Struggling on the Ray Peat Diet?

[Mike_Fave]

I have worked with 100s of clients who have tried the stereotypical "RAY PEAT DIET" (which does not exist) and ran into problems.

-lots of dairy
-lots of refined foods
-low fiber, lack of satiety, constant snacking
-macronutrient imbalances
-weight gain

I made a video discussing how I adjust things with clients using Dr. Peat's principles while tailoring the approach to the individual.

Here is the link -> https://youtu.be/e-nms6T1YvM?si=3YwG6_qjuMUldiDO

[yerrag]

@Mike_Fave

Glad you question the soundness of the milk and oj diet, which really no one in his right mind would take seriously. It is for the kind of people whose mindset is convenience for which displacing practically all other food for milk and oj suits their lack of ability to prepare and cook food. Milk and oj really is just a part of the nutritional lifestyle, but not the entire nutritional lifestyle.

One other major reason is that a large part of the RPF community wants to exclude fat from their nutrition, regardless of whether it is PUFA or MUFA or SFA. They regard fat oxidation bad, and forget what if good about it. Very ideologically inane, and as inane as the other extreme of a ketogenic diet. Without PUFA, fats are used to make energy and also produce CO2, but it is used by the body to conserve sugar stores or sources in the body for the times the body risks running low on sugar. It conserves glycogen, for one, and also keeps the body from having to rely on cortisol, a stress hormone and a bane of immunity when chronically present, when the body has to convert protein like muscles to sugar.

Apart from bedevilling fatty acid oxidation, ljpolysis is also ostracized unfairly. Taking supplements to inhibit lipolysis isn't even necessary when one considers how one can even lose weight when one keeps fat stores from being reduced via lipolysis at all.

Speaking of inhibiting lipolysis, guess what having a high level of insulin does but inhibit lipolysis. So what do people talk about but insulin sensitivity instead of reducing insulin production? Instead of focusing on reducing insulin, a stress hormone, people talk about making the body more sensitive to insulin, which is already wrong when one realizes that the body does not really need insulin to absorb sugar- as potassium does that. What insulin does is not make the body absorb sugar more, but to convert sugar to fatty acids by signaling the liver to convert sugar to fat, JUST TO LOWER BLOOD SUGAR (the David Copperfield effect) in effect, efforts to improve insulin sensitivity are just efforts to increase body fat.

So not only is body fat increased (by misdiredted efforts to increase insulin sensitivity), but retention of body fat is enabled more by allowing insulin levels to stay high, as insulin inhibits lipolysis. And lipolysis inhibition, plus increased fatty acid production, is a double whammy. So here we are, saddled by overweight and obesity. And our doctors blame our genes and our lack of walking 10,000 steps daily?

[yerrag]

Yet I'm not finished.

The key to lowering our insulin production and levels is obvious - To keep blood sugar level from staying too high, to not trigger the release of insulin.
So insulin stays low. We don't convert sugar to fat. And we don't stop our body from using fat stores for energy. We don't get overweight nor obese at all.

For people who are used to taking magic bullets for temporary band aid fixes, which is most of the people whose mind is shaped by pharma's century old marketing strategy, they are doomed to a lifetime of overweight and obesity, spending ungodly hours walking the 10k steps or working out endlessly at the gym, or fasting intermittently, whatever is stylish, as they brandish the latest fitness gadgets and wear the latest gym wear.

For they fail to understand the process needed to make their transformation from fat-addled to trim and healthy and not addicted to endless exercising.

Like waiting 4 years on a lifestyle that requires them to go cold turkey on PUFAs.

Like monitoring their blood sugar control by rejecting HbA1c as the be all and end all to determine their blood sugar health. And instead use the tried and true but pharma-obsoleted method of 5 hr OGTTs to get an honest evaluation. Which is not hard to do at all, with appropriate safeguards.

Like not do the equivalent of lifting 200lb weights when one can barely lift 20 lb weights without making the body capable of it by progressively improving on its capability. Which means to not go taking high carb meals of sugar, honey, and fruits that causes sugar to rush in like a flash flood into a dry and barren Arizona desert landscape. But instead take high carb meals, starch with fiber, that would be digested slowly, such that the inflow of sugar into the blood would come in as trickles and keep blood sugar from swelling up, and this trickle would last longer and keep blood sugar normal for a long time such that when it is about to be exhausted, it is time for the next regular meal.

And if this isn't enough, to take a larger portion of protein and a lesser portion of carbs to get a blend that allows the meals to provide a longer duration of normal blood levels, helping to keep blood from being exhausted of normal blood sugar levels until the next meal.

This is how people with blood sugar problems would manage their blood sugar problems, while having imperfect metabolism with the attendant problems of poor blood sugar regulation.

Yet people don't take this step.

As a lot of people bedevil starch. And avoid starch. For nothing but ideological reasons. Saying starch is bad. Just because Ray Peat says grain-based starch contain substances that cause allergies. And they avoid all starch altogether. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Yet there is starch coming from root based crops, and there is starch from fruit-based crops. Which have no issues.

But for sure there are cases of oxalate in root based starches, but there are ways to avoid such allergies and sensitivities. But one thing is certain, the more processed a starch is, the more it should be avoided from a poor blood sugar regulation standpoint. So fiber-rich carbs are still needed, when one has to manage his poor blood sugar regulation condition.

But being in this point X of poor blood sugar regulation does not have to be forever. Attaining Point Y of good blood sugar regulation will depend on identifying the causes of poor sugar regulation and fixing it.

Going cold turkey on PUFA for 4 years would be one way of getting there, but there's no guarantee. As there could be other causes as well. Like heavy metal toxicity. Or low-grade infections.

Bit there's a process to it. Coming from knowledge and not from ignorance. One should know his own context, and be able to identify and fix the causes. And when one has solved these issues, one can experience how good Coke tastes (with no guilt), how tasty ice cream is and enjoyable it is to eat processed white rice and white sugar, and go. ack to enjoying pancakes and bread and cakes, with sweet spreads, and jams and jellies.

Drinking wine as well. And enjoy living life to its lees.

[Ecstatic_Hamster]

the best diet results are:

lots of well cooked white rice, white potatoes, masa harina

some 1% milk, cheese

an egg every day

occasional liver or oysters or lobster

ripe fruit or cooked fruit

some well cooked veggies

That works great. Steady fat loss. It resembles the diet much of the healthy not-fat world eats but with improvements via dairy.

The problem with the Ray Peat diet is often the sugar. Sugar causes lots of problems. So do the large protein portions that Americans often eat.

American diet is protein heavy and fat heavy. Made worse with the low carb, keto, carnivore fad, and even worse with intermittent fasting.

You don't need to drink Cokes, or use tons of sugar. The only sugar I get is in coconut water and fruit, and that made all the difference.

[psi]

I couldn't do average grocery store orange juice from unripe oranges. I don't tolerate oranges well in general. No problem with sugar and milk though.

The ideal Ray Peat diet is cherimoyas and gelatin, lobster and Italian cheese as he said in the back of a tiger interview. Milk and orange juice are least bad while economical. Orange juice instead of whole oranges cause Ray had an allergy to orange fiber.