Masa Harina represents one of those thorny issues in the land of Peat.
Some would say it okay to eat as much as one wants of it within a Peat regime.
Others, like myself, think "hmmm...not so fast."
I think there may be good reasons to limit masa harina consumption if you're trying to eat a "strict Peat diet."
Masa harina is by the way, as I understand it, corn flour treated with lime--not the citrus fruit lime, but rather the chemical calcium chloride, which changes that flour in some essential ways.
For starters, here are some things Peat is said to have said:
This comes via a chain of people relaying what Peat himself eats:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AV ... ssage/5523
- he avoids all grains. Traditional "proper preparation" methods used
throughout the world to render them less harmful involved using
alkaline mediums such as wood ash (as opposed to "acidic" as Sally
Fallon suggests) and "lime" as in calcium oxide (as opposed to "lime
or lemon juice" as Sally Fallon asserts). Research shows that that
these methods will convert some of the tryptophan to niacin. Using
whey would be especially ineffective as well as problematic due to the
tryptophan.
by a poster called: three3_six6_nine9
from Danny Roddy's Ray Peat's Brain: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding
http://www.dannyroddy.com/main/2011...ing-a-foundation-for-better-understandi.html
GRAINS (BEST TO WORST)
Masa harina (best), white rice or oats, and brown rice. The phytic acid in the oats block absorption of much of the calcium; cooking the oats much longer than usual might improve its nutritional value.
I can't find the source now, but I've read Peat saying that while at his Blake College his students did an experiment, testing their blood after consuming masa harina in the form of tortillas I believe. Peat said they could not detect any starch...where?...inside the cells of their blood...? At any rate, the experiment caused Peat to believe that masa harina, when treated with lime (calcium chloride, right?) as the students' tortillas had been, was changed into a more favorable grain to eat, if one wanted to eat grain.
And then of course there is Charlie's recent report of a conversation he had with Peat, which touched upon starch consumption:
Recently I was having a back and forth with Ray Peat and I asked him whats the best foods I can eat to get me out of the inflammation stage I am in and this is what he said:
"Generally, the simplest thing is to avoid things with starch and polyunsaturated fats. Milk and orange juice are the safest basic things, raw carrot helps to reduce intestinal inflammation and absorption of endotoxin, liver, eggs, and oysters are foods with a high ratio of nutrients to toxins." Ray Peat
The devil's in the details here. Did Peat mean to indicate that lime treated masa harina should therefore be consumed in unlimited quantities? Did he mean it was a desirable food to be consumed for its nutrients or carbohydrates on a regular basis?
I don't think so, but how one views masa harina within PeatDom is one of those thorny issues.
Anybody have any pertinent expressions from Dr. Peat or thoughts on this issue?
Please share.
Some would say it okay to eat as much as one wants of it within a Peat regime.
Others, like myself, think "hmmm...not so fast."
I think there may be good reasons to limit masa harina consumption if you're trying to eat a "strict Peat diet."
Masa harina is by the way, as I understand it, corn flour treated with lime--not the citrus fruit lime, but rather the chemical calcium chloride, which changes that flour in some essential ways.
For starters, here are some things Peat is said to have said:
This comes via a chain of people relaying what Peat himself eats:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AV ... ssage/5523
- he avoids all grains. Traditional "proper preparation" methods used
throughout the world to render them less harmful involved using
alkaline mediums such as wood ash (as opposed to "acidic" as Sally
Fallon suggests) and "lime" as in calcium oxide (as opposed to "lime
or lemon juice" as Sally Fallon asserts). Research shows that that
these methods will convert some of the tryptophan to niacin. Using
whey would be especially ineffective as well as problematic due to the
tryptophan.
by a poster called: three3_six6_nine9
from Danny Roddy's Ray Peat's Brain: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding
http://www.dannyroddy.com/main/2011...ing-a-foundation-for-better-understandi.html
GRAINS (BEST TO WORST)
Masa harina (best), white rice or oats, and brown rice. The phytic acid in the oats block absorption of much of the calcium; cooking the oats much longer than usual might improve its nutritional value.
I can't find the source now, but I've read Peat saying that while at his Blake College his students did an experiment, testing their blood after consuming masa harina in the form of tortillas I believe. Peat said they could not detect any starch...where?...inside the cells of their blood...? At any rate, the experiment caused Peat to believe that masa harina, when treated with lime (calcium chloride, right?) as the students' tortillas had been, was changed into a more favorable grain to eat, if one wanted to eat grain.
And then of course there is Charlie's recent report of a conversation he had with Peat, which touched upon starch consumption:
Recently I was having a back and forth with Ray Peat and I asked him whats the best foods I can eat to get me out of the inflammation stage I am in and this is what he said:
"Generally, the simplest thing is to avoid things with starch and polyunsaturated fats. Milk and orange juice are the safest basic things, raw carrot helps to reduce intestinal inflammation and absorption of endotoxin, liver, eggs, and oysters are foods with a high ratio of nutrients to toxins." Ray Peat
The devil's in the details here. Did Peat mean to indicate that lime treated masa harina should therefore be consumed in unlimited quantities? Did he mean it was a desirable food to be consumed for its nutrients or carbohydrates on a regular basis?
I don't think so, but how one views masa harina within PeatDom is one of those thorny issues.
Anybody have any pertinent expressions from Dr. Peat or thoughts on this issue?
Please share.
