful" ones. The issue is we are so off from our natural diet to begin with since birth, our metabolism, which has a need and is perfectly capable of dealing with all naturally occuring amino acids in foods, is handicapped in amino acid metabolism, similar to how sugar metabolism is screwed up in so many people today(diabetes, insulin resistance).

Tryptophan would mostly be converted to niacin in normal healthy humans, cysteine would be used in beneficial processes like making glutathione. Methionine metabolism can also be screwed up easily. There are a lot of natural substances that help antagonize methionine that you would get in a more natural diet, but methionine has very vital functions on its own regardless.

Niacin, histidine, histamine, glycine are some examples. Chris masterjohn mentions using glycine for excess methyl groups being a lot better for the body then just trying to get rid of it with high dose niacin.

 

[Cirion]

Mornings are still really rough and low temps. Probably going to cut out cheese, and make the jump to fully skim milk (still having a little 2%) to bring the fat count down further, as well as tryptophan (cheese is rich in it). This should help. On the other hand, my weight does seem to be steadily dropping so that's good. Part of it just might be flooding my body with poisonous by products from body fat due to rapidly losing weight. Will start using pyrucet at night only when FAO is naturally highest, so I can block it. I have about 5 more lb to lose at which point I'll almost be the lowest weight I have been since 2018. So, progress is being made. Painfully, but progress is being made.

 

[Cirion]

98.7F waking temp today. And, feel way way better compared to normal. (This is why I'm so convinced temp is the key, 90%+ of the time such a high temp corresponds to a sense of well-being). I slept a solid 14 hrs. Apparently, even 12 hrs of sleep may not be enough for me lol. Yah, I know this isn't normal, but you do what you gotta do to get restful sleep. Anyway one change is I also had 12 oz of shrimp last night, so it seems I react way way more positively to shellfish than I do to muscle meat. Shellfish and milk seems like a good combination. Probably needed the taurine. Cronometer doesn't seem to track taurine from foods.

 

[Cirion]

Allright, still missing some key things, as weight seems to be managed fairly well recently, but temperatures during the workweek is still trash (97.6F or so) but I think the decision to ditch starch was a wise one. Unfortunately, dropping starch also dropped my overall carb intake and I believe that is the reason for the decreased temperatures as my data clearly shows I need 900+ carbs to maintain 98+F temps. I think that I need to increase sugar further still. But I think I tried that and it didn't work. So more accurately what I think I need to do, and I haven't really experimented much with, is increase sugar at the correct time. In other words, in the middle of the night, "restock" sugar intake. Once sugar intake is "full", there is no point to increase intake further, but a correctly timed "refuel", is likely to have benefit, while using this to boost the overall intake for the full day (rather than "stock up" and increase sugar before going to bed, doesn't seem helpful). Increasing starch to boost total carbs did work better, and I hypothesize that is because starch is so difficult to digest (in fact, that's one reason mainstream nutrition recommends starch, balancing of blood sugar for longer periods). That's technically true now I think, but unfortunately starch also feeds SIBO and increased digestion time comes with its own issues that I don't want to deal with anymore. Sugar is easy and quick to digest. However, because in hypo total glucose stores are poor, it is easy to demonize sugar as you will run out quicker with sugar but its not because sugar is bad, its because glucose storage capacity is bad. If your glucose storage capacity is good, there's absolutely nothing wrong with quick digest times at all, as you can quickly top off storage capacity and then be good for several hours. But, people like me, we can't store much, so we always need a refuel.

some good news tho -- Today I realized the notch I usually use on my belt was too loose and I went one notch tighter! Progress...

 

[Rand56]

Everytime I see your posts I think of "paralysis of analysis".