I Tried Out Every Diet Under The Sun. Here I Share What I Learned

thingsvarious

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I am a med student in my last year. About to become a functional medicine doctor. In the last few years i tried out literally any type of diet under the sun. I want to share with you some things I learned along the way.

There are many diets out there. Nutrition is like religion, people protect their diet with their lives. Different diets work for different people. But there is a diet you can´t go wrong with.

Different diets work for different people. But there is a diet almost everyone does well on (that does NOT mean people don´t do well on other diets as well). This is the diet we evolved with over the last couple hundred thousand years or so.

A few points about a diet literally everyone does well on:
  • Your main energy source should be good fats. The rest should come from good fats (almost everyone does well on MUFA; SFAs are ok).

  • You need to deserve your carbs. The more insulin sensitive (i.e. lean and active) you are, the more carbs you can tolerate. Keeping carbs between 100–200g carbs works well for most people. The leaner and more active, the more carbs you tolerate and even need.

  • Avoid high-glycemic loads. Our ancestors never had the fast-spiking carbs we have now. Intense spikes in insulin are bad. (Whole books can be written -and in fact, are written — about the science).

  • Cycling into ketosis occasionally keeps you metabolically flexible. Metabolic flexibility is incredibly important. Just as our ancestors likely were, throwing in the occasional fast (cycling in and out of ketosis) keeps your cells great at oxidizing fats while remaining good at burning glucose.

  • Very low crab? A diet very low in carbohydrates is great for becoming metabolically healthy (e.g. fatty liver, insulin resistance, adiposity), but if you are already lean and active, going too low in carbs for too long periods of time can screw with hormonal health.

  • Do not only look at macros and micros. Calories are just as important. Perhaps THE most important factor when it comes to diet is simply the number of calories you eat. We are heterotrophic creatures. Energy intake is one of the most important things animals do. For adequate health and function (esp. hormonal health), sufficient caloric intake is required.

  • Protein intake. Around 1.5g protein/kg body weight.

  • Eat meats. We evolved as meat-eaters. Meats are highly nutritious and contain many nutrients (e.g. minerals, carnitine, carnosine, creatine, choline, CoQ10, etc.). Too bad, meat is bad for the environment.

  • Stay away from dairy. Most people think bad reactions to dairy are due to the lactose content. In many cases however, it is not the lactose, but the whey and esp. casein protein fraction of the milk. Both whey and casein evolved to have some hormonal activity. Both are quite bad for metabolic health. Besides, many people´s immune system reacts against certain forms of a1-casein.

  • Sugar/fructose in high quantities is bad. Not only does it elevate intrahepatic lipogenesis (fatty liver), but it also raises uric acid, which has a host of adverse effects itself. What is more, sweetness hooks you and you become addicted to it.

  • Avoid excessive Omega-6 intake. Stay away from most vegetable oils (esp. soy, corn, sunflower). Not only are they precursors to pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, but they also screw with the different PPARs.

  • From a health perspective, not much variety is needed. If vitamins and micronutrient intakes are adequate, we can eat the same foods and meals over and over again (and every other mammal out there animal does this). Do you think our primate ancestors had varied buffets available 24/7, 365 days per year? Hell no, they ate the exact same stuff over and over again. In fact, people in blue zones, in general, eat the same 20 or so ingredients for their whole lives.
Don´t miss the forest for the trees. Following these few points gives you 80% of the benefit for 20% effort. Overfocusing on tiny details is pointless.

I am a med student becoming a functional medicine doctor in a year. I tried out every diet under the sun and found paleo to be best and healthiest (not just based on personal experience).

I wrote a short guide about a diet that literally everyone does well on.

Enjoy.

A Diet That Works For Everyone

I am open for any criticism, feedback, different opinions. Humanity is all about collective learning :)
 
Last edited:

tankasnowgod

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Jan 25, 2014
Messages
8,131
Every diet under the sun, eh?

How did you do on Walter Kemper's Rice Diet?

The Willaim Brown No Fat/No PUFA high sugar and skim milk diet?

The MAP Protocol Diet?

Protein Sparing Modified Fasting?

Regular Fasting? Intermittent Fasting?

Slim Fast Diet? Drinking Man's Diet? Pure Carnivore? Raw Vegan? Raw Primal?

The All Milk Diet as described by Bernarr MacFadden?
 

Tarmander

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Messages
3,763
"I Tried Out Every Diet Under The Sun. Here I Share How I Take a Great Genetic Base and Maximize It Until It Breaks"
 

lampofred

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Feb 13, 2016
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I think Dr. Peat would agree with most of your bullets except the ones about milk and sugar. His articles are at raypeat.com. He says keeping calcium intake higher than phosphate is very important for preventing calcification, heart disease, basically all degenerative issues, so our primary sources of protein should be milk and cheese, with eggs/liver/oysters for vitamins and trace minerals, but that meat should not be a staple. He says sugar is good for you because it increases respiratory quotient and bone growth, and that even though it can cause fatty liver (if thyroid is low), the fat it forms is protective and stabilizing, lowering oxidative stress.

(But eating sugar if you don't keep PUFA at absolutely 0 will lead to disaster. The main problem with sugar is that it worsens water-salt balance and increases swelling, which Dr. Peat takes care of by avoiding PUFA and keeping metabolic rate high.)
 
Last edited:

Nicole W.

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Joined
Nov 28, 2016
Messages
583
I am a med student in my last year. About to become a functional medicine doctor. In the last few years i tried out literally any type of diet under the sun. I want to share with you some things I learned along the way.

There are many diets out there. Nutrition is like religion, people protect their diet with their lives. Different diets work for different people. But there is a diet you can´t go wrong with.

Different diets work for different people. But there is a diet almost everyone does well on (that does NOT mean people don´t do well on other diets as well). This is the diet we evolved with over the last couple hundred thousand years or so.

A few points about a diet literally everyone does well on:
  • Your main energy source should be good fats. The rest should come from good fats (almost everyone does well on MUFA; SFAs are ok).

  • You need to deserve your carbs. The more insulin sensitive (i.e. lean and active) you are, the more carbs you can tolerate. Keeping carbs between 100–200g carbs works well for most people. The leaner and more active, the more carbs you tolerate and even need.

  • Avoid high-glycemic loads. Our ancestors never had the fast-spiking carbs we have now. Intense spikes in insulin are bad. (Whole books can be written -and in fact, are written — about the science).

  • Cycling into ketosis occasionally keeps you metabolically flexible. Metabolic flexibility is incredibly important. Just as our ancestors likely were, throwing in the occasional fast (cycling in and out of ketosis) keeps your cells great at oxidizing fats while remaining good at burning glucose.

  • Very low crab? A diet very low in carbohydrates is great for becoming metabolically healthy (e.g. fatty liver, insulin resistance, adiposity), but if you are already lean and active, going too low in carbs for too long periods of time can screw with hormonal health.

  • Do not only look at macros and micros. Calories are just as important. Perhaps THE most important factor when it comes to diet is simply the number of calories you eat. We are heterotrophic creatures. Energy intake is one of the most important things animals do. For adequate health and function (esp. hormonal health), sufficient caloric intake is required.

  • Protein intake. Around 1.5g protein/kg body weight.

  • Eat meats. We evolved as meat-eaters. Meats are highly nutritious and contain many nutrients (e.g. minerals, carnitine, carnosine, creatine, choline, CoQ10, etc.). Too bad, meat is bad for the environment.

  • Stay away from dairy. Most people think bad reactions to dairy are due to the lactose content. In many cases however, it is not the lactose, but the whey and esp. casein protein fraction of the milk. Both whey and casein evolved to have some hormonal activity. Both are quite bad for metabolic health. Besides, many people´s immune system reacts against certain forms of a1-casein.

  • Sugar/fructose in high quantities is bad. Not only does it elevate intrahepatic lipogenesis (fatty liver), but it also raises uric acid, which has a host of adverse effects itself. What is more, sweetness hooks you and you become addicted to it.

  • Avoid excessive Omega-6 intake. Stay away from most vegetable oils (esp. soy, corn, sunflower). Not only are they precursors to pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, but they also screw with the different PPARs.

  • From a health perspective, not much variety is needed. If vitamins and micronutrient intakes are adequate, we can eat the same foods and meals over and over again (and every other mammal out there animal does this). Do you think our primate ancestors had varied buffets available 24/7, 365 days per year? Hell no, they ate the exact same stuff over and over again. In fact, people in blue zones, in general, eat the same 20 or so ingredients for their whole lives.
Don´t miss the forest for the trees. Following these few points gives you 80% of the benefit for 20% effort. Overfocusing on tiny details is pointless.

I am a med student becoming a functional medicine doctor in a year. I tried out every diet under the sun and found paleo to be best and healthiest (not just based on personal experience).

I wrote a short guide about a diet that literally everyone does well on.

Enjoy.

A Diet That Works For Everyone

I am open for any criticism, feedback, different opinions. Humanity is all about collective learning :)
Wait a minute? You’ve had not one patient, except for yourself, and you are suddenly an expert on what kind of diet works for everyone?
 

DaveFoster

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Recoen

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I am a med student in my last year. About to become a functional medicine doctor. In the last few years i tried out literally any type of diet under the sun. I want to share with you some things I learned along the way.

There are many diets out there. Nutrition is like religion, people protect their diet with their lives. Different diets work for different people. But there is a diet you can´t go wrong with.

Different diets work for different people. But there is a diet almost everyone does well on (that does NOT mean people don´t do well on other diets as well). This is the diet we evolved with over the last couple hundred thousand years or so.

A few points about a diet literally everyone does well on:
  • Your main energy source should be good fats. The rest should come from good fats (almost everyone does well on MUFA; SFAs are ok).

  • You need to deserve your carbs. The more insulin sensitive (i.e. lean and active) you are, the more carbs you can tolerate. Keeping carbs between 100–200g carbs works well for most people. The leaner and more active, the more carbs you tolerate and even need.

  • Avoid high-glycemic loads. Our ancestors never had the fast-spiking carbs we have now. Intense spikes in insulin are bad. (Whole books can be written -and in fact, are written — about the science).

  • Cycling into ketosis occasionally keeps you metabolically flexible. Metabolic flexibility is incredibly important. Just as our ancestors likely were, throwing in the occasional fast (cycling in and out of ketosis) keeps your cells great at oxidizing fats while remaining good at burning glucose.

  • Very low crab? A diet very low in carbohydrates is great for becoming metabolically healthy (e.g. fatty liver, insulin resistance, adiposity), but if you are already lean and active, going too low in carbs for too long periods of time can screw with hormonal health.

  • Do not only look at macros and micros. Calories are just as important. Perhaps THE most important factor when it comes to diet is simply the number of calories you eat. We are heterotrophic creatures. Energy intake is one of the most important things animals do. For adequate health and function (esp. hormonal health), sufficient caloric intake is required.

  • Protein intake. Around 1.5g protein/kg body weight.

  • Eat meats. We evolved as meat-eaters. Meats are highly nutritious and contain many nutrients (e.g. minerals, carnitine, carnosine, creatine, choline, CoQ10, etc.). Too bad, meat is bad for the environment.

  • Stay away from dairy. Most people think bad reactions to dairy are due to the lactose content. In many cases however, it is not the lactose, but the whey and esp. casein protein fraction of the milk. Both whey and casein evolved to have some hormonal activity. Both are quite bad for metabolic health. Besides, many people´s immune system reacts against certain forms of a1-casein.

  • Sugar/fructose in high quantities is bad. Not only does it elevate intrahepatic lipogenesis (fatty liver), but it also raises uric acid, which has a host of adverse effects itself. What is more, sweetness hooks you and you become addicted to it.

  • Avoid excessive Omega-6 intake. Stay away from most vegetable oils (esp. soy, corn, sunflower). Not only are they precursors to pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, but they also screw with the different PPARs.

  • From a health perspective, not much variety is needed. If vitamins and micronutrient intakes are adequate, we can eat the same foods and meals over and over again (and every other mammal out there animal does this). Do you think our primate ancestors had varied buffets available 24/7, 365 days per year? Hell no, they ate the exact same stuff over and over again. In fact, people in blue zones, in general, eat the same 20 or so ingredients for their whole lives.
Don´t miss the forest for the trees. Following these few points gives you 80% of the benefit for 20% effort. Overfocusing on tiny details is pointless.

I am a med student becoming a functional medicine doctor in a year. I tried out every diet under the sun and found paleo to be best and healthiest (not just based on personal experience).

I wrote a short guide about a diet that literally everyone does well on.

Enjoy.

A Diet That Works For Everyone

I am open for any criticism, feedback, different opinions. Humanity is all about collective learning :)
GLUT4 is the only known insulin dependent transporter.
 

Summer

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Sep 10, 2019
Messages
851
This diet may very well work for OP. We’re all different. Different, varied, mixed ancestries. Dude might thrive exclusively on fat. Super low carb makes me feel ill.
 

Nicole W.

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This is the internet, what do you expect?
I expect the bare minimum, of course. That would be a contributor who has read and understands Ray Peat’s principles pertaining to nutrition and health. Extra points for knowing his audience and recognizing that the reason many people have come to this forum is because they damaged their health with paleo/keto-style diets like the one he is advocating.
OP is an peculiar mix of arrogance and ignorance which I find somewhat insulting, tbh. This (presumably) 3rd year med student, who showed up as a member a month ago is coming here to tell us he’s got it all figured out...seems like a pretty blatant self promoter. I get it, he doesn’t have much blog readership, hence the link, but in order to sell himself he needs to know his customer base. I think he overlooked this small detail when he posted this article.
Once again, another internet stray wanders into the forum, poops on the carpet and then slinks off. Please forgive me, but I find this recurring situation a little frustrating.
 

Nicole W.

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Joined
Nov 28, 2016
Messages
583
Every diet under the sun, eh?

How did you do on Walter Kemper's Rice Diet?

The Willaim Brown No Fat/No PUFA high sugar and skim milk diet?
Don’t forget the Croissant Diet... bet he hasn’t tried that one.

The MAP Protocol Diet?

Protein Sparing Modified Fasting?

Regular Fasting? Intermittent Fasting?

Slim Fast Diet? Drinking Man's Diet? Pure Carnivore? Raw Vegan? Raw Primal?

The All Milk Diet as described by Bernarr MacFadden?
 

tankasnowgod

Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
8,131
I expect the bare minimum, of course. That would be a contributor who has read and understands Ray Peat’s principles pertaining to nutrition and health. Extra points for knowing his audience and recognizing that the reason many people have come to this forum is because they damaged their health with paleo/keto-style diets like the one he is advocating.
OP is an peculiar mix of arrogance and ignorance which I find somewhat insulting, tbh. This (presumably) 3rd year med student, who showed up as a member a month ago is coming here to tell us he’s got it all figured out...seems like a pretty blatant self promoter. I get it, he doesn’t have much blog readership, hence the link, but in order to sell himself he needs to know his customer base. I think he overlooked this small detail when he posted this article.
Once again, another internet stray wanders into the forum, poops on the carpet and then slinks off. Please forgive me, but I find this recurring situation a little frustrating.

Yeah, he really doesn't even seem familiar with Peat's ideas, or doesn't really care about them.

You can contrast this thread with the one CLASH wrote a few years ago, where it's very clear that he's interested in Peat's ideas, even when he has some criticisms of some of his points-

Clinical Context To Ray's Theoretical Context
 

Nicole W.

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2016
Messages
583
Every diet under the sun, eh?

How did you do on Walter Kemper's Rice Diet?

The Willaim Brown No Fat/No PUFA high sugar and skim milk diet?

The MAP Protocol Diet?

Protein Sparing Modified Fasting?

Regular Fasting? Intermittent Fasting?

Slim Fast Diet? Drinking Man's Diet? Pure Carnivore? Raw Vegan? Raw Primal?

The All Milk Diet as described by Bernarr MacFadden?
Yeah, he really doesn't even seem familiar with Peat's ideas, or doesn't really care about them.

You can contrast this thread with the one CLASH wrote a few years ago, where it's very clear that he's interested in Peat's ideas, even when he has some criticisms of some of his points-

Clinical Context To Ray's Theoretical Context
Yeah, he really doesn't even seem familiar with Peat's ideas, or doesn't really care about them.

You can contrast this thread with the one CLASH wrote a few years ago, where it's very clear that he's interested in Peat's ideas, even when he has some criticisms of some of his points-

Clinical Context To Ray's Theoretical Context
Thanks, Clash is someone who takes the forum seriously. He lays out the arguments to understand them better and to see how they would apply IRL. OP would have had a better reception if he hadn’t acted like he has the final word on diet.
 

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