Antiqua's Log

[antiqua]

I figure I should start a log. I'm an avid diarist irl so if I'm gonna write it anyway, may as well put it up where others can read and maybe find a glimmer of meaning. For this first entry, I'll give a general outline of who I am and how I got to Peat.

I'm 22 years old now, but even as a little girl I always had health issues, unlike my older sister. I was asthmatic, terrible allergies, severe anxiety, picky eating (all I would really eat was cheerios and pasta). I think the original trigger of most of this was chronic stress due to an absent alcoholic dad and being in a generally unstable environment. My sister coped by externalizing her stress, lashing out at others. I coped by internalizing my stress and learning to please others. No wonder I got so sick later in life. Stress always catches up with you.

When I was 13 I developed acne, which mortified me. At 14, just months after my first period, I was put on the pill to clear my skin up. This is one of my biggest regrets, and sources of anger towards the medical system at large. Doctors are so blind to how the human body actually works that they thought it was appropriate to totally shut down a vital organ system as a strategy to clear acne. I wasn't even in high school yet.

Being medicated on the pill throughout my teens spawned a whole new set of problems for me. After stopping at 21, I developed what's known as post-pill syndrome or post-pill pcos. This past year I have spent way too much energy trying to figure out what's wrong with me and how this happened. 6 months of learning from Dr. Peat's work finally gave me my answer - stress finally caught up with me. Emotional stress from my childhood and adolescence, physical stress from a nutritionally lacking diet, hormonal stress from having my hormones supressed for 7 years. In the end, stress is stress and everyone on the forum has probably had tenfold the amount of stress than anyone should have in a lifetime.

Basically my goal is to restore my health and reach a state of balance, physically and emotionally. I don't anticipate ever full-on "peating" because it's incredibly expensive, and because I honestly prefer starch to sugar any day of the week. But by applying principles that I've learned from Ray's work, I have begun to shift things in the right direction. '

Stay tuned in the future for some generous oversharing as I deep dive into more specific topics!

 

[antiqua]

Starch vs Sugar

So I think a lot about my own body's cravings and what that communicates to me. I never really crave sugar or sweet things these days. I very much enjoy sweet warm drinks like coffee and sweetened milk, but I wouldn't say I crave these. What my body consistently asks for, and throws a fit if denied, is starch. I absolutely NEED starch to feel full and satisfied with my food. I consume starch as boiled potatoes, masa harina tortillas (that I make), jasmine or sushi rice, or homemade sourdough bread (i actually used to make quite a bit of cash selling my sourdough).

My health is quite poor, and I know my liver isn't functioning optimally. This leads me to wonder if my need for starch could correlate with reduced glycogen capacity in my liver. And if so, I hope this is something I can work on. Ray obviously vastly preferred sugar over starch but at this point in my recovery process, I need to trust my body and give her what she's asking for. When I try to do starch free days, I feel constantly hungry and on edge, and eating sugar makes me feel worse.

 

[antiqua]

So I’ve been allowing myself to eat whatever form of carbs I’m craving and it seems to be going well. I’m eating lots of rice, oats, buckwheat, and masa harina. A few fruits here and there but in Northern California, not many fresh fruits are ripe this time of year.

ALSO, and very importantly, I’ve been experimenting with eating beans. I soak and pressure cook them, and they digest very well. It’s been helping my blood sugar stay stable, and my bowel movements have been great. I’m allergic to peanuts and lentils so for a long time I was afraid of all legumes. But black beans, pinto beans, and even red beans seem to digest like a dream with no bloating and minimal gas. I like being able to have a protein source that’s not animal based. I find that I do best having animal protein only once a day. The soluble fiber works to bind to bile and remove it as a bowel movement, along with all the fat soluble toxins in the bile. I know carrots and boiled mushrooms are all the rage for their insoluble fiber around here, but I think soluble fiber is very overlooked.