Always Hungry

Shrimp

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Hi friends,

A consistent problem I've been having while trying to eat according to Peat's ideas is constant hunger. I find it hard to consume enough milk, cheese, fruit and OJ to feel full at all, as they aren't easy to digest, and I'm pretty sure I'm not getting nearly enough calories. I'm hypo with many bad symptoms still (on 1 grain NDT), my digestion is weak (burping a lot after meals), and I've always been underweight, so I'm wondering if I'm not absorbing things properly. I'm also really craving starch with salt most of the time, like some rice pasta in broth with salt added. I don't really crave milk or OJ or fruit at all, honestly.

Typically I'll eat cheese and OJ for breakfast, greek yogurt with honey for snack, sugared/salted whole milk with beef for lunch, papaya or melon with milk for snack, more meat with milk and maybe a potato with butter or coconut oil for dinner, and as much HD vanilla ice cream before bed as I want (usually 1/2 cup or so).

Anyone else experience something similar? Not sure what to do. :?
 

Violet

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If you're underweight and have poor digestion, why dont you eat ice cream? It's one of the easiest things to digest, and plenty of sugar and fat to help you gain weight!
 

lovelife

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I feel you. I'm not 100% peat, but I have noticed that most people who are seem to drink more of their calories than eat much food. I think you should eat real food if you want it.
I've made things like breakfast burritos... corn tortillas, scrambled eggs, cheese, salsa and sour cream... (not sure sour crm or salsa is peat approved to be honest). If they aren't then eggs and cheese alone can be at decent.
Also, make like a chili or soup of some kind (whatever meat you prefer).. now I add potatoes to my soup as I've read that it's more depending on how you digest them and as long as you're not eating a lot of them... but of course it's up to you. Then I make corn "cakes" with the masa harina flour.. just follow the instructions on the bag.. then I put 1-2 cakes in a bowl, top it with the chili/soup, top with cheese, and sour crm for me.
These are much more filling meals than milk and juice for me. Though I still drink both. You also can try to make sure you're drinking full fat milk if you want more calories.

Milk and juice may be the staples, but eggs, cheese, meat, and some seafood are still things he eats/has talked about from all I have read.
 

Asimov

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You do know you can eat more than OJ, milk, cheese, and NDT, right?

How about....have a nice low PUFA, high protein meal with something sweet for dessert........
 

Jenn

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Potatoes!
Yep, my answer to just about anything, I know. Homemade fries are an EXCELLENT vehicle for salt and are one of the easiest foods to digest and assimilate if you CHEW until they are liquid in the mouth. Or potato soup or gelatin broth with potato chunks instead of rice or.....

We ate 6-8 small meals per day of potatoes for a very long time, until we healed enough to start adding other things.

P.S. It is really important to eat gelatin with meat per Peat....or just gelatin, if meat is not digesting well.
 

Ari

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The weak digestion and constant hunger are things that I had some experience with. They might be circular symptoms, with weak digestion leading to hunger even when eating enough.

At least you have the craving of starch with salt to go off of, so there is a sign there.

The potatoes with salt is a good suggestion since it lines up with your craving (listening to your body) and since potatoes are more beneficial than rice.

I would suggest eating simple meals until you learn what goes down easily. Then stuff yourself with that without guilt.

Look to optimize these things: Salt (I had to eat much more than I thought was sane), Vitamin D, Magnesium

Tweak these things: Pee yellow (don't overhydrate), Engage in comfortable amounts of activity (at least), Get lots of calories down. Eat for two to heal.

-> And for a super quick digestion fix, you can take some sort of acid with your meals. I personally took apple cider vinegar with my meals years back when I had bad digestion and it worked very well. I have heard talk of HCL pills as well. I'm not sure about Peat's stance on these things. I know that ACV is fermented but it is not Lactic Acid that is created. You shouldn't need these to get potatoes down though, but for other things they can help if needed.
 

Violet

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Ari said:
The weak digestion and constant hunger are things that I had some experience with. They might be circular symptoms, with weak digestion leading to hunger even when eating enough.

Hey Ari,

This part really interested me. I have weak digestion but get hungry very easily. Do you know why this happens / what causes this?
 

charlie

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Violet said:
Ari said:
The weak digestion and constant hunger are things that I had some experience with. They might be circular symptoms, with weak digestion leading to hunger even when eating enough.

Hey Ari,

This part really interested me. I have weak digestion but get hungry very easily. Do you know why this happens / what causes this?
Low metabolic rate.
 

Ari

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Violet said:
Hey Ari,

This part really interested me. I have weak digestion but get hungry very easily. Do you know why this happens / what causes this?

Been thinking this one over since you asked.

Charlie said:
Low metabolic rate.

I think it is pretty much this, although it is a chicken and egg situation I think.. (which came first, might depend on the individual).

WIth a weak digestion, the body needs to heal in order to digest well, but in order to heal it needs a lot of fuel and a high metabolic rate, so the constant hunger is a sign that your body wants more fuel, and the weak digestion is a sign that something is missing/something isn't healed. There are a lot of things that could throw off healing.. gotta look at every detail until you start to see an improvement - weak digestion is such a tough thing to deal with.. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

But when in doubt, tinkering with the peat basics should get you sorted fairly quickly... good peat fruit (oranges, mangos if you can, grapes, dates), milk you can tolerate (I found raw to be the best for me), oysters, liver, lots of gelatin and lots of salt. Potatoes are a case by case basis as to whether people eat those or not I found.

Try to see which of those foods work best with you until you heal and can eat everything again with no problem.

Also make sure to eat a lot. Ray peat himself said something to the effect of the individuals that thrive are the ones that consume the most (he said it more eloquently though).

One of the most important things I find for digestion and digestive power outside of diet is exercise and sunlight, probably not in that order. (exercise is something as simple as walking for a bit outside)

Just gotta mess around till your body lets you know you did something right.

Also i'm not sure how people look upon the acid/alkaline thing here, but it might be worth looking into. Also food combining.. which I don't think is 100% true, but I think there are certain combinations of foods that don't go down as easily as they would if separated.
 

Violet

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Ari said:
Violet said:
Hey Ari,

This part really interested me. I have weak digestion but get hungry very easily. Do you know why this happens / what causes this?

Been thinking this one over since you asked.

Charlie said:
Low metabolic rate.

I think it is pretty much this, although it is a chicken and egg situation I think.. (which came first, might depend on the individual).

WIth a weak digestion, the body needs to heal in order to digest well, but in order to heal it needs a lot of fuel and a high metabolic rate, so the constant hunger is a sign that your body wants more fuel, and the weak digestion is a sign that something is missing/something isn't healed. There are a lot of things that could throw off healing.. gotta look at every detail until you start to see an improvement - weak digestion is such a tough thing to deal with.. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

But when in doubt, tinkering with the peat basics should get you sorted fairly quickly... good peat fruit (oranges, mangos if you can, grapes, dates), milk you can tolerate (I found raw to be the best for me), oysters, liver, lots of gelatin and lots of salt. Potatoes are a case by case basis as to whether people eat those or not I found.

Try to see which of those foods work best with you until you heal and can eat everything again with no problem.

Also make sure to eat a lot. Ray peat himself said something to the effect of the individuals that thrive are the ones that consume the most (he said it more eloquently though).

One of the most important things I find for digestion and digestive power outside of diet is exercise and sunlight, probably not in that order. (exercise is something as simple as walking for a bit outside)

Just gotta mess around till your body lets you know you did something right.

Also i'm not sure how people look upon the acid/alkaline thing here, but it might be worth looking into. Also food combining.. which I don't think is 100% true, but I think there are certain combinations of foods that don't go down as easily as they would if separated.

Thanks so much for the response Ari! I have oestrogen dominance and low thryoid so am working on optimising this, and striking a balance between eating enough and not gaining weight...

Implementing all your suggestions already :)
 

Ari

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No problem and good luck on your journey..

I gained a lot of weight on the raypeat diet until I dropped ice cream. Once I dropped that I find that the more I eat the leaner I get.

Maybe I needed to gain that weight first to become healthier.. who knows.
 

Dutchie

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Ari said:
No problem and good luck on your journey..

I gained a lot of weight on the raypeat diet until I dropped ice cream. Once I dropped that I find that the more I eat the leaner I get.

Maybe I needed to gain that weight first to become healthier.. who knows.
Isnt icecream mostly fat,so being. High estrogenic?
What do you eat nowadays?im curious since you mention eating more,yet becoming leaner.
 

Ari

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I don't think ice cream is estrogenic .. but yeah it is definitely a lot of calories. I was just overeating it. It tastes too good.

As far as what I eat now... lets see

First and foremost I avoid all starch (rice, potatoes, watermelon). If I absolutely have to eat one of the first two, I eat it by itself and use lots of oil.
After that it is lots of dairy. Raw milk, gouda cheese if I want some (histamine though), Butter (usually with meat)
Lots of fruit when I find good ones. Oranges (haven't seen a good one in a while), Mangoes, Cherries, Grapes (pufa in seeds/skin), Dates. Gonna try and find more raypeat fruit.
Meat as well. I don't eat that much muscle meat. Just gelatin (from tendons), eggs (3-4) , oysters, and organ meat. I also find lamb to be pretty good compared to cow. But I don't eat that much meat at all. Sometimes once a day, sometimes not at all that day. I always try and block the iron with something too.
Next is the side stuff that I eat like carrots, ACV, salt, honey.. I think that's it.

So yeah the diet is mainly dairy, fruit, and meat.
 

Dutchie

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Ari said:
I don't think ice cream is estrogenic .. but yeah it is definitely a lot of calories. I was just overeating it. It tastes too good.

As far as what I eat now... lets see

First and foremost I avoid all starch (rice, potatoes, watermelon). If I absolutely have to eat one of the first two, I eat it by itself and use lots of oil.
After that it is lots of dairy. Raw milk, gouda cheese if I want some (histamine though), Butter (usually with meat)
Lots of fruit when I find good ones. Oranges (haven't seen a good one in a while), Mangoes, Cherries, Grapes (pufa in seeds/skin), Dates. Gonna try and find more raypeat fruit.
Meat as well. I don't eat that much muscle meat. Just gelatin (from tendons), eggs (3-4) , oysters, and organ meat. I also find lamb to be pretty good compared to cow. But I don't eat that much meat at all. Sometimes once a day, sometimes not at all that day. I always try and block the iron with something too.
Next is the side stuff that I eat like carrots, ACV, salt, honey.. I think that's it.

So yeah the diet is mainly dairy, fruit, and meat.

Ive heard fat in itself is estrogenic.

Its obvious that seeds are pufa,but how is grapeskin pufa?
 

Ari

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Ah, I meant to say pesticides in the grape skin. I read it on this forum a while ago so my memory is foggy.

This article claims that the levels between grape skin and grape pulp don't differ much
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 7003015733

However, I think what I read was that grapes overall are high in pesticides compared to larger fruit
 

Ari

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Wow, I had no idea what that stuff was..gonna make sure to wash it well then
 

Dutchie

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Oh yeah the protective yeast layer on the skin. Isnt everything thats a toxin,pesticide,yeast,mold etc.basically estrogenic?
Ive read tomatos are high estrogen/pufa as well,could that also be bc of the skin or purely the seeds inside?

Anyway,a while ago someone posted a link on this forum about how to freeze fruit and the author also had an article about cleaning the yeast off grapes with i think a concoction of ACV&baking soda. At the after picture the grapes looked like shiny marbles so clean!
 

Ari

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Great tips.

I just threw the rest of the grapes in the freezer :mrgreen:

As for washing with ACV and baking soda i'm gonna give that a shot next time. I tried salt and baking soda this time , which I found on google, but it didn't do much.
 

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