Is Ray Peat Legit? My thoughts:
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From what I've gathered, Ray Peat is probably not a legitimate scientist.
In general, if you wonder if someone making scientific claims is legit, you should look for a publication record. The way that you know if your crazy idea is right is by testing it, and the way that you establish your testing as legitimate is by letting your peers review your work and check for errors.
Said a different, better way: If a researcher really wants to help people with a novel treatment, he needs to convince doctors that he's right, because that's how the treatment will get to patients. To convince doctors, you need to publish peer-reviewed research. Nothing else effectively changes patient care.
So, let's see if Ray Peat has done this.
First, go to pubmed.com and enter his information to see what he's published. Now wade through the "Rachel Peat" publications that aren't him.
He seems to have published three things. First, the research from his dissertation, from 1972: Estrogen stimulated pathway changes and cold-inactivated enzymes.
Second, a letter to the editor about progesterone, here: ORAL ABSORPTION OF PROGESTERONE
And finally, something titled humanistic therapy from 1971.
I can't read any of these papers today, because I'm in a waiting room without a journal-proxy.
The short version, though, is that the human body and nutritional system are very complicated. It's easy to come up with clever theories, and even easier to be completely wrong about those theories. Unless someone has formally tested his theories, you're foolish to put even an iota of faith in them.
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@honest_skeptic Maybe you should spend some time digging into Peat's work before making these half-assed assumptions about him
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@honest_skeptic Yeah!!!! That's exactly my experience. The ray peat diet got me sent to INTENSIVE CARE and the hospital for a MONTH!! People who follow his work blindly are like sheep, it's unbelievvable
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I impero referenced this topic on
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@newmexico weren't you the guy that got sick eating only eggs and carrot juice? What does that have to do with Ray Peat?
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@newmexico Sounds like a skill issue.
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@newmexico said in Is Ray Peat Legit? My thoughts::
@honest_skeptic Yeah!!!! That's exactly my experience. The ray peat diet got me sent to INTENSIVE CARE and the hospital for a MONTH!! People who follow his work blindly are like sheep, it's unbelievvable
Huh? What exactly got you sent to intensive care?
eating only eggs and carrot juice
like that guy said or what?
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@cat I was on the diet drinking a looooot of carrot juice and I'm pretty sure I had both malnutrition and vitamin a poisoning
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Albert einstein never had a paper peer reviewed. one journal tried to peer review him and he was so offended he withdrew his submission
peer review just measures how well your ideas conform to the current paradigm. if youre having revolutionary thoughts they are likely to be rejected and shunned by the establishment
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@cat I was on the diet drinking a looooot of carrot juice and I'm pretty sure I had both malnutrition and vitamin a poisoning
I don't think that over-drinking carrot juice is considered a good thing by Peat... doesn't he say that you should stop doing things when your body tells you to stop, and that excess is always no good?
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It totally is. I did ray peat for a month and turned into a bunny, its nice.. I love carrot salad
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@honest_skeptic the skepticism is not unjust, in fact i think it's rightfully placed. but what isn't fair- the mans whole philosophy and approach to the world is so diametrically opposed to the "western world", or what ever you would like to call it, it becomes evident in his works that he had no intention to even participate in western medicine by the 80s- in fact he considered us too far gone. many such cases of him alluding to this fact. now i am aware this doesn't change the facts of your previous post, but i would like you to listen to this analysis of bioenergetics- and get back to me. this applies to everyone here great watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXCnwaEiB5I
analogy, or gist being of my argument is essentially you cannot judge a hammer by how well it drills a screw into the wall.
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@newmexico Peat was against beta carotene (in theory you are not supposed to be absorbing it from the carrot salad). He would have been 100% against carrot juice.
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When did Peat ever say to drink almost your entire days need of calories in carrot juice????!!!you can tell who has actually bothered to read his stuff, and who just incorporated cherrypicked elements of his philosophy in regards to nutrition from somebody they followed on Twitter. RPF was full of unhinged lunatics, but even there they wouldn't suggest this, Da fuck🤯
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@honest_skeptic I don't think your questions are necessarily unreasonable, and Peat often took the take it or leave it approach. What I do know is his articles were heavily laced with citations, so you can read those and come to your own conclusions about whatever he says. There are also lab scientists out there that have been inspired by his work while paving their own path, eg Kyle Mamounis.
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He said himself that he didn't consider himself a scientist but a science critic. I don't believe he did any original scientific research per se since he got his PhD in biology. He had the ability to analyze existing research and developing research, find the the flaws and/or relevance, and translate it into theory. He was a teacher, health practitioner and author as well.
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Peer review is worse than useless. It encourages mediocrity and conformism to the (inevitably short-sighted) majority. That Ray never submitted to this humiliation ritual, while still proving his biochemical knowledge, is one of the strongest points in his favor.
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@newmexico said in Is Ray Peat Legit? My thoughts::
about 4 hours ago
@cat I was on the diet drinking a looooot of carrot juice and I'm pretty sure I had both malnutrition and vitamin a poisoning
"Carrot juice is another one that should be avoided, except in small amounts, because of the high carotene content." -Ray Peat
Tell us again how the "Ray Peat diet" put you in the ER, you moron.
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@honest_skeptic said in Is Ray Peat Legit? My thoughts::
From what I've gathered, Ray Peat is probably not a legitimate scientist.
Well. Ray never even considered himself to be a scientist when asked about it. He said he regarded himself as a critic,
In general, if you wonder if someone making scientific claims is legit, you should look for a publication record
Not sure why you believe this. Publications in 'credible journals' don't guarantee anything.
Peer review only came into widespread use in the journals during the 1970's. It's a fake stamp of approval of so people don't have to critically assess or think about a paper when they are reading it.
Ray circumvented the cesspit that is the scientific culture because he wasn't particularly interested in trying to change it or gain their respect. He was appealing to everyone in the public who was open to it. He wanted a society where people knew how to fix their own problems rather than a society where the empty headed citizens submit to some medical/scientific elite who try and impress with their credentials and list of publications in supposedly prestigious science bibles.
You aren't assessing any of his ideas on their merits.
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@newmexico not once did ray peat ever recommend eating carrot juice, he has specifically recommended against it, citing carotene as similar to the polyunsaturated fats in how they inhibit thyroid function.
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@newmexico lol
