Connor's story

[DankMemes]

Hey guys I've been lurking this forum for a few months and have found a bunch of useful info, I've decided to make an account to ask for help with issues I have, but also to offer my experience to anyone who needs it.

Age & location

I'm 21 (22 in a few days!) and I'm from Australia.

How did you find Ray Peat's work

Through the /r/paleo sub. Another user was making suggestions like eating lots of honey, getting most of your calories from fruit, cut back on fiber and fat etc. These go completely against the grain over there and at first I thought he/she was trolling.

At that point I had multiple health issues, so I figured 'What do I have to lose?'. Without sounding too dramatic it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

How long have you been peating?

Since December 2014 (roughly 8 months). Eased in quite slowly, wasn't really eating enough calories until ~5 months ago and didn't start dairy until ~4 months ago.

What is your favorite part about Peating?

I love fruit. I grew up in a tropical region eating 5+ pieces of fruit every day. When I got into paleo I limited fructose and fruit thinking they were 'sometimes' food. Also a nice glass of cold milk is amazing after avoiding dairy for years.

What are the worst parts?

1. Seasonal availability of the fruits I thrive on/can tolerate (Mango and lychees)
2. Cost of fruit compared to rice/starches and cost of eating more calories in general
3. Giving nutritional advice. People thinking I'm an idiot for suggesting sugar, reducing greens and implying a low heart rate isn't a good thing.

What are your health issues?

I don't really have any health issues anymore, some minor concerns and healing needs to be done, but everything seems to be on the road to improvement.

What I was suffering from during my low carb years and I'm still prone to includes:

• Weak peristalsis and chronic constipation (not really a problem as long as I eat enough fruit and calories)
• Hayfever and histamine reactions
• Acne and rosacea, as long as I don't cheat my skin is flawless and glowing
• Impaired liver function. During my 3 years of low carb I had awful skin and went on a course of isotretinoin, I was also depressed during this time and binge drinking quite often. Not a nice combo.

Lifestyle

I work 9-5 and do strength training 3 times a week (recently cut down from 6 day P/P/L split). I'm looking to bulk up a bit and this diet seems perfect for it.

I've really cut back the alcohol consumption but I have a few on special occasions, I was also a chain smoker when drinking which I've stopped, and I only smoke marijuana socially on occasions.

What does your diet consist of?

For most of my time peating it's been something like this:

http://imgur.com/2VDKPYK

Only last week have I started experimenting with a very low fat approach:

http://imgur.com/GFgd4Aq

Supplement list

• Zinc Picollinate
• Lotioncrafter 95% mixed tocopheral
• Stress-non
• Now Food's Branch Chain Amino acids
• Thorne k2 liquid
• Aspirin

I've got hundreds of dollars worth of supps that I end up not using because I read somewhere that the quality is bad, or that this supp causes acne breakouts or it will interact with others negatively etc etc etc. I'd like to completely drop all supplements including aspirin, I'm looking at studying next year which means I won't have the budget for them.

The only supplement that I've ever seen a noticeable-positive difference with would be Haidut's estroban but I think my health has improved past the point where I need to include supplements.

Thanks for reading!!

That's pretty much all I can think of right now, I'm happy to answer questions or if anyone has advice I'm all for it.

 

[4peatssake]

to the forum Connor!

Nice intro, you seem well on your way toward optimal health.
See you around the forum!

 

[tara]

Connor

 

[goodandevil]

G'day mate, welcome

 

[DankMemes]

Thanks 4peatssake and Tara!

I do have a question if anyone reading can help out.

Ever since going really low fat I've had joint pain (hips, knees, wrists), though I also have a cold/flu so I'm not sure which is responsible for making me feel like an old person.

I think I'll wait until all my cold symptoms are gone and if my joints are still sore I'll attribute that to a fat deficiency, though I can't find any link between low fat and joint online and I don't plan on increasing omega 3 :)

 

[Mittir]

Thanks 4peatssake and Tara!

I do have a question if anyone reading can help out.

Ever since going really low fat I've had joint pain (hips, knees, wrists), though I also have a cold/flu so I'm not sure which is responsible for making me feel like an old person.

I think I'll wait until all my cold symptoms are gone and if my joints are still sore I'll attribute that to a fat deficiency, though I can't find any link between low fat and joint online and I don't plan on increasing omega 3 :)

Saturated fat has anti-bacterial property, even PUFA kills certain type of bacteria.
Low fat can increase endotoxin by increasing bacteria. Flu like symptoms with joint pain
is most likely caused by excess endotoxin.

Banana is high in serotonin and starch, it's fiber can feed bad bacteria.
Potato starch and fiber can do the same. Adding saturated fat, especially
coconut oil, to banana and potato probably helped you in lowering endotoxin.
I always add saturated fat when i eat starchy and fibrous foods.
You can either remove starch or add coconut oil to starch.
Dates are also known to have problematic fiber and there are enzymes
in dates that inhibit carbohydrate breakdown.

You can read up on William Brown's experiment with fat free diet.
He mostly used fat free milk and sugar for that diet.

 

[charlie]

DankMemes,

I came for the dank memes, stayed for the great intro.

See ya around.

 

[Westside PUFAs]

Hello Connor.

My thoughts:

Seasonal availability of the fruits I thrive on/can tolerate (Mango and lychees)

Peat has mentioned something called “Mango sickness.” It’s related to the poison ivy family. It seems that the allergenic part comes from the oil in the skin of the Mango. I still eat mango. It’s just something to watch for.

Cost of fruit compared to rice/starches and cost of eating more calories in general

This is a huge issue. Try to buy from a wholesaler if you can. More on starch below.

Giving nutritional advice.

Don’t. It’s a waste of time. If anyone asks, charge them, that way you will be remunerated for your time. People don’t really care about nutrition the way we do.

People thinking I'm an idiot for suggesting sugar, reducing greens

Peat is pro-well cooked leafy greens so I’m not sure why you said that:

"Those hormones, antagonistic to cortisol, can help to reduce waist fat. Chard, collard, and kale are good greens." - RP

"Well cooked potatoes, with butter or cream, fruit, and well cooked greens are other foods have vitamins and minerals that are helpful." - RP

"The things I most often recommend for magnesium are the water from boiling greens such as beet, chard, turnip and kale, and coffee." - RP

"Well cooked greens are very good sources, coffee and chocolate are, too." - RP

"but the first thing should be to make sure her calcium to phosphorus ratio is good, by having two quarts of low fat milk per day, or the equivalent in low fat cheese, with no grains, legumes, nuts, or muscle meats, and with some well cooked greens regularly. Vitamin K is important for calcium metabolism, too." - RP

Also:

“Refined granulated sugar is extremely pure, but it lacks all of the essential nutrients, so it should be considered as a temporary therapeutic material, or as an occasional substitute when good fruit isn't available, or when available honey is allergenic.” - RP

Peat's view is that the mix of sugars from fruit, fruit juice, and low-fat or skim lactose are the best carbohydrate sources, not sucrose. But sucrose can be used withour fear in your own context, such as homemade popsicles or something. Walter Kempner used one cup of white sugar in his “rice diet” with great results.

My thoughts on what Mittir said about starch and endotoxin:

Many people seem to lump Peat's view's in with their own dogmas, as you'll see here. You'll also see people try to lump Peat with the Weston Price crowd suggesting whole milk, when Peat has even said that someone shouldn't even drink a half gallon of whole milk because of the fat content: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7204&p=89863#p89863

Out of 116 Peat quotes on the subject of endotoxin, only 2 mention starch:

http://www.functionalps.com/blog/2012/1 ... endotoxin/

Just 2 quotes in relation to endotoxin. If starch was such an endotoxic issue, I think he would have written more about it.

Peat's view is that starch should be consumed with butter or coconut oil. But simultaneously he has said:

"Too much butter can make you fat, and some cheeses are like a soft butter and should be limited" - RP (one of the audio interviews)

So it's all about your own context. I personally eat starch daily so I can not put butter on it everyday without gaining body fat.

Other Peat quotes about starch:

“There isn't anything wrong with a high carbohydrate diet, and even a high starch diet isn't necessarily incompatible with good health, but when better foods are available they should be used instead of starches.” - RP

"Better foods" in that quote means fruit. Of course fruit is the best. Imagine a world where all of the most delicious, ripe, sweet, fresh, organic tropical fruit was available on every street corner like Mickey Dee's is. Imagine.

“Two pounds of well-cooked mashed potato has the protein value similar to a liter of milk, about 33 grams of protein. A person would be able to live for a long time on two or three liters of either milk or 4-6 pounds of potatoes per day. The milk drinker would eventually need to supplement iron, the potato eaters would need to supplement vitamin A, possibly B12, but both of them are nearly perfect foods.” - RP

"It's a good idea to have a quart of milk (about 32 grams of protein) every day, besides a variety of other high quality proteins, including cheeses, eggs, shellfish, and potatoes. The protein of potatoes is extremely high quality, and the quantity, in terms of a percentage, is similar to that of milk." RP

"When starch is well cooked, and eaten with some fat and the essential nutrients, it's safe." - RP

"Plain white rice, well cooked, with butter is o.k." - RP

As far as what Mittir said about dates, remember this quote:

"There is no perfect food; each comes with give and take. When eating for health, savvy eaters choose foods that give the most and take away the least." - Rob Turner

and here are two good studies on the nutrient density of dates: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6882

There are not many foods to choose from no matter where you live on the planet. You have to do your best with an already limited and contaminated food system.

You're still young. My advice is don't get fat. It's not fun. And it's a huge pain is the a** to lose excess body fat once it's there.

 

[montmorency]

You're still young. My advice is don't get fat. It's not fun. And it's a huge pain is the a** to lose excess body fat once it's there.

Amen to that.

 

[DankMemes]

Thanks for all the welcome and support guys!

@Mittir thanks for the advice! I think you're spot on about the endotoxin. I'm feeling a bit better today and so are my joints, but I'll stick to adding coconut oil to my potatoes.

I've read here that bananas aren't optimal, but I do feel great when eating those as opposed to melons, apples/pears or stonefruit. I don't tolerate citrus very well, but when summer comes round I'll probably be eating tons of mangoes instead of bananas.

I've been a bit iffy about dates too, some sources say the phytoestrogen levels are near that of soy, I could easily do without them tbh.

That experiment (and one of Haidut's post) is where I got the inspiration to go very low fat from! I still like to get a fair bit of fruit in though.

@Westside PUFAs I definitely find that I'm sensitive to certain preserved mango products and I think that might be because some of the skin gets into the processing or something idk.

Do you think that the amount of sucrose i'm getting is excessive? It's mainly in my coffees throughout the day and in milk postworkout, it's a cheap source of calories which I need while I'm trying to bulk up a bit.

Thanks for all the info mate, I'll try not get fat