Eat your way to destruction

[EIRE24]

You have an interesting train of thoughts, narouz. I wouldn't call it faulty.

It's a diet if you would like to look at it as such.
Perception sets the basis of how we approach things.

I've been overwhelmed with Peat's writing when I started studying his work.
The saying that "Peat isn't a diet" encouraged me to challenge myself to understand the complexity of how he lays out things.

The preaching that "This is a diet" - though not incorrect - automatically shuts down the investigative instincts of the reader.
It discourages them to take responsibly for their health and, simultaneously, does not add up to their self-development.
Eventually, we might fail to realise that the answer to any health challenge starts from within.
We start looking to others for answers.
We blame Peat and those who gave us advice when things go wrong.


Telling someone to have 2 litres of OJ - for example, as part of a diet - is similar to telling someone, with possibly impaired liver function, to start burning fat for fuel.
People reading the first statement start gulping orange juice in hopes to warm up, fix hormones, blood sugar and digestion.
Because the perception is already set to "a diet", that's exactly how it's approached.
In comparison, someone who understands insulin sensitivity, PUFA damage, Ph balance, thyroid's function, SIBO and overall hormone balance, knows better when and when not to take the orange juice as well as how much to take.

Take another example: Peat emphasizes that coffee is good and caffeine is vitamin-like.
Looking around the forum, you'll find quite few dieters reporting to have problems with coffee.
This is likely because liver function (and therefore digestion) is impaired; and thyroid isn't optimized - there might have a lot of PUFA to deal with, and estrogen along with it.
Tackling this problem requires an understanding of the issue.
Understanding leads to proper experimenting with coffee: gradual amount build up, steeping in milk, having it with buffers (i.e. sugar and/or cream), improving thyroid, possibly vitamin A increase and E in needed against estrogen and to counter PUFA damage, all while avoiding other potential intestinal irritants and using gut sweepers.
Add insulin sensitivity to that, and the number of variables increases.

I found this post extremely helpful. I would love to know your opinion then on how to go about improving liver function on a peat diet if this was the case or even insulin sensitivity with the reccomendations he gives? I understand what you are saying though that people need to apply peats principles to there situation and in whatever context it fits.

 

[XPlus]

I found this post extremely helpful. I would love to know your opinion then on how to go about improving liver function on a peat diet if this was the case or even insulin sensitivity with the reccomendations he gives? I understand what you are saying though that people need to apply peats principles to there situation and in whatever context it fits.

Thank you.

Fixing liver function, is as a part of fixing the whole system.
If I'd put special emphasis on fixing the liver, I'd think it requires constant high metabolism to put the system into recovery mode, while cleaning the gut and decreasing inflammation at the same time.
This may require optimizing thyroid function (while ensuring adequate supply of nutrients) as well as eating a daily raw carrot (or bamboo shoot) along with some gut stimulant (i.e. cascara, aloe juice).
Aspirin is helpful against inflammation in my experience but as with any other drug, I'd be cautious when taking it.
Find out whether it is suitable for you. Especially, if you have a certain condition that may require special attention such as G6PD deficiency.
Tolerance builds gradually and higher amounts require more Vitamin K.

Reducing intestinal irritants and endotoxins (e.g. gums, carrageenan, fermented foods and juices, resistant starch, overcooked food) is also necessary.

Haidut has many very informative posts about optimising liver function. You may like to search his posts on the forum.
He frequently mentioned that coffee and Taurine may be wise to use as liver support.

These ideas only scratch the surface of how it may work.

I encourage you to explore Peats writings on hyperglycemia, as a start.
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/sugar-issues.shtml

Understand how PUFA might be at play; and estrogen's prevalence when PUFA is in play.

The theory is to shift the body's main reliance on fuel towards sugar.
Niacinamide may help limiting the body's reliance on burning fat for fuel. Hence, force it utilise the more metabolically-efficient sugar as primary fuel source.
Restoring Beta cells that could have been already damaged from PUFA, may be required to normalise insulin production.

Peat mentioned that Brewers Yeast was used as a treatment for sugar issues.
Also, I remember him mentioning sugar and gelatin were successfully used, as well.
In one of the KMUD sessions on sugar, he mentioned that diabetics may be deficient in fructose.
This would make me think it's probably safer to use pure fructose than sucrose because lack of glucose doesn't stimulate insulin production.


As with anything, research, explore and experiment slowly and responsibly.
These guideline could be useful if you would like to experiment with something:
Go for the cleanest foods and supplements.
Have your medical history in mind.
Introduce only one variable at a time.
Be careful with dosing and timing.
Pay attention to how your body reacts.
If it makes you feel very ill stop it immediately.

 

[XPlus]

7. “People can do well on high or low fat or carbohydrate, but when the carbohydrate is very low, some of the protein will be wasted as fuel, replacing the missing glucose.”-Peat from http://www.dannyroddy.com/main/2011/12/ ... tandi.html

So he actually says there's no problem with eating lower carb. Interesting. I've dropped from 150+ grams to 80-100 recently and feel just fine.

I was trying to wrap my head around that. I think I sort of get it.
Given adequate amounts of sugar, a high fat diet might not necessarily be bad.
This probably because the sugar is necessary for thyroid as well as to make cholesterol and other things.
It doesn't mean that popular high fat diets, like paleo, with all the PUFA, lactic acid and difficult-to-digest fibre is good.
I also think that he, here, assumes it might not be bad for some people who do not have pre-existing liver issues, since the high fat diet is bile-intensive.

 

[tara]

Maybe Peat considers 150g sugar to be low carb.