Fatty Liver Update - Some Possible Good News

[Strongbad]

Here's what I did:

1. Increased caffeine intake to about 4 cups a day.
2. Increased Vitamin E intake
3. Tried to increase protein intake (not able to reach target intake of 80 grams on most days ... but I'm at least hitting 60 to 70 grams on many days.)
4. Stopped taking aspirin (was regularly taking a baby aspirin earlier)
5. Reduced my sugar intake and my daily mega large cup of orange juice. I've not cut out the sugar but have just stopped going crazy with the quantities.
6. I've replaced fruit juices with eating fruit.
7. Read a free ebook by Matt Stone (it's called "Diet Recovery") and implemented 'resistant starches' in to my diet. This is basically boiling a potato and keeping it overnight in the fridge for consumption the next day. You can do the same with rice also. This has a nice side effect of really easy, well-formed stools.
8. Implemented the 'Peak 8 Protocol' as shown in this mercola video - http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitnes ... rview.aspx
9. Focused on improving my state of mind (more conscious about being grateful which in turn makes me calmer).
10. Cut back on the enormous quantities of cream, ghee, butter and red meat that I was consuming.
11. Was taking 1 Thyroid-s a day ... reduced it to .75 (1/2 in the morning and quarter in the evening)
12. Started taking choline regularly

Hi Leonardo, is there a reason to replace fruit juices with eating fruit? And did you have to reduce the overall daily calorie intake to achieve this high protein, high carb diet?

And how long do you bake the potato before refrigerating it? And do you include the skin or no?

 

[Nicholas]

I just had a little question on the Matt Stone thing.
So you bake or boil a potato,
then you refrigerate it overnight
and eat it the next day.

Is that supposed to change the nutritional value of the potato?

This method increases Resistant Starch which is supposed to help feed the good gutbacteria bc they turn it into butyrate if I'm not mistaking, I don't know if it changes the nutritional value.

Thanks, Dutchie.
from http://peatarian.com/32392/starches-and-butyric-acid

starches and butyric acid.

Matt Stone's first diet recovery book was free this week on amazon, so I downloaded it. I've never read his diet recovery books and didn't want to pay for them, so I thought I'd start here with the first one, as it was free.

Anyhoo, one of the differences I've noticed between Matt Stone and other Peat followers is that he's a big fan of starches for boosting metabolic rate. I was curious as to why and then in his first book he says this:

"Butyric acid actually facilitates the entry of T3, the active thyroid hormone, into the mitochondria where it does a sexy dance of sorts, excites the mitochondria, and makes it cheesily say something along the lines of “Is it hot in here or is it just me?” This is why when rodents are bombarded with butyric acid as in the study pointed out by Dr. Guyenet, they have a drop in appetite, a drop in cholesterol (I’ll explain this later), a drop in blood sugar, increased insulin sensitivity, an increase in physical activity, and a drop in body fat."

Aside from butter, the best way to get butyric acid flowing in the body is by eating starch. "Butyric acid is something we get primarily from the fermentation of fiber and resistant starch in the digestive tract." [Stone, Matt (2013-11-24). Diet Recovery: Restoring Hormonal Health, Metabolism, Mood, and Your Relationship with Food (p. 59). Archangel Ink. Kindle Edition.]

He lists these foods as being good sources for ramping up butyric acid: beans, legumes, whole grains (including corn), root veggies, plaintains, not overly ripe bananas, hi maize.

Anyhow, I would like to hear peoples' thoughts about starches. I haven't read much past this point in the book and I know that starches need to be cooked and accompanied with saturated fats for best digestion, but still - food for thought. The past few days I've been trying to eat more ripe bananas and some potatoes (which were so filling the thought of food was repulsive, but......) the result has been more energy. I feel more energized right after eating bananas and potatoes than grapes (although I love grapes).

In the past I used to eat a lot of squash and other starchy veggies and they always improved my digestion - maybe there is something to this and how it facilitates T3 and metabolism?

Additionally, uncooked starch has been a nightmare for me - undercooked potatoes & unripe bananas have caused massive nausea and sickness, so I'm specifically thinking of well cooked starches when I mention starches here.

The fiber in the foods seems to be the important co-factor.

EDIT: by the way, Matt's book is still available on Amazon for a couple more days, free of charge - in case any of you are interested. His sources are listed in the back. Cheers!

asked Dec 2, 2013 by Lindsay

I have found a similar energy with roasting root vegetables and eating them cooled throughout the week. If i eat a freshly cooked potato, i will feel very tired. I have about a half cup of the resistant starch stuff 3 times a day but always with fruit as well. So about a large potato every day. Along with it giving energy, it's also just calorie density, too. I don't crave a ton of fruit, so it helps.

 

[jyb]

Why not get it from butter? Is the bacteria fermenting it into more that can be found in a spoonful of butter? I feel like its the same argument for drinking milk: it has already been fermented well by a ruminant, they do it efficiently, so why not eat the end product directly...

 

[Nicholas]

Why not get it from butter? Is the bacteria fermenting it into more that can be found in a spoonful of butter? I feel like its the same argument for drinking milk: it has already been fermented well by a ruminant, they do it efficiently, so why not eat the end product directly...

because i eat them for more reasons than butyrate.

 

[Amazoniac]

Why not get it from butter? Is the bacteria fermenting it into more that can be found in a spoonful of butter? I feel like its the same argument for drinking milk: it has already been fermented well by a ruminant, they do it efficiently, so why not eat the end product directly...

This has been discussed in the Necessity of Butyrate thread..

 

[robertf]

My understanding is that excess protein/meat converts into fat. I used to think this could not happen, for no apparent reason, I have no idea where that idea came from. But when I reduced protein intake my weight normalized substantially. Protein needs seem to vary a lot as I used to eat tons of it with no problems but when I got older and maybe more efficient I needed a lot less. Also tons of steak is not Peatish, he clearly states that gelatin or casein is the preferred protein.

Fatty liver = congested bile.

I am interested in choline. Once had an interesting bit of advice to pulse dose very high qantities of choline to jumpstart my bile stasis but never tried it yet. What doses and brand are you taking?

I also never understood the rationale behind eating resistant starches - it seems like an ill-conceived idea. I figure you want to digest what you eat and not intentionally do things so that you aren't digesting. In ayurveda I was instructed to never eat reheated rice, and eating fresh boiled worked out very well for helping to tolerate starch.

Matt Stone- lifts barbells, Ray Peat- Ph.d. biology

 

[brigadierbarty]

Hey OP how are things going these days? Have you had any repeat ultrasounds?

 

[ddjd]

12. Started taking choline regularly

what form were you taking?

 

[Dezertfox]

what form were you taking?

would like to know as well? DOn't tolerate egg yolks well and don't want to take supplements

 

[Milena]

A recent discovery -Innate lymphoid cells type 2, ICL2s, in the small intestine promote fat gain but butyrate prevents this. ICL2S in WAT seem to have the opposite effect and promote weightloss. ICL2s are also present in other tissues including the lungs.
This goes a way to explain why some people do well on high-fat diets and others don't and why resistance starch and hence butyrate help some people.
"A tiny population of immune cells in the small intestine may trigger diet-induced weight gain | RIKEN"
A tiny population of immune cells in the small intestine may trigger diet-induced weight gain

Innate Lymphoid Cells in the Induction of Obesity: Cell Reports
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/f...m/retrieve/pii/S221112471930782X?showall=true

 

[Hgreen56]

A few months ago, I got a bit of a shock when after years of eating a Peat inspired diet, I was diagnosed with a fatty liver when I got an ultrasound of the abdomen and pelvis.

You can see the original thread here - viewtopic.php?f=56&t=4574

My liver was said to be 'mildly enlarged' and measured 14.8 cms. The impression was "Mild hepatomegaly with Grade 1 Fatty changes".

Today after four months of conscious effort, I got another ultrasound scan done.

This time, the doctor has written that the "liver is normal in size (12 cms) and shows diffuse fatty changes."

So it appears that my liver has actually reduced in size and there appears to be some improvement.

Before I move on to describing the things that I've done over the last several months, here are some disclaimers:

1. I got the tests done in two different places by two different doctors. So there may be differences because of equipment, reading error etc.

2. I don't know what exactly has caused the 'improvement' to my liver as I've not isolated the variables carefully.

Here's what I did:

1. Increased caffeine intake to about 4 cups a day.
2. Increased Vitamin E intake
3. Tried to increase protein intake (not able to reach target intake of 80 grams on most days ... but I'm at least hitting 60 to 70 grams on many days.)
4. Stopped taking aspirin (was regularly taking a baby aspirin earlier)
5. Reduced my sugar intake and my daily mega large cup of orange juice. I've not cut out the sugar but have just stopped going crazy with the quantities.
6. I've replaced fruit juices with eating fruit.
7. Read a free ebook by Matt Stone (it's called "Diet Recovery") and implemented 'resistant starches' in to my diet. This is basically boiling a potato and keeping it overnight in the fridge for consumption the next day. You can do the same with rice also. This has a nice side effect of really easy, well-formed stools.
8. Implemented the 'Peak 8 Protocol' as shown in this mercola video - http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitnes ... rview.aspx
9. Focused on improving my state of mind (more conscious about being grateful which in turn makes me calmer).
10. Cut back on the enormous quantities of cream, ghee, butter and red meat that I was consuming.
11. Was taking 1 Thyroid-s a day ... reduced it to .75 (1/2 in the morning and quarter in the evening)
12. Started taking choline regularly

Hope this helps somebody else out there.

Also, a special thanks to the Ray Peat forum community (PeaterPan, Wilfrid, Mittir, Such_Saturation, visionofstrength and others) for the extraordinary support and direction you guys gave me.

Thanks!

not sure you still active here but u was wondering,
When you liver was getting fat, did you not notice blood sugar problems?
(faster hypoglycemia, shorter time between meals, etc.)