Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discussion

narouz

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Jul 22, 2012
Messages
4,429
Peat Diet and Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discussion

Let's gather some information from members, readers, Peatians.
Let's make this a non-discussion thread:
just descriptions from posters about their own, subjective experience of a Peat diet--
no commentary by others, no discussion.

Let's leave aside health aspects here.
Let's just focus upon your subjective experience of a Peat diet
in terms of diet pleasure:
deliciousness, satisfaction, variety, fun, excitement, ease, freedom, etc.

In order to be fully inclusive,
it may be that some will feel it impossible to separate health concerns from pleasure factors.
No problem--your input is still valued.
Just state that that is the case.
Also, your experience may have evolved over time:
by all means feel free include such evolution.

In order to explore this subjective and therefore somewhat hidden area
more thoroughly and accurately,
let’s lay out some of the things you might consider and address in your responses.
These are not mandatory considerations,
just suggestions and starting points designed to illicit
full, thorough, thoughtful, accurate information.


What Kind of Eater Are You?

1. Describe what kind of an eater you have been over the course of your life:
-Someone who loves food and places a lot of importance on it,
someone who thinks about food a lot, looks forward to eating, perhaps considers eating a need,
perhaps forms a big part of one's life around eating together with others, maybe thinks eating out is part of what makes life fun, maybe someone who feels they place too much emphasis on food, etc?
-Someone who doesn’t care that much about eating; maybe someone who prioritizes enjoyment of other thing in life like the arts or the intellectual world or love or sex, and food is not that important in the scheme of things; maybe the kind, like a couple of my friends, who would simply "inject" nutrients if that were healthy and painless; etc.
-Someone who has had eating difficulties like digestive problems, bowel problems, constipation, etc; maybe someone who has had some other kind of difficulties in relation to food, like anorexic tendencies; or maybe the type who is very conscious or worried about weight and body image, and therefore assigns a high priority to eating not primarily for taste and pleasure, but rather for weight control; etc.
-Someone who has been a serious athlete or bodybuilder who sees eating mainly as a way of achieving the best athletic results--as opposed to eating mainly for pleasure.
-Someone who struggles with health concerns and therefore does not place the highest priority
upon food pleasure, but rather upon food healthiness.

These are just some common types that come to mind.
There are probably infinite variations.
They are intended as food for thought/starting points.


Thought Experiments to React To

Consider in your response some of these "thought experiments"
and, if you like, weave responses to them into your post.
These thought experiments
are just intended to stimulate and encourage subtle and complex responses
in this subjective area.
Response to the thought experiments is encouraged, but optional.

Thought Experiment #1:

Imagine that tomorrow we get a newsletter from Dr. Peat.
In it he says that he has shifted his opinion even more towards
the statement he has already made about diet:
that one should eat primarily to raise metabolism, rather than eating specific foods.
Peat now says he believes the following is the best path to great health:
don't even worry about metabolism; rather, just stay true to your Appetite, your Desire for foods.
In other words, Peat now advises to eat whatever you Want.
Eat for desire, pleasure, variety, satisfaction, etc.
There is no need--in fact it will be unhealthy--to worry or restrict yourself
when it comes to grains or vegetables or even PUFA.
Peat no longer, in this thought experiment, places much importance on that.
The healthiest foods for you, he says,
will be the most delicious.
Just be true to and be guided by what you Want.

With that imagined Peat shift in mind,
please address in your response these kinds of questions:
How much, if any, do you think you might change your diet?
Do you think you would still stick very closely
to the Peat diet you had been eating,
because you have come to feel that it is indeed, say,
the most delicious and satisfying diet?
Or do you think you might include other kinds of foods,
or move away from the foods you had been eating?

(If you have any qualms or difficulties about entering into and responding to
such imagined scenarios--no problem. Just say that this is the case and, if you like, explain why.)


Thought Experiment #2:

Let's imagine that a writer for the New Yorker magazine comes to our site
and asks members about a Peat diet.
Let's imagine that this reporter has already written a glowing article
about the health benefits of a Peat diet.

Now he is here to gather information about
the relative pleasure (or non-pleasure) of a Peat diet.
He puts his question to you in this form:

"How would you describe to our (the New Yorker's) readers
what you guess they would experience if they tried a fairly strict Peat diet--
not in terms of health benefits,
but just in terms of
how they would most likely experience the diet's relative
pleasure, variety, ease, difficulty, deliciousness, restrictiveness, freedom, etc?"

So please try to imagine what your answer
to the imagined reporter might be
and weave that into your response.

(Of course, such a question calls upon you to form some notion
of what a typical or average New Yorker reader would be like in terms of diet and pleasure.
It is obvious that most such readers will be a part of the developed world,
and probably will tend to have a decent amount of money.
Beyond that, you will just need to form a rough estimate of what such people are like
in terms of their food preferences.
I would think they would be like many of the people we know in our day-to-day experience.
And again, as with both of the thought experiments,
if you have any qualms or difficulties about entering into and responding to
such imagined scenarios--
no problem. Just say that this is the case and, if you like, explain why.)

Your Personal Definition or Notion of a Peat Diet

Roughly, how do you personally define a Peat diet?
For instance, some adhere to a quite strict interpretation of a Peat diet,
while others consider a Peat diet to be just about anything
so long as it is slathered in coconut oil.
Some even say there is no such thing as a Peat diet.
Please provide a brief description of your view in this regard.

Avoidance of “Shoulds”

Try not to let any pressures in the form of “shoulds” affect your responses--
what you think you “should” say versus what you actually experience.
If you have a positive reaction about the pleasures of a Peat diet, by all means state that.
If, on the other hand, you have had some less-than-positive reactions,
don’t hesitate to state those kinds of experiences.
Here are some questions to consider in regard to “shoulds":
(Don't feel that you have to respond to these unless you want to:
they are simply meant to stimulate critical thinking about this topic.)

-Is “making the best” of a Peat diet the same as saying a Peat diet is delicious, varied, satisfying, etc?
-Is making a negative statement about the pleasures of a Peat diet the same thing as “whining” or “being a baby”?
-Does it mean that you are an “ungrateful” or “unthankful” person if you say something negative about the pleasures of a Peat diet?
-Does it mean that you are trying to “bring people down” or are being a “troll”
or “trying to discourage” fellow Peatians
if you say something negative about the pleasures of a Peat diet?
-If you have been eating a rather strict Peat diet for a long time
and have become used to it or habituated to it,
and therefore you do not struggle with it much anymore
and are to some degree at peace with it--
is this the same thing as saying that the diet is
the most delicious or most satisfying?
-Does it mean you disrespect Dr. Peat if you make a negative comment
about the pleasures of a Peat diet?

The point behind all such questions is to encourage accuracy.
Being “positive” is a highly valued trait in our society,
but it is not always the same thing as being accurate.
The same could be said of being negative.


So, respond away!
As I say, my wish would be that this be a thread
in which Peatians post just their own subjective experiences.
No commentary or discussion or evaluation of those posted experiences.
This, I think, may allow posters to feel more free to post freely and accurately.

Remember, this thread focuses upon your experiences with
your Peat diet and its Pleasures: deliciousness, satisfaction, ease, fun, variety, etc.
Not commentary about health aspects of a Peat diet
 

gretchen

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2012
Messages
816
Re: Peat Diet and Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Dis

Where is the Peatian agreement; I am ready to check the box to let everyone know of my compliance!
 
OP
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narouz

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
4,429
Re: Peat Diet and Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Dis

gretchen said:
Where is the Peatian agreement; I am ready to check the box to let everyone know of my compliance!

Actually, gretchen, it's more like the "Non-Compliant" box you'd be looking for apropos this thread. :D
But no box-checking of any sort is required.
Just scribble away.
I'm very interested in your personal experience of the relative pleasures
of your Peat diet.
Be the first! :D
 
OP
N

narouz

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
4,429
Re: Peat Diet and Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Dis

frustrated said:

Sorry. No cliffs nor dales nor fields nor moors nor mountains nor hills.

But I'm very interested in your personal experience of a Peat diet's relative pleasures!
May I suggest that a bit of such writing can be helpful in alleviating frustration? :D
 

gretchen

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2012
Messages
816
Re: Peat Diet and Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Dis

narouz said:
gretchen said:
Where is the Peatian agreement; I am ready to check the box to let everyone know of my compliance!

Actually, gretchen, it's more like the "Non-Compliant" box you'd be looking for apropos this thread. :D
But no box-checking of any sort is required.
Just scribble away.
I'm very interested in your personal experience of the relative pleasures
of your Peat diet.
Be the first! :D

:D lol I'm kidding. I was hoping someone else would go first.
 
OP
N

narouz

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
4,429
Re: Peat Diet & Pleasure:Your Personal Experience; No Discus

gretchen said:
narouz said:
gretchen said:
Where is the Peatian agreement; I am ready to check the box to let everyone know of my compliance!

Actually, gretchen, it's more like the "Non-Compliant" box you'd be looking for apropos this thread. :D
But no box-checking of any sort is required.
Just scribble away.
I'm very interested in your personal experience of the relative pleasures
of your Peat diet.
Be the first! :D

:D lol I'm kidding. I was hoping someone else would go first.

Don't be scared.
I won't comment, and (the idea is) nobody else should either.

Here, I'll start ya off:
"I, gretchen, do solemnly swear,
that the Peat diet pleasure comments I now set forth
are, to the best of my knowledge, somewhat true..." :D
 

juanitacarlos

Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2012
Messages
417
Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

I find OJ, milk, coffee, cheese, fruits, chocolate, eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, beets, zucchini, parsnips, cacao, coconut oil, olive oil, butter and seafood very delicious. These are all foods I ate before I heard the name Ray Peat. Nothing's changed there.

I have now incorporated gelatin and liver. Gelatin/collagen have no real taste for me, so it's just added to drinks and perhaps if I cook a soup. I'm not a fan of liver, so I make a pate, which I also find delicious and used to eat, but not as regularly as I do now.

'Other' foods that I still eat that are probably less helpful to my health, so I'm eating for pleasure:

Homemade pizza
Sourdough bread
Cheap chocolate
Vegemite
Eggplant
Chicken
Watercrackers
Steak or fish once a week
Avocado very rarely

So yes, how I am eating is quite pleasurable to me.
It is easy to prepare and shop for. I really am enjoying that aspect of this journey.
I have focus with this diet and that really works for me.
I have choice in what I eat - I can eat whatever I want, but to have this core group of foods that I focus on really works for me.
As I've stated before, I don't like cooking, and have been cooking less - by that I mean creating a dish that has lots of ingrediants and have to put a lot of time into it.
I wouldn't say anything I've ever cooked or created is exciting. Edible is good for me. I go out for mind-blowing food on the odd occassion.

What Kind of Eater Are You?

I've been an emotional eater must of my life, which has contributed greatly to my health issues.

Thought Experiments to React To

Thought Experiment #1:

Imagine that tomorrow we get a newsletter from Dr. Peat.
In it he says that he has shifted his opinion even more towards
the statement he has already made about diet:
that one should eat primarily to raise metabolism, rather than eating specific foods.
Peat now says he believes the following is the best path to great health:
don't even worry about metabolism; rather, just stay true to your Appetite, your Desire for foods.
In other words, Peat now advises to eat whatever you Want.
Eat for desire, pleasure, variety, satisfaction, etc.
There is no need--in fact it will be unhealthy--to worry or restrict yourself
when it comes to grains or vegetables or even PUFA.
Peat no longer, in this thought experiment, places much importance on that.
The healthiest foods for you, he says,
will be the most delicious.
Just be true to and be guided by what you Want.

With that imagined Peat shift in mind,
please address in your response these kinds of questions:
How much, if any, do you think you might change your diet?
Do you think you would still stick very closely
to the Peat diet you had been eating,
because you have come to feel that it is indeed, say,
the most delicious and satisfying diet?
Or do you think you might include other kinds of foods,
or move away from the foods you had been eating?

(If you have any qualms or difficulties about entering into and responding to
such imagined scenarios--no problem. Just say that this is the case and, if you like, explain why.)

I find this exercise hard to do. For one, I can't imagine Peat doing a u-turn like this. Secondly, I can't imagine what evidence Peat would put forth that could override my own experience that eating whatever I wanted at any given time (i.e. how I've eat most of my life) could somehow magically make me healthy again. I'll pass on this one.


Thought Experiment #2:

Let's imagine that a writer for the New Yorker magazine comes to our site
and asks members about a Peat diet.
Let's imagine that this reporter has already written a glowing article
about the health benefits of a Peat diet.

Now he is here to gather information about
the relative pleasure (or non-pleasure) of a Peat diet.
He puts his question to you in this form:

"How would you describe to our (the New Yorker's) readers
what you guess they would experience if they tried a fairly strict Peat diet--
not in terms of health benefits,
but just in terms of
how they would most likely experience the diet's relative
pleasure, variety, ease, difficulty, deliciousness, restrictiveness, freedom, etc?"

So please try to imagine what your answer
to the imagined reporter might be
and weave that into your response.

(Of course, such a question calls upon you to form some notion
of what a typical or average New Yorker reader would be like in terms of diet and pleasure.
It is obvious that most such readers will be a part of the developed world,
and probably will tend to have a decent amount of money.
Beyond that, you will just need to form a rough estimate of what such people are like
in terms of their food preferences.
I would think they would be like many of the people we know in our day-to-day experience.
And again, as with both of the thought experiments,
if you have any qualms or difficulties about entering into and responding to
such imagined scenarios--
no problem. Just say that this is the case and, if you like, explain why.)

Again, I can't really do this. I have no idea what another person would experiene eating oysters, or gelatin, or cheese or whatever food Peat once said was good for your health. There are just too many variables. I could sort of imagine how certain people in my life might enjoy or not enjoy how I'm currently eating, but not really because I really don't know what is truly important to people. And to be honest, it does not matter to me.

Your Personal Definition or Notion of a Peat Diet

I don't define it. I try and eat as many of the foods that he has mentioned that I would find helpful to improve my health, and that taste good because I won't eat things I like long-term, no matter what the benefit.

Avoidance of “Shoulds”

Lolz.
-Is “making the best” of a Peat diet the same as saying a Peat diet is delicious, varied, satisfying, etc?

They sound like two different things to me.

-Is making a negative statement about the pleasures of a Peat diet the same thing as “whining” or “being a baby”?
Obviously no.

-Does it mean that you are an “ungrateful” or “unthankful” person if you say something negative about the pleasures of a Peat diet?

Obviously no.

-Does it mean that you are trying to “bring people down” or are being a “troll”
or “trying to discourage” fellow Peatians
if you say something negative about the pleasures of a Peat diet?

Depends on the context and your motive.

-If you have been eating a rather strict Peat diet for a long time
and have become used to it or habituated to it,
and therefore you do not struggle with it much anymore
and are to some degree at peace with it--
is this the same thing as saying that the diet is
the most delicious or most satisfying?

Haven't being doint it long enough to answer.

-Does it mean you disrespect Dr. Peat if you make a negative comment
about the pleasures of a Peat diet?

Obviously no.

The point behind all such questions is to encourage accuracy.
Being “positive” is a highly valued trait in our society,
but it is not always the same thing as being accurate.

Nor does being negative for the sake of it. There is no inherent truth in that.

Remember, this thread focuses upon your experiences with
your Peat diet and its Pleasures: deliciousness, satisfaction, ease, fun, variety, etc.
Not commentary about health aspects of a Peat diet


I personally cannot seperate entirely from the health aspect of eating 'Peatish' - that is why I'm here. I cannot express how important that is. If I only cared about pleasure, and not health, I would still be eating these foods, but in different proportions, with lots of junk foods that I have eaten addictively in the past. No thanks. But of course taste matters.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not eating this way because I googled 'most delicious diet in the world' and Peat came up so I started eating OJ, milk and gelatin everyday. I eat this way in the hope of curing my health issues, having more energy, more stable moods etc. Is a glass of OJ and some poached eggs more delicious than big stack of pancakes with bacon and maple syrup? On most days - no. But so what? Is OJ and poached eggs yummy? Sure is to me. And to boot, I hopefully get some really powerful health benefits from it. Do I personally feel like I'm missing out because at every meal I can't eat the most delicioius and satisfying meal humanly possible, because I value my health? Not at all.
 

gretchen

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2012
Messages
816
Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

What Kind of Eater Are You?
I was raised in a house where food was under-emphasized. I have always had specific likes and dislikes and am what you would call a "picky eater", but my mother, who followed the fashionable 70's Scarsdales diet, put more emphasis on quick, easy meals (a packet of Instant Carnation in a glass of milk and we're off to swim) rather than the feeling of food being the center of our lives or having any particular sentimental value. I ate my share of Texas burgers (mustard and pickles only) and turned up my nose at the barbeque my entrepreneur father brought home after a hard day of land surveying and deal making. Frequently these meals would happen after my ballet lessons and I would simply have a little pickle relish.

Briefly, in the first grade, I had an ulcer, as a result of a tonsillectomy.

My parents divorced in the early 80s and my mother went on to embrace the fast food/Sam's Club/Luby's approach to food, while my father explored his gourmet side. My dad bought a wok and made delicious stir fries and learned to marinate chicken and make French desserts like Pots de Creme.

I put on 20 lbs as an adolescent, up from 96 lbs in the 6th grade to 120 as a sophomore in high school and eventually went to live with my dad, not so much for the food but for the health club membership. During those years I drank a lot of milk and ate tuna fish salad and oatmeal, a crust of bread, and whatever meals my dad cooked up. Fruit, cookies and chocolate were out and pasta with fat-free tomato sauce was in. On this regimen (too low in sugar and calories relative to my exercise) I developed cystic acne and wound up on Accutane. I knew something was missing diet-wise, but wasn't sure what.

My freshman year in college I lived on Subway sandwiches, a bowl of cereal and a daily frozen yogurt. Though I had lost 10 lbs from doing aerobics I somehow without snacks or binges managed to gain a lot of it back and went to school as a big girl. And that first year, despite walking hours and hours all over campus every day AND dancing, I weighed 114 lbs. A friend from hs suggested I read Fit For Life. This book said food had to be properly combined and mostly raw, and fruit had to be consumed every morning until noon in order to "cleanse" the body of toxins. I did it and immediately lost 10 lbs.

This set off the Binge Years in which I would in between salads inhale anything in my general vicinity. A few years in to this period I decided the vegan diet was too "yin" and started doing a more macrobiotic diet. There was a local center where I could hang with my hipster friends and discuss the coming Earth Changes while sipping soup and enjoying pressure cooked rice and tofu sauce- so delicious!. Frenemies said I ate entire pizzas (I was always puffy and bloated) but in fact my go-to food was Baskin's Jamoca Almond Fudge.

Towards the end of the 90s, fed up and at my wit's end, I read a book called The Zone which suggested that carbs like rice, pasta and potatoes are the real problem. I had developed a fungus on toe nails and stomach; I thought I had candida. So I threw out the rice and started making "3 block meals" (in the Zone macronutrients are counted in terms of blocks) of eggs (the yolks have to be thrown out because they contain omega-6 which metabolizes in to arachidonic acid!) and grapefruit.

6 months later at Christmas my mother commented that I was looking thinner than usual. I actually had a picture of a whale :? hanging in my living room that my mother had bought; it sort of gave my place that "Friends" feeling. I was feeling down for some reason after having graduated from college and went to our family doctor and got a prescription for Zoloft. I still vaguely remember the first few weeks I took it. I went to the Barnes and Noble to sit in the stuffed chairs and felt whatever the feeling of nothing is, before the mania kicked in.

The next phase was actually a starvation phase (2 meals a day with a 10 hour fast in between, and no trendy IF info to boost me)which I believe activated my anorexic genetics. I once again lived mostly on oatmeal and a crust of bread, a lot of Perrier and the occasional nachos (I love picked jalapenos) and watered-down orange juice. I drank it to soothe my frequent colds.

In the period that followed I started adding ideas like blood type (it's the dairy!), etc, and ate a fair amount of Panda Express (at least one Panda Bowl per week, if for nothing else than the fortune cookie). I read a book called The Perricone Prescription which said salmon was the key to smooth skin. I was working, and needed to make sure I looked my best every day, so fish was in. Vegetables like kale were staples; I liked to boil the greens then refridgerate them and put oil and apple cider vinegar on them like a salad.

A few years ago, on this regimen, I lost down from 97-102 lbs to 90 as a result of a job I was doing (walking all day and spreading cheer at the airport). I knew I looked different, but not in a bad way, and was in no hurry to gain the weight back, so I booted up Paleo 2.0 and started doing things like the Warrior Diet. I also typed myself genetically and found out I have a Paleo body type and thrive on adrenaline and stress, though at the expense of my health and longevity. For a time I felt fierce and bought a lot of clothes to show off my de-fleshed body. Someone implied I "finally" understood. :?

I would like to say my current attitude about food is healthy but it just barely is, and it is a struggle for me. I feel better about this way of eating than anything I've done in the past, but also have misgivings because it is so much harder to control my weight on this WOE. It's been very interesting to note people's attitudes towards me since gaining 15 lbs, people act like I've done something terribly wrong. Frequently I hear in public that I'm "halfway there" and one day someone actually implored that I "listen" to the dumba$$ chorus of comments.

So you might say I am a BAD eater (or just barely a good one) and that I am guided to a great extent by mental input and all the information I have collected over the years. I am WEIGHT CONSCIOUS, FAD CONSCIOUS, and have been trained most of my life to orient myself to others. So if I have an eating disorder what can I really do except just live with it and hope for the best.


Thought Experiment #1: Peat's Big Shift
Peat has joined forces with Oprah for a CAUSE and has gone on her show to tell us all about how if we think good thoughts, click our heels three times and spin around, we can have it all. Oprah is on board because it's not a DIET, it's a WAY OF LIFE. With them is the writer Geneen Roth who has written a book called Food is Love. She along with Peat and Oprah encourages people to follow their bliss and eat what you want, and this inspires me to fill my cupboards with MnMs, sparkling water, bagels, hot chocolate, canned soup, salad greens, sweetened yogurt, and ready-made chocolate milk. There's no REASON to be afraid of these foods, and I know I can be healthy and maintain or lose weight on ANYTHING. Inspired by this show and also by the show about the lady who only eats at Starbucks, I begin to have oatmeal cups and coffee there, and think happy thoughts. It's a GOOD feeling to know Dr. Peat has finally gotten the recognition he deserves. It's the SHIFT we've all been waiting for!!!!!!

:?

Thought Experiment #2: A NY Writer Asks about The Diet's Ease and Deliciousness
I am sure the NY Times writer is familiar with Peat because he was on Oprah but I want to do my part so I tell the writer this is the freest I have ever been and never have to count calories or analyze one morsel of food I eat, and every day is a joy as a result. It's not the FOOD's fault; I have learned to take responsibility for my health and stop following fad diets because we all know they don't work.

(I am KIDDING :D )

How can I explain that I feel better on a diet that includes a lot of milk, orange juice, eggs, tomatoes, cheese, occasional meat, gelatin and oysters, sugar, and that I love all my meals, even though they are at times repetitive? I can try but so far the results haven't been good.

OTOH, if I win world's sexiest 70 year old (it could happen :D ), I will say that at the age of 40 I stopped eating polyunsaturated fats, and that is my secret. That's more important to people than how food tastes. :2cents

Your Personal Definition or Notion of a Peat Diet
Follow the food list and figure out what works for you. Eat the prescribed grams of protein and carbs as much as you can, and keep your fridge stocked with Peat-friendly foods. Note reactions you have and watch for things like constipation or loss of energy/fatigue. I drink too much milk (I didn't drink it for over 20 years) and try to stay aware of the tryptophan issue. But all Peat foods work for me more or less, so I am happy.


Avoidance of “Shoulds”
Should I really drink so much milk, or should I add back some meat and make the effort to use kosher gelatin, or have I entered a different phase and meat is over? This is my issue, and I can't tell anyone else what they should do.

People should only do what they want. Anything else is coercion or slavery. So my feeling is, if the Peat diet doesn't work for you, you have to find some way to make it do that. Maybe put some extra vinegar on your carrot salad.

OTOH, why does food have to be a source of pleasure? The fact many of us have realized is that these healthy foods are in fact very delicious, and that foods we previously thought were really amazing, are in fact not so much so. Not everyone has to agree, and the probably truth is, only Peatians in the Know can know this. That may be annoying, but as of this time, that is how it is.

After we all sign the Agreement and take the Oath of Silence I am sure much of this hulabaloo will abate.
 
OP
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narouz

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
4,429
Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

I guess I would say I was a rather lusty eater and a somewhat romantic eater
for a lot of my life.
I liked big portions. I liked meat. I liked cheap starches I could fix myself without
a lot of time and difficulty:
pasta, potatoes, breads.
I was a big exerciser, so I usually was pretty tight and muscular.
By "romantic," I mean I liked the idea of eating at different regional, weird restaurants
like barbeque joints in the South.
I liked conceiving of those kinds of restaurants as fun and new,
as an adventure,
and I liked thinking they were pretty safe or even healthy.
Ha.
I never wanted to spend a lot of money at gourmet restaurants
but I had a girlfriend who sortuv lived for that
and I had to do it some.
We both loved this odd, truly authentically Italian restaurant
with weird delicious stuff like squid and ossa bucho (sp?) and amazing pasta dishes.
We went there pretty often and I have to admit I looked forward to it a lot.
It kinduv added spice and fun and excitement and friendship (we'd go with friends)
to life.
That's sortuv what I mean by "romantic" views of food and eating.
I liked believing that cheap foods--
like stopping on a long interstate drive to scarf down a "Slim Jim" at Shoney's, say--
and especially peasant-y kinds of foods--
authentic taco and beans and Pho's--
I liked thinking of them as fun adventures to be looked forward to and enjoying,
and I liked believing they were safe or even healthy.
Again: heh.

When I started getting a little fat in my 40's
and my cholesterol was "high,"
I tried lowfat diets--as was the "expert" view in that era.
Didn't work.

I moved on to Protein Power and other low carb ventures
like raw and Paleo.
I did like eating like that pretty much, and it did seem to control my weight
as long as I exercised a lot.

But then I lost energy and libido,
and was diagnosed as hypothyroid
After a while of researching and trying different things for my thyroid problems
I came across Peat and I've been doing his kind of diet/supps/light/exercise
for about a year now

----

On the Thought Experiments:
#1
If Peat said to eat sheerly for pleasure/desire--admittedly a tough imaginative challenge--
but...playing along...
if he said it would be healthiest to eat just what was most delicious...
I would change my (Peatian) diet a lot.
I do have a new found appreciation of milk and orange juice,
but I would eat a dramatically different diet.
I love beans and avocados and bacon and pizza and pasta and...
I could go on, but you probably get the idea.

TE#2:
I would tell the readers of the New Yorker that,
while I love the health benefits of a Peat diet,
I would predict that a reasonably strict Peat diet would be pretty hard for most.
It is quite restrictive and monotonous, heavily liquid for most probably,
and requires one to evolve into a new way of conceiving of "meals":
hard for most to down a big glass of milk or oj, call it a "meal" and feel satisfied.
Or to eat an orange and some cheese and call it a meal.
Lots of milk, cheese, orange juice, oranges.
Sure you can stuff down a lot of candy if you want to do that,
but that never thrilled me.
And you could press or break the reasonable limits of a good Peat diet
by eating a lot of starches like potatoes, masa harina, and white rice,
but you'd probably get fat.
I'd tell the readers that it will likely be a very challenging diet for them
and not to be undertaken lightly.
It would likely required a lot of discipline.
Now, I'd say, if you happen to have health difficulties and are driven mostly by health,
then you'll probably have the commitment to be okay on a Peat diet.
But if somebody's told you to do the Peat diet because it soooo delicious, etc...
...you'll probably be disappointed if not shocked.
Now, I would tell the readers I am still inspired by the health benefits of the diet.
And I would say that that is my driving force.
And I would add that the diet has gotten easier over time and I am quite at peace with it now.
Some think this is because we've gotten more in touch with our instinctual, healthy appetites.
That's possible; just as likely to me I've trained and habituated myself:
kinda forgotten those other foods.

----

I do think a Peat diet exists,
and I tend to define an optimal Peat diet somewhat strictly.
I don't think many starches belong on a really good Peat diet.
If you don't have a problem controlling your weight
or weight isn't a factor for you,
you'll probably be okay with more starch inclusion.
I try to observe the generalizations Peat makes about diet.
My "sins" on a Peat diet are some low to moderate starch consumption--
potatoes and tortillas.
And I'll have a small amount of high-quality skinless chicken breast sometimes:
like one breast would last me a week.
I know it's not Peatian but I crave meat
and beef and lamb are so expensive and high in iron.
I do fry it in coconut oil. :)
I love vegetables like broccoli, all kinds of greens, salads, peas, and especially beans,
but...I don't eat 'em anymore. :cry:
 

kiran

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

narouz, I think it's worth cheating once in a while with say lettuce and beans, just to see if the taste matches the attraction to it. As time goes by, I notice that say beans isn't nearly as tasty as I imagined it to be and it used to be.
 
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narouz

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

kiran said:
narouz, I think it's worth cheating once in a while with say lettuce and beans, just to see if the taste matches the attraction to it. As time goes by, I notice that say beans isn't nearly as tasty as I imagined it to be and it used to be.

Pinto beans on a crispy tortilla topped with melted cheddar, crispy lettuce, and some tomato...

I do want it.

But I agree it is possible that our tastes can shift--for whatever reason--
after a long time on a Peat diet.
Maybe it wouldn't taste that great. :roll:
 
J

j.

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

I think for your health, narouz, honestly, you should cheat right now.
 
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narouz

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

j. said:
I think for your health, narouz, honestly, you should cheat right now.

Actually, there was a poster here...
intelligent, thoughtful poster.
Can't remember who it was.
But he said something funny, to me.
Not sure I'll quote him exactly right,
but it was something like this:
"A Peat diet works better if you cheat."

That would make a funny one for Charlie's "Quote of the Day" or whatever it is. :lol:
 

gretchen

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

kiran said:
narouz, I think it's worth cheating once in a while with say lettuce and beans, just to see if the taste matches the attraction to it. As time goes by, I notice that say beans isn't nearly as tasty as I imagined it to be and it used to be.

I went to Whole Foods over the weekend to see what my reaction would be to a whole buffet of "healthy" foods and mostly I felt disinterested. I ended up having a bunch of fruit with bleu cheese, a boiled egg and some tomato bisque soup. I could not have had greens with quinoa or cooked chicken and rice if I had tried.

But sure, this could be a solution Narouz. Go to WF and make a salad. :D You'll be surrounded by people who view themselves as elite which will only add to your experience.
 
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narouz

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

gretchen said:
kiran said:
narouz, I think it's worth cheating once in a while with say lettuce and beans, just to see if the taste matches the attraction to it. As time goes by, I notice that say beans isn't nearly as tasty as I imagined it to be and it used to be.

I went to Whole Foods over the weekend to see what my reaction would be to a whole buffet of "healthy" foods and mostly I felt disinterested. I ended up having a bunch of fruit with bleu cheese, a boiled egg and some tomato bisque soup. I could not have had greens with quinoa or cooked chicken and rice if I had tried.

But sure, this could be a solution Narouz. Go to WF and make a salad. :D You'll be surrounded by people who view themselves as elite which will only add to your experience.

That sounds so familiar to me--the Whole Paycheck Buffet Experience.
If you paint luscious pictures of a sensual salad at WF's though,
don't tell people it consists of fruit, blue cheese, and boiled egg!
I'm afraid only us Peatians could work up some excitement for that kind of salad. :lol:

This "elitist" thing...
I meant to address this in another thread but forgot.
Actually, I never made any kind of statement that Peat or Peatians or A Peat Diet
are "elitist."
I don't believe that and--unless I'm losing my mind (a real possibility in the minds of some here!)--
I haven't said that.

I think it comes from a mistaken inference some poster made long ago about one of my posts
in which I was asking if we should best regard a Peat diet as in some ways occult:
in the sense of being intentionally hidden or made resistant to access.
As I say, I was asking.
Also, that is a different thing than stating that a Peat diet is "elitist."
 

pboy

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

I used to work at Whole foods...unfortunately almost everything people bought for the sake of health was not really that healthy. The entire produce section could have been replaced with
oranges and carrots, all the quinoa/beans/whole wheat/multigrain ect could be replaced by potatoes, white rice, and corn masa.
But anyways, most of the people that would get the overpriced salads loaded with kale and sprouts and lentils...(who I felt sorry for, they probably got gas but little else in return for their expensive salads) were not trying to be elitist, they were in fact normal mainstream people who were the more neurotic / scared type who were really just trying to do the right thing (what their doctors, and/or magazines have told them is healthy).
 

frustrated

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

j. said:
I think for your health, narouz, honestly, you should cheat right now.

I agree with this.

From what I've (skim)read of your posts narouz, your only symptom of eating starch is weight gain. That's not enough to justify a "strict" Peat diet if it's making you feel so deprived.

Here is what another poster wrote about this:

Asimov said:
Disclaimer: I don't "eat peat" and I think lots of the diet recommendations by the community are woefully misguided and lacking a fundamental understanding of biology.

I general I think it's the sense of exclusion that people place in Peat's advice. Like he says milk is good, so the Peat community interprets that as "only milk is good" and get 50% of their daily calories from milk.

You have to think, as many different foods as Peat has discussed in his articles and interviews, I'm sure it's still on scratching the surface of his own personal knowledge and diet.

Some people on this board act as if a particular food has been sanctified by Ray Peat, it's righteous and good, and if it hasn't, then it's not worth touching. I was shocked reading through the "eating on the go" thread to see people seriously mentioning eating haribo gummy bears if they're on the road as a meal replacement instead of just stopping at a restaurant and getting some good wholesome food.

Because gummy bears were sanctified, apparently people interpreted that to mean "eating 600 calories worth of gummy bears is a good meal" and since chipotle has never been sanctified, people run away scared even though it's perfectly healthy.

I don't think it's good to be extreme about anything, including diets.
 
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narouz

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

frustrated said:
j. said:
I think for your health, narouz, honestly, you should cheat right now.

I agree with this.

From what I've (skim)read of your posts narouz, your only symptom of eating starch is weight gain. That's not enough to justify a "strict" Peat diet if it's making you feel so deprived.

Here is what another poster wrote about this:

Asimov said:
Disclaimer: I don't "eat peat" and I think lots of the diet recommendations by the community are woefully misguided and lacking a fundamental understanding of biology.

I general I think it's the sense of exclusion that people place in Peat's advice. Like he says milk is good, so the Peat community interprets that as "only milk is good" and get 50% of their daily calories from milk.

You have to think, as many different foods as Peat has discussed in his articles and interviews, I'm sure it's still on scratching the surface of his own personal knowledge and diet.

Some people on this board act as if a particular food has been sanctified by Ray Peat, it's righteous and good, and if it hasn't, then it's not worth touching. I was shocked reading through the "eating on the go" thread to see people seriously mentioning eating haribo gummy bears if they're on the road as a meal replacement instead of just stopping at a restaurant and getting some good wholesome food.

Because gummy bears were sanctified, apparently people interpreted that to mean "eating 600 calories worth of gummy bears is a good meal" and since chipotle has never been sanctified, people run away scared even though it's perfectly healthy.

I don't think it's good to be extreme about anything, including diets.

frustrated, pboy, j., kiran--
I'd be very interesting to hear y'all's experiences regarding your Peat Diet & Pleasure.
I really would.
Don't be daunted by the sense that your response must be lengthy
or that you have to respond to all the questions posed in the original post.
I think it could supply important information about an area of our Peat diets
which is pretty poorly documented.

On this running thread from several posters about my Peat eating proclivities,
a few thoughts:

1. frustrated-
The quote you attach from Asimov is interesting.
Here's one of those passages:
"I general I think it's the sense of exclusion that people place in Peat's advice. Like he says milk is good, so the Peat community interprets that as "only milk is good" and get 50% of their daily calories from milk."
I think--or at least I would hope--that the general level of knowledge about a Peat diet
is less murky and more sophisticated than Asimov implies.
But I do believe he points to a real and fundamental drawback of our forum:
A definition--even if flexible and tentative--of what a Peat diet is, generally.

2. frustrated, j., kiran-
There's an idea stated or implied in your posts
which runs, I think, something like this:
It is not good to do a Peat diet if it leaves one feeling deprived.

Of course one way to get around this issue
is by saying that there is no Peat diet,
or by saying that a Peat diet is anything slathered in coconut oil (or somesuch),
or by saying a Peat diet can be so radically different for each individual
that no commonality could be seen to exist
and therefore no general Peat diet exists.
My take on those ways of conceiving of a Peat diet--
and with any possible feelings of deprivation--
is that they all reflect an intellectual evasiveness.

Another principle you guys may be getting at is:
It is better to "cheat" some on Peat diet
if that allows you to stay on the diet--even if imperfectly.
In other words, you seem to be implying that
if one builds up frustration
or a sense of deprivation on a Peat diet,
that could explode
resulting in a complete rejection of any Peat diet.
I can see the possible validity of such an argument
and, to some extent, I could be said to already be in agreement with it
when considering my starch consumption.
Now should I break or bend my diet even further by occasionally eating beans, etc...?

It's a good question.
I'd like to know more, as I say, about how other Peatians deal with such questions and issues.
 
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narouz

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Re: Peat Diet&Pleasure: Your Personal Experience; No Discuss

frustrated--

Oh...I forgot I wanted respond to one other point made by Asimov in your quote from him above:

I don't think it's good to be extreme about anything, including diets.

Ah...the argument for moderation.
This used to drive me crazy with an old girlfriend.
She would say my various diets were obviously stupid and wrong.
Her basis for arguing that way was always:
you should eat moderately, like I do.

To me, this is a patently weak argument masquerading in the dressed up language ("moderation")
as a high-toned, intellectually compelling one.
It is the same as saying: don't eat a weird diet.
Eat a normal diet.
Eat what most people eat.

Or, one could question the implications of such a "moderate" diet this way,
as I did:
In order to eat a moderate diet
would one, presumably:
-eat some home-cooked food, and also (to be moderate) some fast food?
-eat some raw food, and also some cooked food?
-eat some meat, but also eat some vegetables?
-eat some PUFA-free foods, but balance that--for moderation--with some high-PUFA foods?
-eat some sugar, but also eat some of the normal modern sweeteners like Splenda and aspartame?
-eat some fruits, but balance that with pork consumption?
 

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