@wester130 I know nothing of cardamom's specific chemical effects on the body, but I know its one of my favorite spices. Several years ago I made extracts of herbs and spices, with cardamom being one of them. I have to stop myself from using it, so I won't run out...haha. I've mixed it in milk as well, with vanilla and sugar. Sometimes I'll add cocoa for chocolate milk. Now I know why it's so expensive.

I have a ton of notes throughout the years, on health and nutrition, but I tend to be going off the cuff these days, i.e, by memory. In that vein, I recall reading cocoa butter is indeed the key ingredient to look for in quality chocolate; and the further down the list it is, or even non-existent, the more the chocolate bar/candy drifts from quality. My additional 2 cents, and my personal litmus test for all chocolate, and all processed foods, is whether they use "natural flavor". I avoid all foods with natural flavor, for I interpret it as faking the taste of what should be a real taste produced as the result of a proper balance of real-food ingredients. I've noticed Nestle always uses natural flavors.

I forget where I read this, but purely by memory I recall any granulated sugar, not specifically noted as being "cane sugar", such as Walmart's store brand sugar, is made from beets, which is cheaper to produce because it is beets and not cane sugar. So, I've blindly followed this, and have looked specifically for "cane sugar" on packaging, thinking it to be better. I realize to those more in the know this may simply be stupid, and at the least ignorant, reasoning, but sometimes time and opportunity allow for just winging it on some things, and gleaning what you can when you can. Such as things like this: @cedric said: Polyphenols from sugar cane support Bifidobacteria.

@CrumblingCookie This confirms what some light research revealed for me a few years ago, on GSE. I have it on my list of ingredients for a homemade toothpaste.

I usually eat 2oz. of liver, twice weekly. But recently I've gone back to 1 serving of 4oz. The reason for the single, larger portion is so I can get it over with! I'm not a fan of straight liver, but liver pate can be considerably tastier. Coffee after eating liver is a natural compliment for me.

Ate pasta, bread with tomato sauce / GRAVY and cola. Most cravings are gone.

@engineer i am currently doing 7 keto DHEA

@sunsunsun good to know. How about cloni dine?

What's going on with the old ray peat forum? Has it gone through some kind o recent change?

@engineer is sexo performance higher

I have noticed some improvement to my brain symptoms from avoiding potatoes, omega-3 fish, and eggs, in order to keep acetylcholine down. (i do that on top of a diet low in free glutamate, which also helps me) Potatoes contain solanine which is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and eggs contain lots of choline. Both therefore raise acetylcholine. I also avoid liver because of choline but have not had the opportunity to confirm whether avoiding liver makes a difference. Avoiding the other foods I mentioned does seem to make a difference. By the way, even when I was eating potatoes and eggs, I did not have vivid dreams, in fact I had and have an unusually low amount of dreaming.

@Insr @gaston the benefits are sometimes better than dhea https://www.rthm.com/resources/blogs/7-keto-dhea-supplement-guide

[image: 1783954531975-710544f7-ddc9-4ab5-9dea-1b563ad5b9cb-image-resized.jpeg] Decided to add sitagliptin to the stack. According to this study https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/sitagliptin-reduces-fap-activity-and-increases-intact-fgf21-level/ it significantly elevates FGF21 by preventing it's breakdown - seems like great synergy with the sugar diet. Gliptins are great pro-metabolic drugs overall.

Update: after about 6 days off those substances, plus swishing Baking soda in water after every meal or swishing with water after a coffee/juice, all my tooth pain is gone, and they’re slightly less yellowed. I remember someone on the old rpf talking about Ray suggesting that to them, and they supposedly fully restored their teeth from the nubs with the inclusion of fixing metabolism

Vegan diet plus my kids blood. Got it.

@ridethelightning said: I'll try supplementing with vitamin E and see what happens. Here is some useful info: AA cascade If you want to take vitamin E against PUFA, Vit E is fine to stabilize membranes. We require at least 2 types, not necessary 50/50, e.g. 80 % alpha-tocopherol and 20% gamma. There are 4 types tocopherols and 4 types tocotrienols (alpha, beta, delta and gamma for each type). Need gamma tocotrienols against inflammation. We shouldn't take alpha every day since the body has a higher affinity for alpha (transporter). Chris Masterjohn says he takes 20-25 mg Vit E/day as supplement. I take a higher level 400 UI but only twice a week (Now Foods, Advanced Gamma E complex, by iHerb). More is not better. For stabilizing membranes, Vit E (20-25 mg suppl.), b-carotene (5-10 mg from food) and astaxanthine (only in cure) are fine to fight the AO aspect from both side (inside and outside the membrane). Figure: How to protect membranes wit AO. [image: 1783835485984-vit-e-amp-membrane-protection.png] Remember: Synergy effect with vitamin E “Vitamin C regenerates vitamin E and vitamin E protects β-carotene, helped in this by polyphenols. In the event of β-carotene supplementation, vitamin C regenerates vitamin E and β-carotene, and β-carotene seems to protect vitamin E without really explaining this phenomenon "(1) Savings effect Vitamin E is not just a vitamin. Vitamin C makes it possible to recycle oxidized vitamin E and thus prolong its lifespan. The same goes with glutathione which is thus saved for other more useful functions (detox). Glutathion is our antioxidant master. Vitamin E protects against the deleterious effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids when the latter are in excess. And it is quickly done! John Libbey Eurotext - Anti-oxydants d’origine alimentaire : diversité, modes d’action anti-oxydante, interactions. Auteur : Claude Louis Léger. *) Now sth else: AA cascade If you think you suffer from too much PUFA, which is a widespread situation when we eat more than 5-6 grams PUFA’s a day. Most US individuals ingest 20 g PUFA every day when they eat manufactured food. So, yes there is a lot of arachidonic acid (AA) in their membranes. And each time, someone is stressed – in the wide meaning – AA is unloaded. The usual carburation passes from glycolysis to lipolysis when we run into a stressful event: adrenalin + cortisol make the usual carburation change. Moreover the body needs 90’ to recover the common one. Then bisglycinate magnesium 300 mg would be very useful (to take after, no anticipation). 2 or 3 times a day, Dr. JP Curtay says. Moreover we require 350-420 mg Mg element a day, for more than 300 enzymes. *) Natural inhibitors against AA cascade Here are some usual targets when suffering from inflammation. Cox 1 & 2 5-Lox IL-6 TNF-alpha NF-kB Excess NO LPS NB: Mind side-effects against platelet life and CYP450 enzymes (detox pathway). Only in cure when using phytotherapy. See table here on my forum for details against inflammatory agents: Phytotherapy & natural agents for pain relief (In French). https://mirzoune-ciboulette.forumactif.org/t266-substances-naturelles-anti-douleur-tableau#15733 *) Useful links (in French, translator needed): https://mirzoune-ciboulette.forumactif.org/t642-vitamine-e-et-peroxydation-des-membranes#5645 https://mirzoune-ciboulette.forumactif.org/t1876-prostate-traitement-naturel-de-l-hyperplasie-benigne#26009 https://mirzoune-ciboulette.forumactif.org/t1042-activite-antioxydante-de-la-vitamine-e#10502 (required therapeutic needs round 50 mg or 100 UI per gram PUFA). Excerpt: Excessive intake of one type will limit the bioavailability and functionality of the others. While there is no established optimal composition, one can aim for a good balance within a blend as follows: alpha-tocopherol levels should not exceed a maximum of 15–20% of the total, with 50% or more consisting of gamma-tocopherols, 10% of tocotrienols, etc. In other words: reduce alpha-tocopherol and significantly increase gamma- and delta-tocotrienols.

would preg/dhea and proviron be interesting?

What I have to say about the studies on “essential fatty acid deficiency (EFAD)” is that they are all incomplete, and it is necessary to piece the studies together like a puzzle, in addition to seeking out others that may not specifically address EFAD. 1. The overwhelming number of symptoms attributed to EFAD actually stems from the high metabolic rate caused by TEWL, which activates thermogenesis. If you neutralize TEWL in an EFAD-affected animal by increasing the humidity in the laboratory, it grows and develops normally without any symptoms. In many studies on EFAD, researchers mention “spontaneous recovery”—usually in the summer, lasting for long periods—followed by a worsening of symptoms, which they attribute to the seasons and their fluctuations in humidity. [image: 1783716841140-c2beaeab-cd4b-4280-893f-15ed7932ef46-image.jpeg] 2- The body is a dissipative system; if you remove n-3/n-6, the body changes the way it handles various processes that previously relied on them. It is a mistake in these studies to remove n-6 while keeping the diet essentially the same. I’ll give an example using zinc, a deficiency of which causes similar skin symptoms: [image: 1783716910557-18db4162-345c-48b3-8870-f9e63651d26c-image.jpeg] This table shows an EFAD (HCO) diet and a non-EFAD (corn oil) diet, and both have versions supplemented with zinc (C-2 and D-2); the key point here is that the protein source is casein (this detail will be important later): [image: 1783716961668-e9846a0d-82e0-4480-8775-ccff5e0a2872-image.jpeg] Now, in this table, it's the same thing, but supplemented with egg albumin instead of casein: [image: 1783717008090-135a94d7-db40-4a08-b637-c8e7375a8dae-image.jpeg] It can be seen from these two tables that EFAD causes skin problems if: There is a zinc deficiency The proteins are casein-based, rather than egg albumin. I was curious as to why the type of protein would influence the symptoms, so I remembered this: [image: 1783717055701-1fcf7b00-75a5-49ff-b33f-950b0a9deb48-image.jpeg] Egg albumin is rich in sulfur-containing amino acids. [image: 1783778512118-7b99813c-70e6-4d66-8021-ea93b7d1b7e9-image.jpeg] I considered the possibility of contamination with PUFA, but they also use soy protein, which I think theoretically poses a greater risk: [image: 1783717093452-c1514880-eaeb-428f-ada3-bac7bcafde56-image.jpeg] Is it possible that, with enough zinc, they could live indefinitely on an EFAD diet? Who knows... Well, if the problem is humidity, people who live by the beach can easily follow a diet like this and reap the benefits of the EFAD (resistance to endotoxins, inflammation, autoimmune diseases, snake venom, etc.). And btw, it is possible for a human to live well in EFAD, without skin problems, in a city as well. [image: 1783718698155-ec41016c-25cb-4832-b2a5-490f5885f41b-image.jpeg] (not mine) Thanks to learnmyhelpless at X for reminding me of zinc and EFAD relationship haha

"Base: Hydroalcoholic carbomer gel (DMSO-free)" They don't make it clear whether there are other ingredients. If this stuff is actually legitimate, would the DHT absorb well? Without other ingredients?