Congestion Since Beginning To "Peat" - 28/male/6'

YourUniverse

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Hello...

I am a freshly recruited "Peat"er, transitioning from a vegan diet, which was supposed to be for my health.

To be honest, I thought I felt great, but upon reading Ray's information, I became aware that my hands/feet were mostly always cold, I was eating tons of PUFA and a really high phosphorus/calcium ratio.

I switched to a Peat diet a little more than 1 week ago.

For the first few days, I felt amazing. My stress response seemed basically eliminated. I felt like I could handle many situations MUCH more easily.

My sleep also IMPROVED at the beginning of this week. I would fall asleep basically instantly, wake up like in a time machine, feeling a bit groggy, but upon drinking my morning latte, everything felt right again in the world.

Lately, though, my sleep has deteriorated. I wake up with dry mouth (mouth breathing, hyperventilating?). I wake up feeling extra awful. I have tried taping my mouth shut, but I end up waking up mid-night to remove it. It seems to be causing some kind of discomfort.

I believe this is happening because my nasal passage has become congested most of the time, especially before bed and in the morning. This is something I never had on a vegan diet.

I make sure to have something with sugar (ideally fructose), salt, and protein (have been trying gelatin) before bed, typically milk or salted orange juice, along with an aspirin.

My diet (logged on cronometer, which is fairly indicative of most days lately): 2 quarts of milk (have been drinking skim lately), a large coffee, a large raw carrot, a few tablespoons of coconut and butter, some fried bananas (in those oils), 5-6 clementines, ~4-6 tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon or so of salt, 1-2 cups of frozen mango (heated in microwave or stove top), ~2 tablespoons of gelatin, 2 cups of steamed broccoli for vitamins A, E and K, and ~2 cups of orange juice. I am 28yo, 6'0 male. I doubt calories are my problem.

Could dairy be the problem?

These last few days, I have an ever-present, low-grade ache in my stomach, and I remember Ray saying something about congestion having something to do with gut irritation. Based on the foods listed, are there any clues as to what the cause of the sleep/congestion/stomach ache trouble may be?
 
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EIRE24

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Mango is something that does not agree with me at all. I think it could be the fruit if it is not ripe rather than the milk but I guess you will have to trial and error to find out for sure.
 

milk_lover

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It could be anything.. gelatin could be the problem? I know it has caused me a lot of issues in the past, especially when my metabolism was not functioning well.. Or you have allergy to OJ especially if not from ripe oranges.. Some sort of allergy from irritants is a suspect, maybe the banana and the carrot? Bananas could cause stomach issues and carrot has carotene which could cause weak metabolism, leading to sluggish transient time and stomach issues could give you nose congestion.. So anything could be a reason.. try and error as Eire24 said is your best solution I think.
 
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YourUniverse

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Trial and error, yes, ok. I figured this had something to do with casein in the dairy, or maybe needed a switch to homogenized milk from skim (and eliminate the extra coconut oil and butter). I saw that some people experienced some irritation from skim milk and not from whole. Or is it an issue of needing goat milk? Many things to try, just trying to narrow down my choices.

Thanks!
 

milk_lover

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Does the skim milk have any added vitamins? I don't drink skim milk and I will never do because that's not food in my opinion.
 
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YourUniverse

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Yes, it has vitamin A and vitamin D. All milk near me that isnt whole has added A and D. I read that these could be causing problems for some people and it WAS my first thought (along with changing from A1 cows milk to A2 goats milk), BUT, whole milk just has so much fat! To keep protein around ~120g/day, I would need to keep milk intake about the same, which would add significantly more fat calories to my daily diet.

Maybe switch to whole milk, drink less of it, and add MORE lean proteins (like gelatin)?
 
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milk_lover

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Yes, it has vitamin A and vitamin D. All milk near me that isnt whole has added A and D. I read that these could be causing problems for some people and it WAS my first thought (along with changing from A1 cows milk to A2 goats milk), BUT, whole milk just has so much fat! To keep protein around ~120g/day, I would need to keep milk intake about the same, which would add significantly more fat calories to my daily diet.

Maybe switch to whole milk, drink less of it, and add MORE lean proteins (like gelatin)?
I find some brands have low-fat milk with only vitamin D (without A) and I tolerate them better than the ones with A + D. I personally like whole milk with my coffee and I drink lower fat milk (1-2%) by itself. What about drinking less milk that agrees with you and eating beef or lamb with some glycine? Cheese is also another source of protein along with eggs.
 
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YourUniverse

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Good ideas, Im going to make a couple eggs and see how that feels. Coming from a vegan background, I have some hangups with overt meat eating... I'm OK easing into this sort of "lacto-vegetarian" Peat diet, but maybe beef/lamb one day! :)
 

Wagner83

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Dropping dairy stops my mouth breathing, the two weeks experiment I did without dairy and butter was even better. A good amount of people notice mucus, sinus issues, congested nose and what not from dairy. I do love dairy.
 

theLaw

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My diet (logged on cronometer, which is fairly indicative of most days lately): 2 quarts of milk (have been drinking skim lately), a large coffee, a large raw carrot, a few tablespoons of coconut and butter, some fried bananas (in those oils), 5-6 clementines, ~4-6 tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon or so of salt, 1-2 cups of frozen mango (heated in microwave or stove top), ~2 tablespoons of gelatin, 2 cups of steamed broccoli for vitamins A, E and K, and ~2 cups of orange juice. I am 28yo, 6'0 male. I doubt calories are my problem.

You're starving yourself.

4000 calories+

Check it out:

Getting Ripped With Dr Peat

VoS Uncoupling Thread
 
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YourUniverse

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How, if pulse and body temperature are fine? And even so, how could "starving myself" cause nasal congestion that causes sleep disturbance that i DIDNT have when eating an even lower-calorie vegan diet previously?
 

theLaw

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How, if pulse and body temperature are fine? And even so, how could "starving myself" cause nasal congestion that causes sleep disturbance that i DIDNT have when eating an even lower-calorie vegan diet previously?

First off, you're only 28, so just imagine what your friends can do to their bodies and seem fine. Usually, you get a pass until you get into your 30s, or if you're lucky, your 40s.

Second, lower calories might increase cortisol, which might have actually been keeping some issues at bay, and produced a good temp/pulse. Short term = good......long term= bad.

Temp and pulse are a good general indicator. but certainly not the whole picture.

Disturbances in the gut can cause sleep issues, and changing your diet will might require changes in your digestion, hence the onset sleep issues.:D
 

Wagner83

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This is what I feared - how to peat without dairy though? Such a shame...
You find the foods that you tolerate well, the foods that have nutrients, proteins, carbs, some fat (with low PUFAs foods and no dairy this will be reduced) and are well digested.
Ray has made some suggestions regarding intolerance to lactose and some people have had success with them I think.
 

DrJ

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Adjusting to the new diet could result in slowing of the bowel, resulting in more serotonin, gut irritation, and thus histamine causing congestion. That can take a few days to manifest and would explain your initial success followed by congestion. I wouldn't just give up on dairy. If you try cascara sagrada and congestion goes away, it's not the dairy per se, but rather transit time on the new diet. Raw carrot didn't actually work for me, so it may be that you need to try some other things. Plenty of magnesium will help. Mango and broccoli can potentially be gut irritants. Bananas are high in tryptophan/serotonin if I recall correctly.
 

Lilac

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Have a look at this thread. I started Peating to combat cold feet/hypothyroidism. Four years into this, cold feet long resolved, I still had a problem--mouth breathing at night. (Actually, I can't remember if I was mouth breathing at night pre-Peat. If not, my case parallels yours a bit more.) Working on my oral biome resolved my mouth breathing.

This Is A Big Piece Of The Health Puzzle
 
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YourUniverse

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Adjusting to the new diet could result in slowing of the bowel, resulting in more serotonin, gut irritation, and thus histamine causing congestion. That can take a few days to manifest and would explain your initial success followed by congestion. I wouldn't just give up on dairy. If you try cascara sagrada and congestion goes away, it's not the dairy per se, but rather transit time on the new diet. Raw carrot didn't actually work for me, so it may be that you need to try some other things. Plenty of magnesium will help. Mango and broccoli can potentially be gut irritants. Bananas are high in tryptophan/serotonin if I recall correctly.

As time passes I believe you are more and more spot on. It does feel like a transit time/gut irritation issue since switching to this new diet. My old diet was high in fibre, an average of 80g per day - I can see serotonin and histamine being problems. I will try cascara Sagrada, is there a product u personally recommend?
 

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